Hill Climbing Hayabusas and Off-Roading Gold Wing Motorcycles

The Hayabusa hill climber wails like a banshee as it bangs off the upper range of the rev limiter, a 20-foot-long shower of pine needles, dirt, and rocks in its wake as the modified motorcycle fights for traction on slippery Idaho clay. The back end squirms like a fish on a hook but Matt Spears continues to pin the throttle with dogged determination to make it to the top of the legendary local mountain. Days of pouring rain makes barreling up a steep slope on a 1,340cc superbike even more challenging. Add a janky back tire, stock street suspension, and almost 200 hp to the equation and most times it equals failure. But Spears is not one for failure. Contrarily, it’s at those moments he most often shines, and with the right combination of momentum, riding skills, and a whole lot of bravado, he motored that monstrosity up the mountain.

Spears’ antics on the Hayabusa have been blowing up social media recently. He first hit the internet radar hard with his stunts on an old Gold Wing. Spears possesses a magnetizing exuberance and zeal for not only motorcycles, but life in general. Wanting to know more about the man who came up with the crazy idea to huck huge, high-powered streetbikes around off-road, we talked to Spears. He gladly shared his story.

He grew up in an outdoorsy family riding BMX bikes, then mountain bikes, which led to dirt bike riding. His first motorcycle was a PW50. He got into trials riding and at 17 landed a deal with Beta. At 18, he started working for a Sherco dealer and helped grow it into the largest Sherco dealer in the US. His skills as a trials rider evolved into hard enduro, and at 19 he traveled to Europe to compete in the Gold class. Now 21, he’s having fun wrenching and riding motorcycles and creating content with his lifelong pals.

“As a kid, I always had an entrepreneurial spirit,” Spears said.

In elementary school, he was already a hustler, selling sunglasses to classmates and friends. In middle school he started an eBay store and sold electronics, speaker systems, and a few phones. He later switched to buying and selling used phones by posting Facebook ads. His current dream right now is to build up his YouTube channel, and thanks to his recent work, he’s headed that way.

His latest project is a 2008 Suzuki Hayabusa, the first-gen 1,340cc engine making about 20 more horsepower than the previous year’s model. He bought it at an auction out of San Diego and had it shipped up to Idaho. Working with his brother and best friends, the crew epitomize shadetree mechanics. One of the first tasks they tackled was swapping out the stock street tires for knobbies. They used a rear tire from a dirt bike for the front and had to shave it down because it was hitting the oil cooler when it turned. The effort it took to muscle and stretch the back tire on fell just short of Hercules’ 13th labor.

“Holy crap that was a pain,” Spears said. “The video, everything’s shortened in the video so you can’t quite get the drama. That was a struggle. We spent several hours trying to get that tire on.”

Inflating the tires required more ingenuity and a little fire. Further modifications included ditching the 43-tooth OEM sprocket for a huge 52-tooth sprocket. To protect the engine, they fabbed up homemade crash guards out of tubular steel and added a skid plate.

“Man, this hurts my heart, cutting a ‘Busa with a dremel,” said Brady, a friend in the video who was trimming the front fairing down to accommodate the tall front tire. The addition of the tires also raised the bike up quite a bit.

For its first test run they took it out to a local legendary hill climb.

“Time to let the hair down!” Spears said with a smile, the unleashing of his long locks when riding a running joke with buddies for its ability to attract more views.

Conquering the mountain was a battle of attrition. There were roots in ruts and bumps early in the run that made it difficult to carry the right combination of speed and traction up the hill, but after numerous failed attempts, he finally nailed it.

“That felt real good,” Spears said. “I was getting discouraged. I didn’t know it was possible. That part of the mountain has a lot of clay in it and it had been raining for like four days so it was crazy slippery. Even on the dirt bikes we struggled to get up because it was so slippery.”

When asked about the Hayabusa’s off-road abilities, Spears added, “The power’s addicting. It’s so much fun to ride, it’s ridiculous.”

Be sure to check out his heroic hill climbing efforts on his YouTube channel, where he’s also posted a recent trip to Moab where he took on Hells Gate, the famed hill climb on the Hell’s Revenge trail, with the Hayabusa.

“Unfortunately I didn’t get to ride it that much because I broke it the first day,” he said. “I looped it out at the top of Hells Gate. Ripped out of my hands like I’ve never felt before. That poor bike, it broke the triple clamp and wouldn’t start afterward.”

On the bright side, Spears had a KYB fork and 21-inch wheel he wanted to mount on the front, so the crash provided the perfect opportunity to beef it up. He was also planning to spoon on some paddle tires for a run to the dunes, and mentioned come winter that the Hayabusa was going to get a snow bike kit.

“I’m going to put a CMX kit on it,”  Spears said. “Those guys are going to help me fab one up.” Considering the huge roost the Hayabusa throws in the dirt, can’t wait to see what it does in the snow.

Fortunately, Spears had the foresight to bring a backup bike to Moab, his trusty Gold Wing off-roader he affectionately calls “Piggy,” so the trip wasn’t a complete wash.

“It’s probably one of my most favorite bikes that I own. That thing’s sweet,” he said, his signature grin shining.

When asked how all this insanity started in the first place, Spears said one day he started thinking about what would be the craziest thing he could ride off-road. The answer—a Honda Gold Wing!

“The Wing was a long time coming. It was actually pretty hard to find. Piggy is a 2006 with the 1,800cc engine, so it’s the big one. It’s the old dawg—ABS, the suspension goes up and down, at one point I think it had a bigger bag, heated seats. It’s totally wild.”

Spears bought it at an auction, then spent all last winter and spring building on it before debuting it in the summertime.

“You can’t see it, but it needed a lot of modifications to make it work.”

That work included building a custom skid plate, four crash guards, and adding knobby tires.

He loves the Wing so much, he even did the Idaho Backcountry Discovery Route on it with his girlfriend riding tandem. All the effort he’s put in it has been worth it, though, because watching Spears hustle that big tourer around off-road is entertaining to say the least. Thousands of recent new followers think the same thing. Toss in equal doses of character and charisma to go along with his craziness and you’ve got someone who’s on the cusp of social media stardom.

And though he admittedly has been riding for clicks, Spears is the type who’d still be doing wild stuff just for kicks. His next crazy idea involves taking a Honda Trail 90 or 110 and swapping out the engine with one from a Montesa 300 trials bike.

“I think the old-timers would love that,” he said, “because that’s kind of an iconic bike. If I’m able to build it up this winter, I’ll definitely race it next year in the US rounds.”

Spears is also the track manager for Silver Kings Hard Enduro and builds the course. One of the biggest hard enduro races around, it attracted over 500 racers last year, he said, plus a couple thousand spectators. It’s held at Silver Mountain Ski Resort in Kellogg, Idaho, and he’s already looking forward to next year’s event on June 27–29, 2024.

“It’s super fun. It’s awesome for the sport too. Our goal is to make it more of an event than a race, like a dirt bike festival.”

Until then, you can catch him flogging the Hayabusa and “Piggy” the Gold Wing around the Pacific Northwest on his social media channels, his long locks flailing in the wind because hair down definitely brings in more views.