Imagine if you have two motorcycle passions, streetfighter looks and wheelie competition and your starting point is the almighty Suzuki Hayabusa. Well if this interests you then read on to understand how one such bike was transformed into Supabusa, which did indeed start life as a standard year 2000 Suzuki Hayabusa in red/grey colours.
Suzuki Hayabusa Yr 2000
Dodge (the owner of the bike) is also the mastermind and creator of the World Wheelie event and a consistent participant which takes place each year at Elvington Airfield in Yorkshire UK (YO42 4AU) and is attended by competitors from around the world.
With the above in mind, the first thing he did was to remove 1 tooth from the gearbox sprocket to allow the bike to wheelie. It must be stressed at this point that for the wheelie competition this is not a boy racer pop up wheelie thing, it’s a controlled run on the back wheel for a sustained 1KM run, with some very, very highly skilled riders competing at ridiculous speeds. The current world record holder (Ted Brady 217.85MPH) was invited to appear at the 2019 Goodwood Festival of Speed.
Before we go any further there are two things you should probably be aware of with Dodge, the first one explained above about his passion for wheelie competitions. The second and equally as important is his love for the streetfighter scene, this means not only must the bike be competitive (that means really fast) but it must look impressive with that well known “Dodge” aggressive look.
Wheelie God
So, Supabusa goes to its first event after a few weeks of detailed checks and preparation, the bike completes its first ever 1KM wheelie doing 125MPH (impressive) only 2MPH away from the winning speed of 127MPH by Chris McKiniss and the bike is written off (for the first time).
Supabusa then undergoes a rebuild and starts to develop its streetfighter look with the following modifications:-
Fairings removed
Kawasaki AR125 headlamp & fairing fitted
HEL cooler and lines fitted
Standard but modified front mudguard fitted.
1 off special built tank fitted
Seat subframe
Standard wheels
Akrapovik exhaust up to the silencer/tailpipe with a purpose built end piece.
Standard engine.
So all is good? Well, no not really, with a conflict of performance (for competition) and streetfighter looks for style, the bike is then crashed because no steering damper was fitted as it spoiled the look of the bike and when the front wheel lands at close to 200MPH you really need a steering damper.
Lesson to self, high speed competition is dangerous so don’t be a dick.
Looking good
Wheelie competition can be exhilarating & dangerous as this clip shows.
Now following this second crash which burst the engine, it morphed even more towards the bike it is today with the following: –
- The cylinder head went to Roger Upperton
- Aftermarket cams were fitted
- 1400cc pistons were fitted
- Lightened and balanced crank fitted
This gave Supabusa 204BHP at the tyre with a normally aspirated engine.
Almost there
So is this the final condition? no not even close.
To make the standard chassis capable of utilising all the HP, obviously some changes needed to be made so the following improvements were done: –
Suspension tuned by Maxton
Weight reduced by fitting Dymag 3 spoke carbon wheels. More weight reduced by fitting Pro bolt titanium fasteners including the main engine support & removal of excess material.
Supabusa ran like this for a while, being a very slimmed-down version of the normal 250KG on the road weight of a standard Hayabusa, coming in at 180KG, a huge (and costly) 70KG saving.
Dymag wheel
So enough for looks and performance? Well not quite, in the interest of more power AND being different (streetfighters like doing it differently) Dodge fitted a Pro-Charger supercharger which is part of the BigCC supercharger kit.
After a eureka moment followed by some tweaking at John Warrington’s place she now has over 380HP, runs beautifully and has a fantastic paint job.
Supabusa can be seen regularly competing at Elvington Airfield UK.
Standing on Runway Two Six
Supercharger