This was me at Daytona getting my first taste of what my R1 would be like. I had two deposits down at two separate dealers, each of whom said I might get one. Turns out I got both of them. The red and white one came first. I put 1000 miles on it. About 30 miles on the rear tire only, and about 5 miles on the front tire only. And I even followed the break in procedure.

When I took delivery of the red and white one, I wasn't sure if I was going to keep it. I really wanted a blue one, but wasn't sure one would come in. So I took it for a quick one mile ride. In that one mile I did a wheelie without the clutch, and keeping the revs below 5000 rpm.

Keeping the revs below 5000 rpm the first 600 miles was difficult, so I tried to stay to the twisty mountain roads. And I must say the suspension is awesome! At first I thought it was way to soft. The back end would squat down all the time. After 20 miles, I thought it was awesome.

The last 400 miles I rode on the bike, I had a little fun. You can easily ride wheelies over 100mph. You don't even have to shift. Just launch in second gear. I had one 3^rd gear wheelie to an indicated 128mph, and I rolled off. I'd love to see what Gary Rothwell could do with this bike.

On May 17^h, 1998 I got in a motorcycle racing accident that messed up my wrist. I received my Blue R1 about June 1^st. I was told I would be able to ride it for four or five months. I had my first ride on it August 12^th, if you can call it that. It's still a blast, but I can't wait to wheelie on it some more.

There is an R1 site, and registry, run by Simon Doherty. You can find out about it, as well as subscription information to the R1 mailing list at http://fourps.wharton.upenn.edu/~simon/r1/

The general Yamaha story, you can read about at http://www.yamahausa.com/mc/yzf/yzf1000/yzf1000.html

Back to my bike page.