ON THE UP...

2009 Yamaha R1 - In 2008, when Yamaha released the teaser adverts for the upcoming replacement to the ever popular R1, all they did was publish a photograph of a crankshaft.

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To all but the geekiest of fans, it was just a crankshaft – which of course it was – but closer inspection of the photo revealed the crank pins were offset by 90° to each other, which in simple terms offers greater torque at lower revs, primarily by drastically reducing the inertia torque usually generated by a normal crankshaft layout. On the 2009 R1, and every one since then, only one of the four pistons is ever stopping to change direction at any given time, where in a normal engine they move and change direction in pairs.

Why does this matter? Well, it’s because the 2009 R1 was a huge departure for Yamaha – never shy in ploughing its own furrow when it comes to engineering and technical solutions – and it has stuck with this one for over a decade now, which is very unlike Yamaha, and it’s still the only bike manufacturer to use a crossplane crankshaft in its four cylinder engine – although technically Ducati’s Panigale V4 has a crossplane crankshaft too, it’s in a V4 layout which is different anyway.