For those of you that read the first installation in this series you know we left off with the mild version of Velocity Racing's turbo busa making about 300hp at the rear wheel. With this kind of power the next logical step is to bring the rest of the bike up to the same level of trickery as the motor. After spending some time riding the turbo 'Busa we can tell you that the bike continues to amaze us. It is so rideable, yet at the flick of the wrist lies more horsepower than you are likely to ever need. Ok, so none of us really need the 150 hp of the stock bike, but having twice that amount is pretty cool at sumarilary dismissing most anything on the road that pulls up beside you.

Now that we have all the power we wanted, we turned to an item that is often overlooked but is one of the best ways to upgrade the overall performance and handling of a bike. Of course we are talking about aftermarket wheels. As you may have read on Dragbike before, we had already used Dymag wheels on the "Copperhead" project bike back in 1999 and really liked them. After three years of my bad wheelies, the Dymags held up great on a street bike so we knew they were tough enough for the kind of abuse the turbo can dish out. In fact the 1999 bike just returned from a week at Bonneville running flat out for seven miles at a time. The wheels of course were a big part of what allowed that bike to go over 209mph and set a qualifying record. Stay tuned to Dragbike for a full article on the Bonneville experience.

Dymag offers several versions of wheels that would be suitable for this project, but we went back to the 5-spoke design we used before. They also offer a full carbon fiber wheel as well as a new combination of magnesium and carbon. While we were ordering new wheels we also took the opportunity to change the color from the stock black to beautiful silver. To my eye the black wheels that come from Suzuki make the bike look very heavy and are quite unattractive. We think you will agree that the silver looks great with this 2002 'Busa.

The beauty of Dymag wheels goes deeper than the Corvette like finish. They actually powdercoat them instead of painting which helps keep them looking new for a long time. Even after repeated removals and constant banging of the calipers and various wrenches and tire changing machines the old set on our 1999 Hayabusa stayed looking sharp, showing the durability of their finish. We picked silver but a rainbow of colors are available.

Dymag uses only high purity 100% magnesium for their wheels and they are BSAU50 approved for street use. For those of you in the UK you will know about this approval and how important it is. For the rest of the world, trust us they are plenty tough and will hold up to typical street use. Dymags are typically seen circling The Isle of Man TT races, a course that is known to punish man and machine. In fact, they have been on the winning bike in the Superbike Formula One class several times and the majority of the top ten bikes at The Isle of Man have used Dymag wheels for the last eight years. Many aftermarket wheels are suitable only for track use. This is not the case here and is a big reason we keep coming back to Dymag.

These wheels also include the very tough Talon aluminum sprocket in your choice of size. Some people feel that an aluminum sprocket will not hold up on a big horsepower bike but so far we have not had any problems on either of the two bikes so equipped.

Everyone that has owned a bike with magnesium wheels comments on the handling differences and now we know why. After riding the 'Busa for weeks on the stock wheels and then changing over to the Dymags, the difference is amazing. The bike turns and handles like one that weighs 40lbs less. Below is a chart showing the weight before and after. Please note that these weights include the rotors, tires and sprocket. Also it should be pointed out that the stock tires were worn while the Dymag wheels were laced with new tires, which would weigh slightly more. We estimate this tire weight to be about 1-2 lbs thus the weight savings of the Dymag wheels is understated by this amount. As shown in the chart the total weight saved is 11lbs plus the estimated tire difference. Remember, that is 11lbs of un-sprung rotating mass, which is more important and has a lot more impact than other weight that can be removed from you or the bike.

Dymag has just announced a new USA importer of their wheels based in California. The company is MaxMoto and they are located in San Francisco. This is a new distributor and happened after we had arranged our wheels to be delivered. One dealer that we have used in the past is Charles Green at Street n Track Import. Charles is a Hayabusa fanatic himself and is always there to help fellow 'Busa riders with good prices and even better service after the sale. These Dymags don't come cheap ,but if you act between now and March 2003 Charles is willing to give a price break, which drops them down to $2175. Just make sure you mention that you want the Dragbike.com discount.

Next we wanted to perform a bit of cosmetic surgery on the bike to help make it stand out from the crowd. So we turned to Schnitz Racing. Schnitz has a long list of trick parts for the 'Busa as well as most all sportbikes on the market. In fact they have an entire section dedicated to the Hayabusa. We had already used a set of their heavy-duty clutch springs in the last article so this time we turned to mostly dress up goodies.

First we added their adjustable lowering link. Since this bike will serve duty on the street as well as the strip (including top speed races) we wanted to be able to easily adjust the rear of the bike up and down. These fully adjustable links are very cool and are marked with easy to read numbers to allow for easy alignment.
Click here for more information.

Once the bike was lowered we needed to have a kickstand that would hold the bike up well. As you may know the stock stand is simply too long to function on a lowered bike. So we opted for the JSC billet fully adjustable kickstand at Schnitz. It has a large range of adjustment and changes from low rider to standard height in a minute. Plus it saves some weight over the stock unit and looks a lot better too.

Continuing on we selected the chrome gas cap assembly. This unit looks fantastic on the bike and also saves you the trouble of having to use the key at each fill-up. Schnitz offers it in chrome and polished aluminum. For our application we selected the chrome one. Alas, another very nice dress-up piece for the bike. Suzuki should think about offering this piece stock.

Part of the reason we choose the chrome gas cap was that we also used the chrome mirror replacement covers. They look a lot better than the zip ties that we have seen on other bikes. Since they can be easily taken on and off it allows us to run without out the mirrors when making top speed passes. Then, they can be restored when desired for street use. Schnitz offers them with and without the Kanji logo. We choose the Kanji option just because we like the style. This kit is so complete it even includes the stainless allen head bolts as well as the allen wrench for installation. Very nice touch, Mr. Schnitz!

