In a world before traction control was made fashionable, the Yamaha R1 crossplane crankshaft was the darling of some of the biking press. We've got one on our fleet to see how it measures up to the latest rolling laptops from BMW and Kawasaki
Tinted visor, cunningly disguising closed eyes...
Tinted visor, cunningly disguising closed eyes...
Yamaha YZF-R1 news
20th February 2012
It's definitely too cold for R1s. Unless, of course, you have some handy Oxford heated gear to wear, woo hoo! As warm as the Oxford Inox heated vest has been keeping me, the below-zero ground temperatures have meant some decidedly skiddy rides to work. This, in turn, has lead to a bald rear tyre after only 1,500 miles. Ouch. In fairness to the Metzeler Racetec Interacts, most of those miles have been spent seeing how fast I can wheelspin the R1 up to, accelerating the wear rate somewhat.
After a couple of weeks riding in the salt and snow, I gave the R1 a proper deep clean and was really impressed with how well it has resisted corrosion. A couple of bolts are showing some slight furring, but overall the finish of the bike is remarkably un-tarnished. Good show Yamaha.
Better still, all the snow and slippery roads have made the performance advantages held by Hogan's ZX-10R and Kenny's S1000RR irrelevant, leaving me free to charge off enjoying an exhaust note that nothing short of a Group B rally Audi Quattro can beat.
Previously...
January 2012
I’ve almost finished laughing about John’s hilarious horn-wired-to-the-brake-light prank (see Jan 2012 issue of SuperBike), although I’ve not come up with a brilliant retaliation yet.
The brief spell of sunny weather presented the perfect excuse for a blast down to the South coast although my excitement about riding on old stomping grounds was rapidly quenched by thick fog, boo. For the ride back the fog had lifted and the opportunity presented itself for Hogan and myself to have a, ahem, brisk ride back though the winding lanes of Kent. I must confess that the roads we rode were my old stomping ground, giving me an unfair advantage, although they seem a lot smaller on the R1 than they did on the Gilera DNA 50cc moped I used to race down them on. Despite the cool temperatures, occasional damp patches and hilarious oncoming lorries on our side of the road, it was a great ride with wheelies, skids and all the good stuff that we enjoy doing all Summer. Maybe Winter isn’t so bad after all. 26th July, Carbontek
The R1 has now gained a set of paddock stand bobbins to make lubing the chain and cleaning the rear wheel less of a game of side stand roulette. These were selected from the Yamaha genuine accessory catalogue, along with some of Yamaha’s crash protection. The swing-arm bobbins are designed to double up as crash protection, so they’re rather large and end up looking like two black doughnuts sticking out either side of the bike. The size of the plastic sliders makes it tricky to get a paddock stand to work with the bobbins, which was the main reason for fitting them. Yamaha do also offer normal swing-arm bobbins, which don’t offer much protection but do work much better with a paddock stand.
The side panel crash protectors are lovely forged aluminium parts that are easy to fit and don’t require any butchering of the fairing panels. That’s all the feedback that can really be given about crash protection, without crashing and finding out that they’re a) fantastic and the bike came away from a 300mph crash unscathed or b) I dropped it in the car park and they snapped and hit me in the eye. We’ll wait and see what the future has in store for us on that front, but from and engineering point of view, I have good faith in them; engineers love forgings.
By far the most exciting shiny bits fitted are the new Yoshimura R77 slip ons and a cat replacement pipe. As with the GPR system I tried earlier in the year, the Yoshimura silencers are actually slightly heavier than the standard, titanium silencers. Again, the weight saving comes from replacing the heavy catalytic convertor with some swanky straight through pipes. The silencers were easy to fit and came with black anodised finisher pieces on the link pipes that fill in the gap left when the standard exhaust trims are taken off. Oh yes, almost forgot; they sound like God.
