that the goal was not to achieve the status of the fastest production motorcycle, which in early stages was slated to be only , but that, "as a consequence of, pursuing the best handling, acceleration, safety, power, riding ability, original styling, etc., for the good of the customers, it became the 'Fastest production motorcycle' … By doing this, once the model was out in the market and the performance of it been proven, I thought that people will start to show interest to the weird design, and then the design would be caked in peoples mind." The engine used a gear-driven counterbalancer to reduce vibration to the point that the engine could be solidly mounted to the frame, for the purpose of increasing chassis rigidity. Employing a conventional twin beam frame, fully adjustable upside down forks, using specially developed Bridgestone tires, and being relatively light at dry, the Hayabusa's handling was considered excellent for a machine of this class. One reviewer, Koblenz, noted a hesitation perhaps related to poor low-rpm mapping at low speeds, noticeable as a "pause and slight lurch" when rolling on and back off the throttle. Top speed limited by agreement With rumors and then pre-release announcements of much greater power in Kawasaki's Ninja ZX-12R in 2000, clearly attempting to unseat Suzuki and regain lucrative bragging rights, the speed war appeared to be escalating. There were growing fears of carnage and mayhem from motorcycles getting outrageously faster every year, and there was talk of regulating hyper sport motorcycles, or banning their import to Europe. The response was a so-called gentlemen's agreement between the Japanese and European manufacturers to electronically limit the speed of their motorcycles to 300 km/h (186 mph). The informal agreement went fully into effect for the 2001 model year. So for 2001 models, and those since, the question of which bike was fastest could only be answered by tampering with the speed limiting system, meaning that it was no longer a contest between stock, production motorcycles, absolving the manufacturer of blame and letting those not quite as fast avoid losing face. Both Kawasaki and Suzuki would claim, at least technically, to have the world's fastest production motorcycle. Other developments After the inclusion of the speed limiting system in 2001, the Hayabusa remained substantially the same through the 2007 model year. An exception was a response to the problem of the aluminum rear subframe on