HAYABUSA AT NATRAX
The third generation Suzuki Hayabusa is one of the fastest production motorcycles in the world, and a bike that truly deserves to be ridden flat out at the High Speed Track at NATRAX
Hitting V-Max on one of the fastest bikes in the world at one of the fastest tracks in the world. This is the fastest Suzuki Hayabusa test in the country!
TTHE WIND ASSAULTS YOU AT 250KMPH. THAT gentle breeze that was tickling my bald head in the pits just five minutes earlier had turned into a frenzied gale-storm that tore at my leathers, the top of my helmet and anything else that dared peek out from behind the Hayabusa. It was deafening inside that helmet. Not just loud, but chaotic. Minor gusts would get magnified a hundredfold and double down on their violence. You think it can’t get worse but then the speedo climbs further. 260. 270. 280kmph. I may as well have been standing in a hurricane.
No amount of driving fast cars can prepare you for the sensations you get on a fast motorcycle. You’re exposed. Completely. The engine is screaming to the redline right under your chest. The blacktop is racing past inches away from your feet. The railings built to protect you from careening off the track don’t look friendly anymore. A few low flying birds that were on a perpetual kamikaze mission suddenly seem a lot deadlier. One mistake would have catastrophic consequences. But you don’t have time to think about consequences when you’re nearing 300kmph. Because you’re too busy fighting yourself. After millennia of evolution, peak human performance is 44kmph — Usain Bolt did something of the sort in 2009. To force the body to deal with over five times that speed out of the blue, while being fully exposed to the elements triggers all sorts of involuntary responses. Fight-or-flight instincts kick in. The body tenses up. Your grip gets tighter. Your eyes start scanning for danger. None of them recommended when you’re on a motorcycle. So you’re fighting yourself, relaxing that grip on the ’bars and forcing your eyes to look as far ahead as they can.
THE SUZUKI HAYABUSA IS A LEGEND. BORN OUT OF a need to go faster than everything else on the road, Suzuki developed what it called the GSX1300R Hayabusa in 1999. It blew minds back then. Two decades later, it continues to. The changes have been incremental — Gen 2 came in 2008 and the engine was enlarged to 1340cc. 2013 brought a mild update with better brakes and ABS. And that’s it. The Hayabusa remained so, an ode to speed written in the language of motorcycles, until it was discontinued in 2018. But 2021 has given us Gen 3. Possibly the most comprehensive overhaul to the Hayabusa in the 20 years since it first landed, and yet the spec sheet will fool you into thinking otherwise.
YOU DON’T HAVE TIME TO THINK ABOUT CONSEQUENCES WHEN YOU’RE NEARING 300KMPH
The engine, for example. It still displaces 1340cc. Power is down. Down! When was the last time you heard that happening up here in the stratosphere of performance bikes? Back in 2018, a Hayabusa would light up the road with 194bhp but now you only get 187bhp. No, it isn’t what you think – the ’Busa hasn’t become a victim to emission norms. Suzuki has intentionally fettled it. I could go into the details: lighter pistons, lighter con rods, revised cam profiles, a lighter camshaft, a new crankshaft. The combustion chamber, intake system, exhaust system, fuel injection system — nearly everything on the engine has been tweaked, refined, and brought firmly into the modern era. The idea was to give the engine a meatier low- and mid-range to match the wild top-end, or so claim Suzuki. A flatter torque curve for more consistent performance, that should make it even quicker than it was before. And honestly, that’s something I can believe.
It accelerates like nothing else I have ever experienced. Brutal, right from 3000rpm all the way to the redline at 11k. The most marginal twists of the throttle send it surging forward underneath you, and whacking it open fires the bike (and you!) at the horizon. It has got performance well beyond what is accessible and useable on public roads. Here I was, at NATRAX, on India’s fastest road. And I still found myself backing off occasionally.
What is most impressive is how relentless it is. It doesn’t matter what revs you’re at, what gear you’re in, what speed you’re doing. You could be trundling in third or screaming close to the redline in first — poke it, and it will go. It accelerates with the same intent whether it is doing 10 or 200kmph. It pulls in sixth gear with the same ferocity that it does in third. You hit 250kmph, and it has more to give. You hit 280kmph, and it has more to give. Remember, the first ’Busa back in ’99 hit 312kmph comfortably before the gentleman’s agreement between bike makers limited it to 299kmph. God knows what this 2021 bike will do if let off its leash.
