New Yamaha Sportbike Announcement 5/18

Fugly

 

How is it less expensive to race prep?

 

Another link with couple more "stolen" fotos...

https://www.gpone.com/en/2021/05/14...here-are-some-stolen-shots-photo-gallery.html

 

Whoever, in the marketing dept. thought (R7)was a good idea,,,, should be fired.
Yamaha is good at this but instead of "staying the course" with their proven entity, you're getting this recycled Chinese steel bullshit...

They developed 3 Deltabox chassis’s, which ALL work well and are used in the current R chassis' and even their snow mobiles,, for fucks sake.
The final Deltabox III design was even hydro formed, They should use one of em.

Take that twin lump, give it some fuckin nut's and chuck it in an ally Deltabox chassis. Slap some up gradable suspension and that R'ish bodywork on it, Wham bam,, that's something to compete with the Aprilia.

don't call it an R7...
The original R7 had more tech in the twin fuel injection and electronics than that whole ching chow bike has.

https://global.yamaha-motor.com/stories/yamaha-handling/list/vol07/01.html
https://motoress.com/rider/deltabox-frame-were-talking-yamaha/

 

Probably a solid 80+% of riders and even track riders don't know what the first r7 was

 

You get it!!!!!
Hail!!!

 

Does it? Hopefully someone that has developed/raced both will answer.

Id guess that development time is the main reason that makes the SV more attractive to race. Lots of people put in tons of time on the Gen2, and I'd bet that sparked more dev on the Gen3. Plus it seems to consistently have fast racers on it in MA. The Yam lost out this year with a few riders switching to the Ape and SV.

 

The 20% who do are demographically their most qualified buyers.....

 

So, is the "new" R7 basically the modern version of the OG Katana 600?

 

+1
I have heard from FZ/MT racers the chassis feels soft and less precise, and then they go out and set track records or get within a second or so of them. The thing I laughed at on that bike is the clutch and water pump covers are intertwined. Not very maintenance friendly but the time to maintain a bike doesn’t impact your lap times.

If Robem Engineering had picked Yamaha this year to race and had the same 3 riders, I bet we’d all be talking about how dominant the Yamaha already is.

 

No doubt about that. I went to a bikes and breakfast a few weekends ago to try to recruit people for the MARRC safety crew. Most of the sportbike riders I spoke to 1: Don't even watch racing of any type, 2: Have absolutely no interest in doing anything related to the track. I guess that's to be expected for the B&B types?

 

Which is fine if they want to sell 50 bikes

 

Relative to the class, as you know. I’d assume the cost to build an MA twins out of a stock sv vs a 660 would be quite a bit more.

 

The SV is a known quantity with setup. It is comfortable and confidence inspiring. (I never rode a Gen3 FWIW). SV seems to have the corner speed advantage. Yamaha has the HP advantage.

The Yamaha has more (reliable) HP potential. The chassis has a very stiff feeling, yet the frame flexes alot- I know that doesn't make sense but if you ride one, you'll understand. Granted the SV I raced had stock forks (race setup internals) because I was advised that the GXSR front end was too stiff and put too much force into the chassis. On the FZ I use the R6 front end-The FZ frame is only a few tubes- not very impressive looking- so you're putting alot of force into those tubes with the R6 front end. FZ has a very short wheelbase and the weight bias is a little messed up. The setup window is narrower, although once I found my baseline, I haven't made many changes and the bike feels good. Or maybe I'm just getting used to it?

Honestly I think the FZ can be the better of the two- alot of guys cut the subframe off which (IMO) if you look at the chassis, is a mistake, because you're introducing alot more weakness / flex. Robem developed a link that allowed softer springs in the rear which helped alot, although Kaleb never used it on his 2020 bike. Development on the FZ kind of stopped since Robem switched to Aprilla, Madama took a hiatus, Hayden Schultz and Kaleb went to Robem, and I don't know where Andy Palmer is.

When Kaleb did his 30.5 at Barber, he said "man, we are pushing these bikes to the ragged edge- the frame was flexing like crazy".

Really we should be asking @ghetto customs as he has raced both at the pointy end. At my pace, I can make anything work.

Oh and as for the R7, unless they beefed up the frame (which we can't see from the pics) it's basically what we have right now. An FZ with an R6 front and cool bodywork.

 

I've been wondering what happened with the Andy Palmer situation, he was everywhere now he's gone

 

A "$10k plus" build isn't unreasonable for a proper race bike and parts like forks and a shock, all the hard parts and bodywork are constants. Same as every other race bike.

@regularguy what's it cost to build a competitive Ape?

 

About 3 engines per weekend so far.



I hope they get it sorted because I love that bike

 

Engine failures aside, I'm talking showroom to race track and dollars spent.

 

There’s two ways of doing the math, one is buying a race prepped competitive bike and the other is building. I’m assuming the Ape doesn’t need and basically isn’t allowed to do a full super bike engine build so that’s gotta save 3-5k if not a bit more. But the base bike costs more and the cost to race prep is probably pretty similar. If you’re looking for a top 3-5 bike, an already built SV or FZ is surely the way to go. If you’re buying a brand new Bike and building it out, the cost is probably about the same no matter the brand since the Ape starts a bit higher but doesn’t need an 8k SBK engine. Maybe the RS660 could be a little cheaper to build with the engine savings? Just a guess.

 

You can't polish a turd....and you can't slap an R7 badge on that.