2024 Yamaha YZF-R1 Review Daily Rider
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00:00Good day two-wheeled friends, Zach here with RevZilla and welcome to another episode of
00:10Daily Rider.
00:11Our guest today is the 2024 Yamaha YZF-R1.
00:16That is a 450 pound, 1000cc showroom superbike.
00:20It makes the better part of 200 horsepower and costs nearly $20,000.
00:24It was built to be fast and racy and look even faster and racier and not to be particularly
00:30accommodating when it comes to riding to work.
00:32But here's the thing, even if you don't know much about motorcycles, you've probably heard
00:36of an R1.
00:37It's a famous name for Yamaha and for the two-wheeled world in general.
00:41So on the ride to work today, we'll talk about what makes the Yamaha R1 good, what makes
00:45it legendary, and why it might be going away sometime soon.
00:49What's going on everybody, it's superbike time!
00:58Okie dokie everybody, before we get going here with this R1 Daily Rider, a friendly
01:03reminder that this episode is brought to you by RevZilla.
01:05RevZilla is not just a YouTube channel that you're watching, it is also a company that
01:08sells parts, accessories, and apparel for motorcycles and people who love them.
01:13Every dollar you spend at RevZilla.com on a helmet, a jacket, tires, saddlebags, whatever
01:16it might be, some of that money gets shifted over to produce videos like this, Daily Rider,
01:21and the Shop Manual with Aaron Henning, CTXP Adventures, and the High Side Low Side podcast.
01:26We hope you ride safe.
01:27In the meantime, thanks for watching.
01:29Alrighty everybody, let's start with the engine on the R1, shall we?
01:37This is the now famous 998cc cross-plane inline-four.
01:42I don't have a whole lot of time to go into why this engine is different, but very basically,
01:46instead of the inline-four cylinders going up and down like this, like they do on a
01:51CBR1000 or a ZX10 or something like that, all four cylinders go up at different times.
01:57They are a 90 degree offset on the crank pin, each one of them.
02:00That's why you get that really special growl from this engine, and a bunch of other characteristics
02:05as well, including slightly heavier crankshaft, and some downsides Yamaha's been fighting
02:10both in World Superbike and MotoGP.
02:13But that is sort of a different podcast.
02:15The point is, you'll hear it sounds very unique, and I'll talk about why it's special to ride,
02:19and where it came from.
02:21Once we get going, that is.
02:23Other than that, it's fairly basic Superbike architecture.
02:26You've got an aluminum twin-spar frame here, and sort of a long-ish swingarm for good mechanical
02:31grip when you're on a racing track.
02:34It's fairly basic suspension on this base R1.
02:36There's an R1M with Ohlins electronic suspension.
02:39This has a KYB fork and shock, which are fully adjustable, but nothing too exotic.
02:46The same goes for the braking components.
02:49These are Advex calipers.
02:50I think they're 320, 330, 320 mil rotors.
02:55Steel braided lines, though the calipers and the master cylinder are sort of nothing special.
03:00It's sort of every man's Superbike in some ways, especially this standard R1.
03:04It's not particularly exotic.
03:06It has nice big brakes, and it has fully adjustable suspension, and it has a TFT dash,
03:10as we'll talk about.
03:11But it's not in the same echelon with some European Superbikes, and even some other options
03:15from Japan that are particularly spicy.
03:17Or even its fraternal twin, the R1M, which has carbon fiber bodywork and a whole bunch
03:21of fancy jazz.
03:23This iteration of the R1 debuted as a 2015 model, and was updated in 2020 to have slightly
03:29different bodywork up front here.
03:31I think this piece is a little bit wider.
03:32This was reshaped a little bit.
03:33It's a little bit more blunt and sort of like swoopy at the front than it used to be.
03:38There's some other small updates as well.
03:40It was updated for emissions regulations in 2020.
03:44This piece used to be aluminum and is now titanium.
03:47There's now engine braking adjustments in the electronics, which we can dive into a
03:51little bit later.
03:52So those little tweaks in 2020.
03:53Largely, it's the same bike that it was in 2015, when it sort of turned the Superbike
03:58world on its head a little bit.
04:00We'll talk about more of that once we get going here.
04:02But let's fire up that famous engine.
04:05And fire up this TFT screen here.
04:08The R1's dash.
04:09Whoa, hey.
04:10Stay on.
04:11All right.
04:12Here we go, everybody.
04:13Yeah.
04:14That sound all by itself makes me excited.
04:25And I was able to take it to a track day.
