No more R1’s

[wassy06]

Emissions and market trends mean the R1 will be discontinued.

bikesportnews.com/world-superbikes/yamaha-r1-set-for-axe-from-sales-so-what-does-it-mean-for-racing/

[veg]

I guess the costs of designing an engine to meet the legal requirements with the size of the market place means it’s commercially unviable. It’s not really a surprise. How many do they sell here and in the EU? I can see it happening to the majority of big sports bikes.
Buyers have drifted away from 1000cc bikes towards urban/adventure bikes and I’ve said it before a 765 is more than good enough and quick enough for 99% of the population. I can see a rise in the development of forced induction on mid weight cc bikes and wouldn’t surprise me to start to see 600/750 turbos making a comeback. Look at the car industry engines are generally getting smaller with turbos etc.

[stirling11]

It is the same for the 600 4 cylinder bikes too

The manufacturer can’t get the level of emissions low enough to comply with the new regulations, to do so and produce the same power output the capacity of the engine has to increase, revs are lowered, two of the reasons we are now seeing twin cylinder 650’s dominating the market

There are forced induction bikes in the pipeline at the moment, I’m pretty sure most of the Japanese manufacturers have patents to cover such technology

[JonW]

With younger riders not coming into the hobby I guess its just bikes for old folks who cant bend themselves into a racing crouch as well.

Dont get me wrong, I loved my R1... but it was 2001-3... thats over 2 decades ago lol I'd much rather ride something more upright now and I bet im not alone. I also dont need north of 150bhp... not really... (if i am honest).

I have to say even in 2001 I didnt like making myself fit on the smaller R6 and im not a big bloke, just not got great joints. Twas great for 30mins on a track, horrible for motorway and even bumpy A roads. Ive told these stories before but I nearly looped it over a humpbacked bridge and ended up outbraking myself into a field... my 300+ miles on that loaner was quite a day lol

These were the 'race on sunday, sell on monday' hero bikes for yam in the early 2000s, but maybe now customer focus is elsewhere, like on 'adventure'. I saw that Charlie Boringman was in the news last week for Long Way Frown's 20th anniversary. He must be more famous for that series than any of his acting ever. Anyway... it did seem to kickstart the 'lets buy a bmw and all the gear and ride to the pub on the other side of town and meet up and talk about how cool we are' type of biking...*

* - that said... when we were 18 we wore our worn out soled trainers and puffy paddock jackets and ripped knee jean 'combos' aboard our budget 'tuned' two strokes to the other side of town to the chippy to talk about how cool we were**... but doing that was actually a real Adventure (capital A) of smoothing the lines through roundabouts and going flat out at 125 on the dual carriageway...

** - maybe the talking about how cool we are is the best bit of biking? Hence the forums... hmm... i'll get me (paddock) jacket...

[urbantangleweed]

Big sportsbikes had their time, and it was great, I'm very happy to have been alive during that slice of biking history, but markets move on and manufacturers have to produce goods that people will buy. The middleweight naked uprights are usable every day, you can nip to the shops, pop to see Gran, commute, pretty much everything.

I bought one of the new parallel twin 750 Hornets last year and it's an absolute hoot, 90bhp and 195Kg makes for a very entertaining ride and like Jon said above, my body can't do the sportsbikes riding position anymore either.