FLY AWAY!

It’s a falcon, yes, but the Hayabusa has finally risen phoenix-like from the ashes

- Kartik Ware

Launch control. Once a preserve of rockets and missiles, I find a screen offering three levels to me on a motorcycle. I select the middle of the options, not quite ready to tempt fate just yet with the highest rpm, and with enough hubris to ignore the lowest. The inline-four stutters at the launch rpm with a beautiful deep sound that reminds me of Scatman John. And once the clutch is out, a spaceship’s worth of electronics keep the motorcycle hooked up and pointing straight. Through the gears, it bellows with a primal hunger for life-altering speed and reminds me how and why this machine makes a mockery of time and space. But there’s more to the Suzuki Hayabusa than being a giant inline-four that goes fast. It always has been more than just a sum of its substantial parts.

What is the Hayabusa if not the fastest bike in the world? Was it not built for total domination? Why did Suzuki (shudder) reduce peak power on a fabled motorcycle with a 22-year love affair with Speed herself? Does that not violate the spirit of a motorcycle that is a symbol of high velocity? One look at the Hayabusa should answer those questions and any others rattling around in a similar vein, mostly on benches and keyboards frequented by brag racers. The Hayabusa has always done things its own way. For a motorcycle that’s become something of a tradition in itself, the Hayabusa is a fast bird that flies in the face of nearly every rule in the superbike book.