27th June, London
It’s been a busy ol’ time for the cross-plane cruise missile since the last update. I've replaced the nasty, standard issue Dunlop D210 Sportmax tyres which seem to offer all the grip qualities you’d expect from a non-stick saucepan. They take an age to warm up and, once they have they’re, at best, scary offering very little feel from the front. On the road things aren’t quite so bad so long as it’s a warm sunny day, but there’s still a massive lack of confidence from the front. Mind you, being discerning sports bike fans, none of you would even consider riding on the standard tyres, and hey what’s another £200 when you’ve just spent £13k? No further tyre whining is required though, as the R1 now wears a nice set of Metzeler Racetec Interacts and feels approximately a squillion times better for it.
Ready for a group test, the R1 was returned to standard condition and lost it’s booming exhausts and flip up levers. It’s made me realize that the standard levers actually feel nicer and the brake lever offers a greater range of finer adjustment, d'oh! The throttle response feels smoother with the standard pipes too, so I’ve made a mental note to get the fuelling tweaked when I next bring the noise.
Riding all the other litre bikes, I was concerned that I’d fall out of love with the R1, spoilt by ridiculous peak power figures and electrical gizmos. As luck would have it, the R1 still has the best feel between right hand and rear tyre and holds its own surprisingly well in such high-tech company. Furthermore, the BMW S1000RR has a crack in its defenses, in the form of a quickshifter with a stutter. To capitalize on this, I’ve been on the phone to the nice chaps at HM Quickshifter and ordered one of their strain gauge quickshifters, which claims to be the only one of its type outside the MotoGP paddock. That’s pretty damn good pub bragging rights in my mind.
For those wondering what a quickshifter is, it’s a device that saves the tiresome task of closing the throttle when shifting up gears; simply hold the throttle to the stop and tap the lever. On the racetrack it saves valuable fractions of a second each shift, on the road it feels and sounds cool. I will also argue that, on the road, a quick shifter helps keep the bike stable when accelerating over bumps, as it removes the need to come off and back on the throttle, loading and unloading the front tyre. But mainly it feels cool.
12th May, Yamaha UK
The R1 has been back for it's first service at Yamaha UK and even received a complimentary steam clean so it looks all sparkly and new now, thanks guys! It did remind me just how much more special a bike feels and looks when it's been really thoroughly cleaned - note to self, get the sponges and polish out more often.
Ahead of a looming group test, the R1 has been returned to standard condition - gone are the lovely loud exhausts and flip-up levers. Amusingly, the standard levers actually feel nicer and the brake lever offers a greater range of finer adjustment.
In this age of fuel injection and ecu's (I remember when this was all carburetors), it's all too easy to bolt on a replacement exhaust and forget about it, with scant regard for fueling adjustments. Going back to the standard exhausts, the first thing I noticed (other than the lack of noise) was how much smoother the throttle response was. Gone is the jerky transition from shut to partial throttle, making my ride to work better both in the lanes and around town. Next time I fit noisy bits, I'll be tweaking the fueling, not just to release more power, but to get the smoothest throttle response possible.
Remember, bling doesn't always mean better!
3rd May, Hastings
After a week on the Honda Dominator, jumping back on the Yamaha R1 was a bit of a speed shock to say the least. To get back in to the swing of 'work', a trip to Hastings for the May Day run was planned, via an overnight stop in Surrey.
After a night of beer, pool and barbeque therapy it was an early start to ride to Hastings for the May Day riots/festivities. Riding with a pillion through endless 30 and 40mph limits was not the morning blast I’d hoped for and parts of me (my wrists) were wishing I’d never strayed from the comforting charms of the blue cloth and eight-ball, besides, I’m sure there were a few cold burgers left. Still, the sun was out and May Day in Hastings was just as I’d remembered it from my moped days, although with a lot more hoodies on quads now. If you've never been, it’s a sight to behold, as the whole of Hastings gets taken over by bikes. You'll find everything from ridiculously modified Suzuki Bandits to classic Triumph Scramblers wedged on every inch of pavement space the run-down seaside town has to offer.
