[sportrider - features] - '07 Yamaha YZF-R1 Project Bike - Strip Search

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'07 Yamaha YZF-R1 Project Bike - Strip Search

Is The Perfect Naked Bike Hiding Under The Fairing Of A Full-On Sportbike? We Find Out By Turning An '07 Yamaha YZF-R1 Into Exactly That.Sometimes thinking out loud-or in this case on paper-can have unexpected consequences. Example: In our group test of six naked bikes last year ("Naked and Naughty," Sept. '07), one of our staffers commented in his SRO that rather than buy a Yamaha FZ1 or Kawasaki Z1000, he'd start with an R1 or ZX-10R and "work the other way. Strip off the bodywork, mount up some lights and a handlebar, and I'd be in business." We've long desired a naked bike with the unadulterated power and chassis of a real sportbike rather than a neutered look-alike, and we're sure our man's comment expresses the feelings of many. But not long after that issue went on sale, a Yamaha representative called the unidentified staffer (whose name begins with G and ends, appropriately, in "eek"). "We'd like you to do just that," the man in blue said. "We'll send over an R1 and you can get started." Thus another SR project bike was born.


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