Suzuki Hayabusa: So Fast It Blurs the Imagination

Results of the first independent road test of the long-awaited Suzuki Hayabusa--the fastest mass-produced motorcycle ever built--appeared on the Internet in February. British motorcycle writer Chris Moss took the bike, named after a Japanese attack falcon, out for a spin on a road closed to traffic in Spain.

“Suzuki’s Hayabusa showed 190 mph,” Moss began his report, “and it was still in fifth gear.”

The Hayabusa has six gears.

“The rest of the world blurs,” he wrote. “Objects are on the horizon one minute and in your mirror the next.

“You’ll find riding the Suzuki is an incredible experience.”

Indeed we did. Earlier this month, Highway 1 got the first crack in North America at test-riding the sleek, copper-colored GSX1300R Hayabusa. Although it’s not scheduled to go on sale here until later this spring, Suzuki reports that customers already are placing deposits on the bike, sight unseen.

Clearly, speed sells.

“There are some riders out there who have to have the ultimate, fastest bike, even if they are hopefully never going to make it go as fast as possible,” said the dean of motorcyclist industry analysts, Don Brown, from his office in Irvine.

“But more important is the spillover effect--the whole brand benefits. Even riders buying a far less powerful Suzuki feel a pride of ownership. They are buying a bike by the same company that built the fastest production bike in the world.”

A similar situation holds true for cars.

“Bragging rights, that’s all it is,” said Bob Moffit, marketing vice president for Kawasaki, regarding his and other manufacturers’ quest for faster and faster bikes. Kawasaki held the fastest-bike title from 1987, when one of its models cracked the 150-mph mark, until 1996, when the HondaCBR1100XX (nicknamed the Blackbird) took the title with a top speed of 177 mph.

“Does a Mercedes sedan need to go 150 mph?” Moffit asked. “Does a Ferrari need to go 180? Of course not.”

The 190 mph reached on Moss’ speedometer was only an approximation of his actual rate of travel--speedometers notoriously over-read at high speeds. But his experience suggested that the Hayabusa would burst through the Blackbird record and keep on accelerating.

Indeed, at a more scientifically conducted follow-up test on a European racetrack, the Hayabusa hit 187.5 mph.

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Highway 1’s testers did not, my mother will be happy to hear, come close to approaching that speed. Our mission, during three days of test-riding the Hayabusa, was to judge the performance of the world’s fastest bike in the real world of freeways, city streets, canyon twisties and lonely desert highways.

The verdict: jaw-dropping incredible, even if this is not a bike for all occasions.

The Hayabusa’s power is contained in such an elegantly engineered package that it is not unwieldy, even for us mortals who are not racers. Its ability to break the speed record derives not so much from raw power (its 1,298-cubic centimeter engine is not the largest in the motorcycle world) as from advances in aerodynamics.

“It’s much easier to streamline a car than a motorcycle,” said Mark Reese, a Suzuki spokesman. “With a car, you are working with a shell. A motorcycle has so many things hanging off it, it’s hard to make it truly aerodynamic.”

Suzuki engineers used wind-tunnel tests to hone the shape of the bike, resulting in an appearance that riders seem to love or hate. (I came down on the love side of the matter.)

Another factor contributing to its unorthodox design is the placement of the ram-air intakes close together on the upper front of the bike, thus forcing the low- and high-beam headlights to be combined into a single, Cyclops-like unit.

“It’s a look you have to get used to,” Marry Sorensen, a freelance motorcycle writer who was one of our testers, remarked judiciously.

You don’t have to go insanely fast to feel the power of the bike.

“The acceleration from a standstill is the real thrill,” Sorensen said. “I think that’s a lot more fun than trying to go 200 mph.”

The acceleration is so powerful that you have to press your knees tightly into the sides of the Hayabusa to keep from getting thrown off by G-forces. To shield yourself from the wind, you have to lie down almost flat over the gas tank and peer through the small fairing.

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In real-world terms, that kind of power allows you to accelerate out of potentially dangerous situations on the freeways. It also, of course, can get you into trouble .

“This is not a bike for a beginner,” Suzuki’s Reese warned.

Suzuki magazine ads in England, which refer to the Hayabusa as “The Ultimate Predator,” also carry this warning at the bottom: “Designed for the experienced rider only.”

Hard to argue with that, although the Hayabusa is not difficult to ride. It is agile, smooth and forgiving, its wide power band allowing for a broad range of speed without excessive shifting. And it’s amazingly stable: Even at what we considered high speeds, there was not a trace of wobble.

But is the Hayabusa practical for a rider who doesn’t have the overriding need to own the fastest bike?

The sticker price--$10,499--is not at all outrageous considering the Hayabusa’s many attributes, but there are adequately powered sportbikes available for several thousand dollars less, including several by Suzuki.

And although the Hayabusa is agile, sportbike lovers will probably not like its weight, a relatively heavy 474 pounds.

For long-ride enthusiasts, the Hayabusa has a more tush-friendly seat than many smaller sportbikes. Still, I wouldn’t want to take it on a long tour.

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Because of their relatively narrow range of uses, the ultra-fast motorcycles have not been bestsellers. But the engineering advances gained during their development are priceless. “The research that goes into the design of these high-speed bikes brings motorcycles to new levels of sophistication,” analyst Brown said.

The Hayabusa may not wear the fastest-bike crown for long. Kawasaki confirms that it is developing a model called the ZX-12 as its next entry in the speed sweepstakes. Honda hasn’t made any announcements but is unlikely to give up without a fight.

“The stakes are very big,” Brown said. “At a company like Honda, the engineers take a lot of pride in what they do. They are not going to just sit there and watch someone beat them. They’ll be back.”

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Two-Wheel Ride surveys the motorcycle scene in Southern California. David Colker can be reached via e-mail at david.colker@latimes.com.