Own a Yamaha R1 or wish you did? Or just need some new T-shirts? You’ve got some options with the Yamaha R1 20th Anniversary clothing range out now. To celebrate the two decades since the sports bike first arrived, various Yamaha racing teams have been adopting the red, white and black paint of the first models. And now you can too, with limited edition caps, T-shirts and other merchandise.
There’s no price list, but it’ll be a cheaper way to pay homage than around £3,000 for an original Yamaha R1. Or the £10,000 we saw an owner asking for his original model a while ago. And that’s before you have to replace the anodised bar ends and coloured screens that were all the rage at the turn of the century.
Yamaha has been celebrating the birthday of the R1 all year at various race events. And it’s not surprising that the official and factory teams will be wearing the limited edition clothing at the Suzuka 8 Hours Endurance Race. That’s in addition to the same paint scheme adorning their bikes. Apparently their official slogan will be the less-than-catchy “R1evolution: The ‘R’ Evolution Sparking a Revolution’. Which is pretty terrible, but at least the paint schemes look good.
The Suzuka 8 Hours has always been a prestigious event for Japanese motorcycle manufacturers. And Yamaha has celebrated winning for the last three years. All Japan racer and Yamaha MotoGP test rider Katsuyuki Nakasuga has been part of the team every time, alongside Bradley Smith and Pol Espargaro in 2015, Alex Lowes and Pol Espargaro in 2016, and Alex Lowes and Michael van der Mark in 2017. And the 2017 team will return unchanged this year.
Also competing in a special livery for Suzuka will be the YART Yamaha team with Broc Parkes, Max Neukirchner, Marvin Fritz and Takuya Fujita. And the GMT94 team of David Checa, Mike Di Meglio and Niccolo Canepa.
Hopefully all the Yamaha riders will get a shirt or cap at least. Everyone else will have to go to their local official Yamaha dealer from the end of July, 2018. Although if you’re collecting limited edition Yamaha R1 paint schemes, then you really want the gorgeous Yellow and Black Yamaha 60th Anniversary Edition from 2016.
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