And all the while, it is silky smooth. Vibrations are too uncultured for the Hayabusa to bother with. All that effortless performance is combined with incredible refinement — leaving you marvelling at the powertrain’s capability and breadth of ability. Experience the Hayabusa properly, on roads that you can really push it, and you will realise why it is a legend. And that engine is its crown jewel.
POWER IS DOWN. DOWN! WHEN WAS THE LAST TIME YOU HEARD THAT HAPPENING UP HERE IN THE STRATOSPHERE OF PERFORMANCE BIKES?
I remember in the days leading up to its launch, there was talk of Suzuki doing something wild with the drivetrain. Engine designer Naoki Mizoguchi admitted to building prototypes not just with bigger displacements, but with turbocharged motors and even six cylinders. But would it still be a Hayabusa, then? A turbo motor might be even more ballistic but would you be able to potter about the city with one? A six-cylinder engine may bring in a whole new dimension to refinement and grunt, but what would it do to the balance of the chassis? Suzuki, much like I did after riding Gen 3, concluded that the only way to retain the character of the Hayabusa was to retain that package they formulated perfectly two decades ago.
There have been changes to the chassis too. The subframe is lighter and new. The suspension is new, as are the brakes. And where the ’Busa goes above and beyond, is with how the chassis lets you exploit the performance. Tucked in behind the fairing at high speeds, the ’Busa feels incredibly stable. Braking — my word — it shaves off speed with such shattering confidence that you’re never afraid of getting back on the gas. These are Brembo Stylemas, after all. The same top drawer kit you get on motorcycles such as the Panigale V4. Handling is impressive too — this is a bulky motorcycle yet its ability to turn in with intent gives you the opportunity to ride it hard if you want to. It’s stable in the bends, and the Bridgestone S22 tyres do a great job even in the damp conditions we had all day.
By far the most comprehensive set of updates has to be to the electronics suite. Back in 2018, the only electronics the ’Busa had was ABS. Literally just ABS. It didn’t matter who you were, you approached the older Hayabusa with respect. You had to be measured with your inputs, lest it chew you up and spit you out. Not any more. With a hugely comprehensive suite of electronics, the ’Busa can be ridden by any monkey who manages to take it off the stand (don’t look at me!). It has everything you’d expect of a modern superbike: 10-stage TC, anti-wheelie, power modes, engine braking modes, an up-down quick shifter. There’s cruise control if you plan on touring and launch control for the drag strip. The TC works in conjunction with an IMU, and knowing it’s there gives you the confidence to push the motorcycle hard. The track was damp all day, and not once did I feel the need to hold back. I suspect this would make the Hayabusa more appealing to novice riders as well, giving them a huge safety net so they don’t hurt themselves when they run out of skill and experience.
NOTHING CAN EXIST WITHOUT PERSPECTIVE. AND perspective at the High Speed Track at NATRAX can get skewed. The track is four lanes wide and 11.3km long. Speed doesn’t feel the same here. The Audi RS5 was no match for the Hayabusa’s raw performance. Which is why we brought along something a bit more angry. A car with a similar 0-100kmph time, hovering around 3 seconds and one that we at evo India have driven a fair bit. The Ferrari 488 GTB. It’s a properly fast machine — a twinturbo V8 putting out north of 650bhp, being deployed through two fat rear tyres. The Hayabusa had weight on its side but it had to put down all of its power onto the single 190-section rear tyre. Three runs was all we did. And every time, with the our resident biking hero Hrishi Mandke getting ever more comfortable with the bike, the ’Busa opened up a wider gap at the quarter mile — so much so that at the end we couldn’t even get the two together, in one very wide frame, at the finish. Let’s just say the legend of the Hayabusa just got a little stronger… ⌧
IT DIDN’T MATTER WHO YOU WERE, YOU APPROACHED THE OLDER HAYABUSA WITH RESPECT