[RideApart] - Suzuki Hayabusa Unchanged for 2018, Maybe 2019?

[Ninjette Newsbot]

Suzuki Hayabusa Unchanged for 2018, Maybe 2019?

Last week we bought into the misleading notion that because Suzuki’s emissions report to the California Air Resources Board (CARB) for the Hayabusa were unchanged, that there would be no 2018 model. Wrong. (Mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa -Ed.)*It meant only that the Hayabusa would have the same specifications it carries this year.

Now the speculation on this enormously important hypothetical continues in a report from motorcycle-magazine.com.*They opine that Suzuki began teasing a new Hayabusa two years ago at the Tokyo Motor Show, in the form of a paper sculpture titled the Concept GSX.

READ MORE: Best Gixxer Ever? GSX-R1000 First Ride

Our colleagues seem to have arrived at this conclusion for a number of reasons. The*first is that the Tokoyo Motor Show happens once every other year, and Suzukis that debut at TMS usually come to production two years later.*The website notes as supporting evidence that Suzuki showed the 2014 DL1000 V-Strom at the EICMA show in 2012. And that the GSX-R125, GSX250R and V-Strom 250 shown in 2016 are just reaching dealers now, and could be classified as 2018 models.

To quote motorcyle-magazine.com:

“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.”

READ MORE: Suzuki Restores Barry Sheene's Racer

The other reason is that*even though the current GSX1300R does not meet the new Euro4 emissions standards, Suzuki can still legally sell limited numbers of non-compliant Hayabusas in Europe until the end of 2018. That must mean the new redesigned, restyled and Euro4-legal model will appear for 2019. Follow?

Have they any proof? Of course not. That would eliminate the need for speculation, shorten the silly season drastically, and not be much fun.*But of course, this is all speculation. And summer’s only half over.

READ MORE: Suzuki Reveals 2018 RM-Z450 Motocrosser

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