Yamaha YZF 1000 R1 10th Anniversery  Haga Replica

For 2008, the R1 brings its traditional strong arsenal - awesome performance and stunning good looks - and receives a technology infusion and sharper styling to remain at the top of the literbike pack. We've sat on it, and so we're confident in saying that R1 fans are going to have wet dreams about this latest and greatest.

The first item to note is that Yamaha has dropped its signature five-valve-per-cylinder design in favor of a typical four-valve layout. Yamaha tells us the five-valve arrangement limited the combustion chamber shape in this current world of more compact setups, and it must be true if the tuning-fork company has shelved its unique 5-valve technology first seen in the 1984 FZ750. Instead of three 23.5mm intake valves, the new R1 uses two 31mm poppets (largest in class), and are now made of lightweight titanium. Its pair of 25mm steel exhaust valves is similar in size to last year. The more compact combustion chamber has bumped the compression ratio from 12.4 to 12.7:1.

Below the cylinder head lies a bottom end not significantly changed. It uses the same bore and stroke (77.0 x 53.6mm), already the most oversquare in the class, so the redline remains at 13,750 rpm, still the highest among four-cylinder literbikes. New con rods are beefier at the big end for greater durability.

It's at the intake side where the R1 gets tricky. "The One" now receives the YCC-T fly-by-wire throttle control first seen last year on the little brother R6. However, the R1's system now reads changes in parameters at a faster rate of 1000 times a second.

But that's not even the big news. This new R1 brings a performance feature heretofore unseen on a production motorcycle. It's Yamaha Chip Controlled Intake (YCC-I), Yamaha-speak for variable-length intake trumpets. At lower revs, the intake snorkels are set at a height of 140mm for strong torque production. Once the motor is at higher rpm, the trumpets drop down to a height of 65mm for maximum power when screaming for vengeance (a reference for Judas Priest fans...).
The result, says Yamaha, is an increase of low, mid and top-end power over last year's high-strung motor. Its claimed 178 horsepower (without ram-air effect) is a boost of five ponies at its 12,500-rpm peak. Expect to see nearly 155 horsies at the rear wheel when we run it on the dyno. More importantly, its powerband should be much more robust than the peaky 2004-06 bikes.

The new exhaust system, still with dual underseat canisters, is built largely from titanium and features dual catalyzers and an EXUP valve to meet Euro 3 and 2008 EPA emissions standards. The slipper clutch from last year's high-dollar LE model is now standard. Surprisingly, there are no plans to produce an Öhlins-equipped LE for 2007, making last year's limited-production bike even more collectible. The addition of the slipper clutch and catalyzers is expected to add a couple of pounds to the new bike, likely making it the heaviest literbike of the superbike group.

The new R1's frame looks similar to the previous model but has different flex characteristics. The cast parts are now more rigid, but the extruded bits have a certain degree of flex built into them for greater feel and feedback when leaned over in corners. Reinforcing ribs have been added to the steering head area while a cross-member between the frame rails has been eliminated. Chassis geometry has remained mostly constant, utilizing the same 24-degree rake and 55.7-inch wheelbase as before. Trail is up slightly from 97mm to 102mm.

A new swingarm has its torsional rigidity increased by 30% while lateral rigidity is decreased marginally, plus its pivot position has been raised by 3mm. Yamaha says this has resulted in better turn-in response and more grip under acceleration, something the World Superbike race teams have struggled with in past years. There's now more room for larger-diameter race tires that, depending on brands, could sometimes not have enough clearance with the previous model.

Guiding the R1's sleek nose is a new 43mm fork that has larger-diameter pistons (20mm to 24mm) and new aluminum rods. Yamaha says the new design reduces cavitation and offers improved damping. The inner tube wall thickness has been reduced for a small weight saving, while the axle bracket has been beefed up. A new rear shock with separate high- and low-speed compression damping has a progressive rate that is said to be plush over small bumps but stiff enough over big whoops.

Yamaha has upped the ante in the braking department by going to a pair of six-piston calipers up front. These smaller pistons allow a greater portion of the outer brake rotor to be used, so the disc's diameter has been reduced by 10mm to 310mm, which may result in slightly quicker turning response.

Wheels are unchanged this year, though the buns they wear have. Longtime supplier Dunlop is replaced by Pirelli's Diablo Corsa rubber, though only on the R1.

