BMW S 1000 r Sport
This month i have mostly been… “Doing other things...”
It’s been a hard month for most of our long term bikes, seeing as this is our busiest issue of the year. Just getting ready for, and undertaking, SBOTY is a huge task, especially with just three of us manning the ship, and thus the BMW has suffered a tad in the love department.
That’s not to say it’s been completely ignored though, in fact it has some brand new shoes, which is more than I can say for my own worn out collection. And it’s something rather different, too. Instead of the usual replacements we normally throw at ’termers, we are trying out for the first time some Nankang hoops, specifically the Nankang WF-2 Sportiac sports touring tyre. They’re not available in the UK just yet, and are in fact being tested by folk such as us prior to any release. We will have a more detailed test in an upcoming issue, but so far so good. We’re still rubber-side up! They did receive complimentary comments from the team at JHS when they were fitted too, they certainly didn’t think they felt like ‘cheap’ tyres, so it’ll be a while before we can report on any price structure for them. They also have a WF-1 touring tyre we’ll have a look at another time, most likely. Good to try something new, too.
One thing that was noticed when changing the tyres, was that the cush-drive rubbers on the BMW looked like they’ve already had a bit of wear on them. I’ll get a second opinion on that from BMW, sometimes these things can happen quite quickly to new bikes, but they feel just fine at the moment so no biggie really.
I have also been tallying the amount of R&G stuff sent to us last month. The boxes kept coming so I didn’t fit each bit at a time, rather I’ll crack on and do the lot in one big hit. It’s all really nice stuff, though I’ll be honest, the Aero crash protectors and the accompanying brackets seem to weigh a huge amount. For such a small box it’s surprisingly heavy. Call me picky, but I’m usually averse to adding such a seemingly huge amount of weight to a bike, even if it is crash protection and beautifully made. I’m going to sleep on that one, perhaps my sense of mechanical preservation will overcome my misgivings eventually...
Luckily, there is enough other stuff I’ll be fitting as soon as possible, like the engine covers. They are simple, smart and very effective at saving you a packet if
I’m usually averse to adding more weight to a bike...”
you make an arse out of yourself at any point. Then there are the bar ends which look ace, and the fork protectors that I have used on nearly every longtermer I’ve ever had.
That alone says something about the quality. I’ve used other fork protectors before, but usually tend to slide back in R&G’s direction eventually. So that should all be on by the next issue, and then I’ll be badgering BMW to get a nice loud exhaust fitted and see if we can squeeze a bit more go out of it. Doesn’t really need it, granted, but if it’s there for the taking, why the hell not? It’ll certainly sound even better at the same time. Lots more next month...