Yamaha R1 is the flagship racer for the company, providing riders with the opportunity of experience the MotoGP experience with a road legal machine.
Yamaha introduced R1 in 1998.The first R1 shook the motorcycle world by putting the 1000cc class supersports back on the map. Japanese competitors had launched 900cc models in the ‘90s aiming for the best compromise in power and in weight. Yamaha decided for a ‘no-compromise’ approach. The development team were given 3 clear targets: to make the highest power, the lowest weight and the most compact dimensions.The R1 was the brainchild of Kunihiko Miwa, who is now Senior Executive Officer for Yamaha Motorcycles. He oversaw three development teams and the YZF-R1, YZF-R7 and YZF-R6 were all under his umbrella – which isn’t a bad claim to fame. But it was the R1 that broke new ground.
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