Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

Chassis The all-new Deltabox III frame is now finished in black, just like the R7 race bike, and retains the same 1394mm wheelbase and uses the engine as II fully-stressed member. Frame rigidity has been increased by 30 percent, yet the frame itself is now 1.32 pounds lighter. The engine position has been raised by 20mm in the frame in an effort to improve centralization for improved handling. The subframe is now fully detachable and Features aluminum bolts (which Yamaha recommends replacing after unbolting the subframe). The swingarm pivot has been moved 17.5mm higher in the Frame to compensate For the engine's relocation in the frame. The completely new swingarm is also finished in black and now has an asymmetrical shape to make room for the exhaust to tuck in tighter for improved comering clearance. The slant angle had to be altered to compensate for the aforementioned pivot height change, but the length remains the same at a long 22.9 inches. Suspension Up front is an all-new set of Kayaba 43mm upside-down forks, up from 41 mm. The inner-tube wall thickness was reduced from 2mm to 1.75mm to save weight. Compression and rebound adjustability have been increased by changing the number of clicks from 11 to 20 on both of the adjusters. Front-end geometry was changed by altering the fork offset, which now features 103mm of trail, up from 92mm on the old bike - rake remains the same at 24 degrees. Out back, the rear shock features a higher spring rate and different linkages while retaining the same ratios. The rear shock also features the increased adjustabiUty that the fork received, with 20 clicks of adjustment for both the rebound and compression adjusters. Brakes, Wheels and TIres Up front are new four-piston calipers that are now anodized gold as opposed to the familiar blue. The primary difference is that the pistons are now made from nickel-plated aluminum instead of the iron pistons on the old stoppers. Out back, the rear caliper was moved from below the swingarm to up above, and features twin pistons and a smaller 220mm disc. The new front brakes are awesome, better than last pal's. Front and rear wheels are now lighter than the previous model's, and wear Dunlop D208 rubber as OEM fitrnent, a 120/70ZR17 on the front and a 190/50ZR17 on the back. Styling As you can see From the photos, the bodywork is completely new for '02. The bodywork features anew, sharper Front profile with brand-new multireflector-style headlights. The Fuel tank is anew, slimmer design, and the side cowlings were restyled to show off the motor more. The tailsection is a new, sleeker Note the shift light above the design and features a new LED taillight gauges. assembly that requires one-fifth of the power consumption and is supposed to be significantly brighter. The turn signals have been redesigned and now have a sleek teardrop shape instead of the old bike's ugly plastic blocks. The instrument cluster is also all new and features, among other things, a shift light above the tachometer that is fully adjustable. adjustable shift light above the instrument cluster - it lights up a weird white color, but it's a cool addition. , Power delivery is smooth and seamless and left me impressed with the response of the new fuel-injection system. Coming out of some of the corners, I was able to pick the bike up onto the fat part of the tire and give it some serious throttle, actually getting the rear tire to light up. This is something that I haven't done often in the past, and maybe it was a product of the grip less tires, but it was a lot of fun either way. Acceleration was strong all the way through the rev range and only fell off right before redline. I feel that the transmission could . shift a little smoother. Sometimes I , would have the lever preloaded, and when I cracked off the throttle for the upshift, the tranny would load up and not shift. This only happened a couple of times, but I would have to go I through the process all over to get it to shift smoothly. At the end of the day, I started to think about making some adjustments to the fork, because it was bot- I I I toming at the end of the front straight, but at the same time I didn't want to miss any of our limited track time. Earlier in the day, I had taken some preload out of the fork, and softened it up to get the bike to turn a little quicker, and that was probably the culprit, but I ended up leaving it alone. All in all, I was very happy with the R1 on the track and felt like the bike had a perfect balance between power, weight, and handling for the track. I was anxious to get a feel for the