Stupid question on my part. Would the YES pay for this if you have it?
It depends. There is a well-documented protocol that owners with this problem have to go through that is quite a bit more intricate than, say, the mating dance of a Flamingo.
I go first. I bring the bike to the shop and say, "dood, my bike broke."
Then the service manager will say, "we'll have to have a bike tech inspect your bike. It's not clear that anything is wrong with it until we say so."
Then I'll take a taxi home. The next day, around 1-ish, a call will come into my machine that will give nuances of complete surprise not to find the rider at home. They will say that they've verified that there is a problem, and the only way to fix it will be to pull the engine and do a complete transmission tear down.
I'll call after I get home and try to sound completely competent and knowledgeable, even when they use words like transmission. I'll grumble and say "okay" a lot.
Then the service manager will adopt a very serious tone and demeanor. And he's going to say, "Now this is important. Obviously, if there is a manufacturing defect, you're completely covered by Y.E.S. But this symptom only shows up, ever, on bikes owned by squids. It only happens on R1s, and, well, your bike. So, basically, I'm not falling for your claims of not being a squid, just because you bought the wrong damn blue Yamaha."
Then I'll say, "what, I'm 42, I'm no squid."
Then the service manager will say, "You know, that is weird....we'll just have to see what's what when we get the bike apart."
Then, maybe the next day, the service manager will call back and say, it's rounded dogs. "What's weird", he'll go on, " is that there's no obvious sign of abuse. Usually, there will be scoring on various surfaces, and maybe a bent shifting fork, but not in this case." Then he'll say, "since we can't find a manufacturing defect, it's not covered."
Then I'll say, 1 year and 22,000 miles is not adequate performance for a transmission.
They'll say, yeah, well, all of the other FJRs are just fine.
Then I'll say, not all, I've heard of a few...
Then they'll say, yours is the only one that's had a problem in our customer base.
Then I'll say, seems like a rare fluke, good thing there's a warranty.
We'll go round and round like this.
Eventually, just like in a Flamingo Mating Ritual, somebody comes out on top.