Design Cafe

12 años de historia de la R1: una relación de todos los modelos y colores.

'El maestro supremo de las curvas' fue la frase principal en el desarrollo de la 2009 YZF-R1. Los ingenieros de Yamaha tomaron este desafío tan en serio que desarrollaron un nuevo diseño revolucionario del motor, con un cigüeñal tipo “crossplane” y un intervalo de encendido desigual. ¡Si desea más información técnica, lea este artículo!

“Después de haber lanzado en 2006 la cuarta generación de la YZF-R6, muchos me preguntaron, cómo será la siguiente.” Takeshi Higuchi, responsable de la Planificación de producto en Europa, sonríe y continua: “La R6 se puede utilizar en el circuito de competición sin tener que realizar modificaciones. La mayoría de las soluciones técnicas que utilizamos vienen directamente de nuestras motos de competición.”

“Hemos hecho la nueva YZF-R125 deliberadamente como una verdadera moto deportiva y la semejanza con su hermana mayor, la YZF-R6, es a propósito,“ explica Hiroshi Komatsubara, Presidente del centro de Desarrollo e Investigación en Milán, Italia. “En la clase de 125 cc hay actualmente sólo unas pocas verdaderas motos supersport. Y pensábamos que nuestros pilitos jóvenes piensas igual que las generaciones anteriores en lo que respecta a las motos. Quieren motos serias de gran potencia y muchos de ellos sueñan con una moto como la R6.”

Hace una década, la YZF R1 fijó nuevas normas en el mundo de motos supersport. Desde entonces, la R1 se ha convertido en un icono y personifica el ADN Yamaha de carreras con el espíritu de competición en cada componente. Durante los últimos 10 años, la R1 ha sufrido 4 grandes cambios de modelos en 2000, 2002, 2004 y ahora en 2007, aunque hasta ahora casi cada año se han realizado muchas otras mejoras.

"La R1 está pensada para pilotos expertos y altamente capacitados", dice el jefe de la división Planificación de Producto, Tekeshi Higuchi. "Gente que va a los circuitos y que tiene muy altos requerimientos en cuanto a la dinámica de pilotaje."

"The whole bike concept has become more racing orientated" mentions engineering Project Leader Makato Shimamoto. "We developed a brand new engine for a new performance level, and the engine defined everything around it."

'The modifications to the new R6 are entirely done for racing', says our European test rider who is a former racer himself. 'In those conditions, we really needed the bigger brake size, and for a long time we have been racing the 70 (height) tyre because the best race tyres are only available in that size. In the past we had to cut the fairings ourselves to fit the tyre.'

There has never been a bike running off Yamaha's production line, that had more influence from GP and World Superbike than the third generation R1.

"I believe that the new R6 represents the state of the art in 600 cc supersport technology", says Tony Maeda with a convincing expression on his face. As product planner at Yamaha Motor Europe headquarters near Amsterdam he pushed for use of the latest technologies. "This machine is completely new. For the first time we used a special casting process, (called "CF casting") for the rear arm and parts of the frame, which enables us to decrease the wall thickness dramatically. Next to the all new chassis we did lots of modifications to the engine too."

The development priorities of the new R1 are handling and controllability. What are the engineering ingredients that make the bike faster in corners and at the same time even easier to handle?

Nicknamed THE ONE, the second generation R1 focuses on what supersport excitement is all about: cornering, enjoyment of winding roads and racetrack.

The 2001 R1 survey, which we had on our website a few months ago proved a point: motorcyclists are really dedicated to their hobby and they are full of surprises. The interest in the questionnaire was really high and we received over 12000 answers from all over the world.

R1 and R6 are Yamaha top class supersport machines. One could think, the 600 cc is just a smaller version of the 1000 cc version. That's wrong! Both bikes are entirely different!

It all started with a white sheet of paper at an informal meeting in the paddock building at Killarney circuit near Capetown in South Africa. The world’s best motorcycle journalists were just testing the newly launched YZF1000R Thunder Ace. While the media was focused on this new Yamaha sportbike in the hot and sunny South African environment, a group of Yamaha Japan’s key engineers took the opportunity to discuss some new ideas with Yamaha’s European product planners in this relaxed atmosphere.