Yamaha YZF 1000 R1

The 1999 R1 saw only minor changes, apart from paint and graphics. More improvements were a redesigned gear change linkage and the gear change shaft length being increased. Fuel tank reserve capacity was reduced from 5.5 to 4.0 L (1.21 to 0.88 imp gal; 1.5 to 1.1 US gal), while the total fuel tank capacity was unchanged at 18 l (4.0 imp gal; 4.8 US gal).

Motorcycle Consumer News tests of the 1998 model year YZF-R1 yielded a 0 to 60 mph (0 to 97 km/h) time of 2.96 seconds and 0 to 100 mph (0 to 161 km/h) of 5.93 seconds, a0 to 1⁄4 mi (0.00 to 0.40 km) time of 10.19 seconds at 131.40 mph (211.47 km/h), and a top speed of 168 mph (270 km/h), with deceleration from 60 to 0 mph (97 to 0 km/h) of 113.9 ft (34.7 m).[1] For the 1999 model year, Cycle World tests recorded a 0 to 60 mph (0 to 97 km/h) time of 3.0 seconds, 0 to 1⁄4 mi (0.00 to 0.40 km) time of 10.31 seconds at 139.55 mph (224.58 km/h), and a top speed of 170 mph (270 km/h).

In a desperate bid for every last drop of speed I'm tucked into the guy in front's slipstream so deep that if he so much as blinks he's going to have me as a passenger. I can feel my knuckles whitening and realise I'm holding my breath. I force myself to relax. The fact I'm texting while also trying to lever a particularly obstinate Elvis Presley album out of the CD player isn't helping matters.

The peage flattens out, I snick the van into fifth and away from the redline it's been on for the last mile or so and we leave the last long climb behind us, drop over the top of the Pyrenees and head south, down, and on to our destination: Valencia. Oh viva Espania.  

It's 10pm and Daryll and myself have been in the fetid TWO van for what feels like most of our adult lives. Cabin fever has set in. In the back lies our precious cargo - four gleaming R1s - while ahead lies the perfect long weekend and our last, fast riding fix of the year before we batten down the hatches for winter.
Here's the plan:

Friday: trackday at Cartagena with Farside Sportsbiking. With just 30 riders and an open pitlane, we'll be in heaven. Oh, and the forecast says warm and sunny. Perfect.
Saturday: off to Valencia's Ricardo Tormo circuit for final qualifying before Sunday's end-of-season GP, followed by a knees-up in town.

Sunday: back to the circuit for the big race, wave Rossi flags, jump up and down, and generally get all excited.
Monday: wash the whole trip down with a day's riding on God's own twisty roads just a stone's throw from Valencia, before the long haul home.
 
Covering the motorcycle side of matters we had a bevy of R1s. Four to be precise - one of each generation to date.
From back in the day - well, 1998 - we had one of the very first models. You know, the one that finally gave the FireBlade the bloody nose and wedgie everyone had failed to administer since 1992. The '98 R1 may have been sophisticated on its launch, but don't be fooled because it's the rawest, roughest, hardest-to-ride R1 there is.
The year 2000 heralded the frankly awesome mark two R1, also catchily known as RN03. The initial bike's brute power was harnessed in a chassis that could genuinely cope, and R1 owners got their first taste of proper steering.
Two years later and 2002 brought us the third generation R1. The styling went pointy, the carbs became fuel injection, and extra power now came with added control. Some said it was too civilised; others simply enjoyed watching their mates struggle to keep up.

Then came 2004 and the brand new R1 we're still getting used to. Pointy looks have gone swoopy in places, the bodywork panels are shrinking as fast as Jordan's bikinis and the R1 has come over all trendy with underseat pipes, radial brakes and one of the sweetest production swingarms ever seen. It's also got an industrial shitload of power.
All that was needed to top that lot off was a suitable crew. Daryll and myself made up half the team, Niall Mackenzie and James Whitham - taking the deluxe option and flying in to join us - made up the other half.
As Friday dawned over Valencia and we all convened over breakfast feeling suitably out of place in our five star hotel (surely some mistake), you could feel the excitement brewing. Winter's chilly grasp back home was already taking its toll, and the relief at having escaped it for some proper riding, temporarily at least, was palpable. CafŽs con leche were poured down the hatch and it was off to Cartegena circuit.

Surrounded by the kind of dusty nothingness you'd expect from a spaghetti western, the circuit has a long start finish straight that suckers you into an awkWard bugger of a blind, crested, tightening right which demands the best from a bike's front end. From here, it's through a fast chicane that sorts the sweet steerers out and into a frighteningly fast entry right hander with next-to-no braking markers. A pair of uphill turns later, both of which flatten out on the exit, need a cautious throttle hand, especially with upwards of 138bhp on tap, and also weed out the sorted back ends from the soggy. Throw in a few more flowing lefts and rights and this is a beautifully testing track, which is why Niall and Whit both know it inside out from years of pre-season testing.
 