Styling-wise, Yamaha seems to have been hesitant to draw a clean-sheet design and instead offers a mix of old R1 combined with some of the wonderful style of the popular R6 in the side fairing and fuel tank. Yamaha says the R1 now has improved aerodynamics and better intake flow, and the layered cowling creates a vacuum to draw hot air away from the engine. Instrumentation is also new, with a prominent tach displaying giant numbers for quick assimilation of information.

Source Motorcycle-USA

Review

Apparently -- at least according to the Internet, source of all the answers to all the questions in the world -- people, like fine wines, mellow with age. A variety of studies -- some as recent as June 2006 -- indicate that older folk are much better at dealing with negative emotions and generally have a better handle on their emotional roller coaster then their younger, whippersnapper counterparts.

Think about it for a minute. What's the image that many of us have when we think of our elders? Perhaps we conjure some old geezer casually sipping coffee or iced tea on a porch swing with nothing better to do than watch the world pass by their house. For me, the perfect example of this might have been my own grandparents. For well over twenty years that we shared our lives together I rarely, if ever, saw them get their feathers ruffled about much of anything. They always seemed happy and easy going. Heck, I even witnessed the change in my own dad. A man that was once a stern, headstrong, willful person had become someone who didn't sweat the little things anymore, and was often more inclined to respond with a tempered remark than to bark out his irrefutable edict.

The bike is unflappable through corners.

"What in tarnation do old people have to do with motorcycles?"

Alright, maybe you don't think of yourself as old or getting old, but Yamaha's research about their venerable, standard-setting liter bike says that R1 owners or prospective buyers are, in short, a more mature lot. Feel better about yourself now?

According to Yamaha the liter-bike crowd is comprised almost entirely of boys (97 percent), are on average 33 years old, have 13 years riding experience, ride approximately 7,300 miles per year, and first-time buyers make up a very small percentage -- less than 10 percent -- of sportbikes displacing 1,000cc. We could also extrapolate from Yamaha's number crunching that the liter-bike owner is probably wiser, and not just older. It seems that 1,000cc junkies are "...more focused on commuting, less on touring and slightly more focused on track riding..." as compared to the industry average. Specifically of the R1, Yamaha claims that owners get in 13 percent more track time than the "industry average" and are far more interested in the handling traits of their motorcycle(s) than they are in adding more power.

Are any of these descriptors hitting close to home? After hearing these stats on the typical liter bike rider/owner, I reasoned that Yamaha most certainly had sent a team of Men in Blue (MIB) to chart my every move. Speaking for myself, I fit the liter bike rider mold pretty darn well.

So, if the typical big-bore sportbike guy is in his mid-thirties, likes to take it to the track a little more than his neighbor after commuting all week so he can sort out the handling on his heavily-ridden machine, what do you suppose that says about what Yamaha did with the 2007 R1?

To put us in the know, Yamaha invited a cadre of journos to the current home of the US MotoGP, Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca in Monterey, CA. It was here that we would see if we could discern if all this new techno wizardry had dramatically improved the R1 or simply brought it on par with the competition.

Keep saying four to yourself; eventually it'll sink in.

Yamaha Chip Controlled - Throttle

YCC - I at 140mm.

YCC - I at 65mm.

Earlier this fall Yamaha revealed what's behind the all-new R1. This year the bike came with some acronyms, but not enough to rival say, a BMW touring bike with all the options. We covered the meat of what this new-fangled technology does in the September unveiling of the bike, but it bears covering again in detail.

If you haven't heard, Yamaha made some pretty big news when they broke a long-standing tradition and did away with their time-honored five-valve layout. The two remaining titanium intake valves increased in size to 31mm from three 23.5mm bits, while the two steel exhaust valves keep their '06 dimensions of 25mm. Valve angles have also changed to match the new head. The single intake's angle is now 11.5 degrees while the exhaust is now 12.5 degrees. The 2006 model's two intake side valve angles were 15.75 degrees with the center valve angle -- remember it was a five-valve head -- at 8.75 degrees and the exhaust angle was 11 degrees. Speaking of valves, lift was also raised on both the intake and exhaust cams, from 7.6 to 9.2mm and 7.5 to 8.3mm respectively.

The end result is a cylinder head that has a greater intake volume thanks in part to a high-lift cam profile, and a compression ratio that was bumped from 12.4:1 to 12.7:1. This has allegedly improved combustion efficiency, and power across the low, mid and top ends, and thanks to a smoother combustion chamber and re-shaped pistons -- specifically designed with the new head in mind -- the R1's cleaner-burning power plant can meet stringent 2008 emissions standards. We know how much you worry about cleaner-burning motorcycles.

