R1 makes its BSB test debut

Yamaha’s BSB R1 made its track debut at the Almeria circuit in Spain on Wednesday.

Steve Plater completed over 100 laps of the 2.5-mile track in the cool and windy conditions and declared that the bike will be just as fast as the Suzukis when the season starts on April 1.

He said: ” To be honest today was as much about getting be up to speed as it was the bike. It’s hard to tell exactly what the bike’s like because I haven’t ridden a race bike for a while and I’m still riding it like my motocrosser. We’re also just doing around five or six laps at a time before pulling in and making changes to the chassis. One thing is for certain though: the bike is an absolute missile. I was following Karl Harris on the Suzuki and our bike was just as fast as his. ”

Suzuki riders Harris, John Reynolds and Nick Medd are also at the Spanish circuit.

They spent the day running in their GSX-R1000 race bikes but will be back on track today, when they will be carrying out their testing over race distances.

Team boss Paul Denning said: ” Despite the conditions we’re really happy with the way that things went today. We’ve got some new electronics on the bikes and we spent most of the day just trying out new parts. Even so, both John and Karl have already matched their times from our last test here in December. We expect to improve on those on Thursday. ”