THE ORIGINAL R1 20 years on

When I look back now I realise my 1998 Christmas list might have been a little bit ambitious. I couldn’t see the appeal of yo-yos, I already had Dr Doolittle on VHS and I didn’t need any more Lynx Africa. All I wanted for Christmas was my two front teeth and a Yamaha YZF-R1 – I didn’t think that was too much to ask but Father Christmas obviously didn’t get the memo. To most seven and a half year olds, a new litre sports bike might not have made much sense, but to me, even then, I knew it was a game changer.

Since then I’ve always had a real soft spot for the R1 dynasty. And it’s a soft spot that turns into a raging hard one almost every time I throw a leg over my current 2018 R1M long termer. They are absolutely incredible bikes and despite there being a massive amount of competition in today’s litre sportsbike market the current R1 has been able to hold its head high in any group test we have done in . And the same can be said for all the incarnations of R1 that have come before it. So to celebrate the R1’s 20th birthday we thought we would see just how far