Oddly enough, bore and stroke is unchanged from 77mm by 53.6mm. But in order to deal with the increased power from the new head, the connecting rods were strengthened by adding more material in all the right places.

New head aside, the R1's other large overhaul was in fueling and all that it entails. More big numbers pop up when we look at the throttle bodies. Though they still have the same 45mm bore, they no longer use a measly four injector holes, but a whopping 12 holes are employed to improve atomization. But adding more holes is about as low-tech as improving the fueling gets. Borrowing from its little brother, the R6, the 2007 R1 now utilizes YCC-T or Yamaha Chip Controlled - Throttle. Some people just like to call it throttle by wire. Simply put, it's a system comprised of an accelerator position sensor (APS), throttle position sensor (TPS) and opening and closing throttle "wires." With the 32-bit Denso ECU calculating throttle grip position and throttle valve opening every one thousandth of a second, a tiny motor performs the actual work of opening and closing the throttle. For those of you paralyzed with fear after watching the Matrix trilogy, the rider can still close the throttle "mechanically" by wire if electricity is interrupted.

Source Motorcycle.com

Haga Story

For a Japanese racer, Haga-san is something of an enigma. Most Japanese riders toe the company line and have the personality of a wet fish, beaten into submission by years of corporate sponsorship brainwashing. Haga is a refreshing change, with a superb sense of humor.

See him on the television before a race and he is totally committed to the job at hand. Try and get a word out of him before a race or qualifying session and, at best, you will be greeted with a curt nod. No smiles, no jokes, no playing around-a pure, single-minded focus on the task before him.

But once that is over and done with, Haga is open, friendly and ready to talk to you all day and night about his passion-riding motorcycles hard and fast!

When he arrived on the World Superbike scene in 1998, the world just saw him as another flash-in-the-pan, another kamikaze Japanese rider ready to upset the apple cart for one round, drift back into the lower top 10 positions and then back to Japan. How wrong could they be? Three years later Haga is still here, still looking out-of-shape but incredibly fast. Then in 2000, Haga had a chance at the championship.

But where does such a rider come from? What molded him into the type of racer he is today? What are his goals and plans for each race and the future? Ladies and gentlemen, I give you Haga-san.

Sport Rider: When did you start to race?
Noriyuki Haga: I started to ride pocket bikes when I was four years old. [Pocket bikes, also known as Mini-Motos, are a small chain saw, two-stroke engine in a tiny chassis. You could fit three of these in the trunk of your average car, with room to spare.] My father bought me the first bike and we went racing every Sunday and enjoy the pocket bikes.

SR: Which pocket bike did you start riding?
NH: Er, a Jackson. Yes Jackson-30cc. Plenty powerful for a four-year-old! Quick enough.

SR: When you first started to race these pocket bikes, did you win straight away?
NH: No, I did not feel it was serious racing. It was more for fun. For the second year, sometime I win some race but I don't remember what position for many races. It was long time ago.

SR: How long did you stay on the pocket bikes before moving on to a different class?
NH: I rode these until I was 10 years old. Then, I moved on to minibike. These were 50cc. But it was impossible. I didn't have a license, so I had to wait three years before I could race them. So for three years I raced radio-controlled cars. It was much fun.

At 13, I moved to minibikes, but my birthday is March 2. So already the season start. The championship is going, so I not do all races.
[At the tender age of 15, when most of us are looking to our first girlfriend and moving on to the next school, Haga was concentrating on the next level of competition in Japan, the Sport Production series.]

SR: And from there?
NH: Sport Production, on a Honda NSR250. And then I got second in my first race at Suzuka. Because of my age I could only do four races toward the end of the season.
After the next season starts I get sponsorship from a company called Daytona. I had moved on to a Yamaha TZR250. Daytona are Japanese accessory company-now very big.

SR: Was it a big step from the NSR?
NH: No, the NSR was pleasure, but the TZR, with sponsorship deal, was more serious. Not difficult, but more serious.

SR: When did you move into the next class?
NH: 1993. The series start '92, but it was a beginner class. But I was too quick, so they moved me into the serious category.
I rode a TZ250 in 1993. It was now real racing on proper bikes, not like the TZR. Of the four races I won three, but one of the races was canceled because there was a big accident and one of the riders was killed.

SR: Did that put you off racing?
NH: No. If it had, I would not be here now. I would not have this type of job anymore. Then I moved to the All Japan Championship on the TZ, in the 250 class

SR: How long did you stay in the All Japan Championships?
NH: Five years-'93, '94, '95, '96, '97. 1993 is 250 class. '94 move Superbike class, start Superbike riding. So, I'm riding Ducati bike. So, '95 move Yamaha YZF with some kit parts. Not factory bike. '96 still Yamaha but bike with more kit parts. Special bike. '97 I sign factory deal so I'm getting factory bike. So, '97 I [became] Champion and move to WSB Superbike in '98.

