The Hayabusa started its legacy in 1998, and it was made only keeping one thing in mind, to destroy the Honda Blackbird. In 1999 when Suzuki rolled out the Hayabusa( or GSX1300R). It immediately won the Title of Worlds Fastest production motorcycle. It topped out at a speed of 194Mph.(312 km/h). Also, this made Hayabusa is the best motorcycle of the 20th century. In the same year, an agreement was signed between the European and Japanese manufactures to limit the speed of motorcycles, and thus the manufacturers came to a decision to limit the top speed at 186mph or 299kmh. While all the other manufacturers had left the thought of breaking the title of the Hayabusa. There was another Japanese Manufacturer Kawasaki who thought of taking this brave decision to defeat and dethrone the Suzuki Hayabusa. Thus Kawasaki in the same year attempted a top speed run of their Flagship Ninja ZX-12R. Well, things didn't go well with Kawasaki, they just fall short of 4mph or 6kmh. But the conclusion was that Hayabusa was still the king. The facts that made Hayabusa unique was that inline 4 engine that pumped out 173 horses and 140 NM of torque. Also, the speed kings at that time like the litre-class Bikes were fast but uncomfortable. They were a treat on the Track but miserable on the roads. Hayabusa struck a perfect balance between performance and comfort, that people loved. Hayabusa was one of the motorcycles at that time to house Big capacity engines(1341cc to be precise). The design of the 1st generation Hayabusa remained the same till 2007. After that time it received few mechanical updates and Engine and ECU re-tuning. Which boosted the power to a Whooping 200HP and torque to 154NM. But the weight also got increased in this update which led to no upgrade in the top speed, but the acceleration got faster. Hayabusa by this time had grown a huge fanbase worldwide. They were used at Drag stripes with extended swing-arms and broke the quarter-mile record of many of the supercars present at that time. Talking about the design Many people loved it, many people hated it, but as they say, looks can be subjective, so was the case with Hayabusa. Suzuki never updated the Hayabusa at the design front cause people wanted it to stay as it is. Hayabusa"s around the world were Hugely modified. At 269Kgs kerb weight Hayabusa was heavy. It often felt like a Tank was moving on the road. But as they say Kings not always stay king. Hayabusa remained the King of motorcycles for more than a decade. In 2012 Kawasaki came out of nowhere and smashed the record of Hayabusa with their Ninja ZX-14R, which topped out at 335Kmph, and hence the ZX-14R became the world record holder for the worlds fastest bike. But Hayabusa is a Legend we all have to agree that(whether you are a hater or lover).
Thank You for giving your valuable time in reading my blog. Suggestions are most welcome and sorry for any mistakes, this was my 1st blog.
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