At least they admit they have problems and will put them right.i guess no body is perfect ,we all make mistakes.

http://www.motorcyclenews.com/news/2015/december/recall-yamaha-2015-yzf-r1-and-yzf-r1m/

WOW.

This is a shocker isn't it.

Complete rebuild of every R1 / R1M gearbox on the road / track worldwide.

That is a huge undertaking, but as you say, at least they are owning up to it.

Its going to costly (the MCN report reckons each UK bike will cost about 1000 quid each in labor alone !!!!!!!!

yep huge task they have sold more a less every r1 that has arrived in the uk and at 16 hours labour per bike would imagine a back log of work ,wonder if owners will get compensated for inconvienience.

KERCHING!!

But as others have said, fair play to Yamaha for admitting the problem and getting it sorted.

Wonder if the affected parts were out sourced or Yamaha made?

A quote from Yamaha USA's letter:

“In affected motorcycles, both second gear wheel and pinion gears in the transmission may break as a result of extremely high stress and/or improper shifting. This is due to inadequate component strength and stress concentration at the gear teeth bottom land. In addition, the third and fourth wheel gears may be deformed or break as a result of excessive stress caused by hard usage. This is due to inadequate component strength. If gears fail, the transmission could lock up, causing loss of control that could result in a crash with injury or death."

I am very surprised to hear this coming from Yamaha and I can also see the potential for a whole bunch of lawsuits hitting them.

In a letter to UK owners Yamaha say:

"contact your authorised Yamaha dealer at your earliest convenience, quoting your machine’s Chassis Number and current mileage, to arrange a mutually convenient appointment for them to replace the transmission assembly"

Shouldn't there be a greater sense of urgency to the process given Yamaha know it has potentially lethal design faults?

If I owned the latest R1 there is no way I would ride the thing until this was fixed.

Yes the transmission locking up is the last thing you want when riding one of those.

In the US, Yamaha could be sued for millions of $ if above happens and somebody get killed/injured.

Yes the transmission locking up is the last thing you want when riding one of those.

In the US, Yamaha could be sued for millions of $ if above happens and somebody get killed/injured.

Pulling the clutch in would end the lock up.

I guess its easy to say from the comfort of my sofa.

And I thought VW had its share of problems?

Damned Chinese bikes.

Oh.

AFAIK yamaha etc have an agreement with retailers / shops to agree to do warranty / campaigns at reduced labour cost.

At least have been the case in some markets.

Yes the transmission locking up is the last thing you want when riding one of those.

In the US, Yamaha could be sued for millions of $ if above happens and somebody get killed/injured.

Pulling the clutch in would end the lock up.

I guess its easy to say from the comfort of my sofa.

Pulling the clutch in would not work in the event of transmission seizure as the transmission is downstream from the clutch.

Imagine cooking into a corner, leaned over, on the throttle - rear tire locks up ! Reminds me of the Isle of Mann when young Dunlop had his rear wheel break apart ! Hats off to Yamaha for going public with this.

16 hrs is pretty damn good to split the c/cases and replace a gearbox cluster and re-assemble. That is fast work.

Think if I was an owner, I would be pushing for a refund. Not sure I would be happy with a completely stripped and rebuilt engine.

Especially if it's done by the workshop dogsbody.

It's got to affect the future second hand value as well.

You would have a pretty good chance in the UK under 'fit for purpose' legislation.

I don't think any Yamaha main agent has a "dogsbody" working on engines. Every Main dealer workshop in Europe, regardless of manufacturer, have trained technicians, each having to go on various courses, up dates, etc, for particular models. Splitting cases and building gearboxes is not for the un-initiated, nor the faint hearted, but for trained, talented, methodical technicians (mechanics/grease monkeys).

... Like wot i woz...

Why are you all congratulating Yamaha here for owning up, this is potentially a lethal fault...I wonder what your comments would be if it were a Chinese bike?

With all their experience in engineering, this issue has to have emanated from Yamaha's accounts department and I think we can expect more now that the bean-counters have taken over in Japan.

Anyone know if Yamaha Thailand has issued a recall? And presumably anyone with a grey market import would be out of luck as far as a free gearbox rebuild is concerned.