Caden
03-20-2009, 12:22 PM
Going into the test, the question on everyone's minds was this, 'Can this Yamaha beat the P220, or not?' It can, is the unequivocal answer, by a whopping 1.2-second advantage. On its fastest recorded lap, the Yamaha impressed by producing the fastest split times through the entire lap. That's right, no motorcycle, ever, was quicker than the R15 at getting round the track. This is important. It means the Yamaha is super quick through flat-out corners, knee-down sweepers, difficult off-camber corners and despite the slight power and torque disad¬vantage compared to the P220, more than able to hang with the big boys on the straight.
Let us examine the engine performance first. As you can see, the Yamaha boasts the second most powerful engine of this lot. But more important is how that engine makes it power. The Yamaha's power doesn't really tail off very much after its 8,500rpm peak. This is a crucial advantage at various places where you can stay on the power in a lower gear instead of being forced to shift up the higher gear and lose some time in the process.
2224
This is most evident in the last corner, where almost every other bike required a shift up before tipping into the corner, but not the R15. If you assume that the shift takes a half a second, that's a great deal of time saved. The gearing is phenom¬enal too. The R15's top-endy power may make street work slightly challenging, but on the track, the power spread is excel¬lent and the gearing is just right to exploit all of it. Falling out of the Yamaha's powerband takes superhuman bungling.
The engine also happens to be pushing the lightest bike in this company. At 131kg, the R15 is a whopping 19k9 lighter than the second fastest lapper, the P220. This is a lot of weight and there's no doubt that some of the time the R15 makes up over the P220 is squarely down to its superb power to weight ratio. Smart chassis tuning, of course, cannot be ignored. Despite having the smallest wheelbase of
Let us examine the engine performance first. As you can see, the Yamaha boasts the second most powerful engine of this lot. But more important is how that engine makes it power. The Yamaha's power doesn't really tail off very much after its 8,500rpm peak. This is a crucial advantage at various places where you can stay on the power in a lower gear instead of being forced to shift up the higher gear and lose some time in the process.
2224
This is most evident in the last corner, where almost every other bike required a shift up before tipping into the corner, but not the R15. If you assume that the shift takes a half a second, that's a great deal of time saved. The gearing is phenom¬enal too. The R15's top-endy power may make street work slightly challenging, but on the track, the power spread is excel¬lent and the gearing is just right to exploit all of it. Falling out of the Yamaha's powerband takes superhuman bungling.
The engine also happens to be pushing the lightest bike in this company. At 131kg, the R15 is a whopping 19k9 lighter than the second fastest lapper, the P220. This is a lot of weight and there's no doubt that some of the time the R15 makes up over the P220 is squarely down to its superb power to weight ratio. Smart chassis tuning, of course, cannot be ignored. Despite having the smallest wheelbase of