Guy in work is selling this - YAMAHA YZF 998 cc YZF R1 (02MY) R1 any advice on this model, issues and problems etc ? i have seen it close up it's in very good, clean, condition does the price sound about right ?
I had an 03 plate the same as that bike, covered 50,000 miles on it and only ever had two problems... 1) Gearbox failure when less than two years old - this was a common problem, although Yamaha wont admit it. It was enough put me off Yamaha forever because they wouldn't cover the full costs under warranty, but it was eventually fixed and the repair was claimed to be a permanent fix: more than 40k miles of hard use seemed to back that up - I never had another mechanical failure despite plenty of abuse I threw at it. 2) Alternator failure - another known problem and there isn't an easy permanent fix for this one: not enough oil gets to one section of the winding, plus it's basically a bit weak for a bike with permanently-on lights and fuel injection etc... there isn't much room to have them re-wound with more/thicker wire, but TBH it only happened to me once, and as long as you don't wire in any accessories (heated grips, GPS chargers etc...), you probably be fine. Some people might read that and think "so what, an alternator is easy to replace", and on most bikes it would be, but on the R1's the alternator is bolted to the engine and the flywheel is on the outside, so you have to remove the flywheel from the end of the crank, it's common for this to be a total b*stard to get off and mine had to be drilled to get a strong enough puller on to it, plus heat, plus whacking it etc... Despite those two issues, both of which caused headaches and one of which nearly killed me(!), I can honestly say it is by far and away the best bike I have ever owned. I preferred it to the blade in many ways - if I could have the blade engine in the R1 bike, I would probably do that! It's an absolutely cracking bike, confidence inspiring to ride (utterly flattering actually: it really felt like an extension of my own body), well built (after the gearbox has been upgraded), strong finish on the paint and parts (mine lived outside all it's life), reliable (apart from one alternator failure), very, very fast, comfortable. Don't touch one that hasn't had the gearbox fixed under re-call or a gearbox replacement. They all had the same problem, and if the bike has never been heavily used or re-called, then it could still be waiting to fail on you, and it could kill you. Mine failed on the Nurburgring - imagine that. I would buy another one.
cpu been to the doctors just got it back so please excuse the delay in responding and thanking you for a truly superb response mr Binned just what was required