fuel injection on the street, because, as I said before, that could be the difference between a good bike and a great bike. STREET RIDE The street day got off to an awesome start because Yamaha had arranged for us to be transported to the track via helicopter, where we were to pick up the bikes up for our ride. Of course, after our celebrity entrance we were all amped to ride in the Motojoumalist Grand Prix. After we looked at the map, we thought the ride looked kind of short, The naked Rt looks pretty similar to the new Mt Grand Prill bike. How cool Is that? but we figured that we would just do all of the fun stuff a couple of times. I hooked up with Andrew Trevitt from Sportrider magazine and Oliver in the morning and did some of the really nice roads multiple times - just to make sure they were good, you know. One thing that I immediately noticed was that the riding position that had bothered me on the track was perfect for canyon carving. It's a street bike, so this shouldn't have come as much of a surprise, but it was perfect. Another thing that I am happy to report is that the fuel injection works awesome on the road. I've found in the past that bikes tend to hide their jerkiness on a smooth racetrack and then, around town, you're wondering why it sucks so badly. But not the R1; after spending all day on the bike, I was really impressed with how well it works in a variety of conditions. Picking up the throttle exiting corners, or putting around through small villages, the fuel-injection gremlins never reared their ugly heads. As I expected, power was not an issue at all; it hadn't been on the track, so it sure as hell wasn't on the street. After lunch, I was riding with Trevitt, John Burns from Motorcyclist magazine, and Oliver, and after doing some cool photos along the coast, we turned up the volume a bit. It all started with some burnouts and wheelies through some quiet little Villages, which the locals didn't seem to mind. Then we found our mountain Mecca: a beautiful road that was about as twisty and tight as anything I've ridden, but perfectly smooth. As we freight-trained down the road, we discovered how easily the bike would wheelie while picking the bike up off the side-radius of the tire exiting corners. I started to notice that all four of us had the front tires reaching for the sky in unison. We got to the bottom and discovered that we had a little bit of extra time, so we headed back up the mountain for another sortie. Handling is paramount on a tight, unfamiliar road, and if you saw the way that Spanish drivers drive, you would understand why. On more than one occasion, we came around a corner only to find that someone else thought that our lane was their lane. This required a bit of, shall we say, "hectic midcorner adjustment" to ... u ... I .., shoot the gap in between, say, a delivery truck and a cliff. The chassis has been updated on the R1, but it still remains true to its original character, only better. At the end of the day we got a bit crazy and proceeded to do rolling burnouts, rear-brake slides and wheelies every chance we got. The truth of the matter is that the Spanish don't flinch at this type of behavior, but if we were back home, we'd be in jail, so you've got to have your fun while you can, right? CONCLUSION The 2002 YZF-R1 is an improvement over the previous bike, to be sure, mainly because it has stepped up and embraced fuel injection. Only time will tell if the bike has improved enough to dethrone the current king of the Open class, the GSX-R1000. (We will be doing an Open-class shootout next month, so stay tuned.) Either way, the new R 1 is a truly incredible motorcycle, and probably as close to the "perfect street bike" as you can buy. The MSRP has remained the same for '02 at S10,299 and will be available in three color combinations: liquid silver, red/white, and blue/white. CIII SPECIFICATIONS 2002 Yamaha VZF-R1 UST PRICE .. _ $10,299 DISPLACEMENT . _ 998cc EI'IGINE TYPE Uquid-cooled, in-line four-cylinder BORE x STROKE 74 x 58mm COMPRESSION RATIO _ 11.8:1 CARBURETION ..... EA, with 40mm throttie bodies Digital TCI IGJ"IJllON __ TRANSMISSION Six-speed STARTING SYSTEM Electric FUEL CAPACITY _.. _.4.5 gal. WHEELBASE .55.92 in. RAKEITRAIL " 24°/130mm SEAT HEIGHT ....•.... _..32.08 in_ FRONT TIRE ....•....Dunlop D208 120/70ZR17 REAR TIRE Dunlop D208 190/50ZR17 FRONT-WHEEL TRAVEL ....4.72 in. REAR-WHEEL TRAVEL .•.... .5.1 in. FRONT BRAKE ..Four-piston calipers, dual 298mm discs REAR BRAKE ...Twin-piston caliper, 220mmdisc ANAL DRIVE Chain OAJMED DRY WElGtfT 383.60 lbs. n __ .. • MARCH 13,2002 19

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