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YZF-R1

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Yamaha Motor Europe is making the most out of Toprak Razgatlıoğlu’s WorldSBK Championship title (along with the tuning fork brand taking the triple crown in the World Superbike series), and they have something special for 21 lucky buyers.

Making a limited-edition replica of Toprak Razgatlıoğlu’s Yamaha YZF-R1, the PATA Yamaha squad is making the bikes in Crescent Racing workshop.

Just last week, Yamaha unveiled the latest iteration of its YZF-R1 superbike, which sees a number of updates coming to the original liter-bike for the 2020 model year.

The machine is more evolution than revolution, and if we are really honest, the 2020 Yamaha YZF-R1 is really a refresh to keep the folks at Iwata relevant in the big-displacement sport bike category.

As such, we see changes coming to the bike’s cylinder head, airbox, and bodywork, along with updates to the software and suspension.

All of this is to ensure that the Yamaha YZF-R1 is inline with what is being offered by other brands in the superbike space.

Did you feel that? Updates have landed for the 2020 Yamaha YZF-R1 and 2020 Yamaha YZF-R1M motorcycles, with Yamaha debuting the bikes this weekend at the Laguna Seca round for the WorldSBK Championship.

As our bothan spies already reported, the updates are subtle ones, mostly geared towards refining the R1 to keep in touch with its competitors, and to provide the race team with the necessary changes they need under the homologation rules.

This makes the 2020 update very much an evolution, not revolution, for the Yamaha YZF-R1. As such, we see changes coming to the bike’s cylinder head, airbox, and bodywork, along with updates to the software and suspension.

The 2020 Yamaha YZF-R1 has been the subject of much rumor lately, as it appears the Japanese brand is getting ready to bring a new version for the next model year. What the bike will entail though is subject to some debate, however.

Over in Europe, there has been no shortage of speculation about the new superbike, fueled by patent applications from Yamaha over the past few years.

Reading those rumors now, our own Bothan spies from within the Iwata factory’s ranks have reached out to us, in an effort to set the record straight. The news is a mixture of good and bad.

Get the gears turning, because the rumor mill is starting to churn away on speculation for the next generation Yamaha YZF-R1.

This particular rumor looks towards the 2021 model year, when the Euro5 regulations for motorcycles take effect. Of course to that, we say “well of course there is.”

We will get to all that in a minute, but first, the buzz from Europe on what we can expect to see from Yamaha in two years’ time.

The Yamaha YZF-R1 GYTR is one special machine, and only 20 of them will be made worldwide.

That production number helps commemorate the fact that this is the 20th anniversary of the YZF-R1 superbike, and the bike also helps give a nod to the fact that this year Yamaha won the Suzuka 8-Hour endurance race an unprecedented fourth time in a row.

A track-only machine, the Yamaha YZF-R1 GYTR will be painstakingly built by members from the Suzuka-winning Official Yamaha Racing Team crew. Though it is littered with parts from the GYTR catalog and other sponsors, Yamaha is curious mum when it comes to any performance figures about the bike.

The Yamaha YZF-R1 clocked its 20th anniversary this year, a monumental achievement for the original 1,000cc superbike.

Potent from its first debut in 1998, the YZF-R1 is still at the top of the heap, winning the 2018 MotoAmerica Championship, as well as an unprecedented four-in-a-row victories at the prestigious Suzuka 8-Hours endurance race.

To help celebrate this birthday, Yamaha Motor has been touting a throwback livery on its racing machines, and now the Iwata brand is making that red and white livery available to its European fans.

More than just a paint job though, this 2019 Yamaha YZF-R1 GYTR superbike has some very trick parts, which will make the 20 lucky souls who buy one very happy.

Things are not well at Yamaha Motor USA, and over the coming days you are going to read a number of reports from us about Yamaha and its US operations.

Before we dive into the multitude of issues that the Tuning Fork brand faces here in the United States though, we wanted to first talk about Yamaha’s crashing sales, because that best frames the company’s entire situation, and is the basis for the other stories that concern the brand.

Now halfway through 2018, Yamaha sales big bike sales (500cc and up) are down a staggering 19% for the last 12 consecutive months, compared to the same previous 12 months before that.

To put that figure into perspective, the big bike market in the USA is down roughly 8% over the same time period, though that figure is due mostly to Harley-Davidson, which accounts for half of the American bike bike market.

If you haven’t already drooled over the photos of the GMT94 Yamaha YZF-R1, we recommend doing so. The French outfit is fresh off a race win in Portimao, and a strong contender for the FIM Endurance World Championship (EWC) title.

Yamaha has two factory-supported teams though, the second being the Yamaha Austria Racing Team (YART), which won the Endurance World Championship in 2009, and is always a force to be reckoned with.

What has always struck me though, is how different the two teams build their bikes, despite starting with the same platform: the Yamaha YZF-R1. Today, I want to illustrate some of those changes, so we can enjoy the subtleties of the French and Austrian teams.