Suzuki to cease production of Hayabusa: End of 20 year dream run

The iconic Hayabusa will no longer be in production as Suzuki has decided to cease production of the superbike. The bike had an illustrious career of almost 20 years and is among the most recognized bike names around the world. It was made super popular in India after being featured in the 2004 hit flick ‘Dhoom’. While there are some speculations about a replacement, nothing can be confirmed as of now.

Suzuki decided to discontinue the bike due to its inability to meet the upcoming stringent emission norms in many parts of the world, specifically European continent. The Hayabusa could not meet the new Euro 4 emissions norms along with some other other rules introduced as part of EU Regulation 168/2013. These rules were made mandatory since 1st January 2016, but manufacturers were given a two year period of grace to sell remaining stocks of Euro 4 models. However, that two year time period ends by 31st December 2018, after which it will be illegal to sell the Hayabusa as a new bike in Europe.Some markets like the US will continue to have the Busa in sales. However, production of the bike will be stopped and availability of stocks will be key in deciding for how long will the bike continue its run in these markets. 

The term Hayabusa means Pergerine Falcon in Japanese, which in turn is a bird known for being the fastest living thing with speeds that reaches over 320 km/h. On its inception, the Busa was the fastest bike around the world and had the ability to touch speed in access of 300 km/h. It was powered by a four cylinder, 1299 cc engine with 173 Bhp of power on tap. It was speed restricted and so were all the other bikes with similar or more power after it, due to the ‘Gentlemen’s Agreement’ between leading bike manufacturers. The bike saw a midlife facelift which bumped the displacement to 1340 cc and power to 194 Bhp, making it an even maniac bike.

The bike is loved all over the world for its sheer power and acceleration that can leave many of the most latest performance bikes in dust. Though it exactly isn’t a track tool owing to its heavy weight, it nonetheless is a beast of a machine on normal roads. The iconic design was result of countless hours of design study to create the most aerodynamically efficient bike of the time. The original engineering and design was so good that the bike goes on with strong sales even after 20 years of its inception without any major overhaul (except for the power bump, slipper clutch etc inclusion in 1998).

Popularly known as the Dhoom bike among the kids in India for a long time, the Hayabusa retails for Rs. 13.59 lakhs in India. This makes it cheaper than most of the other litre class performance bikes on sale in India, though only a few can match its might even now.