PROGRESS... WHAT PROGRESS?
It may come of a shock to most of you but Yamaha’s venerable R1 is 20 years old this year. Yep, two whole decades. Sobering, isn’t it? For those of us who do our best to enjoy a half full beverage, it barely seems like yesterday since Yamaha flipped the performance bikes world upside down with the arrival of its pared-to-the-bone YZF1000 4XV R1.
But in reality, a lot has happened since. Political upheaval, wars, high-speed internet connectivity and 4G, social media, international terror atrocities and, I don’t know about you, but facial wrinkles, catastrophic greying and hair loss have also charted my personal passage of time. Life can be so cruel. With one hand it giveth, etc. etc.
But rather than becoming progressively more decrepit, like us – well, me - the Yamaha R1 has continued to evolve and gestate, benefiting from many electronic advancements and an awful lot more power, torque and know-how.
One key, stand-out feature of
