Reading through the comments on the Attack Kawasaki CRT bike and its new crossplane crank, it is clear that the concept of what makes an engine have a crossplane configuration, like the one found in the current Yamaha YZF-R1, is still a bit of an enigma for some motorcyclists.
Referring to the way a crankshaft is built, with the four crank pinks at 90° from each other, an inline-four engine with a crossplane configuration fires its four pistons in a different order, and with different intervals between ignitions, than a normal engine with 180° pin positions.
A subject we’ll broach in greater detail at a later time, we thought this video from Yamaha would at least highlight some of the major differences and reasons for using a crossplane crank in a sport bike motor. Enjoy it after the jump.
Source: Yamaha EU
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