Superbike With Soul

SUPERBIKE WITH SOUL

CHARACTERS

THE YAMAHA YZF-R1 WELDS PERFORMANCE AND PLEASURE

MARK HOYER

Sure, it will murder any racetrack and devour your favorite back road without a hint of indigestion. And yet.

The more time we spend on our long-term Yamaha YZF-R1, the more we realize what a fabulous all-around streetbike it is. Suspension is firm and ultra-controlled yet totally livable—compliant even. That high-level precision that makes the fastest lap of your life seem so serene and almost easy makes it one of the most buttoned-down streetbikes you can buy.

And then there’s the matter of how it sounds and runs.

It’s excellent in stock form, but our swap to a Yoshimura pipe and a re-flash of the stock ECU by Flash Tune has filled in the less-than-8,500rpm zone and boosted peak output to 176 horses. Other bikes make power in this neighborhood, and the BMW S1000RR even exceeds that number, but the crossplane crank adds a staccato sound to this forward fury that somehow seems to infuse this inanimate object with an animal heart.

So in addition to making you feel like a better rider, the Ri also simply makes you feel better.