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
.... .. Noriyuki Hagals Yamaha YZF-R 1 World Superbike plenty of == ., his way to third place In the World aboard his Yamaha ¥ZF-RI In what was his 11m - . x l four-cylinder four-stroke in half a decade, since coming so dose to wresting Yamaha's long-awaited World Superbike crown from the Italian V-twin mafia back in 2000 aboard the 750cc R7. In spite of two race wins and eight rostrum finishes on his return Superbike season with Yamaha, it took much longer than expected for Haga and teammate Andrew Pitt to hit the front of the field in the year that the RI became the most plentiful bike on the World Superbike grid. This underlined the preseason confidence that privateer teams had in the RI, which has dominated Superstock racing since its launch two years ago. and for which Yamaha had already developed a factory race kit. But great expectations turned into a hard struggle to get on the pace, for a Yamaha Europe-backed team, which, unlike the foremost SBK squads of other Japanese brands, had zero support 20 DECEMBER 7,2005 • CYCLE NEWS de-.eIopment but flatlined after an IIUIlSI\I8 wIntii' RI000 win straight out of the box at Qatar In 1'ebruar'Y). was a steep-diagonalleaming process. which ~t the RI racer was still building performance as the season drew to a close. The chance to sample the Haga RI at his Yamaha ltalia team's home base at Monza, just six days after the "Sultan of Slide" had ended his year with another rostrum finish in the final race of the season at Magny-Cours, provided some answers how this could be - especially after testing Troy Corser's championship-winning Suzuki three weeks earlier. After riding several of "Nori-chan's" bikes down the years, including his MotoGP Aprilia RS3 and each of the three R7 Yamahas he raced in successive years from 1998 to 2000, the first surprise came when I sat on the RI in pit lane, even before his crew chief Silvano Galbusera fired up the bike for me by thumbing the starter motor that's still fitted to it. For unlike Haga's previous bikes, all of which had a somewhat. ah, extreme forward riding position, where you sat very high up with your hands seemingly making friends with the front mudguard, and employed steering geometry so radical the bike was constantly on the move even in a straight line, the RI seemed so comparatively normal I had to ask Silvano if they'd maybe stuck Haga's bodywork on one of Pitt's bikes. "Not so," he laughed. "We were surprised, too - it's a less radical setup than he used before when he raced with us on the R7. It must be to do with his becoming 'un papa' - he became less extreme after haVing children!" Well, I'm not sure his on-track exploits this year exactly qualify Nori-chan for the role of a Superbike-racing father figure - though, come to think of it, his pair of duels at 8rands Hatch with that other paddock pappy. Troy Corser, would have had them both marked down as "krazy kids" to a casual observer. Until they took off their helmets, anyway. But if anything, the Haga RI has a quite Corser-esque riding stance, with 'bars that aren't too steeply dropped; high rear-set footrests, which permit the quite extreme lean angles the bike works best at without grinding your toes off; and a not excessively tall rear ride height. which gives a balanced feel to the bike at rest. As you check out the huge red shifter-light above the digital dash. the switch on the left clip-on lets you swap between the two engine maps stored in the Marelli ECU, and there is the usual left-hand adjuster for the righth and brake lever. There was another surprise in store when Silvano thumbed that start button and the RI burst into life with all the vigor of - a tractor. "Hang on, amici, there's a cylinder out on this, maybe even two!" In spite of the 2600-rpm idle speed, which presumably is set that high to help the STM slipper clutch cope with engine braking, this sounds just like a lumpy, muted version of a V-twin Duke. not a four-cylinder screamer. Didn't they ban the bigbang fours at World level, which the Virgin Mobile team turned their RI s into this season in Britain? Dismissing my misguided efforts to tell him something wasn't right. Silvano pushed me firmly off down the pit lane for my first session. Okay, I get it - pit-lane limiter, maybe. Er, no - here I am doing 100 mph in second gear past the deserted Monza pits, so that's not it. But. now - wow, the RI 's slantblock 20-valve motor has smoothed right out, and gone into screamer mode. Let's try another gear - ah, as soon as I let it drop below about 7000 rpm or so, like at this poxy walking-pace first chicane at Monza, it starts running roughly again. Still, it means I can get fairly serious with my right hand coming out of that slow tum, and the pickup from a closed throttle isn't as snatchy as it was on the last Yamaha Superbike I rode, Nori's R7 fIVe years ago. Plus, it sounds a bit like MV Agusta's EBS braking system on the F4 Mille, which cuts out the ignition on one cylinder under hard braking, and since MV got the idea from Yamaha's MI MotoGP bike, I bet what we have here is something similar.