R1M on track
The Yamaha R1M, that we’ve got on long term test finally finds its natural habitat: a race circuit
The Yamaha R1M only pretends to be a road bike and sure enough after 500 miles of commuting I’m growing tired of its £22,147 racery ways. Time to take the bike to its home turf – a track. With its Öhlins Electronic Racing Suspension (a flash semi-active set-up working with the Öhlins NPX gas forks), an array of electronics to fiddle with and an onboard GPS and datalogger, it’s a trackday nerd’s wet dream. Which is fortunate, as it’s raining at Bedford Autodrome.
After choosing a large cup of tea from the burger van, my next crucial decision is to select a mode.
There are four of these, with A being the fullbore nutcase and D the meek librarian (the same set-up as the latest R1). Each one alters power, throttle response, traction control, slide control, engine braking, wheelie control, ABS response and suspension damping. And of course you can alter each individually should you wish, which I don’t.
It’s stopped raining and the wind is howling so there’s a chance the track might dry out; I choose mode C, which has a soft throttle response but doesn’t reduce the topend power like D. It also lets the traction control cut in early, which quells my nerves.
Because there’s no racing at Bedford I’d pigeonholed it as a tinpot track, but it’s nothing of the sort.
The South West circuit we’re riding today is 2.8 miles
long with fast corners, technical sequences and a long straight. It’s an airfield so there’s no elevation and every corner looks the same, but the surface is good. I’d come here again. The first few laps are uneventful, the soft throttle response and gentle low rpm power letting me learn the circuit without having to worry about the R1M being a dick. As a dry line appears out of some corners I get friskier and the Yamaha starts to wake.
The combination of unobtrusive electronics and the crossplane engine’s midrange drive inspires confidence I would never have believed I could attain in such miserable conditions. Coming out of the final left hander before the straight I get on the throttle earlier and earlier and eventually trust the R1M to sort everything out. I only notice the electronics are doing their thing when I hit puddles on the straight – the front wheel drops as the rear loses traction, the engine note changes for a fraction as the power subsides, then the front rises again as the rear leaves the puddle and digs in again on a fresh wave of drive. It’s amazing. From the saddle it feels controlled – almost relaxing – but judging by the number of skittering track bikes I pass down the straight it’s quite difficult to achieve just using your right hand.
In fact, as the day progresses I turn into the fast boys’ worst nightmare, holding them up midcorner where I
‘The R1M is a trackday nerd’s wet dream’
suffer a bravery deficit (nothing the R1M can do about that unfortunately), then blasting into next week on the corner exit, leaving a handy dark line for them to follow.
By the afternoon the chill is still putting me off pushing hard but I’m going fast enough to appreciate what the R1M could do with warm tarmac and a confident rider: obliterate almost everything. And I haven’t even used the onboard datalogger yet, which I’m sure will make me much faster. Riding home – stalled it pulling out of the circuit – I’ve got a warm glow about the R1M. But I suspect I’ll need to do a trackday a month to keep that burning.