BOOTHY YAMAHA YZF-R1M
Idon’t have kids, but I imagine when a child comes into your life (your own child, I mean) it changes everything – it’s like you have so much love for them that you struggle to contain it, and you bore all your mates with stories of how the baby rolled over or farted in its sleep. Well having an R1M is a lot like I imagine that to be. I love it and I can’t get enough of it. In fact I’ve been told that I’m slightly obsessed with it. My girlfriend informed me that this was the case – though the words she used were a little, ah, fruitier than that. Apparently I love the bike more than I love her. She might have had a point. Now she’s my ex-girlfriend, so this month, aside from leaving the toilet seat up, watching what I want on telly and having bikini models over for tea parties (okay that last one might be a lie – I’m not much of a tea drinker), I’ve been doing a bit of exploring on the R1M. I’ve been R1Ming… or rimming, as my friends call it. I’d never really been to many bike nights but there is a café not too far from me that holds a bike night every Thursday. There’s a cracking road leading up to it, so when my mates invited my new rimming partner and I along, I couldn’t think of a good enough excuse not to, so I got kitted up and went along.
The ride there was great and as anti-social as I am, I actually enjoyed talking to all the characters there about the bikes they’d turned up on. And there really was all sorts there, new stuff, old stuff, fast stuff and slow stuff. What never ceases to amaze me though is how much attention the R1M gets wherever you go. I used to think that it was just because it’s such a good looking bike, but I’ve since learnt that a lot of people know exactly what it is so they also know it’s a little bit special. I’ve been a couple of times now and it’s been great to bump into old friends and meet new ones.
I’ve also learn something else about R1M this month. It’s a little trick that Dangerous Bruce taught me on an MT-07, whereby you can deactivate the ABS by doing a long enough wheelie. Well it works on the R1M too. It has to be one hell of a wheelie though, so if you're going to attempt it expect a squeak from the front tyre and a decent wobble when you finally do sit the front wheel back down on terra firma.
When the ABS isn’t having its interfering way with the brakes they feel so much sharper and so much stronger. I had actually thought the brakes were just a bit rubbish but now I know it’s been the ABS ruining the party all along. I still can’t understand why Yamaha didn’t make it a switchable system – all the other settings and options are great but, Yamaha if you’re reading this, please, please, please give us switchable ABS on the next R1 update.
I’ve been racking the miles up too so I was ready for some more rubber a few weeks ago. I’ve gone for Bridgestone R11s because I’m hoping to do some more trackdays and I know how good the R11s are on track. Bridgestones come as standard fitment on the R1M too (albeit RS10s, rather than the R11), so I thought it would make sense to stay with the same brand. And they have been all right on the road too, they warm up pretty fast and I’ve not had any scary moments on them, aside from the odd wheel-spin in the wet, but that’s probably my own stupid fault for turning the traction control off... I always have been a bit of a show-off.
Now the big Yam is back in my living room parked right in front of the patio doors. It’s actually in an ideal spot to dry my washing on, and if I’ve just been out for a 100 mile blast I don’t even need the sun to shine, my pants are dry in next to no time. Who needs a woman when you have an R1M in your life?