Yamaha also came up with a brand new R1 in 2009, a model featuring the notorious crossplane crankshaft that brings this liter bike even closer to Valentino Rossi’s and Jorge Lorenzo’s racing marvels. Suzuki and Kawasaki have also presented their 2010 liter bikes, the GSX-R1000 and the Ninja ZX-10R models, but the bikes carry on unchanged, just like the CBR and R1 do.
Sharp lines – although still present in small measure on the 2010 model year – aren’t that attractive like, for instance, the bike’s front nose, fairing and windscreen. The ABS model is entirely Black.
Prior to 2010, each new model year generally saw at least one model from the Big Four receive heavy revision. With Yamaha and Suzuki supplying clean-slate designs of the R1 and Gixxer 1K in 2009, the round robin revision cycle had us anticipating news of big changes from Honda’s and Kawi’s literbikes. Most notable are improvements to shifting mechanisms, slightly longer throttle cables for improved throttle action and a new Öhlins steering damper. "Honda’s CBR1000RR" didn’t necessarily stagnate this season, but an unspecified increase in flywheel size, a new muffler cover and revised license plate bracket are just about on par with the Zed’s “news.”