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/128162
Honda CBR11 OOXX One thing that no one has ever questioned is that the 'Busa has brute power. Highway roll-ons are a blast on the bike. If you want to add a little extra fun to the mix, going down two gears for a pass puts you into hyperspace mode. As for around-town agility, the big 'Busa carries its weight fairly low, so it feels a lot more nimble than it has a right to. For such a heavy bike, it handles fairly well, but it's a heavy-steering bike that demands you give it a fair amount of countersteering to get it around a tight corner - the steering damper doesn't help matters. The Hayabusa is big - don't fool yourself into thinking otherwise - but it's perfectly capable of negotiating the urban labyrinth of asphalt just fine. One of the biggest drawbacks has to be the clutch, which is a subject that has been well-documented. Leaving stoplights with any authority is difficult because of the way it is designed. The stock ratchet-type lock-up unit chatters horribly when you feed it too much throttle off the line. There are plenty of fixes for this in the aftermarket, but we're talking stock bikes here, so we have to deal with it as is. I finally came to the con· clusion that I would give it the rpm at which I wanted to launch - fairly low and the second the bike was rolling, I sidestep the clutch with my hand (which 1 guess would be sideslapping it, no?). This kept me from having to modulate or slip the finicky beast. Just make sure the rpms aren't in the "you're going to flip over backward" realm. The brakes on the Suzuki are fairly good, but I found myself adding a bit of rear brake on a regular basis to get it hauled down from speed. Feel is adequate, but overall power is a little on the weak side for such a heavy bike. VS. Kawasaki ZX-12R VS. Suzuki GSX1300R Hayabusa Controls and instruments are welllaid-out and offer plenty of information; the only problem is that Suzuki has kept the windscreen so low on the bike that, in a normal riding position, the screen obscures the top half of the speedo and the tach, not to mention the tum-signal indicators on the dash. This forces you to lean down to get a good view of things. Otherwise, you'll end up riding around like some blue-hair in Florida, with it flashing all the time. All in all, the Suzuki is still right in the hunt, and Hayabusa lovers will remain loyal in the end. Bottom line 1. Kawasaki 2. Suzuki 3. Honda Top-Speed Runs Okay, here we go. The biggest question I get asked about these bikes is always, "How fast will it go?" (Rightl The XX has a wonderfully ilnear clutch; It lust needs a bit more horsepower for a good ET. (Below! Grudge nights at LACR were a blast. From left to right: Cycle News associate editor Scott Rousseau, Cycle World's .John Bums, Motorcycle Online's Calvin Kim, Kawasaki's Scott Buckley, and yours truly. So here are the answers. We took the bikes out to our secret testing grounds - where most of the magazines you read get their numbers and put the bikes through the gauntlet. Weather conditions weren't perfect at first, but they got a little better at the end. I had a slight crosswind the entire time I was. running the bikes - between 5 and 10 mph. That may not sound like a lot, but trust me, at top speed it is. All of our runs were recorded on a Stalker radar gun. The Hayabusa Is available In two color combinations this year - blue/black, and silver. Dynojet Research Inc. 150 125 ... , , , , , , , -.-----~----.-----~---- , , , ~ , ----1-----:- ----1-----!- - - 100 -I ~-~~p,ii<''':"'"....~;,;,,;,~- , o D <: " '" ---_ .. _---50 - 50 25 • w ·25 : __ • • • o ~:.:.-~.:.:.~:.:.~~.;.:.~~:.':.''~':';'':'':''':''':'' .;.:..:.:.:.;.:.:.:.:.;.~.:.:.~-~2 34 JULY 10. 2002' cue •• n e _ os 3 4 S 6 7 RPM (x1ooo) B 9 10 11 12 0