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2000 Suzuki GSX-R1300 Hayabusa |
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Posted by Peter Jones
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Saturday, 18 September 1999 |
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Page 1 of 3
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Story Peter Jones ~ Photos Blake Conner
Sure, it's Fast. But it's more than Fast
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| "Effortless performance." That's about all that Suzuki cares to claim about its all-new GSX1300R Hayabusa. Conspicuously missing from Suzuki's promotion of the Hayabusa is any mention of the bike's top speed potential, quarter mile abilities, or anything else that might imply the possibility of this bike being blindingly, antisocially, anarchistically, frigging fast. Nope, all that Suzuki promises is "effortless performance". Hell, the bike doesn't even carry the GSX-R appellation given to all of Suzuki's full-out sportbikes, but instead simply has the same simple GSX moniker of the company's…uh, 600 Katana. Suzuki almost makes it sound as if the Hayabusa is supposed to be some kind of very nice easy chair. |
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| So by now you've heard that the Hayabusa is fast. Real fast. But there's surprisingly much more to the Hayabusa than just that. It's also a for-real sportbike. |
Click here for very important WARNING! |
Parts Impression
There's nothing really remarkably cutting edge about the Hayabusa's design but that's because it's based on Suzuki's cutting edge bikes of the last few of years. No, the important thing about the Busa's edge is that it's a wonking big edge. The Hayabusa's basically familiar engine, frame, and body design pretty well reveal what the bike really is: it's a GSX-R750 on steroids.
The engine of the Hayabusa is the largest inline four-cylinder unit that Suzuki has ever built, sporting 1298ccs to be exact. That's basically 450ccs more than the Fiat sedan I once owned. And at 158hp the Busa puts out about 100 more horsepower than that car ever dreamed of. Considering that I actually got a speeding ticket while driving that car I think that this bike might mean trouble for me.
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The Hayabusa is fuel injected just like the latest versions of Suzuki's GSX-R750 and TL1000R. And like those bikes, it also has the added advantage of ram air. SRAD, as Suzuki likes to call it. But on the Haybus, the ram air intakes are located much closer to the center of the fairing, which Suzuki claims is where the highest air pressure exists at speed.
Everything inside the Hayabusa's engine is just plain big. Big pistons, big valves, big injector bodies, and so on. But the bigness is limited to the inside of the engine with the exterior of the unit shrink-wrapped around the components, resulting in a giant power-producing plant that is smaller than Suzuki's previous GSX-R1100 engine. Those tricks that allowed Suzuki to make its latest version of the GSX-R750 smaller and lighter have been incorporated into the design of the Hayabusa engine to make its 1300ccs fit into a package smaller and lighter than the old 1100.
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Another difference between this engine and the now retired 1100 unit is that the Happybus's motor has a six-speed gearbox rather than just five speeds. This makes the bike a little easier to ride in around-town traffic but in reality the ratios of third gear by itself probably would have been enough. Suffice it to say that first gear alone will get you well beyond the legal speed limit. Quickly.
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The trick to building not only quick, but also fast, is to pay just as much attention to aerodynamics as to horsepower. The cost of pushing air is not linear: it's quadratic. In other words, the faster you go the more expensive each additional mile per hour costs. So in concert with Suzuki giving the Bus the most powerful engine they've ever manufactured, the bike also has the lowest drag coefficient of any Suzuki, ever. And possibly that of any mass-produced motorcycle. And that's why the thing looks the way it does.
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