Fast, light and accurate... the bike, not the editor
an experience that goes against everything a
road rider learns.
ASBK (and NZSBK) rules are superstock-style,
which mean the engine must be standard but
it a can have the cylinder head skimmed, the
cam-timing dialled in, a race exhaust, air filter,
and the ECU can be ‘flashed’ to suit. According
to the team, this is a genuine 194hp at the
rear wheel on the dyno, not 200hp at the
spark plug. This is genuine big horsepower,
and it feels like it. It’s doing small wheelies out
of corners while I’m still leant over. Big throttle
makes the front light just about everywhere.
It accelerates so fuggin hard that I’m afraid
I’ll fall of the back. Compared to the R6 I’ve
just ridden, this thing is like King Kong on the
rampage compared to the R6’s chimpanzee. Is
that a fair comparison? No, of course not, but,
then, I’d just jumped off the R6 onto this beast,
so it’s the only one I had at hand.
I thought this fuggin wheelie control was
on?? It turns out it’s wheelie ‘control’, not ‘anti’
wheelie. So this thing will still wheelie out of
every corner, while still leant over.
A couple of laps in and I’m starting to
get used to the vicious acceleration and,
seemingly, limitless amounts of grip – the
suspension is barely bothered by my efforts
and the brakes have far more capability than
I do. They’ll pull the bike up hard enough,
in combination with the ungodly amount of
grip from the front slick, that my arms start
to buckle when I try to brake ‘hard’. The top
riders like Daniel put up with this violent
acceleration and deceleration 20 times a lap
for 20-odd laps. These guys are not ‘riders’,
they’re athletes.
It’s the strangest experience – this ASBK
YZF-R1 is vicious and nasty, yet easy, smooth
and placid all at the same time. There’s a
brutality to it that’s controlled and accessible,
but it’s definitely waiting to bite. Anti-lift
wheelie control keeps it kinda controllable
under severe acceleration out of corners and
the pre-heated slicks keep grip completely
under control. As my half a dozen laps came
to a close I’d gained enough confidence to
realise there was nothing to worry about.
There’s huge grip. Massive amounts of sticky
black rubber sucking the bike down onto the
KIWI RIDER 105