There’s been various rumours and updates about the next-generation Yamaha R1, widely expected to appear at the end of this year to make up the top of the 2020 model range.

So far we’ve been told that the bike is getting variable intake, contra-rotating crankshaft, seamless gears and now the latest bit of tech to be dropped into the supposed tech-fest is an auto rear brake that will be used to stop the front wheel lifting.

Patents filed by the factory in Japan and revealed by Spanish site SoyMotero show the system using ABS sensors along with the bike’s new Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU) looking out for the moment the front wheel lifts under power. When that happens, rather than taking a small amount of power off the bike to keep the front wheel down, the R1 will modulate (pulse) the rear brake automatically just enough to keep the bike moving forward as aggressively as the rider wants without the whole machine trying to flip backwards around the rear wheel.

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Tony Carter

Tony has been riding motorcycles for over 35 years and he's been a motorcycle writer for over 25 of those. He's ridden almost every motorcycle you can think of at most places around the world and he's partial to some racing, too. A Taurus, Tony doesn't believe in horoscopes (but then that's exactly what a Taurus would say!) but he does believe in Mandalorians and their right to earn a living.