Is there a factory Yamaha in BSB 2005?

In its 50th anniversary year, Yamaha has made it no secret they want to win every major motorcycle championship of the world in 2005, and they have a very cunning plan that may enable them to do this.

The machines built by Yamaha France and Yamaha Italia WSBK teams, and Nvidia British Superbike team, use almost identical parts that can be bought by anyone wishing to race a Yamaha machine this year.

The kit, available to buy online at the Yamaha racing website, consists of parts concentrating on two main areas; the engine and chassis.

Interestingly the kit includes a bolt-on traction control system that Nvida has confirmed that it has on its machine.

Also on Nvidia's completed shopping list is a Yamaha France fabricated swinging arm. The road item, said to be too stiff, does not offer enough lateral flexibility - robbing the rear tyre of full lean traction.

Therefore this item was developed to allow the rear tyre to flex side-to-side to a greater degree and thus allow the rear tyre to follow the road to a larger amount when the bike is at full lean.

Other features of the Nvidia machine include gas damped front and rear Ohlins suspension, six-pot Nissan front callipers, factory rear-suspension link, triple clamps and fuel tank, full telemetry including a GPS sensor pick-up and a full factory engine claimed to produce more than 210bhp.

Yamaha, as well as Nvidia, hope that by allowing all the teams to openly use very similar highest-performance parts, a Yamaha machine has a higher chance of taking race wins.

Only time will tell whether this philosophy will work.

The first round of the British Superbike series takes place at Brands Hatch on 28th March.