Another Yamaha YZF-R1M

[AlanG]

With the sad demise of Retunga's very promising-looking build of the "Ultra-Realistic" Yamaha YZF-R1M, I feel I can show my attempt without stealing his thunder. I finished it a few weeks ago, so we shall have a whirlwind tour of the construction process.

With these Yamaha models, I find the hardest bit is getting the frame in shape, so I discard the provided assembly sequence and start with that. The problem with the frame is that the main side members are long thin boxes which very easily warp uncontrollably during construction. On top of that, they are meant to curve and twist to some extent, but this is very unclear from the instructions, which only give perspective drawings and photos as guidance. I have resigned myself always to build the main frame twice, the first time simply to find out what shape it should really be. You will have to imagine the first try - here is the second.



Next comes the rear arm, which for the same reason I expect to have to do at least twice. This time I had particular trouble with the strip wrapping the top of the left arm - the front end was canted at an angle, whereas it seemed to me it should be roughly parallel with the back. I redrew it that way, and my third attempt came up reasonable, though not ideal.

The chain and chainwheel come as separate parts, the chain having an "L"-shaped section, to rest over the chainwheel. I decided it would be too hard to get this looking reasonable, so put them together in the more usual single flat part. I did add an extra layer either side of the chain, though, to give a little depth.



Then they could go together, to check for fit and alignment. Fortunately it was OK.



More soon.
Alan

[elliott]

Beautiful work Alan. Looking forward to a classic build thread.

[AlanG]

Elliott

Thank you, though I'm afraid it's going to be a fairly brief thread, as I didn't take a lot of photos.

Alan

[AlanG]

Next up is the engine, pretty complicated with over 100 parts. Fortunately this didn't present any major problems, though. The only significant one was that the timing cover (assembly "Engine N") was too tall to fit properly against the engine block. (You can see the problem in the photograph on the front page of the assembly instructions volume 3 - a strip of the dark grey gluing land with a red dot is visible above the camshaft cover.) I trimmed off the top of part 80 to improve matters.





It was a bit of a tight squeeze to get the engine into the frame, but it did just about go. The result of my trimming the timing cover was that the mounting points on the front of the engine and frame didn't line up, so I fashioned an extra link to join them. Not very authentic, but it looks reasonably plausible, and will be quite well hidden once the side covers go on.

[AlanG]

With the main core construction out of the way, I continued in the order of final assembly, so that each section could be attached straight away.

Next were the radiator and front section of the exhaust. I had to modify the exhaust pipes a bit to get them to fit snugly, but unfortunately didn't photograph them separately, so you will have to imagine them behind the radiator.



The rear wheel hub is very complicated, and took a couple of goes to be acceptable. Unfortunately it is almost entirely hidden by the brake disc and chainwheel, so one wonders if it is all worthwhile. I found the "Y"-shaped spokes very difficult - I made 10 in order to get 5 reasonable ones, and even those are not very beautiful. Finally, I don't like the tyres of these latest kits, so I provided my own.



Now the rest of the rear end could be done, though I left the vulnerable pillion footrests and rear light cluster for last.

[AlanG]

Next come the footrests and side stand. I would normally leave these to last as they are very vulnerable to careless handling, but the right footrest and the side stand assemblies include mounting points for the rear part of the exhaust system which comes next, so they have to go on now. I can at least leave off the left footrest until later.

[pjabraham]

Magnificent! Very clean, detailed, precise work. Looking forward to the rest of the build.

Phil

[The--Mouse]

Very nice build!
My first papercraft ever was the VMax.

Fred

[AlanG]

Phil and Fred

Thank you. Don't forget that I get to choose the photos I show you, so it may not be quite as neat as you think!

Fred, my first papercraft was some time around 1960 (!), but after a long hiatus the (original) VMAX was one of my early goes, in about 2003. It was certainly my first motorcycle. [I now have over 40.]

Alan

[AlanG]

The front and under cowls were fairly straightforward, though the use of double-thickness lamination takes a good deal of care to get a neat result, especially with the thin paper I was using. A small problem was that the bottom edge of the windscreen is narrower than the top of the front section of cowl over which it is supposed to fit. The error is not great, but it makes the bottom corners of the windscreen messy. I widened the bottom edge to improve matters.