We know there’s a new Suzuki Hayabusa coming but the latest intelligence suggests it won’t be ready until 2019.
Suzuki started dropping hints about the bike two years ago. It showed the Concept GSX at the Tokyo Motor Show in 2015. While that was a rather strange paper sculpture, it clearly revealed styling ideas that are destined for a new Hayabusa.
The existing GSX1300R is still available but it doesn’t meet the latest Euro4 emissions regulations. That means Suzuki is using derogation rules to sell it in European countries. Those rules allow Suzuki to sell small numbers of non-compliant bikes or up to two years, but will expire at the end of 2018.
Now, emissions documents from America have revealed that the existing Hayabusa will remain unchanged in the firm’s 2018 model range. Which means a new version isn’t likely until the 2019 model year.
Japanese manufacturers often use the Tokyo Motor Show to introduce new models in two stages. The show only happens once every two years. So Tokyo concepts often transmute into production models two years later. Suzuki could do this with the Hayabusa but if a production model appears at the 2017 Tokyo show it is likely to sell as a 2019 machine.
That would actually fit quite neatly with Suzuki’s recent practises. Back at EICMA in 2012 the firm showed the 2014 DL1000 V-Strom. And several of the bikes shown in 2016 – the GSX-R125, GSX250R and V-Strom 250 – are only reaching dealers now. That’s well into the second half of 2017, which means Suzuki could class them as 2018 models if it desired.
The same documents that show an unaltered Hayabusa in 2018 also reveal that the GSX-R750 and GSX-R600 won’t change next year.
