[Juerg]

I just wish Yamaha had put more thought into the power

Ride one! The power is exctly where you need it!
How much can you open up the 99 R1 throttle in first gear? 3/4 if the bike is going straight, then the front comes up...
With 3/4 of gas you are about at the 04 R1 torque level...
Granted, it is fun to take her on the rear wheel from low down, but that's about the only thing you will miss, and this more because of the long first gear.
The R1 is not loosing ground in last gear 50-150km/h roll-on acceleration, so the power delivery cannot be so bad, isn't it She is even fastest from 100-150km/h in last gear, and this are realistic speed levels...

 

[RyzER]

I might be a friggin dummy; but correct me if I'm wrong here.

From all the posts we gathered that the REAL power on this bike starts just a tad later than the other bikes..right???

Welll, doesn't that in and of it self make this bike a HELL of a lot more street freindly that ANY OTHER R1 ever made?

That rememinds me of my '03 R6, which is a real pussy low on the RPM's, but bring her up, than watch out!!

Not to mention the '04 R1 has better seating postion and I'll be damned if I ever believe Yamaha didn't have comfort in mind. Trust me, 2 hours on an 03 R6 and you''ll appreciate this new bike (R1), not that I have one yet, but from what I hear it's a DEFINATE improvement over the company's LAST year's thinking (especially conidering ALL of Yamaha's energy went into the R6 in 2003....(TRACK USE ONLY). YAMAHA DIDN't give a shit about the comfort on the 2003 R6---you guy's feelin' me on this?


UH oH----BONUS ROUND ALERT: I can take her to 105 MPH in first gear.....comfortably as I need to??

Please tell me you guys are thinking...right? Isn't that a good thing considering the benefits of the streetability of the new engine?

 

[Big Daddy]

I was just saying you dont need to be going 150mph to get in to the power, like he originally stated.

Understood...here take this :makeout

BD

 

[SandmanR1]

Understood...here take this :makeout

BD

thanks BD :blush

 

[Juerg]

Welll, doesn't that in and of it self make this bike a HELL of a lot more street freindly that ANY OTHER R1 ever made?

Exactly!

 

[r1-superstar]

Well we know the first 'con' is untrue as the zx10r & CBR are both more expensive! what else??

BD

:beer :iamwithst

 

[SandmanR1]

I might be a friggin dummy; but correct me if I'm wrong here.

From all the posts we gathered that the REAL power on this bike starts just a tad later than the other bikes..right???

it does, but if it has more RPM to cover, then not really. the r1 revs higher than any of the other liter bikes which makes all the graphs look messed up, having the R1 down on power until the top. just think if it reved to 20k, for example, but reved 20k just as fast as the other bikes got to 12k, then what, the graphs would make it look like its way down on power, but it wouldn't be, just like the new R1

 

[Big Daddy]

The consensus of the pre 04 R1 owners is that the bottom end/mid-range was more user friendly on their older models than the 04 R1......and that is in fact where the higher % of street riders find comfort is it not??

BD

 

[SandmanR1]

The consensus of the pre 04 R1 owners is that the bottom end/mid-range was more user friendly on their older models than the 04 R1......and that is in fact where the higher % of street riders find comfort is it not??

BD

you are correct

 

[RTSR1]

Exactly!

All these guys bashing it, are just jealous and pissed because they have to sit on the sidelines and listen to how much fun we're having riding while their manufactures tried to fix their under engineered marvels from breaking!

 

[Juerg]

The consensus of the pre 04 R1 owners is that the bottom end/mid-range was more user friendly on their older models than the 04 R1.....

That's wrong, sorry BD. Where have you got that from? Personal wish list?
I did ride every R1 since 1998 and the 04 model by far is the most user friendly One.
This is not getting untrue because you don't like it. The 04 R1 equally isn't weak in the midrange because you would like to see the ZX way in front...
The new R1 has lost some edges that were very entertaining in my opinion (torque kick at 4000 rpm for example) but also not user friendly or good for fast driving. Many crashed because of this.

 

[r1-superstar]

That's wrong, sorry BD. Where have you got that from? Personal wish list?
I did ride every R1 since 1998 and the 04 model by far is the most user friendly One.
This is not getting untrue because you don't like it. The 04 R1 equally isn't weak in the midrange because you would like to see the ZX way in front...
The new R1 has lost some edges that were very entertaining in my opinion (torque kick at 4000 rpm for example) but also not user friendly or good for fast driving. Many crashed because of this.

I'll have to disagree with you here. What BD means is that there is more torque down low on the older models thus making it easier to control the low end power and take off from a stand still. I have owned four R1's, so I speak from experience.

