TIMMY ON TRACK…
While the two Italian beauties felt like bikes from the past, the BMW S1000RR HP4 was the exception.
The riding position felt remarkably similar to the brand new M1000RR that we tested last year, which is crazy when you think there have been over 10 years of developments and improvements since this generation one model was released. It’s clear BMW hasstayed very close to its roots with its flagship sportsbike, and other than some wings, a fancy swingarm and a smart array of electronic rider aids that you get with the latest generation, it really didn’t feel night and day different to me. If you’d have blindfolded me and plonked me on this bike, I would have honestly struggled to tell the difference.
It’s like a big armchair which sits you low and ‘in’ the bike, rather than on top of it, which makes for a comfortable ride. The foot pegs are low with plenty of room and the handlebars aren’t too high or low, so you’re not hunched over the front. This combo of performance and comfort had us fighting over it for the road riding, and I’m pleased to say it didn’t disappoint when we got it to Cadwell Park.
At the track I was able to push the chassis and really see what it gave me in return. It lacked in corner exit stability, and I found the front tends to go very light when you really gas it on the exit of corners, squatting in the shock and pitching the weight to the rear off the bike which really made it a handful while driving hard off the corners. Funnily enough, I can remember writing exactly the same thing about the all new M1000 RR – for the average road and track day rider it’d probably never be an issue, but if you’re pushing on then you’ll certainly want some more support from the rear shock.
The standard clip-ons are too swept back in my opinion and gave a feeling of tucking the front while hanging off through the corners. It’s something I did get used to as the day went on, but I’m all about leverage with these big horsepower and hefty machines and I just don’t see the need for having the bars set like that as standard; it’s not like it’s a 125 where you need to get out the wind to make the bike go, is it?
Other than that, the HP4 was very easy to ride with a very neutral feel about it, the weight balance distribution was bang on and didn’t lean more towards either end of the bike, which meant it rolled in and out of corners beautifully and left plenty of room in any direction to play with the settings.
The quick shifter and gearbox are in a different league compared with the other bikes. The feeling was tight, positive, and silky smooth and never once felt like it was going to jump a gear (unlike the others) … you don’t realise until you have a good one just how much difference a well set up shifter adds to the riding experience. And hallelujah, a bike with a cable operated clutch. It just made back shifting and slipping the clutch that little bit more predictable, although a simple blip of the throttle without the clutch was all it took to glide the gears down though the gearbox with the Beemer.
I did find the first tap of the throttle while out on track to be quite unresponsive, especially in the slower speed corners, and I had to pre-empt and get on the gas extra early to keep the thing rolling else the motor went dead and it felt like I was going to drop off the inside of the bike.
Suspension wise, I thought both the shock and the forks would have benefited from a firmer setting for the track riding. The forks seemed to dive and stick on a firm point which didn’t give me any confidence or feel going into a corner, especially in the early sessions when I didn’t have trust in the front tyre. I did add four turns of preload to the electronically adjustable forks to give me more support entering the corner, which did improve the feeling.
The BMW was the first bike to hit the ground running with advanced multi-level traction control settings and rider modes. On the road we’d been running it in the ‘Race’ setting which has a pre-set level of TC, and for the circuit we selected the ‘Slick’ setting which gives you 14 different levels of traction control to choose from, +7 being the most intrusive and -7 being the least (strange numbers to scale it with I know, but I’m sure the Germans have their reasons). We thought we’d play it safe and used 0 as a middle ground starting point, but soon worked our way to -5 which still felt very safe and slightly improved the sluggish throttle connection that I’d felt in the earlier sessions.
If you’re after more bang for your buck, sophistication in the electronics, and an overall well-polished machine, then the BMW is undoubtedly the one to choose from these three. But for one reason or another, I’m hung up on the lack of character and I really struggle to put my finger on why with this bike. Its ticking all the boxes and never gives you any grief, a bit like a teacher’s pet… I find that quite unexciting.