Friday, October 3, 2008

Hypersports

Part 1
There are sport bikes, there are super sport bikes, and then there's hypersport bikes. Hypersports are the super sized class of modern performance motorcycles. They trace their origins to the beinging of the race-replica era. Hypersports began as larger versions of the 750cc racing class. Eventually they grew into big bore machines that blur the lines of sport touring with sports bikes. with the Suzuki GSX-R1000. Kawasaki countered with the Ninja 1000 and ZX-11. Yamaha had the FJR1200, Honda the CBR1000 Hurricane. Arguably the Honda VFR1000 and Yamaha FZR1000 could be include, though they are more racy.

1986 Suzuki GSX-R1100Yamaha FJ1200

Kawasaki ZX10Honda CBR1000FPart 1.5
On the more racy side of things there's the VFR1000 and FZR1000

Honda VFR1000RYamaha FZR1000RPart 2
Suzuki and Honda updated their big boy sports bikes for the 1990s. In 1990 Kawasaki introduced the ZX-11 the fastest bike in the world (at that time). Triumph also had a player with the 1200cc Daytona.

Suzuki GSX-R1100Kawasaki ZX-11Honda CBR1000FPart 3
Honda upped the ante with the classy CBR1100XX Blackhawk. Suzuki trumped the Blacbird with the Hayabusa (Japanese for paragrine falcon, natural predetor of blackbirds) in 1999.The Hayabusa took the record from the Blackbird at 190mph. Kawasaki answered witht he ZX12R. With these two motorcycle reacing speeds of 300kmph (186mph) the manufacturers agreed to limit top speed for fear of backlash from European governments. The ZX12R was intended to take the record from the Hayabusa but with the regualted 186mph, the early GSX1300R's hold the overall record. 

Suzuki GSX13000RKawasaki ZX-12R
Honda CBR1100XXPart 4
The battle for hyperspeed continues with Suzuki and Kawasaki. Kawasaki replaced the ZX12R with the ZX14. Suzuki answered with an updated Hayabusa. BMW entered the field with the K1200S, however the German bike didn't quite have the muscle of the Japanese superbikes. In 2009 BMW will release the K1300S.

BMW K1200S
2007 Suzuki GSX1300R2008 Kawasaki ZX-14


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