04:28You'll see the tires are more used than they might be from riding them on the street.
04:32If you're riding on the street and your tires look like this, you're going too fast.
04:35Go to the track.
04:36That's a little daily rider PSA for you.
04:39All right, everybody.
04:42Let's do it, shall we?
04:44YZF-R1 on the way to work.
04:59All righty.
05:00First up, some specifications.
05:01As usual, I said that the R1 cost nearly $20,000, which is a bit of an exaggeration.
05:07MSRP for 2024 is $18,400, I believe.
05:12On the daily rider scales, with a full 4.5 gallons of gas in the tank, it weighed in
05:17at 452 pounds.
05:20And the seat height is 33.7 inches, which is a pretty high seat height.
05:25Might be surprising, but that's often the case with showroom sport bikes.
05:29You want the seat height to be nice and high for on-track capability.
05:34As for horsepower, I think I said something like it makes the better part of 200 horsepower.
05:38If you Google how much horsepower does an R1 have, you're going to see numbers like
05:41197 and 198.
05:43If you look at an actual dyno chart for rear wheel horsepower, it's going to be closer
05:46to 170 is my guess.
05:48The reason I didn't list it in the specifications is that there isn't technically a claimed
05:53number from Yamaha, I don't think, not in the United States at least, and you know when
05:57the numbers get that big, it's honestly not that important.
06:01It's a lot.
06:03It's a lot of horsepower.
06:04It's really fast.
06:06Watch this.
06:07Enough of that, we can rejoin our regularly scheduled programming and talk about ergonomics.
06:21The ergonomics are, let me see, they're bad.
06:26It's uncomfortable.
06:27It's not a comfortable motorcycle at all.
06:29And I'll start with the really obvious stuff.
06:31The footpegs are fairly high, you know, it was a track bike, and the seat is fairly high
06:35as I mentioned.
06:36The handlebars are really, really low.
06:38They're only maybe an inch or an inch, maybe an inch and a half above the height of the
06:42seat.
06:43So practically you're reaching down to the height of the seat when you reach forward
06:46to the bars.
06:47The R1 is typically better for taller riders in general, such as myself at six foot two.
06:53I think it fits me pretty well for a superbike, but it can be kind of stretched out for shorter
06:57riders because the reach from the bars to the center of the seat is historically a little
07:01bit farther than most of the competition.
07:05So very basically, what does all that mean, Zach?
07:07Why is it so uncomfortable?
07:08Well, that just means all the weight is on your wrists.
07:10Doesn't take very long of riding around on city streets or basically whatever environment
07:14that you're going to find yourself just feeling a lot of pressure on the palms of your hands
07:17and on your wrists.
07:18It's very common to see sport bike riders going down the freeway with one elbow on the
07:22tank, and that's because their wrists hurt.
07:25And it's totally, totally understandable because the ergonomics of this motorcycle were designed
07:29to go around a racetrack, not designed to be comfortable.
07:35All of that being said, the R1 is quite lovely in some other ergonomic ways.
07:39One of my favorites is the junction between the tank and the seat.
07:43I don't know if you can, I'm pointing my helmet down, I don't know if you can see that, but
07:47it's really, really smooth.
07:48That means that when you're on a racetrack hustling yourself around, it's just like really
07:51easy to feel like you can hold onto the tank with your legs and everything is sort of,
07:55all the shapes down there are sort of gentle and organic.
07:58And that allows your body to fit into the bike really nicely.
08:00I also think that the seat is pretty comfortable, actually.
08:04It's fairly thin, but I think the foam is a sort of nice material and it's nice and
08:07wide and fairly supportive considering what the bike is.
08:12And maybe it's because my wrist hurts so much that I don't think about the seat really.
08:15It's actually surprisingly accommodating in some ways, though the basic foundation
08:21was not designed for this at all.
08:23The 2020 update I mentioned to the fairing was supposed to make for less wind buffeting.
08:28Add full tuck though, so you have to go like this on the R1 to really feel the effects
08:32of it.
08:33And I look like a complete idiot going down the highway now.
08:36But yeah, someone on Instagram said, you know, can you feel the difference with the new fairing?
08:40Absolutely not.
08:41There's really not very much wind protection when you're just riding around, you know?
08:44And even if there were a little bit less buffeting, I don't think it would really register on
08:49your brain.
08:51One thing the R1 delivers in spades in situations like this is smoothness from the engine.
08:56The engine is so incredibly smooth.
