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/128355
Taking a spin on Rossi's revenge ride By ALAN CATHCART PHOTOS BY KEL EDGE of one lap, you recognize has been transformed from a bad-tempered bulldog of an inline lour to a vastly more sophisticatedfeeling, refined thoroughbred that works with the rider rather than against him. It asks you what you want from it rather than telling you the way things are going to be. It's as if the computer is no longer in charge of things, but now the rider is. This is especially true of the engine braking, which: a) now exists, and b) feels perfectly set up, so there's just enough there when you brake hard and backshilt for a turn like Turn One at Valencia to make you realize the Yamaha is now working with you, rather than against you. There's a far more direct connection between throttle and back tire than before, too - much better than the Ducati and especially the Kawasaki. The Suzuki GSV-R is like the Yamaha in having that connection, but it's also at least 2S-bhp down on power compared to the YZF-M I! The linear power delivery makes the Yamaha very controllable and responsive in terms 01 handling, so it turns more tightly and holds a line better than before, without the sense of instability felt on last year's bike when the power got switched on again by the ECU after you'd freewheeled around a turn on the overrun. In spite of the irregular firing order Yamaha introduced this season to improve traction and acceleration, the YZF-M I engine feels even smoother, but no less vivid, in terms of engine pickup than it did last year, driving hard from as low as 8000 rpm . That's because the intermediate shalt, which is positioned between the crankshaft and clutch in order to allow the engine to turn backward, now contains balance weights to act as a counterbalancer. There are no undue vibrations 01 any kind, which must help make this a relatively untiring bike to ride lor a 4S-minute GP. Instead, it's sweetly responsive almost anywhere in the powerband, and especially Irom 9000 rpm upward, en route to the IS,OOO-rpm rev limiter (500 rpm lower than a year ago, presumably thanks to the 16-valve layout's bigger, therefore heavier, titanium valves). There's a wakeup call at 14,SOO rpm when the big, red junior searchlight on the dash and the row of orange lights beneath it tell you to shift up on the wide-open race-pattern powershifter, but overall the Yamaha's fabulously refined power delivery isn't just smooth and, at 240 bhp-plus, extremely potent, it's also predictable and controllable. When on the exit 01 the second-gear left-hander leading onto the lourth-gear back straight (fifth for Valentino!), I got the standard rear Michelin sliding- and it wasn't really up to coping with even a high proportion of all that horsepower being thrown at it. I'll admit to a brief moment of panic about the fate likely to befall me il I decked the World Champion's baby, and I backed off the throttle slightly to let it recover. What a wimp! But I needn't have worried: Later that lap, the same thing happened in the final turn when the revs rose a little as the tire spun up, but this time I kept it wound on as the Yamaha's so-effective traction control, working 011 the ignition, asserted itself and tamed the slide belore it really took hold. This sent the slim, light-handling, blue-and-yellow Gauloise-livery missile rocketing down the pit straight, accompanied by the distinctive, high-pitched drone of the 16-valve engine with its offbeat firing order. This time the front wheel did hover above the ground between gearshifts: but without any of the unruly way-high wheelies of a year ago.