Photo: Australian Motorcycle News
The end of 2014 may finally bring a solid upgrade for Yamaha’s flagship superbike, the YZF-R1, as a new generation of liter-class machines is expected to show up at the EICMA 2014 in early November in Milan, Italy.
Australian Motorcycle News have revealed a spy shot of what is said to be one of the new R1 machines which are to be unveiled this fall. The bike was caught testing at the Eastern Creek circuit outside Sydney, and as far as the blurry zoomed in photo reveals, there have been no dramatic styling changes to the bodywork.
However, Yamaha is believed to be working on two versions of the R1: a racing-grade bike with all the bells and whistles for race homologation and a civil, street one. The higher-spec bike is said to be capable of producing a whopping 230 horsepower peak figure, a truly spectacular boost off the 182+ hp the 2014 version can deliver now. The engine architecture will apparently be maintained, with the in-line 4 crossplane design and with several tweaks to squeeze some extra juice from it.
Introduced in 1998, the R1 quickly became one of the superbike benchmarks in the industry, with the addition of the crossplane crankshaft engine a decade later coining the bike as a one-of a kind in-line 4, with noticeable better torque in the lower range and yet with a high-power high-revving character at the other end of the chart.
With Yamaha seemingly looking forward to make a comeback in the World Superbike series in the EVO class, the house of Iwata will have to pass the same homologation ordeals Erik Buell Racing and Bimota had to deal with lately. However, with the very good prices Yamaha has come up with lately and the huge popularity of the R1, plus the top-notch dealer network WSBK homologation will most likely be a breeze.
Competition in the class will be tough, with bikes such as the Aprilia RSV4, the Ducati 1199 Panigale S or the BMW HP4 (which recently got pro-grade, cornering ABS) being really worthy rivals.
However, Yamaha is believed to be working on two versions of the R1: a racing-grade bike with all the bells and whistles for race homologation and a civil, street one. The higher-spec bike is said to be capable of producing a whopping 230 horsepower peak figure, a truly spectacular boost off the 182+ hp the 2014 version can deliver now. The engine architecture will apparently be maintained, with the in-line 4 crossplane design and with several tweaks to squeeze some extra juice from it.
Introduced in 1998, the R1 quickly became one of the superbike benchmarks in the industry, with the addition of the crossplane crankshaft engine a decade later coining the bike as a one-of a kind in-line 4, with noticeable better torque in the lower range and yet with a high-power high-revving character at the other end of the chart.
With Yamaha seemingly looking forward to make a comeback in the World Superbike series in the EVO class, the house of Iwata will have to pass the same homologation ordeals Erik Buell Racing and Bimota had to deal with lately. However, with the very good prices Yamaha has come up with lately and the huge popularity of the R1, plus the top-notch dealer network WSBK homologation will most likely be a breeze.
Competition in the class will be tough, with bikes such as the Aprilia RSV4, the Ducati 1199 Panigale S or the BMW HP4 (which recently got pro-grade, cornering ABS) being really worthy rivals.
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