08:58I remember having that feeling the first time I rode this iteration of this bike in January,
09:04I think, or February of 2015.
09:06I went to Australia to Sydney Motorsports Park and I rode the R1 and R1M for the first
09:11time.
09:12And I was just going out of pit lane onto the track and I spun the engine up and I thought,
09:16wow, it's so buttery smooth and it absolutely does that.
09:20I mean, cruising along at this speed right now, the engine's really smooth at 4,500 RPM.
09:25If I go down to, I don't know, second gear and now I'm at 8,500 RPM going 70 miles an
09:32hour and the engine's still pretty smooth.
09:34It doesn't really care.
09:35I could do this all day it feels like, but you won't want to do that all day because
09:40even riding it sort of normally, you get pretty bad gas mileage.
09:44I think my high number was 35, my low was 29.
09:48So it's good that it has a four and a half gallon tank because range isn't great.
09:51I was out on a photo shoot with my colleague Dustin and we ran this thing all the way out
09:56of gas.
09:57Poor Dustin had to push with a little bit of my help to a gas station with 128 miles
10:02on the clock.
10:03That's not much.
10:05So yeah, a touring bike, it is not.
10:08But it does have that really gentle, smooth beating heart, which is why the MT-10 exists.
10:15Because everyone's like, Oh, I just want that engine.
10:17But I want it in like a naked bike that's more upright and comfortable and still gets
10:21terrible gas mileage.
10:22And Yamaha said, no problem, we can do it.
10:25But of course, MT-10, a whole nother episode of Daily Rider.
10:30If you want to learn about the MT-10, you can look that one up.
10:34On our last little section of freeway here, we can talk about mirrors, which are surprisingly
10:39good.
10:40I mean, they're nice and smooth.
10:41They're not positioned particularly well, you still get like a really good view of your
10:45lower arm and a little hard to see behind you, but they are smooth, just like the engine
10:49and probably in part because of the engine.
10:55So riding an R1 around town like this, it's a, it's a fairly polite, easy bike to use,
11:03but it's not very good at this for a few reasons.
11:07One is the riding position, which I don't find very easy to sort of like look around
11:10and have good situational awareness, classic sport bike problem.
11:13This bike's geared really, really tall as big super bikes often are.
11:18You can see like you slip the clutch until 15 or 20 miles an hour probably.
11:23As far as the throttle response and the clutch feel and stuff like that, it's really good.
11:27It's a sweet engine to use and all the controls feel very precise and thoughtful in a way
11:34that they should for a bike that is, you know, a flagship, but really it's just sort of like
11:42hemmed in for what it's meant to do.
11:45The bike will go 99 miles an hour indicated in first gear.
11:49So it's not happy when it's doing this.
11:54It does, it acts docile enough and, and it's, it's happy to help, but, but yeah, you know,
12:03the bars are narrow, the gearing is tall, the riding position is uncompromising.
12:10If you're doing this for any amount of time, you're going to wish you were on a twisty
12:14road or a freeway on-ramp or something.
12:18So yeah, ultimately the urban riding report on the R1 is that it's not great, but you
12:25do look awesome.
12:27You look like you've just barely rolled out of a WorldStreetBike paddock and the bike
12:33nearly sounds the same too.
12:34It's got this beautiful menacing growl.
12:37And you know, you, you, you feel pretty cool riding around on the legend that is the R1,
12:42I would say.
12:44Just got to get your, your clutch slipping down, you know.
12:47Okie doke, Lovers Lane, you can probably guess how the passenger accommodations are on this
12:53bike.
12:54They are, if anything, even more uncompromising than the rider's position.
12:59The passenger foot pegs are super high back there.
13:01It's just this narrow, tiny little perch, sort of afterthought of a seat.
13:06My wife often actually brings this motorcycle up because she has some experience with it.
13:10I had one as a long-term test bike way back when for about 4,000 miles in the better part
13:15of a year.
13:16I club raced it, so on and so forth.
13:18She spent some time on it, and she often brings this bike up still.
13:20She says, well, at least it's not as uncomfortable as that R1.
13:23I think you'll find your passengers will have a similar opinion.
13:26I wouldn't expect them to be happy, but maybe, you know, if they're an adrenaline junkie,
13:32they'll get a kick out of it.
13:33Alrighty, we go into the twisty road section, and of course, this is where everyone will
13:45have you believe the R1 is magical, and it sort of is.
13:52I guess I'll start with the things that I like broadly about it, which is that going
13:57through turns is what it was designed to do to some extent, and it is sweet.