First session out and I'm on the new bike. Harsh and ungainly at slow speeds it may be, but give it space to tug at the leash and the '04 R1 is a peach that will flatter any rider at any track. Although it feels milder and less inspiring low down than perhaps any previous R1, the performance figures speak volumes and prove this is the most powerful R1 we've ever been treated to; 10bhp more than the '02 bike, a faster standing quarter and another seven mph top speed.
This all meant that, as I lurched my way around the circuit in those early laps, I could leave it in third everywhere and concentrate on a) finding my way round and b) not getting run over by Whit and Mackenzie who were instantly on it and tearing the track apart like lions ripping up their still-twitching prey.

As the track came together, so did the bike, which raised both good and bad points. First the bad.
The back brake is dead sensitive so a touch too much can see the rear wheel heading sideways before you can say 'embarrassing highside'. Looks great, but for those of us not used to backing bikes into anything more taxing than our garages, it can also be unnerving.

Then there's the lack of Ground Clearance. Not an issue on the road, it fast becomes one at the track. For track addicts rearsets, or Yamaha's own riser kit, are the answer.
So what of the good?
Well, there's the awesome howl - how this got past EU noise regs I do not know. We checked and double-checked the cans to make sure full fat ones hadn't been slipped on. They hadn't.
Most importantly though, this bike makes you ride fast. Very fast. There is no doubt you will lap faster on this than on any other R1 (and just about any other bike for that matter). Where the '02 bike could be criticised for being almost too civilised, this new model regains some of the bite that made the R1 family such modern classics.
Back in the pits I swapped newest for oldest with Daryll, who seemed less than impressed. "It's vicious," he said between swigs of water. "It shakes its head down the front straight, and the brakes are past their prime."

Heading out on the original R1 was like heading back in time. Some of the chasm between the '98 bike and the '04 one was due to the 25,000 miles the old fella was wearing. The rest was down to technology and its ever-onward march.
On its launch this bike was lauded as having the best stoppers in the business, and although our bike's had all their legendary strength, they'd lost feel. Instead of impressive, progressive power, you got nothing followed by a sudden bite. Not very amusing on a dusty track with more than its share of fast entries to slow corners.
But the biggest difference between this first R1 and those that came after was the steering. Putting it kindly, the first bike doesn't.
At speed through Cartagena's chicane it needed an almighty shove where the others flick-flacked obediently from knee to knee, and in the circuit's tightening turns it permanently wanted to run wide. Add in the most potent motor of the lot off a closed throttle, but which was housed in the chassis least able to cope with gobs of power while leant over, and fast, flowing, accurate laps were harder to come by on this bike than on any other.
Next it was the mark two machine, a bike we all reckoned could be the definitive R1 experience. With this bike Yamaha smoothed off the rough edges without making life too civilised.
 

The carbed motor pulled beautifully, and very hard. As Niall put it: "The fuel injection on the third generation bike is very good, but it's only as good as a very well set up bank of carbs, which is exactly what you get on the 2000 bike". Carbs may be old school, but you'll struggle to find a better balanced set.
The engine feels almost as strong from nothing into the mid-range as that demon first model, but has its hit tamed by a taller first gear. From here, the mid-range is the same but delivered with more finesse, and the top end has the kind of rush only 135bhp can give.

There's more character than in any of the later models too, although ridden back-to-back you do notice it's packing less top end and the revs run out earlier.
Then comes the handling, which is where this bike really scores. The understeer woes of R1 mark one are all but banished. You can get on with attacking the track rather than simply lapping it while trying not to crash.
With all of us struggling to come up with a bad word about the 2000 bike, all that was left to sample was the bike that came after it - the 2002 model.
Immediately you knew things had firmed up noticeably from the two that came before. With a stiffer chassis and revised suspension this bike needed pushing before it settled into its groove.
Where this new stiffness did make itself felt was once the bike was buried into a corner. Not only was it more stable and forgiving of any throttle inaccuracy on the way in, but it also gave a whole load more confidence, especially from the front end, once you had it deep in the corner.
Strangely , it did need a shove to actually get in there although we know from experience this can be dialled out with a little suspension tweaking.
But for all its pace and competence, it seemed the 2002 bike was the one that left the least impression. It couldn't scare the way the 1998 bike could, it didn't have the hard edge the 2000 model managed to keep hold of, and nor was it packing the outright, laptime-shredding firepower of the '04 bike.
Saturday saw the sun streaming through the hotel window, so we bolted breakfast before leaping onto the bikes and heading to Valencia.

