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/127988
1999 Yamaha YIF·R7 By Alan Cathcart Photos by Gold & Goose JEREZ, SPAIN, MAR. 16-17 hen Yamaha's long-awaited replacement for. the neo-vintage YZF750 was launched at Intermot last September, it was apparent that the Japanese company had finally decided to get serious about superbike racing. In displaying the YZF-R7 aW02 in fuel-injected, limited-edition form alongside the R6, its equally new, volume-production 600cc Supersport contender, Yamaha not only took up the challenge W -.: Co C 14 of its Japanese and European rivals and their state-of-the-art four-stroke racers, it also entitled design boss Kunihiko Miwa to justly claim that "The family is now complete." That means the range of no-compromise sportbikes that had been on the cards ev.er since the debut of the radical, ground-breaking one-liter Rl hypersport model 12 months ago has now arrived in the marketplace - even though Miwa-san insists, tantalizingly, that "The R7 is just my latest baby - not my last!" But with the total planned R7 production of just 500 bikes - by. no coincidence, the precise minimum number needed to homologate the model for World Superbike - currently being constructed in a single batch for worldwide delivery, Yamaha's intentions for the R7 are clear. Rather than spec the model down to produce a junior Rl that might compete with Suzuki for 750cc Supersport supremacy, this is a costly no-compromise homologation special for Superbike racing, nominally marketed as a street bike to satisfy Superbike regulations, but onl y in the expecta tion - hope, even that the vast majority of bikes built will end up on the race track, waving the Yamaha flag at both the World and ationallevels. In the United States, dealers will actually be setting the price of the bike - a price you can expect to be in excess of $30,000. Just 50 will be imported, with 10 going directly to Yamaha's own AMA road racing team and the other 40 to the open market. Want one? Then you had best polish up your road racing resume, because in addition to having the cash, you've also got to have the flash: Yamaha wants these things on the race track and doing well - not sitting pretty in somebody's garage. Dealer allocation will be determined by the quality of resumes each submits to Yamaha for review and ultimately its acceptance. R7s are expected to arrive sometime in Mayor June (they aren't sure yet), so you may still have some time to win a few races that you might be able to add to your resume - get crackin'! Before anyone starts getting grumpy about this, keep in mind tha t it's nothing new. Yamaha had a similar program with its aWOl, and a quartercentury ago, Ducati's first Vtwin sportbike - the high-cost, hand-built 750SS - was produced as a loss-leading, limitededition racer-with-lights of barely even nominal street (Top) Yamaha brought one fully street-equipped bike to the launch, but for photo purposes only. The race-kitted bike, shown without its fairing, was the reason we were in Jerez. (Left) Handling of the R7 was superb, with a light, narrow feel rivaling that of a V-twin, yet with the excellent weight distribution offered by the in-llne-four engine layouL •