14:03A little bit of body English, you get one butt cheek off the inside of the seat, and
14:07your hands can be really neutral on the bars, just sort of like floats through the corners.
14:11It's very responsive.
14:12The suspension is pretty stiff, so you get lots of feedback, which I like on a racetrack,
14:18but speaking of racetracks, that's really where the bike belongs.
14:21It's really rare that you can find a public road that really suits the R1, that's like
14:26smooth enough or open enough, and if it is open enough, you're going to find yourself
14:31going triple-digit speeds pretty soon, and at that point, you shouldn't be doing that.
14:34You should be going to a racetrack anyway.
14:36It is good on a twisty road, but I just don't think it's better on a twisty road than something
14:42that's upright and more playful, you know what I mean, like if you asked me to have
14:47as much fun as possible going down this little, you know, whatever, one or two mile section
14:51of daily rider route, and you said, which bike do you want, the R1 wouldn't be very
14:56high up the list.
14:57I'd have an MT-10 first, I might even have an MT-09 first.
15:01That's just sort of like emblematic of how high performance this bike is.
15:06It really just sort of needs a purpose-built closed circuit to be flexed and used in a
15:13way that it deserves.
15:15If you ask me what bike I want to go around a racetrack as fast as I can, yeah, this bike
15:20would be near the top of the list.
15:22It's so sweet.
15:23When I took it to the track day a couple of days ago, I just was reminded how easy it
15:28is to use.
15:29It just like wants to help you go faster.
15:31Even the electronics are 10 years old now, and they're still good, still state of the
15:35art, still like phenomenally comprehensive suite of electronics that just works so well.
15:43Wheelie control that feels like it was designed yesterday by BMW.
15:46It's really, really good.
15:47The traction control and slide control just offers so much adjustability and so much confidence
15:53to the rider.
15:54It's a phenomenally good motorcycle when you really ask it to scream.
16:04Right, back onto surface streets here.
16:12I don't know if you can see, the tachometer turns green at a certain RPM.
16:16What is it?
16:17I think it's 8,000.
16:19Yeah, it's not a huge dash.
16:24It feels a little bit dated sometimes.
16:25We'll talk more about it in a minute here, but functionally, it's pretty nice.
16:29Got everything you need, and it's laid out in a pretty easy to use way, I think.
16:36Talking about the R1's sporting capability as we approach this red light, you have to
16:40talk about the brakes, which in this situation, you roll up to a stoplight here, you jump
16:45on the binders, really strong.
16:48Big calipers, big discs, they feel really strong, they feel sharp, and not as much initial
16:54bite as you get from a Ducati or a BMW with a Brembo system, maybe, but good brakes.
17:02On a racetrack, however, you start really hammering the brakes lap after lap, and you're
17:05a good rider, you'll get the brakes to fade a little bit, and that's been a weak point
17:09of the R1 since this version came out, anyway.
17:12It doesn't have ultra-high spec brakes, and like I said, the brakes are good, I just think
17:16they're not as good as the rest of the bike, which is a high bar, but it's a bar that the
17:21bike has set, and it's hard not to hold the brakes to that standard.
17:25Alright, as we approach this stoplight here, let's talk about that dash a little bit more,
17:32shall we?
17:33It is a thr...
17:34Oh, geez, I don't remember the number, 3.8 inch TFT, 4 inch maybe?
17:39It feels small, I'll say that.
17:41It looks small inside the bubble there, and it feels like it's fairly far away.
17:45It's a nice layout, though.
17:47There's a lot of information in there.
17:49There's gear position indicator here, there's...
17:51This is the IMU in the ECU, is reading...
17:56Well, there's a brake pressure thing here, you can see, right there, when I squeeze the
17:59brake lever, you get brake pressure readout.
18:02You also get G-Force's front and rear readout there, and then this little click wheel over
18:07here will run through these parameters here, which right now we're sitting at air temp
18:11of 80, coolant temp of 204, you can look at fuel averages, odometers, trips, stuff like
18:17that.
18:18All the information on the bottom is controlled with this button here, where you can, when
18:21you're stopped anyway, go through four different power modes, A, B, C, and D, and there are
18:26corresponding power maps for each one of those, as well as traction control settings, slide
18:30control, and engine braking management.
18:32To get into the whole kit and caboodle, you hold down on this little click wheel here,
18:36go down to YRC setting, and then you can adjust all this stuff.