SR: How do you compare the competition from the All Japan series to the World Superbike and who was your main rival in Japan, and now here, in WSB?
NH: In Japan, my biggest rival was rider called Sono. In the World Superbikes I don't think I have any rivals. [There are] many rival companies to Yamaha though. I find riding here more competitive than in Japan.

SR: Do you enjoy the Suzuka 8-Hour?
NH: Yeah. But of course, after race always very tired. But if we win, if, BIG money coming!I was so disappointed this year, winners gets much prize, that money was mine! Unfortunately we lose [much] time with crash.

SR: On the R7, you have spent a lot of time on both Dunlop and Michelin. Which tire do you prefer?
NH: I'm liking Yamaha R7 now. Last year I try Michelins, but not so good. The R7 was a new bike last year and I had different tires-the combination didn't work out very well. I have ridden for long time on Dunlops in Japan but I think that the Michelins really were not the best for the Yamaha.
Because the main difference between the Dunlop and Michelin is the turning; the Dunlops turn better for me and seem to work much better on the R7. I think the Michelin is a good tire but maybe not for the Yamaha.

SR: You can hold a tight line, tighter than most other riders. How can you do this?
NH: I have to ride much better in corners, particularly at fast tracks like Hockenheim [in Germany] and Monza [in Italy]. My only hope is to keep as close as possible to other riders because Yamaha [doesn't] have [as much] top speed. I have to make [it] up in infield sections. I can ride faster in the corners. This is what I did to [Colin] Edwards to win [a spectacular pass just before the final corner at Hockenheim, in an area where it was previously thought nearly impossible to overtake]. It was the only place I could win.

SR: When you set your bike up, what is most important to you, traction, steering or stability?
NH: All of them! Suspension setting is the only part of the R7 I can be responsible for. It is my decision, I cannot make decision for power. I like to set the bike up for steering. I need wide possibilities. I need to know I can use different lines because not always possible to make the line you want and sometimes you lose [the] line and have to be able to turn the bike and make a different line.

SR: What is the worst point of the R7?
NH: [Pauses for a few seconds, then answers with a sly smile, followed by a bellowing laugh.] Fuel consumption!

SR: In 1998, you rode at Suzuka on a 500 GP bike. Would you like to go back to 500?
NH: No. I don't like riding two-stroke. The four-stroke feeling is much better for me and my style of riding. So, also like riding in the WSB, it is more like me [than] the GP is. I would like to see only one race in the WSB though. Two heats uses too much of my brain power and I would like to be old and collect my pension without having a withered brain from thinking about riding two heats every weekend. Too much brain shortens my pension life.

SR: What are your feelings on the ephedrine controversy?
NH: If I had wanted to cheat and use ephedrine, if it made for better riding, then I would have taken a lot more and used a much stronger one!

We were using a diet supplement, but we did not know that there was ephedrine in it. There was nothing [about it] on the packet. Now I am a specialist in medicines since the tests. I have had many tests and know much more about the different drugs. Do you think that if Troy [Corser] took ephedrine he would be more faster?

After I was tested, many riders [are lining up] at the medical center and asking if they had a cold or an injury, what [medicine] they could take. Many riders now do not take medicines because they fear the tests. This is not good because maybe they need to have the medicines to make them better.

It is the one thing we find very difficult. As a privateer you never watch what you are eating or what there is in a diet supplement. [There isn't] testing in Japan, so we find this very difficult. Does this testing mean we should have a doctor with us and the team to make sure we are not going to eat the wrong things?

The FIM want to test us now between races and in the off-season. This is very hard and seems very strange to us. How can drugs make us faster? We are not runners, we ride motorcycles.

Career highlights
2000: 2nd, Superbike World Championship
1999: 7th, Superbike World Championship
1998: 6th, Superbike World Championship
1997: All Japan Superbike Champion; 13th, Superbike World Championship
1996: 8th, All Japan Superbike Championship; Won Suzuka 8-Hour Endurance race
1995: 10th, All Japan Superbike Championship
1994: 9th, All Japan Superbike Championship
1993: 13th, 250cc All Japan National Championship
1992: 2nd, Kanto Regional Championship SP250 class

This article originally appeared in the February 2001 issue of Sport Rider.