Gonna take another swing at this idiot:
Apart from making blatant mistakes like having the Hayabusa’s transmission powering its engine, he’s also managed to confuse kilometers per hour and miles per hour. The Hayabusa will go 298 *kph*, because that’s just under the voluntary 300kph limit the hyperbike makers agreed to, to end the horsepower wars. Even a heavily modified Hayabusa won’t do much more than 220 *mph*, as proven by numerous Bonneville runs.
Ditto the ZX11, which can barely do 180 *mph*, and even heavily modified barely touched 220mph.
This blogger is likely a lib, because he falls prey to the same superficial nonsense the anti-gun crowd does, by focusing on aspects of their target that only *seem* scary. The author provides no justification for labeling bikes like the R1 and the BMW 1000RR “deadly” other than their apparent high speeds, and utterly unrelated aspects of the bike like single-sided swingarms and multi-outlet exhaust. He includes nothing to define the relative deadliness of each bike, i.e. the number of riders that have died on each bike. By that measure, the R1 is probably the deadliest on his list, closely followed by the Hayabusa and ZX11, by dint of those bikes being among the most popular in the “squid” culture, with way too many inexperienced riders buying them because they’re “cool”. The GSXR would also deserve mention by being in that same category.
Oddly enough, he includes several bikes that simply aren’t available to the ordinary rider. The Tomahawk was only ridden a couple of times. Leno has one, and he rode it a very short distance. Based on his comments, it’s way too heavy to be useful, and handles like a pig.
The Y2K is a novelty bike. Actual rider tests of it showed that it too suffered from poor handling due to the long wheelbase. It’s also heavy, and the turbine motor takes a while to get spun up compared to a normal piston-engine bike, so acceleration is only modest.
Funnily enough, the author had to reach all the way back to the old Blackbird to fill out his roster, despite that bike never really grabbing the headlines the way its competitors the ZX11 and the Hayabusa did. The Blackbird really ended up being a slightly sharper brother to the sport-touring ST1100, rather than a balls-to-the-wall hyperbike. And he completely ignores the new Kawasaki ZX-14 (unless that was on the broken “10 of 11” page in his slideshow), which just edges the Hayabusa in brutality.
And I just dug into the page source since “10 of 11” doesn’t show up, and it looks like he’s picked the Buell 1190 for his final “deadly” bike. Which is laughable, because the 1190 is first of all a race bike, and second of all hardly in the same class as even the R1. If you’re going to include race bikes, why not include the last iteration of the old Suzuki RG500 with carbon-carbon brakes? The Suzuki factory riders’ instructions for braking into corners was “wait until you see God, then hit the brake”.
You’re right, this guy is an idiot (300 mph Hayabusa — obviously it was kph).
With an earned perspective as an owner of #9, I have to say the old Kaw 750 Triple was a truly dangerous bike, with a frame that was totally incapable of handling the engine’s power.
Not to mention the Kaw 750 Turbo (I had one), that had a lag that would absolutely bite you in the a$$ if you opened the throttle with any bank angle, or you didn’t otherwise anticipate the delayed rush of power.
In fact just about any of the 70’s crotch-rockets had a tendency to enter a high-speed ‘death wobble’ because the production chassis technology didn’t keep up with the advancements in horsepower.
So with the exception of the first two on the list the rest is B.S.
I was just thinking early to mid eighties Honda Interceptors should be on that list. Wait for it, But you’re right its like the author googled “top 10 fastest bikes” or something similar for source material.
You make some really great points... One “deadly” bike that comes to mind is the old Kawasaki H2 Mach 4, a 750cc 2 stroke triple, and it actually carried the name “the widowmaker.”
There was simply WAY too much power for the frame or brakes, and the power hit so hard and suddenly that uncontrolled wheelie/flip-overs were happening.
Basically, it was a bike with a frame & brakes made for a sedate 250cc 4 stroke, but with enough power to do a quarter mile in the 12s!
Mark