20 YEARS OF THE SUZUKI GSX-R1300R HAYABUSA
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Feature
For the U.S. media, the Hayabusa was launched back in 1999 at Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya,
10 miles out of downtown Barcelona. We sent now Cycle World editor, but then Cycle News monkey, Mark
Hoyer, to the intro. And this is what he said: "The end of the trip was marked with disbelief. Disbelief that
a street motorcycle running on pump gas is capable of such performance, and disbelief that we actually
sampled it in traffic with steel guard rails flying past at 180 mph, our helmet's chinbar smashed up against our
faces. Disbelief that for $10,499, you can walk into a Suzuki dealership and buy this motorcycle. Amazing."
At the end of 1998, it was not Suzuki but archrival Honda that held the crown of the fastest production
street bike. The CBR1100XX Super Blackbird arrived a couple of years earlier in 1996 and displaced the
Kawasaki ZZR-1100 from the top-speed perch, moving the mark from 170 mph to 180 mph on a good
day. Suzuki, a diminutive company when compared to the titans that are the Honda Motor Company and
Kawasaki Heavy Industries, wanted to embarrass its counterparts and show just what was possible with
a four-cylinder motor with zero regards to any sort of rulebook.
