| When I wanted a supersport in 1999, I quickly came to the conclusion it had to be a Yamaha. Well, after some test-drives ofcourse. The R1 and R6 just are the best supersports around. However, I was in doubt if it had to be an R1 or an R6. Sure, the R1 has more power, but the R6 steers even faster. But the R6 also is smaller, it's just a tiny little bike. My 1m90 just fitted better on an R1 ;-) |
|
I could start telling you what a great motorcycle the R1 is, but well, you could just read any review as everyone seems to have come to the same conclusion anyway. But I can tell you how practical it is for my daily use...
For starters, it's quite comfortable on longer rides. A lot of people complain about getting tired wrists on an extreme machine like this, but as long as you don't lean on the clip-ons too much and ride on nice twisty roads to keep you busy, it's no problem at all.
In the city, it's not the ideal bike, but it does get me around. As long as you can get past the lines of cars (which isn't that hard with a small motorcycle) and you can keep on moving, it's ok. (Well, the problem with not moving is more in the protective clothing I'm always wearing when riding my R1, which can be quite hot when you're not moving on a hot summer day).
 | | 'Lazer op uit mijn bocht stomme fotograaf' © Bonzo | |
|
You should never ride an R1 on a highway if you want to have fun. It's simply impossible to drive remotely close to the speed limit, so you're always looking out for speed camera's and police vehicles ;-) And most highways don't have many corners anyway.
Ofcourse, the best place to drive an R1 is on a race circuit. We don't have that many race circuits around here though, so there aren't a lot of opportunities to ride it there. I'd like to ride it on circuits more, but the big possibility of crashing it when racing (in which case I couldn't afford a replacement R1) has kept me from racing it. So I just try to find as many roads as possible which resemble race circuits, to have a lot of fun on my R1 ;-)
And when you want to take it (relatively) easy, the enormous torque which the R1 power plant delivers from low down makes sure you don't have to keep the revs up. It's really a quite comfortable touringbike ;-) |