Topped up with ice cream, chips and sweeties the ride back was one of the best rides yet. With my pillion dumping me for a more comfy bike, I was free to go bananas back across Kent on all my favourite boyhood roads. I concluded that the R1, even on its (frankly pants) standard issue Dunlop D210 Sportmax tyres, is a great road bike. The engine is flexible enough to ride for miles in second gear, revving out on the straights and pulling hard from low revs in tight corners. The R1 proved its ability to cope with silly road situations too, by surviving losing the front on an acorn (I do pick some dubious roads for sports bikes) and meeting an articulated lorry halfway round a blind, narrow bend. Only the bumpiest of stupid short cuts had me standing up out of the seat, and the R1, regardless of road conditions, felt like it could be ridden hard and fast all day long, never doing anything unexpected. Marvelous.
Next job is to find some adjustable handlebars and sort out the aching wrists around town.
April 6th, Hertfordshire
The R1 is faster than the 2011 Kawasaki ZX-10R.
OK, not really. On a long straight road, the Yamaha R1 would be the smallest of specks in the ZX10’s mirrors, as there’s no arguing with a 30-odd-bhp power difference. The point I’m making with my stupid attention-grabbing headline, is that on the roads I ride to work the R1 feels faster than Kawasaki’s flagship rocketship. We’re talking bumpy B-roads, charging off roundabouts and away from a million sets of traffic lights. The key to the R1’s feeling fast-ness is low down grunt, pig-in-a-basement type stuff, metaphorically speaking.
Although the ZX-10R is mind warpingly fast, at the bottom end of the rev range it’s a smooth riding pussycat – all the madness is safely tucked away in a box marked lots of revs. The R1 on the other hand, delivers a shunt of torque from the bottom of its stomach which, when unleashed, feels like it’s leaving your internal organs behind. In the dry it’s addictive, punching from corner to corner, traffic light to roundabout regardless of what gear you’re in.
In the wet, it’s a bit of a handful and you find yourself nudging the little button on the right hand switchcube to change to a softer throttle response mode. With the R1, there’s no trudging to work, half asleep; like a Doberman that’s woken up to find you halfway across the garden at night with an x-box under your arm, it’d have your arm off in a flash.
Tuesday, 12 June 2012
Yamaha YZF-R1 (2011)
In a world before traction control was made fashionable, the Yamaha R1 crossplane crankshaft was the darling of some of the biking press. We've got one on our fleet to see how it measures up to the latest rolling laptops from BMW and Kawasaki
Tinted visor, cunningly disguising closed eyes...
Tinted visor, cunningly disguising closed eyes...
Yamaha YZF-R1 news
20th February 2012
It's definitely too cold for R1s. Unless, of course, you have some handy Oxford heated gear to wear, woo hoo! As warm as the Oxford Inox heated vest has been keeping me, the below-zero ground temperatures have meant some decidedly skiddy rides to work. This, in turn, has lead to a bald rear tyre after only 1,500 miles. Ouch. In fairness to the Metzeler Racetec Interacts, most of those miles have been spent seeing how fast I can wheelspin the R1 up to, accelerating the wear rate somewhat.
After a couple of weeks riding in the salt and snow, I gave the R1 a proper deep clean and was really impressed with how well it has resisted corrosion. A couple of bolts are showing some slight furring, but overall the finish of the bike is remarkably un-tarnished. Good show Yamaha.
Better still, all the snow and slippery roads have made the performance advantages held by Hogan's ZX-10R and Kenny's S1000RR irrelevant, leaving me free to charge off enjoying an exhaust note that nothing short of a Group B rally Audi Quattro can beat.
Previously...
January 2012
I’ve almost finished laughing about John’s hilarious horn-wired-to-the-brake-light prank (see Jan 2012 issue of SuperBike), although I’ve not come up with a brilliant retaliation yet.