 

[Juerg]

Put this way I agree, taking off is harder on this one (like a stated in my little review) but I think this is manly because of the over-long first gear. If the gear was as short as on earlier R1's it would be much better. Midrange however doesn't have anything to do with taking off and i.m.h.o. the midrange of the new R1 is very controlable.
Don't take me wrong, I did also state in my review that I will miss the low end torque of the old R1, you cannot get everything.

 

[Big Daddy]

That's wrong, sorry BD. Where have you got that from? Personal wish list?
I did ride every R1 since 1998 and the 04 model by far is the most user friendly One.
This is not getting untrue because you don't like it. The 04 R1 equally isn't weak in the midrange because you would like to see the ZX way in front...
The new R1 has lost some edges that were very entertaining in my opinion (torque kick at 4000 rpm for example) but also not user friendly or good for fast driving. Many crashed because of this.

Juerg

R1-superstar spelled it out just as i meant it and as many previous R1 owners on this very site have commented so no its not made up from some list. :fact

BD

 

[RTSR1]

Put this way I agree, taking off is harder on this one (like a stated in my little review) but I think this is manly because of the over-long first gear. If the gear was as short as on earlier R1's it would be much better. Midrange however doesn't have anything to do with taking off and i.m.h.o. the midrange of the new R1 is very controlable.
Don't take me wrong, I did also state in my review that I will miss the low end torque of the old R1, you cannot get everything.

I agree with everything you've stated! It is a close ratio trans! The old '87-'88 FZR 750R's were the same way, so were the ZX750rr's, and the OWO1's and so on! If you don't like it, gear it down, or buy something else! You guys cried about Yamaha not building something to be competitive, and when they do, you bitch about it! This thing is built to race and ride aggressively! Fortunately it does cruise pretty good too! If you want to cruise, go buy an HD!

 

[RyzER]

AMEN my man.........

For Kris-sakes, I just cant believe these guys are bitchin.

And you know what??
I got a bud just as ignorant as these clowns....I'm sure he's gonna believe the same bullshit about his 01 R1 torque curve, and truly believe that he still has a chance in hell in a quarter mile against my new R1:bs .................

:machinegu EEEEEEEEEEEEdiot:boom

Yamaha has truly outdone themselves, and they finally have a product in their divisions of of products that they can be proud of....

now only if they made their guitars like they made this bike in terms of art/innovation, and maybe I'll switch from my purple Jackson Kv2!!

 

[KNEEDY R1]

And the Champ lives on!! :rock :rock :rock

 

[dardas]

Well we know the first 'con' is untrue as the zx10r & CBR are both more expensive! what else??

BD

Isn't the MSRP in the UK different to that of the US? I think that the r1 is in fact a litlle less expensive yonder.

(MCN is a British mag)

 

[redneck1089]

They're all bloody nice bikes

 

[PurpleLion]

THANK YOU - RTSR6 and RyzER

Yamaha did the only thing that they could when designing the new engine. More oversquare = higher rev range = more power at higher revs! Yamaha can not magically change the laws of physics and make the R1's torque and power curves look like a 1500cc engines! They did the only thing that they could do in order to ensure that they could beat the others and still have a reliable engine.

I think that the new R1 is wonderful. When you want to go REALLY fast, you wring its neck. When you are just cruising, you short shift it. It's your choice! And, its plenty fast from 0-7000 rpms; it's just insane from 8000-14000 where the engine is really in its element.

We all need to just get used to this. All of the other manufacturers will have to follow the same route if they want to win superstock.

The only other choice is to sell an engine like the CBR's, but with it actually set up in semi race mode. Make no mistake, the CBR1000RR race engine will easily put out more power than the R1 in spite of its smaller bore, etc. They will just up the compression ratio and accept the higher piston speeds inherent in their design. Their engine, set up like this, will be reliable enough to win Superebike races, but it would make a very unreliable street bike engine. BUT, it will have better power delivery at lower rpms!

Everything has a price. Do any of you really want an unreliable engine just so that you can have gobs of power everywhere?

For my money, Yamaha did a superb job. I don't think that I would change a thing on the bike except for those things that are regulated by the government. Speaking of which, the Akra Evo system fattens everything up in the 7000-9000 range making a perfect bike even better.

I am personally amazed that they made the engine as tractable as they did in the lower rev range. I thought that my 98R1 was a beautiful bike, but, I did not like pushing it in the corners. It never gave me "warm fuzzies". I was always more comfortable pushing the RC51. Not so with the 04R1. Running it hard is effortless. It is truly amazing and it's beautiful to boot!