18:40Wheelie control, engine braking, brake control, ABS, quick shifter, launch control, blah blah
18:45blah.
18:46The graphics are a little bit Gameboy compared to some of the other kind of like classier
18:50dash on like a Panigale or an S1000RR, but ultimately the information is laid out nicely,
18:55and it's pretty easy to use.
18:57I like it.
18:58And when you're having fun on a bike, you're not looking at the dash all that much anyway,
19:00right?
19:01Maybe?
19:02I don't know.
19:03Maybe I'm just making excuses.
19:08Right about now we can talk about whether or not you buy this bike for the engine, and
19:12the R1 is one of those bikes that yes, absolutely.
19:15If someone said I just got an R1 because I want that cross-plane growl, and I want that
19:20sound and that feel, and that's the only reason I got the bike, I don't really like the way
19:24it looks, I don't really like this, the other bikes have this, other bikes have that, but
19:27I wanted that engine, I would say great decision.
19:30Great decision.
19:31It's a phenomenal engine.
19:32And it's unique.
19:33No other brand has an engine that sounds like this or feels like this, and it's not currently
19:39benefiting Yamaha a great deal, and MotoGP for example, where the Yamaha factory is struggling
19:46mightily, but I think for a street bike, you know, this bike and the MT-10, the engine
19:52is special.
19:53Undeniably.
19:54While we're at the stoplight, I can point out that we've been here for 60 seconds or
20:0090 seconds, something like that, and the coolant temp is up to 222 Fahrenheit, and it'll probably
20:05get a little higher before we leave here, it goes up to 226.
20:08It's not uncommon to have the coolant temp jump to 225 or 230, even 235, which is very
20:14hot.
20:16Yamaha clearly designed it to run hot, because it works well when the engine's hot.
20:20It's not as bad as the old under-tail exhaust bikes, pre-2015 bikes, I don't think, it's
20:24not quite as much heat as that, but it burns a lot of gas, it makes a lot of heat, it's
20:28a hot rod.
20:30Ultimately.
20:31And it's very gentlemanly and polite to ride around in environments like this, like I've
20:34been doing this whole ride, but underneath the hood there is a hot rod.
20:44So where do we sit with this R1 in the history of R1s, in the history of motorcycling?
20:49I said that it might be going away soon, and that is true in Europe.
20:53I think starting in 2025, there will be no street R1 option.
20:57I think there will be a track-only option, maybe.
20:59In the United States market, the R1 will continue in 2025, is what Yamaha is saying right now
21:05as of the recording of this video.
21:07The point is, there are definitely questions around the future of the motorcycle, because
21:13Yamaha has chosen in Europe, for example, not to update the emissions technology to
21:18keep up with the demand, and it is a hot rod, like I said.
21:22And so that puts some question marks, officer.
21:25It puts some question marks around the bike, and where it will be in a few years, or five
21:31years or ten years, you know, like, it could just be sort of the waning moon of the R1.
21:37It could be in its twilight years.
21:39And that's a little sad for the world of motorcycling, I think, because on the one hand, I totally
21:46get it.
21:47It's not a good street bike.
21:50It's not practical for consumers to use, especially when there are other options that
21:59do some things just as well and other things much better.
22:02But from an emotional standpoint, anyone who's been into motorcycles, or especially racing
22:07or sport bikes or whatever in the past ten years, will be really sad if the R1 goes away.
22:14It's sort of like a stalwart, it's a staple, it's a legend.
22:17And without it, the world of two wheels may feel a little bit different.
22:23A little bit slower, perhaps.
22:28The thing that I would like to really iterate, and perhaps reiterate, is that I can't believe
22:36how modern this bike feels.
22:39I wondered after riding recent Ducatis, recent BMWs, a Honda CBR1000RRR, would it just feel
22:46long in the tooth?
22:48But it doesn't.
22:49It feels relevant.
22:51On the track and off the track.
22:53It feels good.
22:54It feels like a superbike you'd be proud to buy and own, even though it hasn't really
22:59been updated in so long.
23:01It says a lot about how good this bike was ten years ago, it really does.
23:05And for those of you wondering how it goes as a dirt bike, well, the R1's never been
23:11famously good in the dirt, but maybe today's the day.
23:16I'm going to go to Power Map 3, which is going to tame it a little bit.
23:21And then, can I shut off Traction Control here?
23:23I can!
23:25Traction Control off, Slide Control off, Engine Braking Management, I don't know, I'm going
23:30to leave ABS on.
