BMW S1000R
Being new to this bike journo malarkey, I honestly didn’t even know what a ‘long termer’ was… I guess I should have read the mag more.
Anyhow, when I joined the Fast Bikes team in June, Bruce said I’d be a getting a bike for at least half a year to basically go wherever and do whatever I want with. I couldn’t quite believe it – I’ve never had a bike on the road before and being a racer, the first thing that came to mind was a sportsbike, obviously... the fastest, coolest, priciest bike I could get my hands on. Well, having completed the Ultimate Sport Bike Test 2021, they’d now be my last choice of road bike. I didn’t actually get to choose my long termer bike, but whoever did – thanks! This BMW S 1000 R naked sports bike is the absolute one for me, at least for now. To cut it short, you get the best of both worlds – comfort and performance or a rocket-ship armchair. The Beemer is 165bhp fully loaded, with all the rider aids – anti-wheelie, ABS, traction control, rider/power modes, electronic suspension… the list goes on, and it’s all there on the mini TV screen in front of the handle bars, which, I’ll add, is hands down the trickiest dash on the market.
Anyway, getting to my first experience with this weapon… I suppose you could call it speed dating. The first time I actually rode this bike was at Cadwell Park on the S 1000 R launch a couple of months ago, and we hit it off straight away. I wasn’t sure how I felt about taking to the track on a bike with big, tall handlebars; it’s not exactly the ‘racy’ riding position I’m accustomed to, but I was honestly so impressed with how in proportion and comfortable everything felt... from the bars to footpegs, it all felt just right and the balance of the bike was bang on – possibly something to do with the
S 1000 RR chassis it uses. I’d selected the ‘Dynamic Pro’ rider mode, which gives you the most power, stiffer suspension and optimal rider aids for on-track thrashing. It was so much fun – in fact, the only slight pull-up I had with this bike, was that the electronic suspension couldn’t react quite quickly enough under aggressive braking. But it never felt sketchy, and the heated grips put a huge smile on my face – they are going to be an absolute game-changer when winter comes. Obviously you don’t get any wind protection, but that’s the nature of the naked beast, I guess. I’ll just have to hang on a bit tighter.
With racing and other mag work, I’ve literally not had chance to get back out on the Beemer since the launch. It’s just been sat in the workshop until last week, when I thought I’d nip for a little ride out and make sure everything is okay before the upcoming Naked Sports Bike Test… well, it didn’t want to
know – and it turned out that the battery was completely dead. The process of figuring that out wasn’t quite as quick as that, though, since these new BMWs have a keyless ignition. I spent hours on the internet to see if there was some sort of isolator I’d missed, or whether it was the key fob causing the problem… what’s wrong with a traditional key that you put in an ignition barrel? At least you can’t lose the key that way, either. It was a surprise as it’s not what you expect from a brand new machine, but it turns out these lightweight lithium batteries can be a bit temperamental.
Thankfully, you don’t need a first-class degree to remove the seat, only a Torx screwdriver, and the battery sits right there. I fitted a new one and it was ready to go. I racked up a load of road miles on the test, and what a joy it was to ride. You can feel the class and quality of this bike, especially when jumping on and off the other bikes on test – the BMW has been put together so well and feels so refined.
I haven’t had chance to try anything too exciting with this bike yet, only a change of tyres. It came new with Pirelli Diablo Rossos, which were awesome on the track, and we’ve just swapped them for the Dunlop Sportssmart TTs since the road test uses a control tyre across all bikes. I’ve got to say, I was really impressed with these; they’re a 50/50 road and track tyre, and the warm-up time was very confidenceinspiring for going knee-down on the road. The plan is to smash a load more road miles in over the next month, and I might try a pillion set-up so I can take the missus out for tea. I’m not sure how she’ll feel about that, though.
WHAT’S WRONG WITH A TRADITIONAL KEY THAT YOU PUT IN AN IGNITION BARREL?