While the existing ’Busa is one of a long list of bikes that falls foul of the Euro 4 emissions rules, in force since the start of 2017, Suzuki has managed to get permission to keep it on sale in many European countries until the end of 2018. Now it appears to be using every moment of that extension, because it has homologated a completely unchanged Hayabusa as a 2018 model in the US.

That’s not to say we won’t still see something of the new Hayabusa later this year, though. The fact the existing bike has been homologated for sale in 2018 doesn’t mean Suzuki can’t get type approval on a new version as well. But if it won’t be ready until later in 2018, it’s likely to be classed as a 2019 model.

We still expect to get news of the next-generation Hayabusa later this year, either at the EICMA show in November or at October’s Tokyo Motor Show. However, it might still be a long wait until we see the actual bike in dealerships. 

By Ben Purvis