Sorry for the delay, loyal MO reader; we
would've had news of the launch of the new R1 posted from Barcelona
yesterday, but were--how you say--Royally Screwed, by an ex-European
Correspondent. It happened like this: Minime was all set to attend the
launch, when a Legal Emergency required his presence in Los Angeles. To
cover, our (disloyal) English subject was therefore called in as a
replacement, but somehow managed to file his (less than stellar) report
with another (less than stellar) web site! Shock, horror! What an idiot!
We at MO, luckily, like to believe everything happens for a reason. Okay, well, most things. It so ha
ppened that a much more experienced
motojournalist with a large print publication who's also a good friend
of MO happened to be at the launch and agreed to fill the void, for a
small fee, because he likes us and is a fine human being.
There I was, having swung a leg over the all-new R1, given its starter
button a punch and its throttle a big twist, etc., etc., and after a lap
or two to warm the custom-built Dunlop D208 street tires (a bit of a
knife in an Uzi battle) found myself drafting former Yamaha superbike
pilot Rich Oliver deep into the braking zone of Circuit Catalunya's
looooong
front straight. There went the 300-meter board; quite a way into sixth
gear, the digital speedo was reading 270-some kph. Oliver hit the brakes
just before the 200-meter sign. So did I. He turned. I didn't feel like
it was the right thing to do just yet frankly, and so missed the turn
one apex by only about 20 feet, give or take. Blast. I'd blame the
brakes, but in fact the new nickel-plated aluminium pistons (iron last
year) in each lightened Sumitomo caliper, and sintered pads, provide the
cliche'd awesome stopping power combined with excellent feel, and so
I'll blame the tires again.
Regaining
my legendary composure I set off again after Oliver, now a dot on the
horizon, around Catalunya's long, fast right-hand turn three. Cornering
clearance is never a problem (on these street tires), and when you see
the brown patch you can feel free to wind the throttle way on. The R1's
lead engineer, Mr. Kazu Koike, came up with an ingenious fuel injection
system for the R1, which uses vacuum diaphragms like the ones in the CV
carbs of yore to control slides downstream of the 40mm throttle bodys'
butterflies. The result is fuel injection response like no other
injected bike I've ridden; Yamaha's press material claims "sensual
throttle response," and yes, I will admit to a slight tumescence every
time I whacked the gas on. Power delivery is even moreso than you expect
from the R1, which is to say approximately mind-boggling, and even
smoother under any circumstance you could envision. Dashing from one
Catalunyan corner to the next looks and feels more or less like on-car
footage from a Formula One race.
A bit of pressure on the new, reangled right clip-on avoids the
doddering bald mess that is our ex-correspondent down the chute into
turn four, and with the throttle pinned you have a second to contemplate
how crafty Yamaha's craftspeople have been in improving upon last
year's R1 as well as what a spastic he is. Nary a stone was left
unturned.
A quick confab with Oliver after the first track session had me
releasing one line of spring preload from the new fork in an effort to
get the bike to turn a bit sharper, and it's revealing to, ah, reveal
that doing so resulted in a feelable difference in session two. Allowing
the R1's front end to settle that much more into its front travel
resulted in a bike more willing to dive in on the brakes and one less
willing to understeer at the exits -- as well as one less light-feeling
in front down the front straight; truly, this bike attacks that straight
with airplane-taking-off velocity. Springs are considerably stiffer at
either end of this year's R1, no doubt in order to deal with the greater
fore/aft pitching forces produced by raising the engine fully 20mm in
the new, 30-percent stiffer frame.
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