BARGAIN SUPERBIKE!

Yamaha’s flagship R1 arrived in 1998 to slot into an instant worldwide market share that existed due to a shift in consumer demand from 750 and 900cc configurations to larger capacities. It was coupled with the ability of manufacturers to deliver lighter and smaller componentry. The fact is, it was a bike for its time and it remains so in 2010.

The bike’s compact nature was achieved via a redesign of Yamaha’s Genesis engine (the crankshaft, drive shaft and main shaft were not arranged in a horizontal line), which resulted in greatly reduced powerplant length and allowed a significantly