Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
ON YOUR BIKE GOING SPLAT OUT ON SUZUKI’S HAYABUSA
I would just like to apologise to Jimmy the Bug, whose wife Cynthia was sitting by the fire last night with their kids Brian and Delilah and waiting for him to come home for dinner. “I do hope nothing’s happened to him,” said Cynthia, glancing anxiously at the clock. “He’s never been this late before.”
The sad truth, though, is that Jimmy will never be coming home again, because yesterday afternoon he collided with my visor at 120mph on the runway at Sywell Aerodrome in Northamptonshire. It was just his bad luck to be out for a bimble at the launch of the latest version of the world’s first hyperbike.
When the original 1299cc Hayabusa was launched in 1999, a top speed of 194mph made it the fastest production machine on the planet. Even that wasn’t enough for some people, who started fitting turbochargers and clocking speeds of 260mph, and turbocharged versions of the 1340cc 2008 model later reached 312mph.
No pressure, then, for the 2021 version, for which Suzuki has thankfully not only retained that unique shape, but made it even more muscular and svelte.
The designers toyed with the idea of fitting a turbocharger as standard, but with all manufacturers agreeing since 2000 to limit bikes to 186mph to stop a speed war which was getting out of hand, they concentrated instead on greater mid-range power and torque.
That fat mid range means you don’t even need to bother changing down for overtakes, and braking, with bigger discs and new Brembo calipers up front, is just as brutal but smooth as the acceleration.
Previous Hayabusas were always a little slow to turn because of the long wheelbase, and a lighter chassis and tweaked suspension has made this version just as stable, but significantly more nimble in corners.
And so, after 130 miles on the road, to the 0.8-mile runway at Sywell to see how fast we could go before hitting the brakes. Braver souls than I claimed they made it to 175mph and, obviously, I would have got there had it not been for Jimmy the Bug splattering himself all over my visor, after which I couldn’t see what speed I was doing.
So the world’s most guided missile is better than ever, and at a pretty remarkable price. Now if you’ll excuse me, I want to place a very small wreath beside the runway, and make a very difficult phone call to Cynthia.