FIRST RIDE: YAMAHA R1
New £16,799 R1 has a multitude of improvements to the engine, suspension and electronics, but it feels just like the last one. Blame Euro5…
Yamaha’s standard bearer gets 100s of tweaks, but no more power.
THERE ARE FOUR catalytic corks rammed up the 2019 R1’s new exhaust system. Four! These are required to get the bike through Euro 5 emission tests, and Yamaha have had to work hard to counteract the restrictions. The cylinder head, finger follower rocker arms, throttle bodies, 10-hole injectors, crank and oil system are all new. But despite all this there’s no increase in output – the motor puts out the same as the last model – 197bhp and 83 lb.ft.
However, Yamaha insiders say the R1 makes substantially more than that when you remove the cat-infested pipe. The dyno charts of the catless new R1 were apparently enough to convince its BSB riders to stay with Yamaha for 2020 and put a smile on the face of the WSB team.
So what does the motor feel like here at the world launch, on track at Jerez in Spain? Unsurprisingly, the same as before. It still yowls like a Motogp missile, there’s still a searing top end, and it’s still safer to drive hard from apex to corner exit kerb than any of its rivals thanks to the crossplane crank and uneven firing order. The chassis has received less of a workover. The aluminium frame and swingarm, magnesium wheels, subframe and steering geometry all remain, but KYB forks and shocks have revised internals and the electronic steering damper has less low speed resistance. It’ll come on Bridgestone RS11 fast road rubber, but we’re on racier R11s here at Jerez. Handling has always been an R1 high point and it’s still more of the glorious same with sweet steering and loads of rear tyre feel. Is it more brilliant than the old bike? Impossible to tell – you’d need to ride both bikes back-to-back on the same suspension settings and track to tell. If it’s better, it’s not by a significant amount.
The main problem on track is the wooden brake set-up, which robs the R1 of front feel tipping into a corner. New pads
and electronics are designed to help it glide more easily into corners, but they don’t solve the problems that plagued the old model.
Push on to decent club racing speed and you hit problems. The power you put into the front brake lever doesn’t match the force the brakeby-wire system delivers to the calipers because the anti-stoppie electronics tell the brakes to ease off. And because the brakes aren’t working as you expect, you pull the lever harder, which of course has no effect other than to make your right forearm bulge. It’s a problem even on the raciest ABS settings and spoils an otherwise sensational ride. One of the first machines to use a six-axis gyro to control its rider aids in 2015, the new R1’s electronics are even more advanced with four power modes, ten traction and four slide control levels, three launch control settings and three up/down shifter modes. A new lighter ride-by-wire throttle is now cableless. These refinements aren’t a noticeable step, but the R1’s rider aids are still impressive, especially its ability to hold you safely in a drift, leaning on a slide control system that even the WSB Yamaha isn’t allowed to have. One change that is noticeable is the styling, originally inspired by Yamaha’s 2011 Motogp machine. The new R1 is tweaked to look more like the current YZR-M1 with a new fairing nose, magnesium bellypan panels, a reshaped air scoop (going into a new air duct), a taller screen and meaner-looking LED lights. It’s still one of the most handsome superbikes. But is that worth trading up from an old model for? Probably not.