K8 Busa => 2nd Class Citizen?!

[The Big Red One]

Guess I am fine with the stock brakes on the 06 myself... can certainly do everything I have asked of them without much effort...   why all the complaining about the brakes anyway?  is it just because they are not the "latest greatest" ?

My first gen brakes are just fine for me...never let me down in ANY situation whether its panic stops...or controlled twisty attacking. My 14's brakes are wayyy more sensitive for sure, but I can't see the 08 busa's brakes being any worse than the first gens?? Full and Warchild both came off 14's tho....so I guess maybe the brake thing is a little more apparent. I had my busa long before my 14, so to me the 14's brakes were just more sensitive than what I was used to...but I WAS used to the busa, not the 14

And the stock BT 56's on my busa were fine for me...great tires. I have heard of more than a few guys dropping 08 busa's on first rides cause of the slippery rubber under cold/new conditions. Maybe the 08 tire compound is more of a high mileage/sport touring tire than sport?

 

[daiken]

Tires are more of a personal choice than anything else. I have run the BT10's on my ST 1300A and find them to be great tires with no problems. I run the Dragon, Hell bender, and the 215 parkway loop as much as I can. We also have hwy 178, that we locals nicknamed Tail of the lizard. And I have never had a problem with my Stones and we ride hard most of the time.
And so far the BT15's have been no problem either. With the amount of HP we are running, I doubt we will see good wear from any tire and I for one hate Dunnies.

 

[BusaWizard]

 

[Burger King]

I'm sure after some magazine comporos to the 08 busa and Zx-14 there will be some tweaks, probable some of those you mentioned and maybe even some in the hp dept.

After reading up on the 08 ZX-10R I am very impressed with Kawis desire to go the extra mile. Some of these things listed were available prior to 08 and some of them on more than just the 10R. Zuk might want to take some notes....like;

Traction control. A kind that would be good for the street. Whats cool is you can still do burn-outs and it doesn't engage at full throttle.
Slotted cam sprockets. Great for adjusting the timing without the added expense of aftermarket.
Hand ground head ports by a bench of Ladies at the factory.
Adjustable slipper clutch.
No 02 sensor and a free-er flowing 200 cell catalysts rather than the 300 cell.

 

[Bo_]

So much for being the Suzuki's FLAGSHIP model...... that title is obviously going to the B-King!!!!    

 

Nice post Warchild, I've been preachin the same beef since I bought my 08. The deal is that after the busa was Zuki's cash cow for so long they came close to a really nice upgrade on the gen II, just if they would have gone a bit further.

Now back to your B-King comment. I haven't seen one in person, actually I haven't even stopped by the zuki dealer in the 2-1/2 months since I bought the 08. But in the new Cycle World their article on the B-King said it has a digital dash, or at least digital speedo, is that true?

 

[Warchild]

But in the new Cycle World their article on the B-King said it has a digital dash, or at least digital speedo, is that true?

Yes, it is true.

<div class="iF-Passage"><div class="QUOTEHEAD">Quote:[/Quote]<div class="QUOTE clearfix"><span class="quoteBegin"> </span>
Tires are more of a personal choice than anything else. [/quote]

Absolutely concur, no question there. And like I say, I'll remount them next summer when we here triple-digit ambient temps here in the High Desert.... I'm sure they'll be quite different for me then. But right now, in the uber-cold PacNorWest winter, it's like riding on wood tires. The Pilot Powers I substituted in their place are orders of magnitude gripper for me, and afford much, MUCH more feedback, even on frozen asphalt. But like you say... it's all personal preference.

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Full and Warchild both came off 14's tho[/quote]

Actually, I am coming off a highly modified CBR1100XX Blackbird.... the 3rd-generation LBS system that bike had was disliked by some, but I found them fairly unobtrusive in actual practice. They had the most awesome Nissin calipers.... they kicked serious ass.

<div class="iF-Passage"><div class="QUOTEHEAD">Quote:[/Quote]<div class="QUOTE clearfix"><span class="quoteBegin"> </span>
I have heard of more than a few guys dropping 08 busa's on first rides cause of the slippery rubber under cold/new conditions. Maybe the 08 tire compound is more of a high mileage/sport touring tire than sport?[/quote]

Entirely possible. These are K8-specific BT-015s, so... I wouldn't be surprised if the compound is different, though typically, bike-specific tires have a slightly different construction, vice compound. To me, the main objection is the iron-hard sidewalls.... this probably lends to the sub-optimal feedback in really cold conditions. Too, these things were a complete ass-pain to dismount, even using a Coats tire changing machine.

 

[Mr Bogus]

Well that takes me back a step... you hate the brakes on the Busa and found the linked braking system on the BB ok.... I think that brake system had more complaints than just about any one item on any bike ever built...

 

[Warchild]

You lack the knowledge of this particular CBR1100XX's brake upgrades, which were fairly significant - ABM rotors, HEL Stainless Steel brake lines, Carbone Lorraine brake pads.

Too, the Blackbird is much, MUCH lighter on it's feet than the heavy Busa, particularly after the suspension upgrades - Ohlins out back, Traxxion Dynamics AK-20 Cartridges up front.

 

[The Big Red One]

You lack the knowledge of this particular CBR1100XX's brake upgrades, which were fairly significant - ABM rotors, HEL Stainless Steel brake lines, Carbone Lorraine brake pads.

Too, the Blackbird is much, MUCH lighter on it's feet than the heavy Busa, particularly after the suspension upgrades - Ohlins out back, Traxxion Dynamics AK-20 Cartridges up front.

Sorry War..thought you'd said you came off a 14..my bad

I came VERY close to buying a blackbird over my busa...just went for the max power in a more comfy package for my lanky frame

But I've heard nothing but good over the years about the blackbird...musta been a damn nice bike

 

[Warchild]

But I've heard nothing but good over the years about the blackbird...musta been a damn nice bike

Yes, it was.

'Tis a pity that Honda elected to puss out on the hyper-bike market... a CBR1400XX would have been something else, no doubt. Honda stopped importing them to the US after 2003. 2007 was that last year of worldwide production

I've owned two of these Blackbirds in the past 8 years... a 2000 model initially, that I put about 100,000 miles on before selling it to score a silver '02 XX. Still have the latter. It was a garage queen for the original owner.... only 16K on it when I bought it 13 months ago.

It has almost 50,000 miles on it now.

Did some pretty gnarley rides on this silver XX this past year. The gnarliest was a 7-day non-stop Endurance run in mid-July: 10,636 miles in 6 days, 23 hours, 41 minutes.

Pretty sure I won't be repeating that run anytime soon...

 

[PacerX]

"then the Busa will become too expensive and it will pass out of existance just like the poor mans sports car, the Datsun 300ZX. Remember that. And just for exactly the same reason, how come you don't do this ,how come you don't that, until the car was too expensive and their customeer base couldn't afford the car anymore."

I can sum up what killed the 300ZX in one word:

Corvette


When they stayed away from Corvette in the market, they had a chance.  When they tried to take the Vette on, they got ass-packed out of existence.

Note that the current Z car is positioned well away from the Vette.