Yamaha Motor Europe has clarified how the R1 will continue in Europe beyond its discontinuation as a road bike.
As had already been stated by Yamaha Racing, the R1 will continue to be built as a track-only motorcycle after its European production as a road bike has been discontinued, which will happen next year.
At the time of the initial announcement of the R1’s discontinuation as a road bike, Yamaha made specific mention of the upcoming Euro5+ emissions regulations, which, as YME has confirmed in a statement, means that the production of the R1 as a road-legal model will continue, globally speaking, for markets outside of Europe. The continued global production also means a continuation of the R1’s development programme.
In its statement, Yamaha Motor Europe also admits the additional reason for the continuation of the R1 as a road-legal model in Europe, which is customer demand. “In line with the change in demand and customer need,” YME says, “Yamaha Motor Europe has taken the decision that the future of its track-targeting Supersport models will be dedicated solely to track use from 2025”.
By making the R1 track-only, YME says, there will be “more opportunity for customers to access the performance-enhancing GYTR parts,” which are available from Yamaha GYTR Pro Shops, of which there are several throughout Europe, all of which run by the same people who run official Yamaha motorcycles in WorldSBK. In the UK, for example, Crescent Motorcycles, which runs the factory Pata Prometeon Yamaha WorldSBK team, operates a GYTR Pro Shop, while in Italy the Misano World Circuit Marco Simoncelli is home to a GYTR Pro Shop operated by the GYTR GRT Yamaha WorldSBK team.
In what YME calls an “emphasis” of its commitment to the supersport category, it has also announced the 2024 Yamaha Racing Experience event, scheduled for the Circuito de Jerez-Angel Nieto on 3-4 July. Owners of the Yamaha R1 GYTR PRO 25th Anniversary track-only bike and the 2024 Yamaha R1M are invited to the home of the Spanish Grand Prix free of charge, for a day of riding alongside official Yamaha riders, including Jonathan Rea and Andrea Locatelli, as well as nine-time Grand Prix World Champion Valentino Rossi, who also happens to own an R1 GYTR.
Yamaha Motor Europe’s announcement follows news earlier this year that the Yamaha R1 will be discontinued from 2025.
The move means Yamaha will follow Suzuki into a 1,000cc sport bike-less future since Suzuki discontinued the GSX-R1000R at the end of 2022.
An official comment from Yamaha UK, published at the time of the announcement, read:
"Yamaha Motor Group, have taken the decision not to develop an EU5+ version of the R1 or R1M instead focussing on other mid-term business and product strategies that will provide future opportunities.’"
Shocking as the news is, it wasn’t a huge surprise to hear, and what we could be seeing is manufacturers moving away from premium, high-value but low-volume bikes, and investing in higher volume areas of the market. And while this does sound like the axe is about to fall on the model, it won't be for a little while yet.
For existing models, the cut-off for the sale of non-Euro5+ compliant bikes will be 2025. Euro6, meanwhile, isn't expected to arrive until much later in the decade.
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