The Suzuki Hayabusa is well known across the motorcycle community, and for very good reason — this bike is a beast. It has a 1,340 cc, four-cylinder, DOHC engine that pumps out 187 horsepower. Its sweeping faring makes it look like it is ready to attack at a moment’s notice, and to put it bluntly, it is.
What’s important to note about the Hayabusa is that when it was released in 1999, it blew every other bike out of the water with sheer power. It had a top speed of over 200 mph and a 0–60 time of 2.6 seconds. That’s when people started wondering if people should actually be able to go that fast. There was even talk of a ban on the fastest street-legal bikes.
Nobody knows for sure, but the rumor is a group from BMW went over to Japan in 2000, and a “gentlemen’s agreement” was struck with all the motorcycle companies that there would be a digital limiter put on bikes that would make them unable to go over 300 km/h (186 mph). As a result, the current Hayabusa has a top speed of 186 mph, and its 0–60 time is a little slower, too, at 2.8 seconds.
How fast would the latest Hayabusa go without the digital limiter, you might ask? Your guess is as good as ours.
