Quick Ride
Quick Ride
YAMAHA YZF-R1 Second-string? Hardly!
SINCE ITS INTROduction in 1998, the Yamaha YZF-R1 has been updated with stealthlike precision and speed. Every few years, an entirely new iteration has popped up seemingly undetected. While none of the technology utilized could be considered revolutionary, the improvements showcase how effective the evolutionary design process can be. For example, beginning in 2004, the engine is canted farther forward so that the frame rails pass over the cylinder head instead of around it. This shifted weight bias forward, but also brought the frame rails closer together from top to bottom, thus moving the footpegs closer together, which in turn allowed them to be placed lower. This was an ergonomic improvement for all riders.
But we’re getting ahead of ourselves. To understand the Rl, you have to understand the state-of-the-art Open-classer. All are frighteningly quick in a straight line while offering some of the best handling ever seen on street-legal motorcycles. Unlike some of its competitors that deliver a major miarange-iorque mi ineno, Kawasaki ZX-1 OR... ), the Rl rewards those whose favorite letters in “Wheel of Fortune” are W, F and O.
How so? Power is steady-almost sedate-until you reach 7000 rpm, at which point intake noise reverberates through your helmet, almost as a warning. As the tach needle sweeps upward, power builds with great haste. If you’re still at full throttle above 8000 rpm, you’ll quickly learn how to wheelie, despite the fact that first gear is tall-103-mph-atredline tall. But hopefully you’ll heed the adjustable LED shift light and click it into second before then. Oh yean, you are on a raceiracK, right? Riiight...
Therein lies the rub with bikes such as the Rl. At freeway speed in sixth gear, you’re way below peak power. To be up where the action is, you’ll have to downshift twice. Do that, and there’s so much acceleration on tap that you might as well be whale hunting with the U.S. Navy’s Pacific Fleet at your disposal.
Still, of all the lOOOcc superbikes, the Rl may be the easiest to ride on the street and perhaps represents the best-balanced bike in the class, even if it is incrementally behind some of its competitors at the track. The top-end-heavy powerband that tests the tension limits of your arm joints is surprisingly friendly at the lower end. Clutch action is light, levers adjustable and fuel-injection mapping is superb. To top it off, chassis feel isn’t numbed by the steering damper, as is often the case. The Rl ’s speed-sensitive unit kicks in only when triple-clamp oscillation rates truly suggest trouble on the rise.
Minuses to this package are few. Some will lament the half-plastic/half-metal tank and others will find underseat exhaust heat in traffic to be excessive. Regardless, in the world of hype and overzealous marketing claims, maybe it’s better to be the one that is quietly improving.
Calvin Kim
