BMW S1000R
THIS MONTH I HAVE MOSTLY BEEN… “Packing my pants.”
The wheels haven’t turned much this month, but that’s because I’ve been playing the long game. See, the secret to a happy motorcycling life is to keep the family sweet, which meant sacrificing a week’s worth of riding in order to take the missus and kids on a holiday to Costa Del Clacton. Ever been there? You wouldn’t want to, but with a stonking last minute package deal jumping out at me, it was hard to resist. Plus, I really needed the brownie points ahead of my jaunt with a few mates to take in the San Marino GP.
So, I pushed the boat out, got them the best DVDs I could find for 50p at Cash Converters and indulged the family with ME time. And it worked a treat. We had a corker of a time, everyone came back happy, and I got the green light to piss off to Europe for 11 days. It’s now only a few days before my ferry’s set to sail, so the focus of this month has been getting the bike ready. Having clocked just shy of 6,000 miles so far, the first thing on the agenda was to take the bike for its first minor service. I’m a hands-on kind of guy, so the thought of taking a bike to a dealership for a service is pretty alien to me, but BMW kindly arranged for the S1000R to get taken into my local dealership in Peterborough, Balderston BMW, and the experience was something else. Not only was there as much tea and biscuits as I desired on tap, but the team did a cracking and rapid job of servicing the bike and giving it a good clean in the process. I was impressed, and also a step closer to heading to Europe.
All that was left was to work out the best luggage options suitable for the trip, with the key option being to choose between the BMW panniers or tail pack, as both can’t be used at the same time. I ended up opting for the pannier, and by the time I’d added in a roll-bag type tail pack and BMW’s tank bag to that mix, there turned out to be nearly 70 litres of storage on the cards. The only problem is that I don’t own enough clothes to fill them, so if you’ve got anything you want to donate?
On a different tack, the only notable trip I’ve done this month was to Silverstone for the MotoGP. I had a belter of a day and it was great to nip through all the traffic on the agile Beemer. Coming home was a different story, though, as there were vehicles everywhere and I ended up having to tootle my way for several miles. This showed up a bit of a niggle with the S1000R: its heavy cable-operated clutch. It’s never bothered me before, but it did my wrists in on that trip and I’m dreading a repeat performance when we get to the San Marino GP, but hopefully that won’t be the case. Time will tell.