Looks nothing like its predecessor.
The veil finally came off the eagerly anticipated 2015 Yamaha YZF-R1 at the EICMA 2014 in Milan, Italy today. The new litre class superbike, as said by Yamaha during a pre-launch teasing spree, shares only the name with its predecessor.
The new fairing has lost the familiarity of the famous twin cat-eye headlamps. Instead, the new R1 is said to derive its design inspiration from the M1 MotoGP bike with a pair of low-mounted circular headlights and LED daytime running light slits above them. The fuel tank, side panels and the tailpiece are all new.
The 2015 R1 is powered by a new 998 cc inline four-cylinder engine which employs a crossplane crankshaft, titanium fracture-split conrods (60% lighter than the conventional steel units) and twin fuel injectors per cylinder (bi-directional).
The R1 variant develops 200 PS (197.1 bhp) at 13,500 rpm and 112.4 Nm of torque at 11,500 rpm without ram-air while weighing just 199 kg (fully fueled). This gives the Japanese superbike an outstanding power-to-weight ratio of over 1 hp/kg. The R1 M track-spec variant is expected to produce 230 hp with the ram-air technology. A 6-speed gearbox is mated to the motor by means of a wet multiplate slipper clutch.
The Deltabox aluminium chassis is suspended by a KYB upside down front fork and a KYB rear monoshock. Helping the superbike shed speed are a set of 320 mm four-piston caliper discs upfront and a single 220 mm disc at the rear, both governed by ABS. The front and rear tyre specifications are 120/70ZR17M/C and 190/55ZR17M/C respectively.
Onboard gadgetry includes banking sensitive Traction Control, Slide Control, Anti-wheelie control, quick shifter, launch control, etc.
The 2015 Yamaha YZF-R1 has a suggested retails price of USD 16,490 (around INR 10.12 lakhs). Deliveries would commence in February 2015.
More details are available in the press release below the gallery.
2015 Yamaha YZF-R1 at EICMA 2014 - Image Gallery
2015 Yamaha YZF-R1 - Press Release
[Head to Slideshare if you can't view the press release.]
