LOOK AT ME, I’M ROSSI!!!
How can any red-blooded sportsbike fan look at the 2015 Yamaha YZF-R1 and not desperately want to throw a leg over and give it a damn good thrashing? A bike that screams about its MotoGP heritage, the all-new R1 marked a huge turning point in Yamaha’s litre bike’s development. Gone was the slightly lardy older crossplane generation, replaced by a racing whippet loaded with all the modern gizmos and even had a full-on M-model sibling that boasted more bling.
However, this change did come at a cost – both financially and in terms of practicality...
When the covers were pulled off the 2015 R1, Yamaha made no bones about its target audience. Designed as a ‘high performance pure sport motorcycle’, Valentino Rossi was (they claimed...) involved in its design, and the team also had full access to MotoGP tech in the form of a vast array of new
