Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/127866
FIRST RIDE 1998 Yamaha YZF·R1. By Alan Cathcart Photos by Gold & Goose B ottom line first: The ,new Yamaha YZF -Rl more th a n lives u p to expectations, This is the one, Aft er its laun ch at th e Mila n Show in Se p tem b er, Yama ha d ea le rs arou nd th e world ha ve been floo d ed w ith orders a nd hav e taken cas h deposits from customers seduced by the new hyperbike's d istinctive look s, awesom e pow er-to-wei g h t ra tio, g round brea king technical design and promised performan ce. Those cus tomers can relax • the ir money is safe. This is a bike tha t ' d eli vers ev erything tha t it pro mi s es. And more. A day' s tra ck-testing at the Carta gena race circu it in Spa in, including a 100m ile r id e ea ch way to an d fr om th e tra ck, un d erlined Ya maha' s ac hie ve ment in producing the Rl - but; ironical• ly, not as mu ch as did a 186-mile trip the following da y in rain an d su n thro ugh th e h ill co u n try o f so u th e rn Spa i n, because this is a fun ctional hyperbike, a leading-ed ge pr oduct in terms of track A El ~ Light speed: Yamaha's new VZF-Rl represents more than J ust a hot, new ope nclass sportbike. The b ike represents the first in a new ge nerati on of Yamaha sportbikes as t he company moves towa rd t he 21st century . The 390-pound. 150hp 1000 ts bullet -l ast and docile at t he same t ime. (Far right) The lelt sid e 01 the bike sho wcases it s s leek , c ompact appearan ce. Wheelbase is an amazing 54.9 Inehes, making the R1 t he only op en-class sportbik e in existence to che ck in at un der 55 inches. performance tha t nevert heless makes a practical, even com fortable, road ride, too , Forget th e Thun derare YZF1000, a supers p ort to urer that is essentially a m ak eover of the esta blished FZR1000 EXUP, and th a t was in trodu ced as a stopgap measu re to counter the success of the Hond a FireBlad e in the lucrati ve hypersports mar ket. It may have taken Yamaha half a decade to respo nd prop er ly to Hon da' s grou nd breaking introd uction of the CBR900RR, bu t the heavy hints d ro pped at the Thunderace launch tw o yea rs ago abo ut an all-new hy pe rs po rts con tend er th at would blu nt th e 'Blade have been fulfilled . Just as the H onda set new sta ndards for the hypers ports class w hen it was lau nched five yea rs ago, so d ues the Rl set th e ben chmark by which others will be ju d ged in to th e ne xt mill en iu m inclu di ng th e Honda, w hich it clea rly surpasses. Even the new Kaw asaki ZX9R seems to be jus t a better ' Bla d e, whereas, in creating the Rl , Yam aha has move d the goa l po sts by bu ilding a new kind of bike - no t just on paper, for reasons made eviden t by read ing the spec sheet, bu tout there where it rea lly matters, in real-world riding cond itions. Th is is a very sign ificant motorcycle one w hich cha nges th e face of tw o. wheeled d es ig n a s we know it. Any manufacturer aiming to surpass the Rl wi th an in-line fou r will have to follow the sa me new design parameter s that Yama ha has introduced, b ut -it isn 't just the FireBlade that's in Yama ha 's firing line. For this is a four-cyl inder spo rtbike that thi nk s like a twin. As such, it chalR lenges the 916 Ducati, the ne w TLl OOO Suz uki , and w hatever hypertwi n Hond a is planning to bu ild on the basis of the VTRl 000. On the twi ns' trad itional hattlegrou nd of lig h t we ig h t, slim bu ild and nimb le hand ling, the Yama ha offers all this - bu t with the extr a horsepower o f its 20-valve, DOHC 998c c m o tor, d eliverin g en ha nced perfo rm an ce coupl ed with the same agile ha nd ling, And it looks good , too. At last , a Japanese bi ke w ith st yle as we ll as su bstance one th at looks like not hing else on the marketplace and has a d istinctive "face" all its own, You don 't need Kunihik o Miwa, the