I can’t believe it was 25 years ago I went to Spain to ride the first-ever Yamaha YZF-R1 … yet here I am a quarter of a century later still writing about the same model, one which has truly stood the test of time and stands out as one of the best sportsbike lines ever produced.
The first R1s followed an age-old formula of being lighter, shorter and smaller than earlier sportsbikes. Yamaha achieved this in 1997 (although it was released as a 1998 model) by ‘stacking’ the gearbox — instead of having the crankshaft