23:31I don't think you can shut it off, actually, because I remember when I raced this bike
23:33I had to leave it on.
23:36Okay.
23:37Yamaha R1, no Traction Control.
23:40Let's see how we do in the dirt.
23:41The gearing is so ridiculous.
23:44I'm just going faster than I want to go already, and I'm not even doing anything yet.
23:53You know, it's not that bad so far, although this sort of sandy surface is not great for
23:56the old RS11 Hypersport tires.
24:00Oh, there's a big mound here.
24:02We should build another jump, huh?
24:03What do you think?
24:04Okay, let's see what happens if we get on it a little bit here.
24:10Haha, okay.
24:13That's a pretty angry noise, isn't it?
24:16Here's some bumps.
24:17Oh my gosh!
24:25That's...
24:28I think, ultimately, I would not recommend that, is what I think.
24:35I'm going to turn Traction Control back on.
24:37There we go.
24:38So it's back on.
24:39I'm going to go into the menu and make sure that we're in mode B here.
24:45Let's do Wheelie Control off.
24:48I don't normally shut Wheelie Control off just because it's so impressive and badass
24:52on this bike.
24:53I just sort of leave it on because doing big, honking wheelies isn't really, like, the thing
24:57that this bike does well, in my opinion.
25:00But we'll give it a try.
25:01Why not?
25:08Okay, can the R1 do a wheelie?
25:10Yeah, probably.
25:15Jesus!
25:19Yeah, it can do wheelies, but by the time you're really doing a good one, you're going
25:24so fast!
25:25My goodness!
25:26Ugh, what an engine.
25:28I mean, it feels sort of, like, strong and willing and vibrant, but calm and smooth below
25:378,000 RPM.
25:38And then when you get to 8,000 RPM, it just does this thing where it goes... it just sort
25:43of, like, clears its throat like an opera singer and starts going... and sends out this,
25:47like, godly noise.
25:49And the push in the back you get is phenomenal.
25:52It's not really even one of the fastest super bikes anymore.
25:55It's sort of, like, often panned for not being as fast as a BMW or a Ducati or an Aprilia
25:59or whatever.
26:00But gosh, is it sweet.
26:01And it's plenty fast.
26:16So the question of can you back it in is an interesting one on the R1.
26:20Because yes, you can.
26:22There we go.
26:23And that's with ABS on.
26:26The engine braking is quite aggressive.
26:28And that means that when you jump on the brakes really hard, I'm not even touching the back
26:31brake.
26:32It's just, like, doing this all itself.
26:36It's pretty exciting.
26:40And on the track, I actually found that the new engine braking management options are
26:44good because I found the standard engine braking was a little bit too strong.
26:49So I turned it down a little bit.
26:50Which, yeah, it's nice.
26:52Nice update.
26:54But for hooning around on the street, I suppose it's kind of fun.
26:58Well now, there are no blank parking spaces for us to work with here, so we're just going
27:04to have to wing it.
27:05I'm going to line up right here.
27:07And then on this line, we are going to crank it to the left, feet up, oh god, this is really
27:14not good at this.
27:15Oh god.
27:16Oh god.
27:17Two and a half?
27:19Two and a half on an extremely ugly path at a U-turn?
27:24U-turns are not the R1's speciality, let me just say that.
27:29If you get good at U-turns on an R1, you'll probably be pretty good at them in general.
27:38Alright, happy enough to have survived the dirt road shortcut.
27:45Let's give one more listen to this sweet, sweet engine.
27:53I mean, the neighbors probably hate me, but is that not just a magical sound for an engine
28:02to make?
28:03God, it's good.
28:04Okay, Instagram question time.
28:06First up is The Disgruntled Panda, who says, how different is it, really, from an MT-10
28:11SP?
28:12So different.
28:13It's really, really, really, very different.
28:15The MT-10 is a very different animal.
28:18The engine is different, though it sounds and feels similar.
28:23The gearing is different, the tuning is different.
28:24It just feels completely different as a motorcycle.
28:26There's way more leg room, you're way more upright, and that makes it more comfortable,
28:31but it also makes it feel, you know, less sporty.
28:33An MT-10 is a particularly comfortable, relaxed, upright sport naked.
28:38It is not like a BMW S1000 single R or a Tuono V4 or something like that, which really
28:46feels like just kind of a naked version with a slightly higher bar of the superbike.
28:50So it's not really similar, except in the few ways that it is.
28:54If you would like to read my review, both on a racetrack and on the road, of the MT-10
28:57SP, that exists at revzilla.com slash common tread, for what it's worth.