The brief spell of sunny weather presented the perfect excuse for a blast down to the South coast although my excitement about riding on old stomping grounds was rapidly quenched by thick fog, boo. For the ride back the fog had lifted and the opportunity presented itself for Hogan and myself to have a, ahem, brisk ride back though the winding lanes of Kent. I must confess that the roads we rode were my old stomping ground, giving me an unfair advantage, although they seem a lot smaller on the R1 than they did on the Gilera DNA 50cc moped I used to race down them on. Despite the cool temperatures, occasional damp patches and hilarious oncoming lorries on our side of the road, it was a great ride with wheelies, skids and all the good stuff that we enjoy doing all Summer. Maybe Winter isn’t so bad after all. 26th July, Carbontek
The R1 has now gained a set of paddock stand bobbins to make lubing the chain and cleaning the rear wheel less of a game of side stand roulette. These were selected from the Yamaha genuine accessory catalogue, along with some of Yamaha’s crash protection. The swing-arm bobbins are designed to double up as crash protection, so they’re rather large and end up looking like two black doughnuts sticking out either side of the bike. The size of the plastic sliders makes it tricky to get a paddock stand to work with the bobbins, which was the main reason for fitting them. Yamaha do also offer normal swing-arm bobbins, which don’t offer much protection but do work much better with a paddock stand.
The side panel crash protectors are lovely forged aluminium parts that are easy to fit and don’t require any butchering of the fairing panels. That’s all the feedback that can really be given about crash protection, without crashing and finding out that they’re a) fantastic and the bike came away from a 300mph crash unscathed or b) I dropped it in the car park and they snapped and hit me in the eye. We’ll wait and see what the future has in store for us on that front, but from and engineering point of view, I have good faith in them; engineers love forgings.
By far the most exciting shiny bits fitted are the new Yoshimura R77 slip ons and a cat replacement pipe. As with the GPR system I tried earlier in the year, the Yoshimura silencers are actually slightly heavier than the standard, titanium silencers. Again, the weight saving comes from replacing the heavy catalytic convertor with some swanky straight through pipes. The silencers were easy to fit and came with black anodised finisher pieces on the link pipes that fill in the gap left when the standard exhaust trims are taken off. Oh yes, almost forgot; they sound like God.
27th June, London
It’s been a busy ol’ time for the cross-plane cruise missile since the last update. I've replaced the nasty, standard issue Dunlop D210 Sportmax tyres which seem to offer all the grip qualities you’d expect from a non-stick saucepan. They take an age to warm up and, once they have they’re, at best, scary offering very little feel from the front. On the road things aren’t quite so bad so long as it’s a warm sunny day, but there’s still a massive lack of confidence from the front. Mind you, being discerning sports bike fans, none of you would even consider riding on the standard tyres, and hey what’s another £200 when you’ve just spent £13k? No further tyre whining is required though, as the R1 now wears a nice set of Metzeler Racetec Interacts and feels approximately a squillion times better for it.
Ready for a group test, the R1 was returned to standard condition and lost it’s booming exhausts and flip up levers. It’s made me realize that the standard levers actually feel nicer and the brake lever offers a greater range of finer adjustment, d'oh! The throttle response feels smoother with the standard pipes too, so I’ve made a mental note to get the fuelling tweaked when I next bring the noise.
Riding all the other litre bikes, I was concerned that I’d fall out of love with the R1, spoilt by ridiculous peak power figures and electrical gizmos. As luck would have it, the R1 still has the best feel between right hand and rear tyre and holds its own surprisingly well in such high-tech company. Furthermore, the BMW S1000RR has a crack in its defenses, in the form of a quickshifter with a stutter. To capitalize on this, I’ve been on the phone to the nice chaps at HM Quickshifter and ordered one of their strain gauge quickshifters, which claims to be the only one of its type outside the MotoGP paddock. That’s pretty damn good pub bragging rights in my mind.
For those wondering what a quickshifter is, it’s a device that saves the tiresome task of closing the throttle when shifting up gears; simply hold the throttle to the stop and tap the lever. On the racetrack it saves valuable fractions of a second each shift, on the road it feels and sounds cool. I will also argue that, on the road, a quick shifter helps keep the bike stable when accelerating over bumps, as it removes the need to come off and back on the throttle, loading and unloading the front tyre. But mainly it feels cool.
12th May, Yamaha UK
The R1 has been back for it's first service at Yamaha UK and even received a complimentary steam clean so it looks all sparkly and new now, thanks guys! It did remind me just how much more special a bike feels and looks when it's been really thoroughly cleaned - note to self, get the sponges and polish out more often.
