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/128407
YZF-R 7 World Superbike red junior "searchlight" flashes in your face at 13,900 revs, you've already been thinking about shifting up for a while. There just isn't the broad spread of power that the GSXRI000 has, and while initial acceleration is very good, it tails off somewhat as revs rise, where the Suzuki keeps on bUilding more power, even faster. On my second session, when I started doing Q-times, I deliberately short-shifted at a couple of points, specifically to access the extra drive from that fat midrange - maximum torque is delivered at only 9000 rpm, says Meregalli, so I reckon the Yamaha motor could be usefully retuned to position its peak torque higher up the powerband. But even though the RI doesn't feel as revhungry as the Suzuki, I still saw 13,Soo rpm on the dial in sixth gear past the pits, which, according to the team on Monza gearing, is right up around the 320kph [198 mph] mark - before my nerve gave out and I just managed to stop in time for that walking-pace first chicane. Fast enough for me! I'd already noticed it needs quite a lot of clutch to get the Yamaha off the mark - one 22 DECEMBER 7, 2005 • reason Silvano gave me such a strong shove to get me going, I suppose - which means the team has to work fast to sling a new clutch into the motor if a race is red-flagged. "Two starts with the same clutch is marginal," says Maio, "three - forget it!" But the ramp-style slipper clutch fitted to the RI is perfectly adjusted to deliver great control as you slam back through the gears bong-bong-bong-bong just like on a GP twostroke, yet without any chatter from the back wheel (provided you don't try to hit bottom gear at 13,000 revs or do something equally stupid) and without the high-idle speed making you run on into a tum, as was always a risk with the Chili Suzuki GSX-R750 four years ago, with its four-grand idle. The Yam~ha slows really well from high speed as a direct result, with its Braking 320mm wave discs combining with the meaty Brembo four-pad/four-pot radial calipers to let me get as brave as I did by waiting until just before the 2oo-meter mark before squeezing hard on the short brake lever Nori favors, and banging down through the gears as I slowed from 320 kph to CYCLE NEWS around 32 [20 mph]. All without any real fuss apart from wondering if this time around I'd maybe left it too late - the Yamaha was amazingly stable under that balls-out braking, and again coming down from flat-out in fifth gear to second for the entry to the Ascari, where the weight transfer imposed by the uphill braking area is always going to uncover any inherent flaws in the chassis design or setup. I can't praise the Yamaha enough for the way it stopped. I could pick a line and hold to it inch-perfect, which is great for confidence-boosting, and I also had firsthand confirmation of something I'd noticed before on TV, which is that the Yamaha seems to turn tighter than its rivals, even the Suzuki (though, as Brands Hatch showed, they're pretty even). For in spite of having a much less radical chassis setup than he's opted for in the past, Haga's RI is not only ultracontrollable under hard braking, but it turns in sweet and easy to a slow bend, even if you trail-brake deep into it, as at that first chicane or the one after it. You don't have to force it into the tum against its will as it pushes the front and tries to head straight on while you're still squeezing the lever hard, as some others do, and it also doesn't feel like it wants to tuck the front wheel under all the time, as his R7 most definitely always felt it wanted to. Nor does it sit up and understeer if you realize you got over ambitious with tum speed, and need to finger the brake lever again in the middle of the tum - but aside from that, there was a definite push around faster turns such as Lesmo One or the fifth-gear Curvone, or especially winding up through the gears hard on the gas exiting the Parabolica onto the pit straight, where I had to consciously grapple to prevent it running outward toward the grass, without sacrificing drive. Doing so entailed cranking the Yannaha harder over on its side - it seems you need a lot of angle to make it steer properly in fast turns, under power, and I can see how, over race distance at Nori-chan's speeds, this would cause big problems with rear-tire life, as you work a narrow section of the edge of the tread unduly hard. That's why Pirelli developed the 2oo-section rear tire that Haga used toward the end of the season, but which they hadn't brought to Monza for a mere journalist to ride - pity, because even at my lower speeds, I had the rear spinning up and the back end moving around from about the third lap onward (they probably gave me a soft compound, which heated up very qUiCkly), and even though it all seemed pretty controllable, it would have been good to see if the widersection tire helped prevent this, without affecting the RI's excellent steering in slower bends off the power, where you can tum it very sharply and bring it up fast onto the fat part of the tire to use that mega-torquey motor's punch out of the turn to best effect in maxing out acceleration. I wouldn't exactly call this a point-and-squirt motorcycle, but SPECIFICATIONS Noriyuki Haga's Yamaha YZF·R I World Superbike ENGINE: Water-cooled DOHC 20-valve transverse inline four-cylinder four-stroke with offset chain camshaft drive 77 x 53.6mm DISPLACEMENT: 998cc COMPRESSION RATIO: 14.5:1 CLAIMED OUTPUT: 201 bhp at 14,200 rpm (at gearbox) FUEl/IGNITION SYSTEM: .. Electronic fuel injection and engine-management system, with Magneti Marelli ECU, single injector per cylinder, and 4 x 45mm Mikuni throttle bodies each with dual-butterfly throttles TRANSMISSION: .... 6-speed cassettetype extractable close-ratio gearbox with electronic powershifter CLUTCH: ...... 5TM multiplate ramp-type slipper clutch CHASSIS: Deltabox V aluminium twin-spar with carbon-fiber subframe SUSPENSION: FRONT: ,43mm Ohlins inverted telescopic forks REAR: Fabricated aluminum swingarm, with Ohlins monoshock and rising rate linkage RAKE/TRAIL: 24·/I04mm WHEELBASE: 56.6 inches CLAIMED WEIGHT: 363 Ibs. (with oiVwater, no fuel) WEIGHT DISTRIBUTION: 53% front! 47% rear BRAKES: FRONT: (2) nOmm Braking petal steel discs with four-piston radially mounted Brembo calipers REAR: ......(I) 220mm Braking petal steel disc with two-piston Brembo caliper WHEELS/TIRES: FRONT: .... 120/75-420 Pirelli on 3.50 inch Marchesini forged magnesium wheel REAR: ........ 190/65-420 Pirelli on 6.25 in. Marchesini forged-magnesium wheel CLAIMED TOP SPEED: 20 I mph OWNER: yarnaha ItaJia, Gerno di Lesmo, Italy it sure gives you a thrill when you pull it up and fire it out of a bend with the front wheel hovering in the breeze, like out of the Ascari Chicane - a.k.a. Highside Heaven - where many a good ride has ended the hard way. Though Haga was constantly trying to improve front-end feel on the Yamaha, at my speeds I felt okay with the feedback from the front Pirelli around faster bends, and even when turning into a comer after standing it on its nose on the brakes at the entry to the Ascari, which is a really crucial point on a Monza lap, where you have to really work at carrying tum speed cranked hard over. Still, this was one of Haga's main concerns all season - and is the reason Yamaha has modified the frame on the new 2006model RI: to give more controlled flex for