Getting a free trackday with a bike that costs the best part of £20,000 was never going to be a deal breaker, but it was heartening to witness to Yamaha’s efforts in impressing its latest R1M owners. Inviting every owner to Silverstone to hob-nob with the cream of Yamaha’s crop was an effort to help each owner understand his or her bike better – and kudos to them. If only there was the money to go round for other models to benefit!
We don’t own an R1M, but were invited anyway. On the hottest day of the year we managed to get a fuller understanding of what it is to go fast – really fast. Sylvain Guintoli was on hand to provide a base lap time for us to chase – although any notion of getting near it was as futile as things get. The datalogging system onboard the R1M was the facilitator, and using the results it spat out allowed me to go quicker than ever – but let's just say I’m not going to be bothering Paul Denning for Sylvain’s job any time soon...