Since the earliest days of motorised transport on two, three or four wheels, the pursuit of speed has been relentless. For speed, power is required. The more speed required, the more power is needed. Since 1938 the speed of the fastest bikes has increased by around 1 mph a year.
What is the attraction of speed, especially when the sort of speeds being sought are far in excess of anything usable in everyday life and often right out of the realms of safety and prudence?
The answer, in a nutshell, is that speed and/or power sells. Even if a machine can be made to look as if it can go fast, it will sell better than an identical machine in more sombre livery. Hence 'go-faster' stripes, lurid graphics and machines, motorbikes especially, that look like MotoGP machines. And it goes further. If a particular brand has the accolade of having "the fastest" machine, whilst few will buy that actual model, many will be attracted to the brand simply because it has the aura of speed.
The marketing men know us all too well. They also understand, at least as far as the young male of the species is concerned, that there is a subtle equation between speed, power and sex.
In the late 1990s the probability was that teenage males were more likely to have a poster of Suzuki's Hayabusa on the bedroom wall than one of the most nubile females known to popular youth culture.
Those young gentlemen may never have aspired to owning a Hayabusa, but a fair few of them today will be riding Suzuki GSX-R 600s, 750s and 1000s. When Suzuki's Hayabusa came to the market in 1999 it was not just another motorcycle, it was the most powerful and the fastest production motorcycle in the world.
So fast, indeed, that it caused the Japanese manufacturers, all of whom had long been in competition to build "the fastest", to fear that their relentless pursuit of speed could well lead to speed limits being placed on motorcycles. As a result, they agreed to a self-imposed 300 km/h limit. One result of this is that the 1999 Hayabusa was a few km/h faster than the 2006 model.
In more recent times, such is the value of speed as a sales tool, the self-imposed 300 km/h limit is being quietly dropped. The Suzuki GSX-R1300R Hayabusa is a big bike in every respect. Power output is 127kW (173bhp). Top speed 295km/h (183mph), though this is often quoted as a "near 200mph potential". Acceleration 0-100km/h is just 3.38 seconds. But the bare figures do not convey the reality of riding, as Suzuki calls it, this "ultimate sportsbike".
It didn't actually seem to be that blisteringly fast, indeed, until we cottoned on to the fact that the speedo was calibrated in mph and not km/h as we thought, it seemed brisk but not impressive! What we thought was 120km/h was actually 120mph! It really is that deceptively fast. It's like landing on a different planet.
You get a better idea of its speed when the chance comes to accelerate away from following traffic. Within a couple of seconds all traffic is, literally, out of sight. There is a price to pay for all this: expect to replace a rear tyre after just 2,000kms, or less. Weighing in at 217kg it is heavy enough, but not over heavy. BMW's 167bhp K1200S is 31kg heavier. But we found ourselves tipping the scales at a svelte 84kg, that when it came to heaving this behemoth through the twists and turns of Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire country roads, a few more personal kilograms would have come in handy. In that respect it certainly is a man's bike, a big man's!
It is not Suzuki's best road-holding bike, not by a long chalk. Handled without respect, it has the potential to be a widow maker. Just parked it looks fast. The smooth, rounded curves do look a bit dated compared with the current razor-edged obsession. But the Hayabusa still has the lowest drag co-efficient of all the Suzukis.
We would question whether the Hayabusa is a "sportsbike" as distinct from a "sports-tourer", notwithstanding various manufacturers' penchants for stretching either nomenclature to fit their preconceived notions.
It is not, in our view, a serious track day machine. There are few tracks where it could perform better than, even as well as, for example a GSX-R 750. It seems more of a sports-tourer. It is a machine that would make any long, predominantly main road journey a delight.
A delight, that is, provided one is young and supple enough to find a cramped foetal-like riding position conducive to comfort.
But, if you are a fully paid up member of the "mine's-bigger-faster-than-yours club", such considerations are utterly irrelevant.
ENGINE: Liquid cooled, 1299 cc 4-stroke, 4-cylinder inline, DOHC,
TSCC, 4 valves per cylinder with electronic fuel injection. Max Power 175 PS (128.7
kW) @ 9,800 rpm Max Torque 138 Nm @ 7,000 rpm. Clutch: Wet multi-plate with back-torque limiter
6-speed. Final drive: chain.
CHASSIS: Front Suspension: Inverted, 43 mm. Fully adjustable.
Rear Suspension: Link type, fully adjustable. Front Brake: 6-piston callipers, 320mm dual dis