There Are Two Modes Of Transport In Japan Sharing The Same Name,

Hayabusa, the word translates as Falcon, this bird reaches speeds of 186 mph or above when it dives, which coincidentally is the top speed of the latest trains debut journey in Japan named after it, later next year the green and silver E5 series will push its top speed to 200mph to become Japan's fastest train, what does this mean? pay £200 for a one-way trip between Tokyo and Aomori, a scenic rural backwater on the northern tip of the main Honshu island and you will be there in no time relaxing in the comfort of a 'GranClass' car, where a cabin attendant will serve you drinks and food as you recline in deep leather seats, just like British Rail or it's modern day equivalents, but here is the thing, the UK had such a great rail network and technology regarding transport by train, where did it all go wrong?

this is the other Hayabusa, again like the bird it is named after when first produced it was a 200 mph all action machine, in fact the fastest production bike ever made before Kawasaki gave an answer to it in the form of the ZX-12R back in 2000 and it would still be that today if it wasn’t for our masters in Brussels instructions to limit its performance to 186mph, same top speed as the train, for Richard Hammons view of the bike it reads pretty much like my own thoughts on bikes, now here is another thing, the UK had a huge motorbike industry in the 1950's & 60's and we lost that too, still at least one of the old names is still going Triumph,

the down side is that the chances are that if you bought one thinking it was made in the UK you could be wrong, Triumph, decided to take advantage of cheaper wages in the Far East and opened a plant producing first parts for bikes to be assembled in the UK, but slipped into letting a few be sold locally, now it is allegedly rumoured that more are being built here and sold in the States, in case you want to check with your bike look at the 11th VIN number, a rough guide is that a "J" = Jacknell road Hinckley England or "T" = Chonburi Thailand, this seems to be true of American bikes I guess a similar code operates world wide, if you want to buy a Triumph in Thailand this is the dealership, Britbike in Bangkok.