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Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/127866
leader of the R&D team which created
the R1 and thus a sort of Japanese equivalent of the Two Massimos • Bordi and
Tamburini combined - to explain to you
th e philosophy behind this four-cylinder
ultrabike. Just sit on it and rid e one mile
d own the road to di scover how and
why Yamaha produced it, targe ting it to
have the most power, th e least weight
and the most compact build for th e oneliter s po rt bike class,
(Far left) A cutaway
view of the all-new
988cc. five-valve
powerplanL The
2ll-degree
slantblock engine
is much more
compact and
almost five pounds
tighter than the
current VZFlooo
U co m promises - that was our phiNo
engine.
losop hy!" says Miw a-san, · We started
with a clea n sheet of paper to create this
motorcycle, wi th the ai m of crea ting the
best technical package and most ridable
perfo rmance machine a customer could
(Left) The new
Deltabox II chassis
repre sents a
radlcat departure
from previous
frames. it has been
sculpted· at a
considerably
. buy from any manufacturer. We had no
conditions - we could have used a V -
tw in engi ne wit h six-valve cy lin der
heads if we thought this was ideal - but
after careful analysi s, we decided the
best way was to develop some existing
Yama ha desig n featu res to perfection like the d el tabox fram e, five-va lve slantblock engi ne format, an d EXUP exhaust
sys tem - then add so m e ne w id eas to
crea te the most effec tive sports motorcy cle on the market today ."
Miwa-san succeeded, and three vital
statistics say it all : 150 bhp (at the crank,
equating to 128 bhp at the rear wheel),
390 pounds (d ry weight> and 54.9 inches
(w h ee lbase). What Yamaha ha s d one
here is create a machine with the build
and weight of a 600 Supers po rt but with
the p owe r of a one-litre hyperbik e more bike . in fact. than has eve r been
offered to the marketplace before by any
vo lu me manu facturer from any country.
Th e FireBlade p romised this, but still
h a sn't delive red; p etite, ye t p o w erpacked , the R1 does .
It loo ks p hysically s ma ll w he n yo u
see it in th e m eta l - a TR X850 towers
over it, a YZF600 Thunderca t is hardlv
any small er - an impres sio n confi rmed
w hen yo u sit on the RI. Bimota would
hav e been proud to ha ve built this bike,
and if the Italians ever ar range a supply
of th e new R1 engi ne for a YB(?), they'll
have a job improvin g o n th e Ya ma ha
original - and especially not at the price.
For a mas s -production one-liter,
fou r-cylinder four-stroke, the R1 is tiny not cramped or un comfortable, though,
eve n for a 6-footer like my self; just snug.
This is a bike yo u instantly feel a part of
- and one tha t immedia tely feels as if it
was des ig ne d as a s ingle entity by a
team that und erstands real-w orld rid ing
like, we ll, like a Tamburin i Du cat i. No
com promises: Look at the way the fro nt
of th e spars of the Deltabox frame have
higher cos t of
manufacture - to
allow the rider to
tuck in tighter to
the Rl.
been s haped a nd cu rved Cat co nsiderably increased cost of manufacture, for
su re) to allow the rider's arms to nestle
mo re closely along them. Or look at how
the e ngin e con figuration , with it s
un ique three-axi s format (that saves
three inches in len gth compared to the
¥ZF1 000 via the pla cemen t of the gea rb o x mains ha ft verti call y a bove th e
laysh alt rather than horizontally in line
with it), delivers a whee lbase of jus t 54.9
inc hes. Th e R1 is the o nly bike in it s
class und er 55 inches - twin, triple or
four.
And w ha t a bo ut the lo w .cent er of
g ra vity a nd forw ard rid in g p os itio n
delivered b y the semi-slantblock engi ne,
wh ich - at 144 pounds - weighs some 4
1/2 pound s less than th e old YZFlOOO
mo tor ? The cylinder block is cas t int egra lly wi th the cra nkcase to r educe
weight. and inclined forwa rd 20 degrees
fro m vertical