Congrats on 50 Yamaha!

Yamaha is putting up big money to celebrate its 50th anniversary.  As you may or may not know Yamaha fronted all of the money for the mods to make Laguna Seca raceway suitable for MotoGP this year.  They are also changing some products around including the STAR motorcycle division.  Now according to the link below there may be even better new for YZF fans!  
Read:

http://www.motorcycledaily.com/24may05_yamaha.htm  

I don't see them debuting a new R6 or R1 at Laguna.  The R1 is only in its second year of production so maybe some updates to it.  The R6 has been out a year longer and with the rate the Japenese manufacturers update and renew their 600cc bikes, I see this as more feasible.

The news that really got me excited was about a chance of "Special Editions".  An R1 or R6 modified like a Ducati 999s/749s or 999R/749R.  New cam profiles, lighter engine internals, and better suspension...could it be.  I hope it could be more than a rumor, but for now I won't bet on it.

Kudos to Yamaha for funding the changes to Laguna to bring MotoGp to America.  

I also would be suprised if they did debut an all new R1 or R6 in July.  
However, I would fully expect an all new or VERY signficantly updated R1/R6 announced in October.  I think the days of small updates are pretty much over.  The pressure is on for totally revamped machines every 3rd year from now on in order to keep pace on the track and in the showrooms....  

Yes, the pressure is definitely there to keep the bikes at the cutting edge.  Winning races and mag' shootouts helps sell the bikes.  

The R6 is coming up on that 3rd year but did just get invertend forks, radial mount brakes, and minor intake tweaking, yet I would expect a new bike soon.  The R1 only needs updates in one area really...the engine.  It makes massive power but lacks in torque production compared to the other three japanese liter bikes.  Even the new MV1000 has a stronger motor for torque.  I'd like to see them come up with new cam profiles and mapping to get that torque curve up there.  Redesigning the exhaust could help too...some aftermarket exhausts smooth out the flat spot in the torque curve.  

Either way I cannot wait to see what the come out with next, whatever it is I'm sure it will be great.  

Well since Yamaha owns a majority Ohlins suspension, I would like to see them throw some of their suspension pieces onto some special limited edition R1s and R6s.

The only thing I don't like about the '04-'05 R1 is the shorter stroke engine and taller gearing dampen the midrange punch, so more torque would be nice.  Don't get me wrong, it's still a literbike so it has some torque.  I just wish they could move the powerband back down a bit to where it is on the other literbikes.  You can really see it in the dyno graphs during the comparison tests.  I know the '05 GSXR1000 is a newer design but it redlines at 13,500 (as opposed to the R1's 13,750) yet still manages to have a crap load of midrange torque.  

Should be exciting to see what comes of the 50th anniversary gala of the tuning fork marque.

So... my question is, where is the limited edition $30K+ YZF-M1?

Hey, $30K is cheaper than the $50K+ of the forthcoming Ducati Desmosedici RR.