~ Auto Buzz ~: CHARACTERS: Yamaha YZF-R1 Superbike with soul.

Saturday, 5 March 2016

CHARACTERS: Yamaha YZF-R1 Superbike with soul.

Sure, it will murder any racetrack and devour your favorite back road without a hint of indigestion. And yet. The more time we spend on our long-term Yamaha YZF-R1, the more we realize what a fabulous all-around streetbike it is. Suspension is firm and ultra-controlled yet totally livable—compliant even. That high-level precision that makes the fastest lap of your life seem so serene and almost easy makes it one of the most buttoned-down streetbikes you can buy.

RELATED LINKS

2015 Yamaha YZF-R1 – LONG-TERM TEST INTRO
Can we make this Ten Best winner better?

And then there’s the matter of how it sounds and runs. It’s excellent in stock form, but our swap to a Yoshimura pipe and a re-flash of the stock ECU by Flash Tune has filled in the less-than-8,500-rpm zone and boosted peak output to 176 horses. Other bikes make power in this neighborhood, and the BMW S1000RR even exceeds that number, but the crossplane crank adds a staccato sound to this forward fury that somehow seems to infuse this inanimate object with an animal heart. So in addition to making you feel like a better rider, the R1 also simply makes you feel better.