Hoofing down the motorway, first Daryll then Whit came whistling past my ear on the back wheel, each carrying the front for a healthy distance before placing them back on terra firma with a puff of smoke. If this sort of caper is your thing, be warned that although the first two R1s will gladly hoik the front, bringing it down again can be a fraught affair as both bikes are prone to tankslappers if provoked. By contrast, the later two models are paragons of stability, refusing to slap no matter how crossed up you land your monos.
Inside the track, we soaked up the glamour while being deafened every time the four-strokes went out, as well as being knocked out at the way they devoured the circuit's straight. If you haven't seen these things in the flesh, do it - they are astounding. Just don't forget your earplugs.
Qualifying done and dusted - Tamada bagging pole and Biaggi edging Rossi into third spot - we hightailed it back to town for our glad rags and a night out.

Thanks to a combination of huge Spanish spirit measures and our own over-exuberance, much of the evening is consigned to the dustbin of alcoholic haze , although a few highlights do stick in my mind including bumping into a surprised Michael Rutter in a very bad pizza restaurant, accumulating more free tat than we could shake a stick at in assorted drinks promotions (I only kept the beanie hat) and quaffing half pints of Baileys as a 'night cap'.
Getting up the following morning was a tender affair and our ride to the circuit a pale imitation of the previous day's high jinks. But as we neared the track and the thronging hordes increased, the infectious atmosphere lifted our spirits: you can't beat Spain at GP time.

Bikes of all shapes and sizes hummed, buzzed and beeped through the gridlock to a backdrop of waved flags and airhorns as the mecca of the GP circus sucked us in. And man was it good. Spanish homeboys Barbera (125s) and Pedrosa (250s) took their respective class wins to the screaming delight of the Spanish fans, with new world champ Pedrosa causing quite a stir on his victory lap with young girls bursting into tears as he went past.

For the main event, it was a less successful Spanish effort with Ruben Xaus taking an early bath and Gregorio Lavilla and Charlie Checa failing to set the world on fire in 17th and 14th.
Even so, the Rossi-Biaggi-Bayliss podium was excuse enough for the firework-crazy Spanish crowd to set off enough explosives to turn the circuit into something like a scene from Saving Private Ryan. Bless 'em.
Excitement over and hangovers took hold. "I can't go on, leave me here," said Niall, slumped in one of the seats overlooking pitlane. Whit and Daryll weren't looking any better, but somehow we made it out of the circuit before hitting the hay for an early night. We had another day's riding ahead...
The early night was a very good idea because the roads we found in-country the next morning were amazing. If you're in the area, get yourself on the road between Valencia and Albacete and prepare to be knocked out.
Bring some spare knee sliders too, because parts of this road are made up of seemingly endless 90-100mph knee down sweepers, all better surfaced than most of the UK's racetracks.

What better place to assess the road capabilities of our Yamaha quartet? In fact the road, even with its lesser demands than the track, only confirmed what we'd learned at Cartagena.

The first generation bike was still the hardest to hustle. Bumps had it skipping about and it needed the most forceful input to go where it was told and stay there. As well as this, mistakes weren't advisable as your options once committed to a line were far fewer than on any of the other bikes.
The 2000 bike was a gem once more, wheelying beautifully everywhere and steering sweetly through the winding Tarmac paradise. Compared to the two later bikes, the only weak areas were its brakes (they faded slightly ), and its gearbox, which needed a firm boot.

The '02 model was the biggest surprise in that it hardly felt any different to the 2000 bike in its feel. On the track where you could push harder, its chassis let you get away with more, but on the road the only real difference came in the less-nervy front end.
And as for the newest bike... Well, it is a stunning piece of kit and it does have all the looks and gizmos to let you hold your head high if you simply must have the latest and greatest. As well as this, it is ferociously fast and capable, but as a road bike alone your mate on his tidy 2000 bike is never going to be far off your tail light. In fact, he may even get ahead occasionally...

So as the sun set across the Spanish scrub, it was with a collective lump in our throats that we loaded the R1s back into the TWO van for the long haul home. Quoting Vinnie Jones in Lock, Stock... as we dropped him and Niall at the airport, Whit elegantly summed the whole trip up: "It's been emotional."
WORDS FROM THE WISE
James Whitham
1998: A serious motor but the handling gives you less confidence. Feels like it'll bite if you push it.
2000: Felt better immediately the geometry felt slower but in practice it steered quicker without dropping through the comfort zone and out the other side.
2002: Not as aggressive as the first two, harder to get into corners although it was more stable. Brakes a big improvement.
2004: A monster. It's that powerful it feels like they've had to design the rest of the bike around the engine. If money were no object I'd have one - it's too mad not to.
Niall Mackenzie
1998: This bike could be better but ours showed its age. There's a big heart in there though and I'm still a fan.
2000: The nicest riding experience and more sensible than the first model.
2002: Love the looks but the power's too dumbed down. Easy to ride fast, but a bit dull when you really want to have fun.
2004: A complete animal with a mad engine. Probably the most potent of the new 1000s, but needs rearsets on the track. Not the best around Cartagena though - give it a bigger circuit and prepare for take off.
YAMAHA R1 (1998-1999)
SWINGARM
The R1 had the longest swingarm of any bike on sale in 1998. A race proven design that is still used on the current R1
FRAME
The Deltabox II aluminium chassis employs the engine as a stressed member and was lighter and shorter than the competition
ENGINE
The motor uses a 5v head with a one-piece cylinder/crankcase and stacked gearbox mainshaft and layshaft as well as EXUP
FORKS
The 41mm forks are held by aluminium lower clamps for increased stiffness. Three spoke hollow alloy wheels were exceptionally light for the time

