The Internet thought it was wild enough when enduro rider Matt Spears decided to try taking a Suzuki Hayabusa up Hell's Gate in Utah. Of course, probably very few people expected it to actually work the first time, but Spears wasn't keen to give up. He kept going instead, and eventually, he did the damn thing.
Is there such a thing as an inappropriate bike for a given riding situation? Maybe, but an awful lot depends on the skill of the rider doing it, too. It's a particular combination of things, and it's clearly not something that's meant for everyone. Kind of like most niches in life, you know?
Anyway, while Spears did manage to eventually get the Hayabusa through that particular obstacle, subsequent offroading eventually took its toll on the little liter bike that could. One big tumble in particular managed to practically total most of it—all except for the most important part, the engine.
This led Spears and his buddies to contemplate whether rescuing that engine from inside its crash cage and stuffing it (and really, there's no other word for it) inside a Honda CRF450 dirtbike frame is a good idea. What kind of dirtbike would this seriously overpowered mill even make?
If the first two questions that pop into your mind are "that's a heckin chonker of an engine, what's the weight distribution going to be like?" and "can that frame even handle the weight of that engine?" then I'm right there with you. It's got to be somewhere in the ballpark of 200 pounds, on its own; that's nearly the entire curb weight of a 2024 Honda CRF450R.
Naturally, though, Spears spends a bunch of timelapse in this video showing us how he accounted for all that extra weight (and size) to make the Hayabusa engine actually fit in place of the 450. The original Hayabusa radiator will absolutely not fit, so he modifies a much smaller unit using the fittings from the Hayabusa. He also makes space for an airbox to fit, and ends up completely junking the fuel tank from the Hayabusa because it's just too rusty inside.
So instead, he welds together a much smaller fuel tank (after rescuing the fuel pump from the OG Hayabusa tank) to fit this application. It's not clear how much fuel it holds, but it is obviously a lot smaller than the stock Hayabusa tank was. This engine will be a lot thirstier than the 450's, so it'll be interesting to see how far they can get on a full tank. Still, with the kind of riding they'll be doing, there's probably at least a jug or two of fuel already packed into the truck to go have fun with this thing, so the small tank probably won't really matter all that much.
Once it's more or less together, there are a few other practical concerns to note. One is, unsurprisingly, the issue of low ground clearance. Another more concerning one is just how close the exhaust ends up being to the front tire the more you compress the front fork. Is the chain really sitting how it should on the sprocket? It does well enough in the video, but that's what a shakedown of any new modifications (or entire customizations) is for, right? Right.
One cool thing about Spears' videos is that it's usually never just one-and-done. He and the friends he ropes into doing this stuff usually keep going, iterating on what they've done previously, and pushing their machines further than you might necessarily expect. Sure, it's great YouTube content, but it also just kind of seems like having a great and ridiculous time together. Who doesn't enjoy that?
