Chango2, a Hayabusa actually is a very docile, well-mannered motorcycle whose temperment is directly dependent upon the agressiveness of your right wrist. Once you get used to it, that is.

Wheelies are something you have to try to pull off as the bike has a longish wheelbase that resists the front wheel "getting air" under even "brisk" riding. Keeping both tires on the pavement is not a problem for anyone not trying to ride on one wheel. And I'd imagine its weight (514 pounds dry) and that heavy engine being in the front half of the chassis would make for some hard landings. I never as much as tried on mine; I sold it after five very happy years and 11,000 miles of ownership and was still afraid of it.

Bear in mind that until I threw a leg over my Busa, my last ride on a motorcycle was on my 1982 Gold Wing Interstate that I sold in 1984. My wife drove our son and me out to Gibsonia, PA, a suburb of Pittsburgh, on Friday evening, August 4th, 2003. The next morning, Jason and I left Crossroads Motorsports on our new bikes - his was the 2003 Yamaha R6 he still owns. The plan was to ride them home via US30 to give them better break-in miles than the PA Turnpike would offer.

As I rode out of Crossroads' service department, two things immediately became apparent - my legs were cramping and I couldn't see where I was going because my helmet was jammed into the back of what little neck I have because of the low clip-ons. The next thing I learned was that the throttle twistgrip only moves a little over 1/4 of a turn from idle to WOT. Every bump about caused the bike to toss me off the back. Imagine 156 horsepower at the rear wheel (175 at the crankshaft), gobs and gobs of torque, the instantaneous response of port fuel injection and that hair-trigger throttle all in one package; fear was immediate and long-lasting. Between feeling as though my knuckles would drag the ground on turns, that my earlobes were resting on my kneecaps and that twitchy throttle, I must have told myself - aloud - that I just made a $10,000 mistake 50 times during the 206-mile ride home.

But we made it home in one piece and I began the task of converting it into a sport-tourer, which was my goal all along. The local Suzuki dealer, who declined her limited-edition one-per-dealer 40th Anniverary Burnt Orange Hayabusa and thereby forced me to go that far out of town to buy one, told me that she sold her first Busa in 1999 to a 70 year-old retiree who liked his so well that he bought a 2000 for his wife. I figured that if those folks could enjoy a Hayabusa that much, at age 56, I could, too.

And I did. After making the mods I mentioned earlier, it became extremely comfortable. But I never sampled the wide-open-throttle waters. It never saw over 8,000rpm (redline was 11,500), never saw WOT in any gear and the speedometer never read over 114mph. I got 7,000 miles from the original rear tire; many Busa owners fry one in as little as 1,200 and 3,000 miles is considered very good life. My desire to live exceeded my curiousity about nine-second quarter-miles and that 186-mph top speed limiter.

I sold it in August of 2008 to a gentleman from North Carolina who offered me nearly all I had paid for it, as most Busas are mechanically modified and then beaten into submission early on. Additionally, there only was a small quantity of 40th Anniversary ones made. One of those in babied, pristine condition was quite an attraction when I posted it on the Hayabusa Owners' Group website.

My plan was and still is to buy a new Yamaha FJR-1300A. And I will as soon as they bring one out in something besides metallic black, which always looks like a black bike with a light coating of dust.

Ed

"My plan was and still is to buy a new Yamaha FJR-1300A. And I will as soon as they bring one out in something besides metallic black"

The time has come. ;)

The 2010's will be silver, as can be seen on the link I have added.

I am prejudiced, my older FJR is silver. My FJR has pretty much ruined my interest in other bikes.

Thanks for the update. But silver? Again? I should have bought when they were available in burgandy a few years ago but I was hoping they would keep that color longer than they did.

A salesperson from my local Yamaha dealer called me last week telling me that they would be putting a new Titanium Grey FJR on sale for $10,400 last weekend. He had me going until he casually mentioned that it was an AE model...

I told him I could see why they were putting it on sale.

Ed