Having completed about four dry sessions at the Eastern Creek track on the
standard R1
, Yamaha let us out on the YZF-R1M. For those unsure about the R1M, it is essentially an R1 and then some. Although the basic chassis and engine are unchanged, the M gains a carbon fairing, a polished aluminium tank and swingarm, a wider 200/55-section rear tyre, the Communication Control Unit (CCU) as standard and, best of all, Ohlins Electronic Racing Suspension (ERS). Which is semi-active bouncy bits from the chaps in Sweden. It's pretty special, made in limited numbers every year and costs £3,500 more than the stock bike. Is it worth the cash? Hell yes!
Ohlins ERS biggest part of R1m upgrades
The Ohlins Electronic Racing Suspension is basically the same stuff that is fitted to the new Ducati 1299 Panigale S and it is a stunning bit of kit. On the R1M the Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU, the thing with the gyros in it) feeds its data, alongside data gathered from the rest of the bike's sensors, into a dedicated Suspension Control Unit (SCU). This crunches all the information and 100 times a second calculates what the bike is doing at that exact moment and what it thinks it will be doing in the future. Then, should it deduce that a change of damping is required, it sends a command to stepper motors located on the fork tops and damper telling them to alter the compression and/or rebound damping accordingly.
Ohlins reckons that ERS should give you near perfect damping all of the time and around a two minute lap of Eastern Creek, they say the ERS changes the settings over 40 times. Remember, this is on a controlled race track, on the open road it could be many more times. So does it work? It's Ohlins suspension, of course it does, and an earlier version of this system won a WSB race back in 2007!
Nursing a semi
The BMW HP4 showed the benefits of semi-active suspension on a sports bike and the R1M's system is even better. Although at a standstill the Yamaha feels very stiff, once you get going the whole bike's character changes. Around Eastern Creek there are a few downhill hard braking areas and in these zones the R1M's front end was noticeably stiffer on its damping than the standard R1 with its KYB forks, allowing you to brake even harder and making the bike feel more composed into bends. Mid-corner the R1M feels just as settled as the standard bike, possibly slightly more planted over ripples, but it is in the corner exit that the semi-active system once again shows its effectiveness. On the power, when the rear wants to squat, the Ohlins damper dips and then gives a real feeling of controlling this force and then using it to pin the rear tyre into the ground.
Clever damping pays dividends on track
As Yamaha sent us out on slicks on the R1M and road legal Bridgestone RS10R tyres there would certainly have been some variation in grip due to the rubber, but overall there is no doubting the excellent semi-active suspension. Interestingly, and sadly, I didn't get the chance to really play around with this as there are several modes that allow you to fine tune the suspension's response. On a track it is more of a case of setting it to your weight or riding style, but on the road this feature will probably be more useful.
Computer says... yes!
The R1M comes with the new Yamaha Communication Control Unit (CCU) as standard, something that is an optional extra on the stock R1. Yamaha have developed three free apps that work with the CCU called Y-TRAC, YRC Settings and CCU Configurations. Y-TRAC is a fairly standard datalogging program that allows you to compare data and plot your lap thanks to the CCU's GPS unit. YRC Setting allows you to create and store multiple settings on your phone, meaning you can save your preferred settings for a specific race track and download or share them with your mates, while CCU Configurations allows you alter the datalogger's sampling rate and set an auto lap position (start/finish line) with GPS. It's all very clever stuff and shows that Yamaha have pulled no punches with the new R1, except possibly not fitting an auto blipper on the downshifts.
If you can get one it's definitely worth it
As good as the R1M is, and it is a stunning machine, there is one slight issue. Actually it's quite a large issue. Yamaha are only making 1,000 R1M models worldwide for 2015 and of that 90 per cent are already sold. The UK has been allocated 75, and they all sold out in less than two hours of the dedicated ordering site opening for business. If you haven't got an order in for an R1M this year then you are screwed. The good news, however, is that the R1M isn't a limited edition model so there will be another batch arriving for 2016. If you can't wait this long then you may want to pop over the channel to France. According to a Yamaha chap we spoke to, France is one of the few countries that still have a few of its allocation left unsold. However he wasn't 100 per cent sure if the French R1M came into the country restricted to 100hp, so maybe it's best to wait a year after all...
Eastern Creek onboard lap here (Jon says it's a rider "a lot faster" than him).
YAMAHA YZF-R1M
Engine: 998cc inline four, 16v
Power (hp): 200@ 13,500rpm
Torque (lb ft): 82@ 11,500rpm
Top speed: 186mph (est)
Weight: 200kg (wet)
MPG: 35mpg (est)
Price: £18,499 (standard R1 £14,999)