Liked our £3000 CBR? How about a £4000 R1

Ten grand. That’s how much I spent on my last bike – a Honda SP-1 armed with some tasty bolt-ons that lived most of its life on track days rather than tootling around the roads. But every time I ventured out on to a circuit, there was a niggling worry that one tumble would cost me a fortune. That’s hardly a confidence-inspiring recipe for quick lap times.

What I needed was a relatively cheap track-prepped machine that wouldn’t make my bank manager faint if I slipped off it. That meant a cost of around £4000.

Enter MCN Bikemart, in which I sold my Honda and started the hunt for a cheaper replacement. I plumped for a Yamaha R1.

I picked up a 1999 clubbie racer that had been crashed. It was missing a fairing and had a dented tank, hence the £2900 asking price. I chucked in an extra £100 for a box of bits, including a shock, spare discs, different size sprockets, spare lower fairing, spare tank and spare Micron race exhaust.

The frame and swingarm had been painted R7-style matt black to disguise where the subframe had been rewelded – obviously the victim of an earlier, heavier spill. But it was straight, the motor had been gas-flowed and there was lots of quality extras, such as Ohlins race shock with remote adjuster, Brembo master cylinder and EBC discs. Then there was an Ohlins steering damper, Harris rearsets, Renthal sprockets, revalved forks, a race wiring loom and a full Akrapovic titanium race exhaust which does away with the EXUP system.

Truth is, without bodywork and with a few scuffs, it looked a bit of a nail… something my wife let me know when I got it home.

First job was to get some bodywork. I opted for Skidmarx. The £100 seat unit flew on and looked great. However, the Akrapovic exhaust headers were slung very low and fouled the bellypan. One option would be to cut out the section where they fouled and bodge together a fibreglass panel.

I went for an even easier option and phoned Beale Racing (01327-811798), who supplied a set of R71 bodywork – an R7-style fairing modified to slot on to an R1. The bonus is the bike looks different and the fairing is bigger than an R1’s, giving more wind protection. That cost £240, plus £30 for a screen.

Another tenner went on Motrax bar ends and £68 for a Harris race fuel cap to replace the standard, damaged part. The scuffed ignition cover was binned and swopped for a heavy-duty replacement from NRG, which set me back £90.

Then came the dodgy wheeler-dealer bit. A friend had a sexy QB Carbon ram-air system he didn’t want, which was duly bartered for my unwanted Micron exhaust, shock and spare discs. Result. The near-grand’s-worth of QB kit fitted in place of the standard airbox, but was slightly bigger, lifting the fuel tank about half-an-inch higher. The ram-air scoop poked over the radiator to allow cold air to blast in and pressurise the airbox.

I also had a full AP six-piston brake system from my last R1, so I bolted that on… only to find the master cylinder was cracked and leaking. A call to AP confirmed the existing Brembo cylinder would work. So I’ve now got a hybrid Brembo-AP system!

To ensure the bike was race-legal, overflow pipes were routed to a small plastic bottle which nestles inside the fairing and the antifreeze was replaced with water, which would evaporate quickly in a crash.

In a spill, R1s are well known for snapping the clutch actuating arm off the right side of the engine, which dumps oil everywhere. Harris Performance makes a £26 nylon mushroom which bolts on to the swingarm pivot and prevents the clutch cover hitting the ground. It’s a cheap insurance policy and is fitted in a matter of minutes. I also fitted Harris’s £53 nylon crash protectors which required a small hole cut into the fairing. And to tart up the frame, some £120 Harris carbon frame guards slipped on.

But the best was yet to come as the paint specialists at Extreme (01933-441999) finished the manky yellow wheels in a deep gloss black, repaired the fuel tank and sprayed the bike yellow, red and black to match my lid. For £300, it’s money well spent. An £11 tank pad protects the investment.

RGS Motorsport (01933-441451) of Wellingborough, Northants, then gave the bike a full service and whacked it on to the dyno to get the jetting spot-on. A Dynojet kit cleaned up the delivery and saw the power peak at 149bhp at the wheel. A snip at £175 all-in.

The total bill was £4134, but I could have saved money on the flash add-ons or paintjob. But with more power than my old SP-1 and 30kg less weight for less than half the price, I reckon it’s a bargain.

Seconds out for round two:

Rebuilding a crashed race bike is only the start – pretty soon comes fine-tuning and replacing bits that are worn.

A first ride on the R1 at Donington had me loving the power and handling… until I started to press on a bit. Then it became obvious I need to work on the suspension, plus an annoying glitch appeared.

Accelerating hard along the start straight, at around 10,000rpm, the revs would suddenly leap up to 11,500 – the clutch was slipping. I managed to score a set of part-used Barnett clutch plates off a friend. Problem solved.

The suspension is trickier. The Ohlins shock is fitted with an 8.5-rate spring which is too soft for me. I dialled in more compression damping. This helped, but didn’t cure the problem. A new shock spring is my next purchase.

The forks seem fine, but K-Tech (01530-810625) is about to launch a kit which replaces the stock internals with a cartridge system that is spookily similar to Ohlins factory forks. So that’s next.