Yamaha YZF R1M

Hi again folks, I've got another motorcycle here for you. The R1M!

I do have a soft spot for Yamaha bikes. I've been lucky enough now to have owned three. I've owned an R6, and two R1's. And I've never crashed a Yamaha neither, so I consider them to be lucky!
My last one was a white and red 2007 R1. It had a Blue Flame racing exhaust system on it taking the bikes output to 200 bhp. It only weighed 180 kilo so It was like a missile!
The YZF has evolved a lot over the years since my 2007 model. In 2008 the bike undertook a make over and a cross plain crank shaft was introduced allowing the bike to accelerate harder in the mid engine revs, rather than the ridiculously aggressive high revving exup power valves the previous models had incorporated. It immediately was announced top of it's class by all bike tabloids. It was however terribly ugly with big emission friendly exhaust cans and headlights that resembled Dame Edna Everage's glasses. I didn't really warm to it until I looked at a few examples with aftermarket exhaust systems and custom parts.
That guise of the R1 remained the same till it's successor was unveiled at the 2015 Birmingham NEC bike show. I have to admit that I wasn't won over by it's looks at first niether...

The kit is the Tamiya 1/12 kit of Yamaha's new flagship sports bike. It is the track focused version of the new R1, it has 200 bhp as standard and will set you back £20,000. It's lightweight carbon fibre body work coupled with the sophisticated electronics and Ohlins suspension make it a very forgiving rider friendly motorcycle. But also make it a really, really fast motorcycle.
It comes to life around a racetrack and will effortlessly beat any older sports bike, as well as hold it's own with the other manufacturers flagship models of a more expensive Italian origin.

The bike is fully road legal however I opted to build a track bike and left off the mirrors, indicators and registration plate. But it's all there in the box if you want to pass your MOT. The only modification I made to do this was use a bit of putty to fill the holes in the front fairing where the mirrors were meant to go. I used the carbon fibre decal kit from Studio 27, but apart from that it is out the box. I also drilled out the brake discs and painted the can matt black.
I don't really like the new ultra quiet emissions friendly exhausts these days. I would definitely get an aftermarket exhaust if I bought this bike.

When Yamaha first unveiled their new R1, I'll be honest I didn't warm to it with it's futuristic looks and it's big alien insect like eyes. After watching more and more youtube reviews of everyone singing it's praises though, I've sort of been won over by it. I even really like it's big forehead and googly eyes now, I'm sure the design is sculpted by science but it looks vastly different to any other sports bike available. And the carbon fibre on the R1M model is just a work of art! I would love to own this bike one day!

Well the kit is a new release Tamiya, I don't really need to say much more about the quality, but if you have any questions feel free to ask.

Cheers for looking! 🙂

22 additional images. Click to enlarge.