Off-Road Suzuki Hayabusa Finally Conquers Moab's Hell's Gate
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Enduro rider Matt Spears returns with a vengeance.
Suzuki Hayabusa’s were designed to go fast. Its name literally means “falcon”, one of the fastest birds alive, in Japanese. So you’d expect to see them on racetracks, drag strips, and cruising on your local highways.
You don’t expect them in Moab, Utah, tackling some of the world’s hardest off-road courses. Trails that routinely see folks in custom four-wheel drive rigs specially made to conquer the course spectacularly fail. But you’re not Matt Spears, nor do you have his lack of mechanical sympathy or enduro riding background.
Cause if you’re Matt, you just see another obstacle to hit, though it’s taken some time for him to succeed.
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We’ve covered Matt’s Hayabusa in the past, as the professional motorcyclist has taken it out on a number of insane excursions, including Moab in the past. And he’s spent a lot of time customizing the 1,300cc super sportbike to off-road specifications, including Showa suspension off a KX450 along with the bars to make the rider position better, a stretched knobby tire to fit the massive rear wheel (he’s sipped it to add better traction), and a custom crash bar setup.
The prior times Matt’s been to Moab with the Hayabusa, things didn’t go well and he crashed a couple times at Hells Gate, one of the more infamous spots in the trail complex. This time, however, after an aborted first run, he sends the bike and gets up where no Hayabusa has ever been before.
And though you’d expect a professional like Matt to be calm and collected—I’ve seen him do far wilder stunts—he seems genuinely nervous after, his hands all jittery from the adrenaline.
But not one to rest on his laurels, or the Hayabusa’s final win, Matt then turns the bike toward the rest of the Moab trail complex and goes to look for harder sections. I won’t spoil the rest of the video, but it’s worth a watch.