Yamaha to discontinue R1

…or Germany

 

I think this is only half the story.

Pretty much all the leader bikes are ugly as sin. And they're unusable on the street.

I think OEMs missed the boat. They should have been making replicas of the bikes of the past like GM/Ford did with the muscle cars and cash in on the nostalgia while still providing the performance. Use long stroke motors that have grunt in the middle not the top.

There is a FB page where they had a GSXR1000 photoshopped with some Slabby bodywork and it looked fantastic. That's the kinda shit they need to make.

Not more oragami looking crap with 5hp more.

 

I'm happy to see the space age superbikes go away. All of the whiz bang 200+hp eleventy million gadgets etc. Good riddance.

Bring out more parallel twins that are approachable to new riders. It's fun to watch them race too.

 

Lately I could care less if all sportbikes go away at least from street use. A bunch of the idiots were out thursday afternoon being complete fuckheads. Seen a couple nearly become street stains. They blew a red as a group (as in never even bothered to slow, just went right through a red nearly getting them blasted by a car. Then had the nerve to do a u-turn and start harassing the car and kicked the car before taking off towards the interstate. 2 R1's, 2 Gix1K's and a ZX10. Plates all tucked. Literally matching coats and helmets. Bets are good than none of them even have an endorsement/learners permit much less insurance.

Its gonna be a wonderful year here for anyone that rides a sportbike. City PD needs to remove the no chase policy on bikes. These fuckers know that they wont so they just run. Wish we took my van since it all would had been on video. We waitied with the woman in the car in a parking lot until the police showed. Lady's car had dents on both front doors.

 

Conversely, I sort of condone hooligans on motorbikes.

 

Any of those squids here try that and Mr smith and Mr Wesson will likely speak to them about their poor judgement!

 

Saw one of those (XSR900GP) iin person at a bike show this past weekend. It has been a very long time since I have lusted afteer a Japanese bike but I was smitten. Hilariously, every single other person who drooled on it looked to be of a similar age as me, as in, they also had fond memories of YSR50s.
Sales guy said they're not available yet but was confident they will all be spoken for as soon as (or before) they do hit the showroom. It was priced at 15K euros including all taxes etc.

 

I think the best description of the 98-01 R1 was written by one of the guys from one of the Brit mags (Superbike, Fast Bikes, etc.). They said (paraphrasing) that there should be a switch on the R1 that the rider is required to select before they put it into 1st gear, that either allows/disallows full power because once you start riding, you simply cannot trust yourself to be easy on the throttle. You’ll be hooning around like a nutter in no time. They also said that the when the torque kicks in, the look on your face is the same as if your wife whips out a strap on in mid session.
Those guys had a way with words!

 

This should be the other option. Honestly I think this looks better. The GP just looks like a cafe race bike.

 

I'm nostalgic for the R1 already and I never even owned one! Always the liter bike I dreamed of racing but knew secretly I would be slower on it and more likely to be seriously hurt. Oh well, have to settle for an M4 750 one of these days.

 

You are happy to see government regulations prevent manufacturers from being able to economically produce what consumers would otherwise purchase?

 

You think the government is preventing people from buying liter bikes?

Bless your heart.

 

If they sold half as well as you wished they would, this wouldn't happen.

 

The article states: “The official comment from Yamaha UK reads: ‘Yamaha Motor Group, have taken the decision not to develop an EU5+ version of the R1 or R1M instead focussing on other mid-term business and product strategies that will provide future opportunities.’”

Not enough sales to overcome the cost of compliance with regulations is the same as the government preventing people from buying liter bikes when those bikes would be produced and sold if not for the increased cost.

 

There's other litre bike manufacturers that have EU5 compliant motorcycles so your argument holds no water.

Yamaha just used the emissions thing as a convenient way to kill off a motorcycle that's obviously not profitable for them. Because they're interested in selling thousands of bikes not hundreds of bikes.

 

That's a bingo.

 

You assume the costs, including cost of capital, and business strategies are the same for all manufacturers. They are not.

Has Yamaha said the R1 would not be profitable even if they could sell it for street use without emission regulations?

I don’t disagree the R1 may not be profitable with the regulatory costs, but that’s the point.

 

That looks sick

 

RZ500 bodywork modernized.