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Posted by Brad Puetz
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Tuesday, 21 November 2006 |
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Story by New Guy Brad Puetz ~ Photos by Old Guys Riles and Nelson
Most of you will remember Brad Puetz from the "Diary of an AMA privateer" series we ran last year. He's somewhat of a Superstock specialist and rides a Suzuki GSX-R1000 in competition. He's a resident of California and is a convicted two-wheel-freak. Here's his take on the new Yamaha R1...
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My day started like any other as I went through my e-mail systematically throwing away all of the spam that magically finds it's way to my inbox....
As I scroll through saving only the e-mails with headlines containing the words Jenna Jameson and Propecia I notice a subject line that catches my attention. No, fancy whiz bang headline, just a subtle message saying Yamaha R1 intro. How could this e-mail not be flagged with some type of hot topic headline. Urgent, Dream Come True Inside! Oh, and let's not forget the intro will be at none other than the world famous home of the corkscrew, Laguna Seca.
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Obviously MikeE doesn't know this is my big chance. I mean I've run the scenario through my head a million times since I was 10 years old. I get on the bike and mercilessly slice and dice my way through the twisty Laguna circuit. The Japanese technicians lining the track decide to pull out their stop watches and are astonished. They then pick up their cell phones and call the Yamaha big wigs in Japan to let them know they have found the next Haga ready to take their new R1 to Superbike victory here in America. I can see the headlines now, Bostrom loses Superbike ride, will be replaced by a 2WF Moto-Journalist. Eventually my head comes out of the deep Monterey fog and reality sets in. My main goal for the day would be not making an ass of myself in front of the nice folks at Yamaha.
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We were greeted at the track with overcast skies and a light drizzle, just enough to keep us off the track. Or maybe I should say keep the bikes off track. In an attempt to form a dry line around the 11 turns of Laguna a few cars were taken out onto the track. I won't go into details on what happened next but let me just give you a little advice. If you see a slightly used Ford Taurus for sale at a Monterey Rental Car Company I would avoid it like the plague! |
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I have quite a few miles on the 2005 version of the R1 both on the street and the track so I was curious to see what the all new R1 had to offer. At first glance the R1 looks quite similar to last years model but upon closer inspection you will see a host of changes. While I expected to see a radical change in the cosmetics, Yamaha decided to keep with the classic look of the R1 and enhance its already sleek stylish lines. Look closely and you will see a redesigned tail section with the exhaust rotated upward for a more compact design and a redesigned tail light.
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