Sharpening the Edge
Sept. 15, '99According to Yamaha, they simply took the sharpest razor in the box, and made it sharper.
The new millennium Yamaha R1, their 1000cc state of the art road carver, is cleaner, leaner and meaner than the 1999 version. They debuted the machine at an unofficial US press introduction yesterday in Cypress, Yamaha's US headquarters. There they outlined the changes celebrated sport bike engineer Mr. Miwa (the man behind the R1, R7 and R6 machines) has made to his unlimited sport bike.
Outwardly, the machine does not differ in a huge sense from the 1999 version. But there are over four hundred components on the Y2K R1 that have changed since the last 1999 model rolled off the assembly line. Few components on the R1 skipped the update process, the forks have thinner walls, are lighter, the bodywork is completely different, the transmission gears were trimmed down, made lighter. That's the theme. Smaller, lighter, stronger. The 1999 Yamaha R1 had seven tiny bolts holding the fuel cap on, the 2000 model has five. You get the idea.
More: a titanium muffler hangs off the back of the R1 now in place of the old steel unit, and the machine gets a better air induction system to keep EPA types happy. More, more: the brake rotors are thinner and the pads are a new compound for a more progressive feel. Miwa kicked the mirror mounts up higher to improve visibility. The footpegs, rear shock body and even the tail light assembly went through Yamaha's trimming machine to carve their weight down. The shock body is now forged aluminum instead of cast.
The Yamaha R1 has been near or atop the nothing-exceeds-like-excess pile for two years, but now it has new competition. The Hayabusa, the 2000 Honda CBR929 & RC51, and of course the Kawasaki ZX12 are trying to nudge in on the R1 territory (or did so in the case of the Suzuki). Hence, the R1 gets an update.
Hard numbers: the bike has dropped five pounds or more (if you subtract what they had to add for the Air Induction System, it actually lost more than ten). More power? Maybe. But Miwa's emphasis in the engine was to sharpen the mid-range and low-end power delivery. It'll hit harder than it did before.
Not that the hit prior was weak or anything ...
Road test to follow.
amasuperbike.com
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