2002/2003 YAMAHA YZF-R1
Like the Ducati 916 and original Honda CBR900RR FireBlade, the very first Yamaha R1 has already soared in value, so picking one up for cheap money is now pretty tough. But if you re-calibrate your targets and aim for something a little later, you can get a corking Yamaha superbike, that makes a great daily sports ride, and still has a soupcon of investment potential.
We’re looking at the 5JJ version of the R1 here – the first one with fuel injection from 2002/3. It was a bit of a weird FI system made by Mikuni, which only really appeared on this bike, and that melded the suction piston system of CV carbs with a digital EFI set up. The idea was, a little like Suzuki’s dual-valve injection, that the analogue CV pistons would better match the airflow requirements into the engine, gradually opening when the throttle plates are snapped open by your eager right wrist, and preventing bogging down at low revs. It was a half-way house to a proper dual-valve system, which in turn was a halfway house to the current ride-by-wire systems, where the ECU matches the throttle valve opening to the engine’s airflow requirements at all revs.
So it’s interesting to the tech geeks, which is a good start. It’s also fairly close to the original bike in terms of looks, with a conventional side-mount exhaust rather than the later underseat pipes. Incidentally, the stock pipe was a proper nice titanium job, so do try and get one with the standard bits for investment potential. In terms of performance, it’s closer to the original, with 150 claimed bhp pushing 187kg, so you’re getting much of the same experience in terms of outright grunt. The frame is a bit stiffer though, and other detail mods like gold-spot front brake calipers mean it’s a touch sharper in terms of handling.
Buy as clean as you can find. In stock order one shouldn’t set you back more than about £3k and you’ll have a classic 2000s superbike, that’ll do great work on road and track, while quietly increasing in rarity and value (so long as you don’t fling the bugger into the Paddock
Hill gravel trap…).