Pity the average young, working class motorcyclist. If you’re Gen Z (born in the mid-to-late 1990s, or younger), then you’re suffering the effects of our economical doldrums worse than most. At least older riders can use their home equity for a piggybank, if they really want a new motorcycle! So what’s a kid to do, if he wants a new high-horsepower adventure bike? The answer might be: Modify a Suzuki Hayabusa.
Check out this series of videos from Matt Spears, an enduro rider from the US. Matt doesn’t look like he’s that old, perhaps in his 20s. Watch his other dirt bike riding videos, and you can see he’s got talent, but what he doesn’t have is an adventure bike. So, after some initial misadventures on a Honda Gold Wing, Matt’s now turned to modifying a Suzuki Hayabusa.
The video at the story’s start shows the modification process, which was obviously necessary after Matt and friends took the ‘Busa off-roading and quickly exposed its deficiencies in stock form.
You can hardly blame the bike. The Hayabusa was made for the drag strip, or crossing continents at top speed (or in the case of the Bikelife scene, slapping on an extended swingarm, with an oversized rear tire?). But Spears and Co. see the potential beyond those limited scenarios, and build protection. Crash bars and a skid plate go on the bike, made by the crew, and then it’s time for knobby tires.
Mission accomplished, and our band of merry hoons head back out to the dirt. See the results below:
Our question to you is: Is this genius in action, or sacrilege? And if it’s this fun, does it even matter?
