SUZUKI HAYABUSA: GREENER, CLEANER, MEANER...
With an opening sentence like that you could be forgiven for being disappointed to learn that the very vast majority of those new parts are there to help make the Hayabusa kitten friendly, and not to please the internet ‘experts’ or even current Hayabusa owners by adding to the already excess of power in the name of pub ammo and nothing else. The outpouring of negativity and outrage from the internet when Suzuki announced the details of this, the third-generation Hayabusa, was staggering. For me the reaction was more of a reflection on how high our expectations are these days rather than the accusation that was levelled at Suzuki for being lazy and missing a trick. I believe it’s thanks to just how far manufacturers are prepared to go to innovate and develop in order to convince us to spend with them. Superchargers, variable valve timing, crossplane cranks, electronics that turn us into gods and more recently wings that contribute nothing below 150mph have all shown up in the last five to 10 years. But here’s the rub; today the Hayabusa has no competition and stands alone in a class of one, and much more importantly, when it did have competition, it was always the best in the class anyway.
“WHEN I SAW THE PICTURES OF IT I FELL INTO THE ‘PASS ME THE SICK BUCKET’ CAMP, UNTIL I SAW IT IN THE FLESH.”
Suzuki got it so right with the Hayabusa, specifically with its image
