[visordown.com] - First ride BMW S1000R review

[Ninjette Newsbot]

Call that a wheelie?


The bike another journalist crashed


BMW’S S1000R was one of the worst kept new bike secrets of the year. Everyone knew the firm was working on a stripped-down version of its class-leading superbike, the S1000RR. Everyone was intrigued at the prospect of a 193hp engine in a naked bike.

It threatened to feel like an anti-climax when we learned the new S1000R made 160hp. It’s still a colossal amount of power, but 20hp less than KTM’s new 1290 Super Duke R, a direct rival. Why would BMW do that when they’d started with more?

That’s how I felt anyway. What I didn’t know then was that the S1000R makes more torque than the S1000RR almost across the rev range.

Peak torque is the same - 86.2lbft - but from 3,000 to 8,000rpm the S1000R makes about 7lbft more. So that’s more drive virtually everywhere. And the S1000RR is not exactly gutless.

Its new naked sibling is monstrous. A squirt of throttle in almost any gear, at any speed, will propel you into the future. In an eye-blink the unrestrained wind is trying to rip your head off.

It shares the S1000RR’s 999cc inline-four engine and aluminium frame (complete with the bumpy textured finish). Geometry has been altered but it still handles like a sports bike, with precise steering and a decent feel of weight over the front end.

The head angle is 0.8° less than the S1000RR’s. The straight bars are higher but there’s some forward lean in the riding position. It’s not bolt-upright. The wheelbase is 22mm longer for traction under acceleration. The footrests are 23mm lower for comfort and the pillion seat has been moved forward by 37mm.

It’s comfortable but feels more like a sports bike than a typical naked. It's even got a sports bike's terrible steering lock. You'll struggle to U-turn this on an unclassified country lane. It feels like a comfortable sports bike with straight bars and no fairing.

So is that all it is? Apparently not. According to BMW’s Product Manager, Joseph Mächler, the firm first tried simply taking the fairing off an S1000RR and giving it straight bars, but testers were perpetually on one wheel. Three years later, the S1000R has undergone quite a lot more development. However, it will still go everywhere on one wheel if you want it to.

You get two or four riding modes depending on which variant of the S1000R you choose. The base model, at £9,990, comes with traction control, ABS and two riding modes, Rain and Road. In Rain mode the throttle response is softened, traction control and ABS intervene sooner and peak power is cut to 136hp. Road is slower to intervene but only allows small wheelies before cutting power. It also automatically eases off the front brake to prevent stoppies. To do a proper wheelie you have to switch the traction control off or buy the more expensive Sport edition, at £11,390. For that you get two extra modes, Dynamic and Dynamic Pro.

A complaint about KTM’s 1290 Super Duke R is that its traction control intervenes too much with wheelies, at least in first and second. The S1000R’s Dynamic and Dynamic Pro modes do not intervene in wheelies at all. It’s up to you not to loop it. Stoppies are allowed too.

The extra modes use a banking angle sensor to intervene more precisely when powering out of corners. Dynamic is for ‘sporty operation on dry roads’ according to BMW. Throttle response is more direct and traction control and ABS intervention comes later. Dynamic Pro is for ‘extra sporty riding on dry roads’. ABS on the rear wheel is switched off, so you can lock it up.

The Sport’s extra riding modes are also linked to different suspension settings. According to BMW, they use electronic damping valves to automatically adjust to conditions, responding to braking, steering and acceleration.

Rain and Road modes have damping aimed at comfort; Dynamic and Dynamic Pro offer progressively tauter settings for better feedback.

The Sport edition also gives you BMW’s Gear Shift Assist quick-shifter, allowing clutch-less up-shifts without letting off the throttle, along with heated grips, LED indicators and a belly pan.

Confusingly, the Sport’s extras are also sold separately as options for the base model.

The ones provided to journalists at the press launch in Majorca were Sports editions with the extra added option of cruise control, which costs another £390. In Road or Rain mode they theoretically offered a similar riding experience to the base model. It rained intermittently during the launch ride and many corners of Majorca’s twisty mountain roads had damp patches. Road mode allowed the rear to step out perhaps by a few inches driving through bends. Rain mode felt softer everywhere but nothing went sideways.

On a damp, slippery main road, at about 40mph in fifth gear, just rolling on the throttle in Dynamic mode had the rear spinning up. Rain mode intervened to prevent it, cutting power as the traction control light on the dash flashed. When I held the throttle open, it responded with excessive intervention, not just trimming power but making the revs dwindle all the way to about 3,000rpm, slowing the bike down. I thought it was going to come to a complete halt. Whatever Rain mode is supposed to do in that situation, I’m not sure it should be doing that.

Another journalist provided an even better illustration of the limitations of electronic rider aids by crashing his £11,390 test bike. He was in a tunnel through a mountainside when he noticed too late the road took an immediate left after the exit, and all at once his front wheel hit a patch of water. He braked but the ABS let the front roll. Carrying too much speed for the corner, he then lost the back and high-sided into a handy lay-by, making full use of it as run-off. Thankfully he was unhurt. Could Rain mode have prevented the crash by intervening sooner? In any event, it shows electronics can’t negate rider error.

Switching between modes is easy with minimal distraction. You press a button on the left bar until the right mode is selected on the digital dash, then close the throttle. All the controls are intuitive and easy to use. There are no confusing menus to scroll through. The instrument cluster consists of a dial rev counter and LC display including a lap-time function. It can tell you your current, best and last lap times, as well as the number of gear shifts and time spent on the brakes. A green light tells you your lap time has improved.

There's very little to dislike about the S1000R. There's not much space under the seat. You might get a compact disc lock under there, just. That, and the momentary excessive traction control intervention, is I think my only complaint. It's a very impressive motorcycle. At this price, it might be peerless.

Historically, the highest-performing mass-produced motorcycles have tended to cost around the same as the average mid-sized family car. So in the late ‘80s, a Kawasaki GPZ1000RX or ZX10 cost a bit over five grand, and so did a Vauxhall Astra. Now a Vauxhall Astra starts at £12,995 - £1,600 more than the most expensive S1000R.

It might not have a fairing but performance doesn’t get much higher than the S1000R’s. With its starting price of under £10,000, the cost of that performance seems to have fallen in real terms. Triumph’s 1050cc Speed Triple is cheaper, at £9,599, but makes 25hp less.

It's aggressive pricing by BMW, which should be good for the consumer. It will be interesting to see how competitors respond, particularly KTM, having priced the Super Duke 1290 R at £13,999. In the meantime, it's difficult to justify buying any high-powered naked bike except the S1000R.

Mode tested: BMW S1000R

Price: £9,990 (£11,390 for Sport edition)

Power: 160hp

Wet weight: 207kg

Seat height: 814mm

Colours: red, blue, white

Contact: www.bmw-motorrad.co.uk


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