Back in January, 2023, the fine folks at Grind Hard Pluming Company introduced their Suzuki Hayabusa snow bike project to an unsuspecting world. Based in Idaho, the YouTube channel is definitely no stranger to snow, bikes, or indeed, snow bikes. Just because no one had ever installed a Timbersled Aro snow bike kit on a used Suzuki Hayabusa before was certainly not going to stop them.
A first ride is just a first ride, though. If you thought that January outing was going to be the last that you heard of the Snowabusa, we’re very pleased to tell you that it is absolutely not.
See, if you recall, the initial test run of the Snowabusa showed promise, but there were definitely some areas that could use improvement. While it’s possibly the world’s fastest snow bike, the stock Hayabusa was made for speed on the road—not outfitted with a suspension made for, say, big, snowy jumps. By the end of the first session, the front bracket was a bit the worse for wear, because the Hayabusa is much heavier than the dirt bikes that Timbersled conversion kits are meant for.
Not to worry, though—the Grind Hard team has the combination of both machine skills and possible insanity needed to make this project just that little bit better. From a previous project, they just happened to have the frame from a Honda CRF450 sitting around the shop. While you or I might not initially think to swap a CRF450 front end onto a Hayabusa, it becomes a lot simpler if that’s what you have sitting around. Might as well see if it fits, right?
As it turns out, when you care enough to send the very best, you apparently stick a CRF450 front end onto your Hayabusa snow bike. (Hey, we don’t make the rules.) Amazingly enough, the swap worked with very little issue, including the top triple clamp and higher handlebars to make a much more ideal snow bike riding position, ergonomically speaking.
In fact, the only real problem was the reservoirs clashing with the windscreen, but that’s something that could be remedied fairly easily. With a bit more fettling to get the newly-reinforced front bracket and ski back on the new front end, soon the Snowabusa was ready for its first true test, on a snow bike day with friends in the powdery winter wonderland of Idaho mountains.
How did it do? With its upgraded front end, the Snowabusa was reportedly surprisingly fun and capable. Its extra weight made it much smoother on snow runs uphill than the lighter-weight, more appropriate 450cc snow bikes that accompanied it.
While there were some trail fixes needed for a few broken items along the way, everything that broke could be traced back to the fact that this snow bike conversion kit was most definitely not made for either the weight or the power of a Hayabusa. As such, it was completely understandable—and even so, nothing catastrophic happened, and they were able to just fix it and keep going all day. Who would ever have guessed?