Ahead of a looming group test, the R1 has been returned to standard condition - gone are the lovely loud exhausts and flip-up levers. Amusingly, the standard levers actually feel nicer and the brake lever offers a greater range of finer adjustment.
In this age of fuel injection and ecu's (I remember when this was all carburetors), it's all too easy to bolt on a replacement exhaust and forget about it, with scant regard for fueling adjustments. Going back to the standard exhausts, the first thing I noticed (other than the lack of noise) was how much smoother the throttle response was. Gone is the jerky transition from shut to partial throttle, making my ride to work better both in the lanes and around town. Next time I fit noisy bits, I'll be tweaking the fueling, not just to release more power, but to get the smoothest throttle response possible.
Remember, bling doesn't always mean better!
3rd May, Hastings
After a week on the Honda Dominator, jumping back on the Yamaha R1 was a bit of a speed shock to say the least. To get back in to the swing of 'work', a trip to Hastings for the May Day run was planned, via an overnight stop in Surrey.
After a night of beer, pool and barbeque therapy it was an early start to ride to Hastings for the May Day riots/festivities. Riding with a pillion through endless 30 and 40mph limits was not the morning blast I’d hoped for and parts of me (my wrists) were wishing I’d never strayed from the comforting charms of the blue cloth and eight-ball, besides, I’m sure there were a few cold burgers left. Still, the sun was out and May Day in Hastings was just as I’d remembered it from my moped days, although with a lot more hoodies on quads now. If you've never been, it’s a sight to behold, as the whole of Hastings gets taken over by bikes. You'll find everything from ridiculously modified Suzuki Bandits to classic Triumph Scramblers wedged on every inch of pavement space the run-down seaside town has to offer.
Topped up with ice cream, chips and sweeties the ride back was one of the best rides yet. With my pillion dumping me for a more comfy bike, I was free to go bananas back across Kent on all my favourite boyhood roads. I concluded that the R1, even on its (frankly pants) standard issue Dunlop D210 Sportmax tyres, is a great road bike. The engine is flexible enough to ride for miles in second gear, revving out on the straights and pulling hard from low revs in tight corners. The R1 proved its ability to cope with silly road situations too, by surviving losing the front on an acorn (I do pick some dubious roads for sports bikes) and meeting an articulated lorry halfway round a blind, narrow bend. Only the bumpiest of stupid short cuts had me standing up out of the seat, and the R1, regardless of road conditions, felt like it could be ridden hard and fast all day long, never doing anything unexpected. Marvelous.
Next job is to find some adjustable handlebars and sort out the aching wrists around town.
April 6th, Hertfordshire
The R1 is faster than the 2011 Kawasaki ZX-10R.
OK, not really. On a long straight road, the Yamaha R1 would be the smallest of specks in the ZX10’s mirrors, as there’s no arguing with a 30-odd-bhp power difference. The point I’m making with my stupid attention-grabbing headline, is that on the roads I ride to work the R1 feels faster than Kawasaki’s flagship rocketship. We’re talking bumpy B-roads, charging off roundabouts and away from a million sets of traffic lights. The key to the R1’s feeling fast-ness is low down grunt, pig-in-a-basement type stuff, metaphorically speaking.
Although the ZX-10R is mind warpingly fast, at the bottom end of the rev range it’s a smooth riding pussycat – all the madness is safely tucked away in a box marked lots of revs. The R1 on the other hand, delivers a shunt of torque from the bottom of its stomach which, when unleashed, feels like it’s leaving your internal organs behind. In the dry it’s addictive, punching from corner to corner, traffic light to roundabout regardless of what gear you’re in.
In the wet, it’s a bit of a handful and you find yourself nudging the little button on the right hand switchcube to change to a softer throttle response mode. With the R1, there’s no trudging to work, half asleep; like a Doberman that’s woken up to find you halfway across the garden at night with an x-box under your arm, it’d have your arm off in a flash.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
0 nhận xét:
Post a Comment