29:01Next up is Neil Dan and Rage Seas, who had sort of a back and forth here that I saved
29:08because I thought it was pretty good.
29:09Neil Dan says, is the R1 still the premier Japanese superbike, or would you rather have
29:13a Kawi ZX-10 or Suzuki GSX-R1000?
29:16Rage Seas replied and said, what about the Honda CBR RRR?
29:19We've already seen it on the Daily Rider, how would it compare to the leaderboard?
29:21We'll get into the leaderboard here in a minute.
29:24I appreciate this question though, and like I said at the end of the ride, I think this
29:27bike is surprisingly relevant.
29:29I think if I were to choose any of those bikes, I'd be tempted by the Honda just because it's
29:33so exotic and has such an amazing howl, but I just, I don't know, I feel at home on this
29:38bike.
29:39And maybe it's because I have a little bit more experience with it, though I've ridden
29:41ZX-10s and GSX-R1000s and Honda CBR1000s, I've ridden all of them.
29:46This bike just sort of like, even though it's not exotic, it feels a little bit more special
29:52and I just love how it feels on a racetrack.
29:54It's great.
29:55It fits me well being fairly tall, like I said, and I just think it sounds so sweet
30:00and it works so well.
30:02Feels weird to pine after the one that hasn't been updated in 10 years, but that's what
30:06I'm doing.
30:08Next question is from Mark Craver who says, as a frequent track rider enthusiast, I am
30:13looking for one bike to commute with, take to the track and mountain runs on the weekend.
30:16Is this the bike for me?
30:17Uh, no, I don't think so.
30:19I don't know.
30:20I would get this bike if you're going to go to the track like 90% of the time.
30:23In fact, if you're going to ride on the street at all, I just think there are other options.
30:28I don't know.
30:30It's hard to recommend to use for a weekend riding or to commute.
30:34It's just really hard to recommend.
30:35I don't think it's very good at that.
30:37It is sweet.
30:38It is special.
30:39It does feel somewhat legendary when you ride it, but it feels definitely uncomfortable.
30:44I think if you want to do part-time track days with your street bike, I would go with
30:49a Tuono.
30:50I would go with a BMW S1000 single R. It's pretty wicked.
30:53Triumph Street Triple 765, I don't know, something like that.
30:57That's what I'd probably end up recommending for you.
31:00Next question is from Corey Baker 5004, who says, with the current R1 going on 10 years
31:04old, is it better described as long in the tooth or timeless classic?
31:08If I had to go binary there, I'd go timeless classic.
31:10It's still good.
31:12And the fact that it's still good means that it was excellent when it was new, and that
31:15says everything you need to know.
31:17Is it long in the tooth?
31:18Maybe.
31:19But for riders like you and me and we're going to the track, it's great.
31:24It's great.
31:25It's a timeless classic, Corey.
31:27Last question comes from Jstock315, who says, if there were to be a swan song for this bird
31:32set for pasture, what would it be?
31:34So we're just setting this thing out to pasture.
31:35If there were a swan song for the R1, what would it be?
31:36I think that's the question.
31:38And that's a good question.
31:39I think if I'm picking a song, I'm going with, there's a song called, You're Going to Miss
31:44Me When I'm Gone.
31:46I think that's the song that I would assign for the R1.
31:50Was it Garth Brooks?
31:51No, it's country, I think.
31:53Maybe it's Brooks and Dunn had a song about, you've hurt me too many times and you're going
31:57to miss me when I'm gone.
31:58You're going to kiss me one more time.
31:59That's the song that I imagine the R1 singing to all of us plebes at track days and canyon
32:04roads trying to extract the most out of it.
32:06And R1 is saying, you're going to miss me when I'm gone.
32:08I've tried to love you, but you're not good enough for me in the end.
32:12We will miss this motorcycle if and when it goes away.
32:14But for those of you in the United States, you don't have to worry.
32:17It's not going away yet.
32:19It's still available to shred track days and make your wrists hurt on a commute.
32:23Let's put this sucker on the Daily Rider Leaderboard and we can call it a day.
32:26All right.
32:27Okay, team.
32:29Here we are at the Daily Rider Leaderboard.
32:32As a friendly reminder, you got the KTM 890 SMT at the top there, Moto Guzzi V100 Mandelo,
32:38and a BMW M1000R on the podium.
32:42No superbikes, you might have noticed.
32:44This is the first superbike we've ridden in 2024.