YAMAHA R1 (2000-2001)
FAIRING
The tank, fairing and seat unit were completely redesigned for better aerodynamics and rider ergonomics
CHASSIS
Although the chassis looks identical to the first bike Yamaha trimmed 2kg off the overall weight of the R1 in the redesign
ENGINE
Likewise,while the motor is virtually the same it was re-tuned for better throttle response and linear acceleration
SUSPENSION
Both the forks and rear shock were recalibrated for better handling and response. Small improvements that worked

YAMAHA R1 (2002-2003)
DESIGN
The new fairing and tank gave the R1 a more aggressive look and the tail incorporates an LED rear light. The silver version was a stunner
FRAME
Now called Deltabox III, the frame has placed the engine 20mm higher and the swingarm pivot 18.5mm higher, with an increase in stiffness

ENGINE
Although similar to the old motor the 2002 R1's engine received a thorough going over. It got fuel-injection as well
FORKS
The forks grew to 43mm (up 2mm) and also had their internals altered with stiffer springs and shorter stroke

YAMAHA R1 (2004-2005)
EXHAUST
The 2004 R1 has an underseat pipe which aids aerodynamics as a 'normal' pipe causes unequal turbulence. Looks old, too...
FRAME
The Deltabox V frame is 200% more rigid with the frame spars running in a straighter line from the headstock to the swingarm pivot

ENGINE
The totally new motor has its cylinders tilted forwards at 40-degrees to allow the chassis to run over the top of them
FORKS
Brand new 43mm inverted forks now have four piston radial calipers operated by a radial master cylinder for better feel
Thanks to:
Eurotunnel for getting us across the channel, Charles and Jo at Farside Sportsbiking for the blinding Cartagena trackday, Gary at DK motorcycles for the spotless used R1s, Ali and co at Yamaha and Jerry and Gemma at Alpinestars for their bountiful hospitality
SPECS - 1998-99
TYPE - SUPERSPORTS
PRODUCTION DATE - 98/99
PRICE NEW - £2900 (GOOD CONDITION)
ENGINE CAPACITY - 998cc
POWER - 138.7bhp@10,7000rpm
TORQUE - 71.6lb.ft@9100rpm
WEIGHT - 177kg
SEAT HEIGHT - 815mm
FUEL CAPACITY - 18L
TOP SPEED - 160.9mph
0-60 - n/a
TANK RANGE - 135MILES
SPECS - 2000-2001
TYPE - SUPERSPORTS
PRODUCTION DATE - 00/01
PRICE NEW - £4000 (GOOD CONDITION)
ENGINE CAPACITY - 998cc
POWER - 134.9bhp@10,200rpm
TORQUE - 74.5lb.ft@8300rpm
WEIGHT - 175kg
SEAT HEIGHT - 813mm
FUEL CAPACITY - 18L
TOP SPEED - 164.7mph
0-60 - n/a
TANK RANGE - 140MILES
SPECS - 2002-2003
TYPE - SUPERSPORTS
PRODUCTION DATE - 02/03
PRICE NEW - £5500 (GOOD CONDITION)
ENGINE CAPACITY - 998cc
POWER - 139.9bhp@10,900rpm
TORQUE - 76.6lb.ft@7900rpm
WEIGHT - 174kg
SEAT HEIGHT - 820mm
FUEL CAPACITY - 17L
TOP SPEED - 169.5mph
0-60 - n/a
TANK RANGE - 150MILES
SPECS - 2004-2005
TYPE - SUPERSPORTS
PRODUCTION DATE - 04/05
PRICE NEW - £9399 (NEW)
ENGINE CAPACITY - 998cc
POWER - 151.9bhp@10,600rpm
TORQUE - 74.5lb.ft@9800rpm
WEIGHT - 172kg
SEAT HEIGHT - 835mm
FUEL CAPACITY - 18L
TOP SPEED - 176.9mph
0-60 - n/a
TANK RANGE - 150MILES