Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/127988
there is nothing but nothing that has an answer for the effortless leap of the Hayabusa. And if there is one aspect of riding a motorcycle that's the most accessible to the average Joe, it's acceleration. It doesn't take talent or skill to twist the throttle. (Trust me. Some things we know, firsthand ...) But the Hayabusa isn't just a straightline cruise missle - it's nimble enough to appeal to lean-junkies, with excellent suspension and better ground clearance and quicker, lighter steering than you'll find on either the ZX-l1 or CBRllOOXX, as well as a lighter-weight feel than its looks would lead you to think. The price of the greater ground clearance is slightly less leg room than either of those two bikes. Steering is neu tral, and chassis feel is such that it invites you to lean the thing over. When we rode the bike on the track, we were glad the Hayabusa was fitted with a steering damper. Transmitting that kind of power to the rear wheel as the fat, close-to-200mm-wide rear tire claws for traction and the front end starts to get light makes' you think a steering damper is nothing but a good thing. But on the street it hardly seemed necessary. In fact, one tester who does a fair share of commuting (140 miles a day!) thought he didn't like the steering damper much for the bike's feel while lane-splitting. However, most people wouldn't know the bike had one unless you told them. It was nice to know it had one for U,e top-speed tests, though. The Hayabusa's stability was excellent all the way to its peak, with nary a shimmy or shake on its way to near-redline in sixth gear. Remar!ql.ble. 1999 Suzuki GSX1300R Hayabusa SpecIcations (Right) To help isolate the rider from the engine vibration, the handlebars are mounted to a plate that is rubber-isolated from the actual top triple clal1\P. EngIne ... .liquid-cooled. in-line four-cylInder V.... plIr . .. . .. DOHC. 4 valves per cyI. . . . . It stroke _ 81 x 63mm EM.pl•• ~nt Ca 1298cc renion ratio 11.0:1 lIon Mikuni/Denso fuel injection C. .. .'on .......paw.r .Digital transistorized 158.9 hp@9800rpn 98.6 ft.-Ibs. @6900 T "- .Twin-spar aluminum 58.5 in. Wh•• 11 RaoIoeIIraIl SaM height ........ion Frane 24.2·/g7mm 31.7 In. ,43mm fully adjustable inverted fork; 4.7 in. travel .................Fully adjustable slngla piggyback-reservoir shock; 5.5 in. travel - ".... Frane (Left) The 120170ZA17 Bridgestone Battlax BT56F Radial Hayabusa's .... . . . ......- unique shape Is the result of extensive wind- .. .190/50ZA 17 Bridgestone Battlax BT56A Radial Front . tunnel testing. . ... .Dual 320mm dlsc8 w/Six-piston calipetll .......................Single 240mm w/opposed two-piston caliper WeIght 520 Ibs. (wet. no fueD Fuel capecity A--. fuel consumption PI'b 5.8 gel. 30 mpg $10.499 : Whlbt Blo....,. R&D Dept. 180 175 170 OYNORUN 003 Max POWER- 1589 Max TORQUe- 98.6 180 ISO ISO 1~ The gauge package is state of the art, offering dual digital LCD trip meters, as well as telling you your average fuel economy since the trip meter was reset, and expected fuel economy. The speedometer proved to be pretty accurate, reading 211 mph in sixth gear at 10,900 rpm on the best top-speed run, which translated into a real 190.3 mph on the Stalker radar gun. That's an error of about 10 percent, which ain't so bad at that end of the scale. And it's also got a clock, so you'll know how much time you're saving. The main complaint is that the gauges were hard to see because the swept-back aero windscreen blocks Y0j.lr line of sight. In the end, complaints were few. We still encountered the same unpredictable engagement with the big, 15Omm-diam- eter clutch that we had in our first outing on the bike, and the counter-balancer-equipped engine surprised us with the high-frequency. vibes it produced, even with the rubber-isolated bars and rubber pads on the footpegs. And, well, that was it. The GSX1300R is a totally streetable package, a comfortable everyday machine that happens to be so fast it'll peel the paint off your helmet. When Suzuki's presenting engineers said a"t the press introduction in Spain that they had designed a motorcycle that didn't fit in any category, we took their suggested "Ultimate Sport" moniker as just so much PR posturing. Call it what you will, the- Hayabusa is the new definition of performance. 1:11 130 125 I 120 i 110 ~ m 100 100 (Right) The numbers speak for themselves: nearly 160 hp and 100 ft.Ibs. of torque. Nothing comes close. 80 80 ;z; w 75 ~ 70 80 50 50 ) ~ 30 r 25 20 10 0 2 3 4 5 • • 0 10 11 12 j i I I II! III U ~ Q D> D> D> ... ,..: ~ CL c( 19