It was the early 2000s, and speed freaks the world over were united by the throb of their hearts, all thumping in unison to an unhealthily accelerated beat in their dizzying excitement over the “Ghost Rider.” The pseudonymous, presumably Swedish motorcyclist started circulating footage of his death-defying stunts, performed at police-humiliating speeds on streets all over Europe, in 2002.
And his choice of weapon was a heavily modified Suzuki motorcycle; the almighty Hayabusa. He immediately attained the mythic status and just as swiftly inspired a bevy of copycats. By the time he released his sixth video in 2012, “Ghost Rider 6.66: What the F**k,” the daredevil hooligan’s identity had pretty much been confirmed: the man behind the mask is now commonly accepted to be the former competitive racer/stunt cyclist and mechanic Patrik von Fürstenhoff.
But the true star of all those death-defying videos in the minds of many viewers was not Ghost Rider at all. It was rather his terrifyingly impressive Suzuki Hayabusa, that record-setting, insta-legend speed demon that had European regulators clutching their pearls in the late 1990s and early 2000s.
The tale of the bike, alas, comes to a sadder end as a cash-strapped Fürstenhoff allegedly raffled his indomitable two-wheeler off in an internet competition in 2012.
Updated July 2022: We have updated this article about the myth and truth about probably the most infamous Suzuki Hayabusa in the world, and its rider. We also give you insight into what the daredevil is currently up to.
Here’s what happened to Ghost Rider’s Suzuki Hayabusa, from the halcyon times of its illegal heyday to its devastating demise, to its Phoenix-like rebirth.
Ghost Rider’s Super-Tuned Suzuki Hayabusa
The all-black-clad automotive adventurer maniacally maneuvered the streets on several vehicles throughout his filmography. However, Ghost Rider could most often be seen accelerating the bejesus out of either a Suzuki GSX-R1000 or a Suzuki GSX-1300R, his most beloved Busas of all, of which he could be spotted on various year models, each with their unique modifications, natch. For instance, in Ghost Rider Goes Crazy in Europe, our eponymous hero was filmed astride a fully carbon-fiber GSX-R1000 K4.
In next year’s Ghost Rider Goes Undercover, he favored a GSX-R1000 K5 with 280+ brake horsepower. It’s that latter bike that probably won the most hearts and minds among Ghost Rider fans. This wasn’t just any GSX-R1000 K5—it was a very, very special one, built for Ghost Rider with love by MC Xpress, a Sweden-based company founded by racing bike enthusiast and amateur engineer Erik Marklund back in the 1990s.
Though it has but a small team of about nine people, including Alf Sundstrom, the company is considered the ultimate authority when it comes to turbocharging motorcycles and snowmobiles and sells its DIY turbo kits around the world.
Marklund, described by some as “a total madman,” has a global reputation for building explosive bikes, and Fürstenhoff collaborated with him several times when he was still competing on the track (under his name) in the 1990s, breaking several world records with MC Xpress–modified bikes.
Fürstenhoff was hoping to get Marklund and the MC Xpress team to help him create a turbo Hayabusa that would set a new record at Germany’s hellish Nürburgring race. The team famously selected for the task the 2005 Suzuki Hayabusa GSX-R1000 K5, which, out of the factory, had a tested power output of 147.3 hp and measured top speed of something like 178 mph.
With WP forks, ISR brakes, and many, many other modifications, they created a bike that runs 1.2 bar of boost and made up to 500bhp at the rear wheel (though, admittedly, the bike was prone to overheating at that speed). Its top speed was mysteriously reported to be a shiver-inducing “enough.” Fürstenhoff availed himself of the souped-up power-steed for his more illicit exploits in a few of his Ghost Rider videos and was recorded performing a should-be-impossible 211mph wheelie on the bike. (He would end up setting a record for hitting a wheelstand at 215 mph.)
2012: Ghost Rider Inexplicably Gives Away His Suzuki Hayabusa
There have been various uncorroborated reports of sporadic arrests, and whether they’re true, he certainly does seem to be having money troubles: in 2015 he had to resort to a Go Fund Me to raise the money to take him to a stunt competition, while another crowdfunded effort to make a new Ghost Rider movie didn’t even get off the ground.
Perhaps it was a similar need for money or just a desperate bid to reclaim some of his early 2000s fame, that led Fürstenhoff to announce, like Ghost Rider, that he was giving his notorious and glorious turbo Suzuki Hayabusa away through a competition on his (now-defunct) website. It was never reported who won that competition, or if he even really gave the bike away or not, so the exact whereabouts of that GSX-R1000 today remains unknown.
The Death-Defying Ghost Rider Is Alive And Kicking
Though from time to time rumors of Fürstenhoff a.k.a the original Ghost Rider's death have circulated on various internet forums, a quick Google search reveals he’s still alive and (mostly) well. Though the erstwhile Ghost Rider has made some efforts to get back on the road, it seems his glory days are probably behind him. He is over 50 years old now, and it is also being said that he’s a loving father of two.
He is speculated to now be living a quiet life working at a Subaru dealership in Stockholm. Fürstenhoff, he’s still chasing his need for speed, but maybe just a little slower these days. He posted on Facebook last week that he recently suffered a serious motorcycle accident that has left him in agonizing pain, and will take some time to recover from.
Source: Dailymotion, YouTube. Hayabusa Owners Group