2025 Yamaha R1M Road Bike Has us Green With Envy

One of the biggest stories of 2024 was the news that in Europe and some other global regions, Yamaha would not be pursuing a Euro5 + variant of the R1 and R1M.

They do live on in the UK market, though, albeit as a track-only range encompassing R1 Race and R1 GYTR versions of the iconic sports bike. In other global regions, those not so stringently governed by emissions regulations, the R1 and its higher-spec sibling are still available as road bikes. And, while it pains me to say this, the 2025 edition looks like the best one yet!

The images you are looking at here are of the North American specification bikes for the 2025 model year. The first and most easily noticeable update is the inclusion of aerodynamic winglets as found on the M1 MotoGP bike and track-only UK-spec Race and GYTR models. The rest of the updates to the bike, while looking at the chassis, all follow the specs of the track-only models we can still buy in the UK. That means top-spec Brembo Stylema calipers at the front, while the base model R1 gains a new, fully adjustable 43mm KYB fork with separate adjusters on the left and right fork legs. The R1M in the US still gets the fancy semi-active Ohlins at the front and rear.

Curiously for our US friends across the pond, the R1M retains the same brake calipers as found on both the last generation (2023) R1 and R1M. It sounds an odd choice (seeing as Brembo is widely regarded as the best brake maker in the world) as the house-branded stoppers on the older bikes weren’t widely lauded by riders.

Over and above the noted chassis updates, the changes to the 2025 model are scant, with power and torque remaining the same and overall weight being basically what it was before.  That doesn’t stop us from having a serious case of FOMO when looking at the pictures of the R1M though. That carbon fibre bodywork makes it one of the prettiest road-going Japanese sports bikes of the modern era. And when it’s capped off by those aggressive-looking winglets, we can’t help but be more than a little bit envious of sports bike fans across the pond.