To clean up the rear of the bike we junked that big, ugly stock chain guard and replaced it with the brushed aluminum model, also from Schnitz. The style and aluminum finish look great on the bike. Plus it has "Hayabusa" laser cut into the guard making it look even better.

Now that we had the back end of the bike lowered we also wanted to be able to drop the forks as needed. I had met Doug Ray from Spencer Cycle recently at a race and had the chance to look over some of his products and liked them a lot. So for the triple clamp cover I called up Doug and had him ship me one in polished aluminum. The part is CNC machined from billet T-6 6061 aluminum and looks great on the bike. He offers it in polished and plain and it allows easy adjustment of the forks as needed for drag racing.

We have always like the styling improvements offered by Second Look tank and seat skins and once we saw what they had to offer for this bike we were sold. In addition to the black wheels that drag down the looks of this bike, the solid black seat is one more item that seems out of place. Second Look offers a nice color matched driver and passenger seat cover as well as a tank skin. Some people don't care for tank skins but in my experience that is because they are usually solid black and seem to stand out against the paint scheme. These products are made to blend into and actually enhance the stock paint. The colors and materials are designed so that they tie the frame and paint elements of the upper and lower bike together. The seat and tank skins are made from a heavy-duty marine grade vinyl and will serve the owner well even when exposed to the elements. The last set we had lasted 3 years and still looked great. Installation is very easy and can be done by any decent home mechanic. I suspect that even a ZX-12 rider could accomplish this project.

While looking on the Second Look web page we found a few other items of interest. Frankly we did not realize that they carry a whole line of motorcycle products. For example they also carry a line of motorcycle parts through their division known as Sportbike Outfitters. Products include helmets, exhaust systems, wind screens, leathers, under tail kits, Pit-Bull stands and a lot more. The item that most interested us was the clear tail and indicator light covers. These make a big difference in the look of the bike. In addition to the light covers we also took this opportunity to use their tail light integrator. This allows you to remove the rear indicators and the kit makes the two bulbs inside the tail light function as indicator lights. It really cleans up the look of the bike and includes easily read instructions to wire it in to most modern sportbikes. Notice the photos below of the front indicator lights before and after the clear lenses were installed.

And finally we had to get a Zero Gravity Double Bubble windscreen. The stock screen is very low and pretty useless at deflecting wind off of anything other than your knuckles. The Zero Gravity unit fits like stock but is of a better design, which results in a trick look and more functionality.

I know you are thinking..."How much money are they going to spend on this bike?" Well my editor did not mention a budget so I am having a lot of fun turning this bike into the dream Turbo Hayabusa that I have always wanted. So don't spoil my fun yet because I am just about finished. (Well, for this stage of the article anyway) Last on the list for Stage II was to change the hideous graphics that come from Suzuki on this color scheme. I don't know what they were thinking when they pasted those drab, flip-flop Kanji decals on the side of this beauty, but as soon as I could get around to ordering some new ones the stock stuff was binned.

To order the replacements, we once again turned to Nick Smith (Gixx1300R@aol.com) at Cycle Tricks in Orlando Florida. He supplied the new decals for the GSX1500R project and they worked well. So, rather than shop around for an unknown we went back to what we knew.

At first we had a lot of difficulty in deciding what colors to use. First, we tried blue then red. While each color looked better than stock it was not exactly what we wanted. Finally I asked Nick for his suggestion. I guess I should have started there and saved the experiments. Nick said that without a doubt the most popular color he was making for this bike was chrome. At first I was hesitant, but after looking at some photos I agreed that chrome was indeed the choice for our bike. In addition to the front Kanji and Hayabusa logo we also had Nick cut a set of red "Turbo" decals for the rear of the bike. They look great beside the chrome GSX1300R decals on the tail section. Cycle Tricks can make decals in most every color you can imagine for the meager price of $120 in chrome or $100 in vinyl. They also do other custom graphics for other bikes in addition to the Hayabusa.

Oh sure, spending just over $3000 on aftermarket goodies for your turbo 'Busa is not for everyone, but as you can imagine its pretty cool. Of course I have not even mentioned the new Metzeler-Rennsport street tires, but I figure I needed those anyway. They are about the only thing gummy enough to allow this torque monster to hook up on the street, and I consider them to be a safety item. At least that is what I explained to my wife. It helped her understand the $290 price for the set. Once again another special from Charles at www.Streetntrackimport.com

We review all of these items not to convince you to do everything we do, but to give you information to help you decide which products fit your tastes and budget. Each one of you will hopefully evaluate our findings and select the items you need. Or you can do like we did and just go out and get everything you could find. For those of you still looking for a new 'Busa, Capitol Cycle is selling their 2002 Hayabusas while they last for $9605 (plus tax if in state) for anyone looking for a sweet deal. Retail is $10,849.

Here is the bike the day we picked it up at Capitol Cycle in Macon, GA.	After the cosmetic makeover.

Please stay tuned for the third and final chapter of this project because we have some more stuff on the way that you will not want to miss. First on the list is a brake upgrade from www.gptechllc.com to help stop this beast. Then, some new Kobe leathers from www.1888fastlap.com. Plus a custom painted Arai helmet. Oh the sacrifices we make for you testing and evaluating all these products.

For those of you curious about the total cost thus far, here is a quick summary.

Don Smith motojournalism@aol.com

Part 1 of Turbo Busa X2

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