Yamaha's litre-class looney bike got a major update in 2002, including the long awaited move to fuel injection, so few changes were expected for this year's edition since. Wrong … there has been detailed improvement in many areas, including one very important one, and the usual cosmetic tweaks.
The motor, Yamaha's insanely muscular 112kW slant-block four, remains unchanged for 2003 – and rightly so. It's alone among big sports bikes in having usable torque and power from just off walking pace, picking up smoothly above 3000rpm and pulling very nicely up to eight.
The mid-range is a little flat but there's enough power to take you up the steepest hill two-up in top, enough torque to out-drag any GTi Joe in his hot hatch; you could be forgiven for saying, as my partner, senior road tester Jenni Peters did: "It's a nice bike."
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It's not – it's a badbike.
There's to be a direct and instantaneous connection between your right hand and the rear wheel. The power delivery begins to change at just over 8000rpm; there's no real step in the power band but the curve suddenly becomes a lot steeper and from then on to the power peak at 10500rpm the bike goes ballistic. So much so that, in the first two gears, there's a real danger of looping the thing; it has happened but not, thank goodness, to me.
There's a really angry wail from the air box, completely overpowering the emasculated flatulence from the Nanny State exhaust system, plus some definite high-frequency vibration through the frame and foot pegs, but the force is unstoppable.
You can rev on until the shift light comes up at 11750rpm without losing much power and the motor doesn't seem to take any strain at all; even in top gear, the R1 accelerates hard enough to shift your perceptions of time and distance.
There's a direct and instantaneous connection between your right hand and the rear wheel; the more wrist twist the harder the seat pushes against your backside in an unforgettable display of sheer muscle that would be vulgar if it weren't so well controlled.
The chassis is impressively stable, considering it packs 112kW into a wheelbase of only 1395mm.
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