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So i was able to get some miles in on my new crossplane r1 and figured id put a little review of it on here. i bought it having never ridden one and going by the many differing reviews of it. I kinda took all the reviews and mashed them into one and made a judgement call and went ahead and bought it a few weeks ago. There are a few threads i started about it already so i wont go into those details. This will be more for someone looking at buying one or like the position i was in- why arent people buying them?
Overall it seems to be a decent bike. I dont have many miles on it yet so eveything is subject to change. I guess the thing with the r1 is you have to modify to really unlock its potential. From the factory it has alot and i mean alot of downfalls. These are some of the ones ive noticed and the common fix to them.
-Weight. Its a pig. About 475lbs wet. Nearly 75lbs more than my old gsxr. Its not so bad riding it, it has a nice solid feel to it. I havent really put it in the twisties yet but i think itll be ok. It is a bitch to move about the garage though. You can really feel the weight. It reminds me very much of a zx7. Its fairly hard and expensive to really get the weight down too. A full exhaust only saves about 15-20 lbs on a good day.
-Power. This is were the crossplane comes into play. While the motor maybe an inline 4 the effects of the crossplane give it a very much v-twin feel. Its got massive low-end grunt that just keeps building like an inline. It only has about 150hp on a good day. Supposedly unleashing the ecu brings it up to about 165ish and fixes a host of it other issues. Its not as fast as my old 06 gsxr 1000 but im still breaking it in so im not really pushing but i know it wouldnt keep up. Reminds me of a tl1000r in the lower rpms. The modes have a vastly different feels to them too.
-Engine Output. This is were it gets tricky. The bike is really poor in this area and i have no idea why yamaha is even selling it like this. The throttle is super, super sensitive. Its not so bad on standard and B mode mapping but A mode is borderline undriveable. Its so touchy and sensitive to inputs the bike just jumps around alot. Unless your on the track nothing about its traits are confidence inspiring.
It also has the hardest hitting engine braking ive ever had on a bike. It feels like someone is stomping on the rear brakes when you roll off the throttle. Its absolutely horrid. There is no coasting on this bike.
It also has bad vibrations like a twin. Its pretty harsh if your below 6k rpms and give it any gas. Im told this goes away abit when its broken in. Just cruising is silky smooth though. Very tame and soft.
Unleashing the ecu is said to fix all these problems.
-Clutch. Its a horror show. The piss poor slipper clutch combined with a super tall first gear make launching impossible. Taking off from a dead stop results in lurching and juddering until you get to a higher rpm. Your constantly fighting the slipper at every takeoff. Im told some bikes are worse than others and it looks like mine maybe in the bad camp. There are 2 fixes on the market to fix this though. One is a Brocks kit that eliminates the slipper part of the clutch and the other is a graves kit. Whats odd about the Graves kit is it using existing yamaha parts to fix the slipper part. Why yamaha doesnt do it i dont know. It needs to be fixed though. Either kit is around $100. Going down a tooth on the front sprocket and/or adding stiffer clutch springs is said to help as well.
-sound. It really is unique. Sounds like a small block chevy. I cant wait to get the exhaust opened up.
-ride quality. Its pretty stable. Havent messed with it too much but it did ok today under not the best conditions. The under tail exhaust does kick off some heat. On a 50 degree day i could feel it heating my back lower body. It must be terrible on a 100 degree day. Getting rid of the cats and new slip-ons are the fix. I could probably ride it for hundreds of miles without issue. The sensitive throttle, engine breaking and motor vibrations are the only issues (and they are big ones) that really hurt this area.
Overall its a kind of a disappointing bike in stock form. Certainly not the class leader but its not all that bad either. Its not for someone who wants the best bike going. Everyone of its short coming can be blamed squarely on yamaha and everything has a supposed fix. Unleashing the ecu and upgrading the clutch are the first order of business for every new owner. After its been gone through and upgraded its supposed to be a fantastic bike. Ill update this later on after i break it in and do the mods. Ill also update this as i see and experience more things. I think the bike has the basis to be a good bike but itll never be great. Luckily i didnt buy it to have the greatest. I wanted something that was a bit unique and this bike at this cost is in a class by itself. Its just a shame that it has so many quirks that could turn off potential buyers that yamaha should have sorted immediately. I will say if i bought this bike not knowing about its issues and/or it didnt have the proper mods to correct them id be pretty upset.
Update 6/1- Got about 1500 miles on the bike now. Its completely broken in and is pretty much how its gonna be without mods to fix trouble areas. I broke it in nice and slow and didnt beat on it at all until its first service at 600 miles. Some things got better and some stayed the same. Here are my updates-
Weight- still heavy. Added a leo vince exhaust and dropped about 5 lbs so no biggie. Its stabile at speeds and tracks well.
Power- Very strong through its entire rpm range. Its just like a high revving twin. Couple of my friends have dynoed them too. Almost always 145-150 in stock form. A ecu flash brings it up to 160+ pretty quickly. Im still waiting to do it though.
Engine output- Still shitty. The throttle is really twitchy and almost dangerous when trying to wheelie. Its almost impossible to be smooth and roll the throttle. Very herky jerky bike. The different mapping mods Soften the harshness abit but kills the power in the process. It is a very buzzy bike to. About 45 minutes of riding and i cant feel my fingers anymore. Its pretty bad. In the low revs the whole bike shakes and vibrates. Ive ridden a few others and they all do it. Im getting used to the overly harsh engine breaking but mainly because im not riding my other bikes. A ecu flash is still recommended to take care of these issues.
Clutch- Still funny off idle. I basically slip the shit out of it to take of some what fast. it will never do a hard launch in its stock configuration however. Drag racer this bike is not. Had a friend swap gearing on his bike and it improved but didnt solve the issue.
Sound- With the leo's on it it really is crazy sounding. I get compliments every time i ride. Its a little loud for me but its bearable. Sounds like a race car with a v8. The leo pipes themselves are complete shit and i will never recommend anything they sell to anyone again but they do the job, however poorly they were built and assembled.
Ride quality- Its harsh and buzzy but doable. Whats killing me is the heat. Its is so hot i want to cry sitting in traffic. Even at highway speeds my back is still washed with heat. Its pretty uncomfortable on my inner thighs. The leos helped abit and im told ditching the cats are the key to getting rid of the heat. This is a bike where its absolutely impossible to wear shorts on. On a plus at around 40 -50 degrees ambiant temps the bike is quite nice to ride. The heat is bad at all and keeps you nice and toasty. Usually i dont like riding below 50 but with this bike i can dip to the low 40's and still be ok. As stated before the vibrtions coming through the grips make this bike hard to ride any distance. One odd thing about the controls that i still cant figure out is the clutch lever was killing my fingers. I use 2 fingers and the lever was giving me blisters on the knuckle of one of the fingers i keep on the bars. Ive never had it happen on any bike ive ever owned before. It got to the point where it was uncomfortable to shift. Rotating the assembly helped but didnt solve the issue. I ended up having to buy some shorty asv type levers. Fixed the problem but it shouldnt have been there to begin with.
At this point i usually tell people its a poor bike to consider buying. I cant really say to many good things about it other than looks and sound. The torquey motor is really nice but comes at a cost. Add to the fact that at about 1200 miles my cam chain tensioner crapped out and is going in for service (known issue but yamaha didnt want to fix it until it becomes a problem) i cant really recommend it. Id say just about any other 1000 is a better buy. Hate to say it but its true. I made a mistake buying the bike and im stuck with it so i will make the best out of it.
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Originally Posted by R7
