Seeing as though the S1000RR is now sorn’d and won’t be back out until probably March April time which will be pretty much one year since purchasing the bike I thought I’d do a little end of season review of the bike, share my thoughts on what I like and don’t like about the bike. I’ll add some pics and vids from the year as well and will mention the upgrades add ons etc that I have added.
A few pics of the bike after delivery.
Engine - I think the claimed figure is something like 204bhp which is crank power and most seem to return roughly 190-195 at the wheel when put on the dyno, and it shows, the engine is very strong and pulls well from low down, it does come alive at roughly 8k and pulls all the way to the 13,500rpm redline, it’ll actually keep going until the hard limit at 15k or so but it’s not lack lustre or certainly doesn’t lack any low down grunt. You can be lazy and the 6th gear pull when cruising is spot on.
Brakes - The brakes are really strong, for the standard set up I can’t complain, I’ve done 3 track days albeit not full days and there was no fade at all. I’m really pleased with them.
Chassis - The handling of the bike is perfectly fine, when you are in the normal riding modes such as road, race etc the suspension is doing its own thing, but when you are in ride mode pro which is the setting where you can tailor the settings to your liking the suspension is fixed, you can still adjust the damping electronically via the dash but it’s more conventional as in fixed, you select 6 on the rebound then it stays at that. For the front rebound and compression, that is adjusted together, you cannot adjust them independent of each other, on the rear because there is potentiometer fitted from factory you are able to adjust rebound and compression on the rear independent of each other. To be able to adjust the front damping settings independent of each other you have to fit a potentiometer which then allows to you to adjust them separately, after fitting the potentiometer the setting on the dash appears, it will now show an adjustment for front compression.
Electronics - Where to start with this, it’s extensive to say the least, everything from traction control to wheelie control, engine brake and so on, it’s ridiculously good in this department, the best electronics that I have used that works almost seamlessly, unless you see the DTC light flashing you wouldn’t know it’s activated, the only time you know is when the DTC is set too high and it’s interfering so much killing the power on corner exit, but that’s great for finding the sweet spot, you just knock it back one and see what happens next time, it’ll still work and work well it’ll just be less intrusive. You have launch control and a pit lane limiter but also heated grips and cruise control, it’s quite funny having these performance bits but then also the added benefits of the creature comforts. You also have sat nav via the BMW connectivity which gives you directions on the screen, I haven’t properly used this other than one time for a short journey to see how well it works and it seems to work well enough.
Quickshifter - The Quickshifter works well enough up and down, it can be a little iffy at slower speeds in and around town but you kind of expect that, it’s fantastic coming down the gears when braking hard for the corners, I’ve had no issues whatsoever, it’s definitely up there with the others that I have used, I still believe the Translogic QS that I fitted to the GSXR was probably the best QS that I have ever used at any speed but I’m not overly fussed if they play up slightly at slow speeds in around town, it does what it’s meant to. The lever from factory is designed where you can have it set up as normal road shift or GP shift, it took 5 mins to swap to GP shift which is a great little extra.
Comfort/riding position - For a sports bike it’s very comfortable, I usually struggle slightly on sports bikes because I’m a fat useless mess of a twat but I can go decent miles on this in relative comfort, it’s not an overly aggressive riding position, everything is as it should be within reason, the bars are nice and wide and splayed out slightly which all sports bikes do these days and for me this adds to comfort especially when pushing on a little, the cruise control adds to the comfort allowing you to rest your wrist from time to time.
Summary - I think it’s the ideal road bike, even more so if you want to do a few track days each year, ride there in the morning with the heated grips on then go mental for x amount of hours in relative safety with the unbelievably awesome electronics then back home again, heated grips on, cruise control in the villages resting the wrist.
Bad bits - These aren’t really that bad, just silly wee things that I can live with but I think they soon realised as the new 2023 model has addressed these minor annoyances, well most of them I think.
First of all, when you are in the normal riding modes, you can’t switch wheelie control off, that’s no real problem because you can easily switch it off in ride mode pro but when you are in ride mode pro you no longer have the full benefit of the DDC suspension as it becomes fixed, so if you’re wanting a nice easy run with soft suspension for comfort then decide to do some wheelies then you can’t, as far as I’m aware they have changed this on the 2023 bike but I’m not 100% sure on that.
Secondly you have various screens that you can have whilst riding but when you switch the bike off and back on again it will always go back to the pure screen, now I’m not overly fussed about that but some folk were losing their shit over that, so they’ve changed that, it will now be in the last screen you were on.
Thirdly and this one again doesn’t bother me too much, you lose phone connectivity when in ride mode pro, they’ve changed that for 2023, that one doesn’t bother me too much.
Fourth and I think the final one, the shift light is brilliant, it’s at the top of the dash and it’s bright and easy to see, but I think they should have had the rpm gauge flash at the same time which they have done now for the 2023 bike, I’ve had that with other bikes and I love it, now my bike does do it but only when you get very close to the hard limit, so at 14.5-15k it goes daft but in red.
That’s pretty much it now on to the add ons that I’ve done, I had originally decided that I wasn’t going to add that much and I’ve already added more than first planned but they serve a purpose and can be easily removed when I trade the bike in or whatever I decide.
The original list was
Taller screen, heavier bar ends w/ lever guards, paddock stand bobbins, tail tidy, radiator and oil cooler guard, quick release fuel cap and I think that was it. I then decided I was wanting the GPS lap trigger for doing track days, so I also decided on getting GB racing covers and Evotech crash bungs, that meant it was good to go for track. I also fitted Eazi-Grip tank grips and pad.
Some pics showing the add ons
I might swap out the exhaust at a later date, I’ve got a few other bits and bobs that I’ve added to the list, I’ll see how funds are next season and take it from there. I can’t wait until next season, I plan on doing at least 3 track days as well.
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