32:47So where's the Honda CBR1000RRR SP?
32:51All the way at the bottom.
32:53Almost all the way at the bottom.
32:54Not worse than a Sondra's Metacycle because nothing could be worse than that.
32:57But basically at the bottom of the 2023 Daily Rider Leaderboard.
33:00Wicked impressive bike, but just not a good daily rider.
33:04But we've got a Yamaha R1, which gets a little fire logo, spicy, quite a fast motorcycle.
33:09So they're high performance bikes like the BMW M1000 single R, which is very, very fast.
33:15Claims more horsepower than a Yamaha R1 and in some ways feels like it, but also fairly
33:21upright and just an awfully sweet bike to use, which is why it's so high up on the board
33:24there.
33:25And another sport bike here, the old Ninja 500 SE, which is a pretty dynamite daily rider
33:30actually and a very different sport bike than a Yamaha R1 and a bit better, if we're being
33:35honest.
33:36Ninja 500 SE, I would happily recommend that bike be ridden across town to work any day
33:43of the week.
33:44Maybe not as much as the R1.
33:45Maybe not so much.
33:46So the R1 is going to be down here somewhere.
33:47What do you think, better than a Hyper 698 Mono from Ducati?
33:54I don't think so.
33:55I mean, the Hyper 698 is tall and like, yeah, it's a very kind of siloed bike.
34:01Like it's good at one thing and not good at a lot of other things, but ultimately as uncomfortable
34:07and kind of rowdy and silly and not great on the highway, a Hyper 698 is probably a
34:14better daily rider, if we're being honest, right?
34:16Is a Harley-Davidson Nightster a better daily rider than a Yamaha R1?
34:22The R1 is such an interesting blend of things that I know are not good and yet things that
34:27I love so much, like performance and speed and the actual capability to back all of it
34:33up, which the R1 has in spades.
34:35It's so cool.
34:36You feel so cool riding that bike, but it's really not a very good daily rider.
34:40The Harley-Davidson Nightster has some issues.
34:43Unlike the throttle response, the riding position is a little funky, you know, suspension
34:47is like short and a little bit lopsided if I remember correctly.
34:51But then again, the Nightster is smooth.
34:55Would I prefer it?
34:57If those two bikes are sitting next to each other in the garage, I'm much more likely
35:01to recommend a Harley-Davidson Nightster.
35:04Well, okay, let's talk about the S2 Del Mar for a second, the Livewire S2 Del Mar fully
35:09electric motorcycle.
35:12And I remember saying, bit of a knife to a gunfight.
35:15All electric bikes are really hard on the daily rider leaderboard because they're so
35:18kind of like hemmed in by not being able to ride very far and having to wait for them
35:23to charge.
35:24And that is a really big blocker for many people's quote unquote daily riding parameters,
35:30you know.
35:31The Yamaha R1 is not really a knife to a gunfight.
35:34It's more like a bazooka to a gunfight.
35:36It's just so much more than you need.
35:39And it's kind of overwhelming in a bunch of ways, depending on the type of riding you're
35:42going to do and the type of rider that you are.
35:44So where does the bazooka fit in the gunfight next to the knife?
35:52I'm so deep in the analogies here.
35:54Okay.
35:55Everybody be cool.
35:56We're going to put it on the daily rider leaderboard.
35:57It's going to go where you might have expected.
35:59I do think that I would recommend a Harley-Davidson Nightster over an R1 for many, many people's
36:07daily ride.
36:08Many, many people.
36:09For myself, I would have trouble turning down the R1 because it just plucks at my heartstrings
36:14so much.
36:15And I love what it stands for and I love its kind of status in the motorcycling world.
36:19And I love the way that it sounds and I like the way that it makes me feel.
36:23And I know what it feels like to have slick tires on that bike and to bail into a corner
36:30and just know that the bike has your back and just let your knee and your elbows skim
36:34along the pavement.
36:35And not very many bikes can deliver that.
36:38It is special.
36:40And contains some magic that I was not expecting to taste or see 10 years down the road from
36:44when it debuted, basically.
36:45But it's not a very good daily rider.
36:48There you have it.
36:49All right, everybody.
36:51Thank you for riding along with me on this daily ride and my old friend, the YZF-R1.
36:57I will be very sad if and when it finally goes away.
37:01Hopefully you won't be too sad to see me go away now that we're at the end of the episode.
37:05Thank you for sticking around for this daily rider.
37:07Very much appreciate it and hope to see you next time.
37:09See you, everybody.