My 2008 Yamaha R1 Review

[Bishbash]

Greetings all,

Well I have had my new bike for 3 weeks now and done nearly 2000 miles on it. I absolutely love it. so here is my little review on the bike;

Specs;
Engine
Engine type - Liquid cooled, 4-stroke, DOHC, 4-valve, forward inclined, parallel 4-cylinder
Displacement - 998 cc
Bore x stroke - 77.0 x 53.6 mm
Maximum power - without induction : 132.4 kW (180 PS) @ 12,500 rpm / with induction : 139.0 kW (189 PS) @ 12,500 rpm
Maximum torque - without induction : 112.7 Nm (11.5 kg-m) @ 10,000 rpm / with induction : 118.3 Nm (12.1 kg-m) @ 10,000 rpm
Carburettor - Fuel injection
Clutch type - Wet, multiple-disc coil spring
Power - 180bhp
Power to Weight ratio - 1.017

Chassis
Chassis - Aluminium die-cast Deltabox
Front suspension system - Telescopic forks, Ø 43 mm Front travel: 120 mm
Rear suspension system - Swingarm Rear travel: 130 mm
Front brake - Dual discs, 310 mm
Rear brake - Single disc, 220 mm
Front tyre - 120/70 ZR17MC (58W)
Rear tyre- 190/50 ZR17MC (73W)

Dimensions
Length (mm): 2,060 mm
Width (mm): 720 mm
Height (mm): 1,110 mm
Seat height (mm): 835 mm
Wheel base (mm): 1,415 mm
Minimum ground clearance (mm): 135 mm
Dry weight (kg) 177 kg

Write up
Looks
Personally it is the best looking bike I have ever clapped eyes on. Its brilliant design qualities turns every head glance into a full stare at the beautiful bike. It is sleek, sexy and full of interesting angles. The colour scheme I chose is probably the best out of the selection that they offer for this year. With the great under seat exhaust system on it, it really gives the bike an evil and minimalist look to to the rear.

Acceleration
Only found one bad point so far and that is the initial pull away, it feels like it struggles, I find it does this up to 4000 rpm, maybe it is the way I ride and needs a few more thousand rpm to get a great pull away. But as soon as it pulls out of that zone......Well with its 180bhp and minimal dry weight, it's a rocket. Unbelievable smooth and immense power on this machine. 0 - 100 mph is just breathe taking and a pleasure, it can do that in just over 5 secs I believe, but I have not had it any where near that. It has yet to scare me, so I need to work on that.

Handling
It is bloody lovely to corner. Cornering is one of my favourite things to do on bikes and this machine is one of the best bike I have ridden for cornering. It feels smooth and easy to do. I am yet to experience the full extent of the steering damper that it has as standard.

Braking
2 X triple pot callipers on the front and a single pot on the rear, these brakes could stop a freight train. The brakes are responsive and effective in any circumstance. Top notch!

Fuel ecconomy
Well its a sports bike, so its not going t be anything special. But it has an 18L tank with 3.4L reserve, I have had 165 miles out of a tank with a few fast squirts in that period. So you can get more out of it I am sure.

Sound
It does sound rather tasty with the standard exhausts on it. On tick over it sound pretty cool, when revving it sounds very powerful. I would love to hear this bike with straight through exhausts, I am sure it will sound very, very nice.

And now the pics;

https://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r94/Neileng/R11.jpg

https://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r94/Neileng/R1-2.jpg

https://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r94/Neileng/R12.jpg

https://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r94/Neileng/R13.jpg

And finally me on my bike

https://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r94/Neileng/R15.jpg


Well I hope you enjoyed this write up.

BB
____________________
My current bikes are - YZF-R1 & GS 500 E

Trackday videos - https://www.youtube.com/user/bishbash13

[physbar monkey]

Gorgeous bike!

Good write up too
____________________
Currently Riding: 1994 Honda CB250
Restriction ends: 30/01/2010

[NinjaLee]

good write up mate and a lovely bike
____________________
Current bike: 2006 zx636 C6F
Previous bike: 2000 zx6r J1, 1990 cbr400rr nc29
Restriction ended: 17th november 2010

[Dom_]

parallel 4-cylinder?

Looks nice though.

[Jockey]

Lovely colour, and the gold wheels are great, enjoy it and don`t break it. -Jockey.
____________________
Current bike VFR 400 R NC30, others now gone.

[mr jamez]

180bhp must be pretty intense
____________________
NSR 125F > BROS 400 > NC30 > BROS 400 > Trumpet S4 > '97 VFR 750

[Bishbash]

[craigT19]

the hesitation to pull your head off right from the off, is the same on my 06 R1...its cos first gear is geared to high, i dropped the front sproket by 1 tooth and the "struggling" went away
____________________
Bikes owned :- 2001 nsr125, 1999 zx6r, 2006 yzf-r1, 2009 xmax 250, 2012 yzf-r1, 2015 MT-07
Current bike : - 2016 MT-10
BCF member pops. sadly missed 1945-2003

[MarkyPancake]

I've had my 04 R1 for three years next week and still love it! In general I like the 07 and 08 models, but I don't like the change they made to the rear and the way the underseat exhausts are now presented. I prefer the 04's exhaust layout. It's not a big change but enough to put me off getting one of the new R1s.

The 04 was famous for its midrange power dip, supposedly due to the way the bike was set up to satisfy emissions requirements, but this was soon rectified with race baffles in the stock exhausts, because I think they look better on the bike than any race cans, decatted Y-pipe and Power Commander. It now runs cooler and has much more linear power delivery. I believe Yamaha built a completely new engine for the 07 model and this was supposed to address the midrange power dip.

[Bishbash]

[craigT19]

didnt effect my top speed tbh, there restricted to 186mph and they are geared to go abit more, mine got the slightly smaller front sprocket and i still hit the restrictor in france a few months back.
____________________
Bikes owned :- 2001 nsr125, 1999 zx6r, 2006 yzf-r1, 2009 xmax 250, 2012 yzf-r1, 2015 MT-07
Current bike : - 2016 MT-10
BCF member pops. sadly missed 1945-2003

[virus]