1998 Yamaha R1

When Yamaha released the R1, it redrew the concept of the modern superbike, forcing all competitors to do the same to stay in the hunt. In reality, the R1 was a racer with lights, rather than a tricked up road bike. Anything that didn’t need to be there, wasn’t. Comfort was reduced to a bare minimum in the quest for speed. Although the R1 initially employed the fivevalve cylinder head design from the YZF1000, the rest was totally new, including what Yamaha called the ‘3-axis’ design, where the mainshaft was offset and positioned above the crank and countershaft sprocket, creating a far more compact unit. This meant the clutch could be mounted higher and the crankcases and cylinders cast as a complete unit. Soon all superbikes went the same way. Refined over the years, the R1 remains in production in 2022.