Guy Martin’s Busa
Trick as you like
To my knowledge at the time of writing, the most powerful Hayabusa doing the rounds is Guy Martin’s 830bhp turbo-charged weapon that he’s using to try and hit 300mph in a mile from a standing start. As chance would have it, I found myself in the position to have a go on it which I reluctantly took. I say ‘reluctantly’ because who in their right mind wants to sit on top of such a bike and try to do something with it??
I only managed three gear shifts to reach fourth gear, and managed to balls two of them up, but I still somehow hit 219mph in the mile according to his datalogger. That night I didn’t sleep very well so in an attempt to try and clear my scrambled brain, I went downstairs, switched on my computer and wrote:
“At 3am there’s a tiny part of my brain which I never knew even existed still unpacking the 23 seconds of action that took place 15 hours earlier. I can’t sleep, I can’t think about anything else. Most of my mind is utterly exhausted, which is something I’ve become used to testing bikes.
“Testing a bike or a set of tyres on track takes a massive amount of concentration for me and all the focus that I can conjure up. It’s mentally hard work, and it’s never until the end of the day when I’m back home and start to unwind that tiredness creeps in and takes over. Not this time.
“This time, I got home, unpacked my kit, walked
the dog with my wife and, save for a satisfying inner glow that I finally achieved a decades-old goal, everything seemed normal. Tiredness came, it had been a long day with an early start, and I went to bed to sleep for a few hours until I woke up thinking about THAT bike.
“Small moments of the previous day’s experience replayed to me in short visual soundbites; flashbacks. The glow and feeling of satisfaction long gone, now replaced with miscomprehension. Did that really even happen? In my state of slumber, I doubted that it even happened at all, such is the impossible nature of the bike that I had experienced. It’s just not possible. Had I partially woken up because I’d had a dream, or nightmare to be more accurate? After all, I am lying in bed with my teeth gritted and hands clenched tightly as fists, trying to hold on to something as though my actual life depends on it. The bike’s assault on every part of my being did for a few moments genuinely frighten me. For the first time ever, I’ve been affected, more like disturbed by a bike… it has left me mentally battered and bruised, even a bit traumatised.
“The pace at which things escalate on the bike made it impossible to take in any of the clues I usually depend on for high-speed stuff. I didn’t know what revs I was at, what gear I was in, where I was with the throttle, what the temperatures were, nothing. I didn’t really even know where I was on the runway, or where the ‘Brake’ signs are. Everything visual is at best a blur, at worst, just not visible. My eyes just couldn’t take it in.
“I could sort of hear the bike beneath me, but not really, the sound was in the background. The only sense I was conscious of was a basic sense of survival as my throttle hand acted all on its own accord, without any conscious input from my brain, rolling off at the slightest hint of sideways movement of the bike. It’s so unbelievably sensitive to crosswind that it was the only thing I was really aware of and tuned into. By the time I detected the slightest hint of sideways movement, it had already moved across the runway. The combination of the bike being pulled by an invisible force from its rear, and the front wheel sort of skipping along the tarmac, in contact but not really in contact, really did feel like grip could run out at either or both ends of the bike.
“It’s the morning after and I’ve got a splitting headache, I’m just as tired as I was when I went to bed and still unable to make any real sense of it. However, as time passes, and the paracetamol kicks in, the part of my brain that has spent the night processing it all does offer up one moment of clarity as I continue to reflect on the experience. I take comfort from the fact that when my brain and basic survival instincts were abandoned by all conscious input from me, they took over and took care of me.
“I said to the photographer that at times my sense of being in control dropped to 50/50, but the truth feels more like I really wasn’t consciously in control at all, I can barely remember it. It was all subconscious instinct that took over.
“I’ve often heard of people having ‘out of body experiences’ and scoffed at the notion of it, yet here I am 24 hours later, still confused and unsettled by the whole experience of not actually being able to explain what happened.
“The overwhelming feeling of relief that everything was still in one piece (myself included) while riding it back up the runway slowly to cool it off was replaced by satisfaction due to the amount of heat coming from inside the fairing. Satisfying because it told me that the 830bhp monster of an engine beneath me had been doing some work after all. After the relief and then satisfaction came obsession. Despite briefly wishing I could be anywhere else in the world in the minutes running up to my time on the bike, soon after riding it, I was convinced that I could go faster and wanted another go, this time when the wind is favourable. For about an hour after, I would genuinely give everything I own for just one more go, utterly convinced that I could go at least 240mph if I could just have one more run. Like everything else that’s just happened, the thought simply doesn’t make any sense.
“It has made me wonder how the hell Guy will get to his 300mph target. It seems impossible to me. I now see his challenge differently, I see it as a partly physical and technical one, but mostly a mental one. He’s going to have to condition his senses and nervous system to get used to not just the sheer velocity, but in particular the rate of how his environment changes during the 17 seconds or so that he’s got to get it done.
“By the time I got home the feeling of obsession has passed, and the glow of satisfaction has returned. I’m happy to never do anything like that again.
“The whole experience has genuinely shaken me and messed with my head, as proven by my sleepless night and physical tension in my jaw, hands and head. They’re all sore at 6am.
“The bike surely must have enough power. I barely tickled its belly and still managed 219mph in fourth gear and just 60% throttle. Somehow, Guy has to develop a set of skills he’s never needed that will help him to open the throttle wider and for longer. Sounds simple, and on paper it is. The reality is very different, but I’m convinced that is how he’s going to get it done.”