Flagship Yamaha, the R1, unveiled at EICMA
Following a five year hiatus, which left all of us wondering what they were up to, Yamaha have finally unveiled the newest edition of their flagship, the YZF-R1. As it would turn out — although not entirely unexpected- Yamaha have pulled out all the stops on the new motorcycle. MotoGP legends Valentino Rossi and Jorge Lorenzo were called in to unveil what Yamaha is calling “the most MotoGP-inspired motorcycle ever” ( as opposed to the other way around) at EICMA in Milan.
In recent times, the Europeans have ruled the roost as far the litre class goes, with the BMW S1000R , MV Agusta’s F4, and Ducati’s Panigale, fighting it out with each other in the 200bhp segment. Meanwhile, the Japanese have been keeping things tidy with a more dignified — read: sane — 180bhp. The world has moved on from sanity and 180 bhp, and Japan has answered.
The 2015 R1, which will breach the 200bhp landmark, sticks with a tweaked in-line 4-cylinder, 998cc engine of its predecessors, and likewise, uses the crossplane crankshaft from the last generation R1. It’ll put out 200 horses without taking high-speed ram air into consideration, as well as 112.4 Nm of torque. The crossplane layout was what added the ‘oomph’ to the lower band on its predecessor, at this point, it goes without saying that this will go like a bat out of hell, on fire.
As far as the chassis goes, the wet weight is just under 200kg, and the R1 will ride on KYB fully-adjustable suspension front and rear. Brakes are 320mm discs with 4-piston radial calipers, and while the front tire is a standard 120/70/17, the rear is a touch wider than its predecessor at 200/55/17 to help get the extra power down.
To sum up, the party piece which puts the R1 straight into the European’s arena:
The electronics, starting with a six-axis “Inertial Measurement Unit” (IMU) that uses gyros and accelerometers to measure pitch, roll, yaw, and acceleration from front to back, left to right and up to down. This unit communicates with the Yamaha Ride Control ECU to provide data for a brim-full goodie bag of rider assist, safety and go-fast features including:
- Adjustable and user-programmable power delivery modes
- Lean angle sensitive traction control
- 4-stage slide control to manage powerslides
- 4-stage lift control to dial in your maximum wheelie settings
- Full-throttle launch control
- Quickshifter for upshifts only
- Slipper clutch to keep the rear from losing traction on high-rpm downshifts
- Linked ABS braking designed to help keep the rear down under hard braking
The 16 thousand USD price tag, is telling of a sub-20 lakh landed price in the sub-continent. I can think of a number of European manufactures who might be breaking a cold sweat as of right now.
