What the hell happened this month? I'll tell you, it started to rain and the temperature dropped alarmingly. One day I was riding to work in summer attire and the next I had to dig out the yellow-pinlock clear visor, a winter jacket and my EDZ jacket liner. There's a period of denial for every rider in the UK when you really don't want to admit to yourself that summer is well and truly over and autumn has pitched up.
Autumn, as we all know, can turn to winter in less than 24 hours, so the end of summer effectively means winter has arrived. But enough of the doom and (literal) gloom, I'm still struggling to find fault with the R1. All the clichés come rushing to mind...effortless power on tap, a load of torque, damn smooth power delivery, comfortable riding position, beautiful poise and on and on and on... But isn't that the point?
The R1 - at least until the arrival of the limited edition R1SP - is Yamaha's fl agship road bike. This is as good a road bike as Yamaha makes and you'd expect it to be good, wouldn't you? Actually, I am forced to recall what I wrote on these pages a couple of years ago (is it two years already?) when I was on an R6 for the year. I said something to the effect that 600cc was as much as most people needed most of the time. I wrote it and meant it.
Well, after a couple of seasons on 1,000cc bikes, I'm changing my mind. The presence and the lowdown grunt make the R1 a better road bike than any 600, which is to say that if you are getting frustrated in traffi c and fi nd yourself itching to overtake, well, with a generous spread of torque, you can squirt past anything anytime and not scare oncoming traffic, merely nod, wave and smile as you carry on your merry way.
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