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engineers were wise to this and for 1999—even though the model was only slated to have a paint scheme update—they fitted a redesigned gear change linkage and increased gear change shaft length to stop it from popping out of gear, particularly second gear. The 1998 R1 was also the subject of a worldwide recall, with several cases of the clutch-driven gear drive plates breaking, causing the engine to lock up. But regardless of the faults, whatever angle you looked at the new engine it was a class ahead of everything in 1998. The design brief of smaller, lighter, faster was certainly met. The new engine was 81mm shorter front-to- back than the ThunderAce, and 20.9mm shorter top-to-bottom. However, unlike the engine, the chassis had no platform for modi- fication. It was to be all-new— shorter and lighter, with racier geometry than anything with a headlight that came before it. Yamaha claimed the new bike weighed 390 pounds dry, which, when you add a tank of fuel, would put it close to the 440-pound mark. With the engine being so small, Miwa- san could focus much more on mass centralization than ever before. The engine was a fully stressed member of the chassis, which helped add to the rigidity of the whole package. The new chassis, labeled the Deltabox II, was 2.8 pounds lighter than the ThunderAce, and with a 22.9-inch swingarm gave a final wheelbase of 54.9-inches, a massive 2.7-inches shorter than the ThunderAce. U P AN D AWAY The Deltabox II chassis was comprised of cast aluminum in a twin-spar layout. Miwa-san got as close to the ideal 50/50 weight distribution mark, and even went to the trouble of saving about 47 percent off the overall weight of the handlebars! The tank incor- porated lap welding to allow it to sit further into the top of the chassis, and the fairing was fit- ted with race-style quick-release fasteners to enable the rider to whip it off quickly if needed. When it came to the suspen- sion, Miwa-san opted for 41mm upside-down, fully adjustable forks, offering 5.3 inches of travel. This was around 0.5 inches up on the rest of the competition, with Miwa-san not- ing that the extra travel reduced the fork's tendency to top-out under hard acceleration. The rear suspension duties were taken care off by a fully adjustable Bilstein monoshock using Yamaha's Monocross linkage system. Significantly for future collectors, the suspension is completely rebuildable (the original Fireblade's suspension is not)—good news especially when you consider how hard some 1998 R1's have been ham- mered over the years. Even though the R1 was a technically superior machine to anything on the market at the time, it also changed the way people styled sport bikes. Just as the Honda CBR900RR had in 1992, and the Ducati 916 did likewise in 1994, the R1 made people stop and ask, "what the hell is that?" Design in the '90s, particularly after the 916 appeared, changed very little until after the R1 came to dealer floors. Indeed, Honda went right back to the drawing board and released the dramatically, aggressively restyled Fireblade 929 of the year 2000, and Su- zuki immediately began drawing up the bike that would ultimately displace the R1 at the top of the sport bike tree, the Suzuki GSX- R1000 of 2001. It took Kawasaki until 2004, with the first edition of the ZX-10R, before they even began to get a look in. Such was the impact of the first R1 it is still revered as one of the most important sports motorcycles ever released. Ask many non-motorcycling people and they may not know what a ZX-10R, or a CBR1000RR is, but you can almost bet they have heard of an R1. That's because the R1 simply blasted the com- petition to bits in 1998 to 2001. It rightfully earned a reputation as a fearsome machine, designed for experts and it no doubt caused its fair share of broken bones and bodies as lesser mortals tried to take the R1 to its limits and got bitten. The 1998 Yamaha YZF-R1 is truly a ma- chine that has earned its place in motorcycling history. CN CN III ARCHIVES P120 Subscribe to nearly 50 years of Cycle News Archive issues: www.CycleNews.com/Archives