As previously anticpated, Cal Crutchlow was at Yamaha’s Fukuori track in Japan to get his first taste of the M1 in a private two day test session ahead of next month’s official end of season testing in Valencia.
Crutchlow will be replacing Ben Spies in the Yamaha Tech3 outfit next season, was clearly impressed by the electronics and the carbon brakes of the M1.
“The M1 felt a lot smaller than my Yamaha R1 superbike,” he said.
“I actually found the positioning more comfortable than the WSB machine.
There is a lot of power but it feels very useable, it felt very different to a production based machine in terms of its delivery.
In the wet we used the normal steel brakes but when it started to dry I had a chance to try the carbon ones which were cool, I managed to get quite comfortable with them.
I found the chassis very stiff, it was really easy to change direction and the electronics were really different, even more advanced than the high level I’m used to in Superbike! It was a shame the weather wasn’t great so I wasn’t able to push to the bike’s full potential, I’m really looking forward to the Valencia test so I can get back on it and give it a proper work out!”The video is Cal Crutchlow’s personal review of his year in World Superbikes.