Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

legality, all with the aim of homologating it for Formula -750 and production racing. The fact tha t, ha ving achieved its objective of putting the Italian company into the winner's circle and on the map as a maker of big twins, the 750SS then became a prized collectors' item that saw more street milea~e after it stopped being competitive than it ever did as a current listed model may be a preview of the likely fate awaiting however many R7s that local Yamaha importers don't end up keeping for themselves in order to equip their own national Superbike squad. Even so, as was the case back then with the Duke, there are bound to be a fortunate few customers 'allowed to buy the R7 who will keep the headlights, fit a license plate and scorn the race track in favor of kickin' as.s on Racer Road. Lucky them. Al! of this explains Yamaha's decision to restrict the much-prized invitations to a press test of the first fruits of the R7 production line (room?) to just a small handful of us lucky lads, who were duly summoned to the Jerez circuit in the st1nny south of Spain in mid-March-and told to focu 100 percent on riding the factory-kitted race version, rather than the street bike from which it's nominally derived but whose road manners are practically irrelevant, in terms of the context in which the bike was developed. It's a racer, right? In best Hollywood megastar style, therefore, the single example of the R7 on parade at Jerez equipped with lights and mirrors was only on duty for a photo call, not to be submitted to an in-depth interview out on the race track. Instead, a trio of race versions fitted with the factory race kit that Yamaha offers to bump performance up from the quoted 106 bhp at 11,000 rpm delivered by the street bike to a coyly offered "around 150 bhp" (in fact confirmed by an early customer to be 146 bhp at 13,500 rpm at the gearbox) were on hand, for a total of four sessions totaling around 60 laps of the Jerez GP circuit, with a Yamaha race mechanic assigned to each of us to dial in the bike to our individual tastes, just as any customer team will do. lt was a proper test - and such is the shortage of R7 product right now that factory Superbike rider Vito Guareschi and Yamaha's Swedish Pro-Superbike champion Christer Lindholm had to wait until we'd had our day in the limelight before they were allowed to throw a leg over - in Lindholm's case, for the very first time. ever! Age before beauty, Christer... ! Well, I may not have the Superbike expertise of those two, but 1 do have hands-on experience of each of Yamaha's current works rivals, as well as of the old factory YZF750 to which Noriyuki Haga gave a rousing final farewell last season by winning five Superbike races in his debut season at the World level but the last one for a model that in various guises dates back a full decade. That being so, just sitting on the R7 in pit lane tells you I at once how radical a step forward Yamaha has succeeded in making with the new model - because instead of a 750cc four-stroke racer, it seems right away as if you've stepped aboard a 6OO-on-steroids. The trademark R-family pointy-nose styling combines with the narrow, carefully shaped screen and the single central duct beneath the chin funneling air to the race kit's huge carbon-topped, fully-sealed 1S-liter airbox to' give the impression of a much more c.ompact package than either its Suzuki or Kawasaki in-line four-cylinder rivals. Both those bikes seem much hard braking for its many second-gear turns didn't pump my arms up. Balance - that's the word. This in tum means the R7 steers like a 250cc GP bike - okay, a SOOcc V-twin! It's really nimble and easy to change direction with, because it's slim-feeling and so well-balanced. Like the MY Agusta, this is a four with the agility of a twin that, because of the optimum weight distribution, has a front end that feels planted in both fast turns and slow - especially compared to, say, a Ducati, with the flawed weight balance of a 90-degree Ltwin. Turn-in is very neutral and you can carry huge amounts of corner speed, with the 43mm Ohlins forks and Michelin rubber working in tandem to give lots of feedback, as well as grip. The Yamaha factory Superbike has switched to Michelin rubber this season - a move replicated on the customer R7 - at Haga's request, says Vito Guareschi, even though his teammate has spent his career up to this point racing only on Dunlops. "We figure what works well with Honda and Ducati must be good for Yamaha, too, and especially so now that Dunlop has no 500cc GP spinoff," says' Vito. But back to the R7. It's a responsive bike, but not a nervous one, even with the quite radical stock geometry ettings of a 22.8-degree head angle (adjustable in half-degree increments one degree either side) and 95mm of trail. The .sixpot Nissin race-kit calipers (Yamaha's trademark one-piece four-pot Sumitomos on the street bike) work brilliantly wider, more bulky and less nimble than the R7, thanks mainly to their twin air ducts on either side of the nUmber plate. That format, says Miwa, delivers 'less flow at lower pressure than the R7's single central air duct. Sorry to name-drop (okay - no, I'm not!), but the only transverse four I've ridden that can rival the R7 for compactness is the MV Agusta F4, but its haute-couture Tamburini styling doe n't give you as much protection at high speed as do the Yamaha's windtunnel-developed aerodynamics, delivering 1D-percent-lower drag than the old YZF750 in the process. Mark one up for designer Katsuhiko Miwa anE! his team, plus another for the way the RTs unique layout gives the rider so much confidence. This is a bike on which you feel at home right away, with a multi-adjustable riding position that can be tailored to suit any rider, and is, if anything, too spacious as delivered. Though fairly tall, I had to have a thick . pad strapped to the back of the seat to stop myself from being pushed backward under acceleration. This was a problem, because it would unweight the front wheel and send the bike into a weave, and I made things worse by pulling on the bars to lever my body weight forward again. Yet even with the pad in place, switching from side to side controllably across a not-too-slithery seat was easy. Haga-san reportedly insisted on the R7 prototype's fuel tank being reshaped to make it less bulky and easier to wrap your arms around after he apparently stepped off it in a slow turn the first time he rode it at Suzuka. The result is that rather than sensing you're sitting in the R7 or perched atop it, you simply feel a part of the bike - and that adds to one's confidence. (Above) The man behind the machine is the man behind the machine: Kunihiko Miwa, the man in charge of the R7 project. He's also the prOUd father of the R1 and R6. (Right) The R7 comes with fuelinjection that can be reprogrammed with a switch box supplied in the race kit. The impression that the R7 feels very balanced and together is confirmed by the weight-distribution figures, obtained thanks to the compact mass delivered by the unique R-bike architecture. This features the same triple-stack gearbox layout as the R1, with the slant-block engme's cylinders inclined forward by 31 degrees, resulting in 20 degrees of vertical downdraft for the steeply inclined throttle bodies. Miwa's "no compromise" design format delivers a uniquely short engine for a four-cylinder motor, with forward bias of the 356.4pound dry weight (right on the Superbike minimum limit) at 53/47 percent static - but 50.3/49.7 percent with the rider, says Miwa-san. Combined with the well-chosen steering geometry, this desirable balance helps achieve more stable, controlled handling, with no sign of pushing the front end as on less-ideal layouts. There was no trace of the loose setup and flapping front end tha t I discovered Scott Russell's works old-style YZF750 had the past two seasons .when I rode it, as he tried to obtain the same package with a bike that was not designed for it. Yet, on the R7, this hasn't been obtained at the expense of rider comfort. There's no undue weight on your shoulders or arms, and 60 laps of Jerez with all the well in stopping the bike. Sorry, Brembo users, but I'll say it again: These things are the business, brakewise - and have loads of feel and progressive response until you need to squeeze really hard and they just... stop. However, there are two things to watch out for. First, don't misjudge your entry speed and have to take a bigger handful of brake midturn, or else the Yamaha will sit up sharply beneath you and push to the outside of the turn. This is a bike which rewards a smooth, flowing riding style. Rather than stuff it into the apex on the brakes, turn sharply and gun it out, getting the best out of the R7 will demand a more fluid approach. Also, though you can trail-brake the Yamaha deep into the apex of a turn with .confidence, and it holds its line quite well, it can also get a bit squiggly under very hard braking, thanks to the weight transfer going from a full-open throttle in lower gears. This was a problem entering Jerez's tight turn-two righthander, where it was easy to miss the apex if you got too out of shape, putting you on the wrong side of the road for the next, faster left. Using the back brake first to load up the rear helps to counter the weight transfer and reduce this instability - but so too does buzzing the engine Ducati- "_ I! III :\! ~ ... . Q §! Q. < 15

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