R1 named superbike of the year

MCN names Yamaha’s 2004 R1 our superbike of the year in Wednesday’s issue because it’s stable, exciting and fast.

In our March 3 issue you’ll see the R1 pitched against all its key competitors: Kawasaki’s ZX-10R, Honda’s Fireblade and Suzuki’s GSX-R1000. And it’s the R1 that gets our vote.

We put them through their paces on the track, on sun-kissed (and rain-soaked) French and Spanish roads and ran them on dynos and on closed roads.

Make sure you get hold of a copy of the paper for the full story… but here are some of the facts and figures:

The R1 makes 147.9bhp, 70.47ftlb of torque and hits 177.72mph. The Blade delivers 146.6bhp, 73.9ftlb of torque and 178.15mph. We recorded 175.57mph, 144.4bhp and 74.8ftlb of torque for the GSX-R1000. And the ZX-10R was tested to 176.3mph, made 147.7bhp and 74.6ftlb of torque.

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