by John Wallie

Created on: November 22, 2010

For the sake of debating, I have to go with  the Hyabusa as the faster bike of these two monsters.  What you need to realize is both bikes now are regulated for top speed. Here where I live they both will go 299kph.  But if you were to go back to 1998 when the Hyabusa first came out, Suzuki had its press release in Spain, and not just Suzuki was there, they had invited a few motorcycle magazines to come to the debut of their flagship bike.  During testing of the bike, which incidentally handles well for its size, the question of top speed came up.  They took the bike out to the high plains and ran the bike up through the traps.  One number that came up was 317kph!  That stands today as the fastest the bike has run in bone stock form.  When the ZX came out, the factories, Suzuki, Kawasaki, Honda, and Yamaha had all started limiting the speeds of their respective bikes.  So, the ZX never had a chance to reign as the fastest bike over the GSX. 

Granted, for arguments sake, the ZX may have had a chance to run up over 317kph. The thing we have to look at is the fact that the "Bus" may have continued to get faster as its production went on. Back in 1998 I had a chance to dyno test a  Hyabusa and the results were 160 hp. at the rear wheel.  Recently I ran a 2009 Hyabusa on the same dyno, and the horse power was 176 at the back wheel.  Add the increased horse power to the new lighter bike along with increased arrow dynamics, and the result would be a faster bike yet.  The ZX has found more power along the way as well. So with the fact that the "Bus" has been recorded at 317 in Spain, and the fact that with all the searching I have done on the Internet, and talking to people in the trade... I have not found a test showing the ZX to be faster. 

Alas, with the agreement among the manufacturers, we may never see a bone stock ZX1400 go faster than a bone stock GSX1300R. That alone is all the proof I need to state the fact that the Hyabusa is faster than the ZX1400.  SUZUKI 4 LIFE!

Keep your feet on the pegs and your right hand cranked!

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