The BMW S1000 RR has been around since 2010 and when introduced, it set a new high water mark for sophisticated liter bikes. I’d ridden a couple iterations of it both at California Superbike School as well as a couple of friends have let me take theirs out. I also have some brand familiarity as one of my street bikes is an R1250 GS which I’ve toured on, commuted on, and even took to Sonoma Raceway one time on a damp and cold track day.
I have conflicting feelings about the BMW bikes. No longer are they ‘Bikes Made Weird’ but they are engineered so well that I feel like they lack some soul. The R-series with their giant horizontally opposed two cylinder engines are kind of interesting in their nature and riding dynamic but the parallel twin and parallel 4 cylinder engines are efficient and effective but don’t (for me) evoke a lot of passion. While working on and maintaining BMW bikes very little jumps out as being ‘special’ in the parts selection or manufacturing, but it all works. It could be argued that the passion is making efficient and effective tools to do a job. One friend said of the S1000, it’s the best Japanese bike made.
With that preamble out of the way, I’ve been thinking about getting a liter bike for the track for a couple of years. I have my Tuono V4 Factory and while that’s an amazing bike, it’s down ~25+ bhp compared to the proper sport bikes and though it has decent wind protection, at 150 mph + it’s lacking. It’s also a street bike for me over being a track bike. I’ve ridden a couple of friends’ RSV4s as that seems like a natural pairing because I have a decent working knowledge of the Aprilia V4 platform and spare wheels. Unfortunately, I didn’t really gel with my friends’ RSV4s. Both had rearsets that were uncomfortable for me and the power honestly felt somewhat difficult to manage. If I were going to get one, it would have to be stock to start with. The RSV4 is a bit heavy and everything is packaged so tightly getting data acquisition on it is tricky. There’s also not a lot of room to adjust the handlebars due to the compact front fairing. I’d probably have to cut the fairing to put the handlebars where I want. Dealer support is not consistent, unless AF1 is your local dealer.
Recently, there was a K67 series S1000 RR that showed up on a local riding forum that was low miles, had the Ohlins fork & shock, lots of Alpha Racing bits, full Akra titanium exhaust, a tune, still had ABS plumbed, nice fairings, and all the stock parts and I jumped on it. The seller included all the stock bits, a clear title, and some extras. The bike is super clean and has been loved its entire life. It came with the OEM forged wheels. While this is an extremely nicely equipped and sorted bike, it still doesn’t inspire me in quite the way my Triumph or Italian bikes do. However, it’s an excellent tool for what I’m working on with my own program and furthering my own riding.
One of other great things about modern European liter bikes is the number of data channels immediately available for data acquisition (using the AiM data loggers). On this bike, that includes RPM, hand throttle, throttle body, front and rear brake pressure, front and rear wheel speed, gear, rear suspension travel (if equipped with the semi-automatic suspension), lean angle, coolant temp, intake temp, and a few other things. The beauty with all these channels being readily available is that with just a Solo 2 DL, you can capture so much useful information.
Another convenient thing about the bike is the aftermarket support. Alpha Racing alone offers almost everything you could ever want for the bike and the other vendors have loads of things too. This is true of most of the modern liter bikes but the BMW seems just a bit better than most and Alpha has top notch products.
So far I’ve had the BMW out for two track days. On the first day, I didn’t change anything other than the front preload. I rode it as it was with the suspension setup the previous owner had and default springs that came with the fork and shock. On the second outing, Ken Hill gave me some suggested baseline settings for the suspension and I rode it that way with some minor adjustments following that. I’ve also added front and rear AiM parallel suspension potentiometers and will be adding an external GPS antenna (for more accurate GPS positioning and speed accuracy).
So, riding summary with 2 days on it (~200 track miles) at Thunderhill East (3 mile track). The BMW is crazy fast (I’ve seen 158 mph on the front straight and 142 mph on the back straight) and the tune is pretty linear, it’s not super peaky like the stock tune. Brakes are effective and I only got a little bit of fade (it was pretty hot out and only when I was running a bit faster). It’s loud and angry sounding (full Akra system) but not particularly sonorous. I definitely miss my Daytona’s tearing-of-paper roar and the Tuono’s V4 rhythm. I’ve adjusted the Alpha rearsets as far forward and down as they go and it’s still too aggressive for my liking. When I jump back on the Daytona in the following session I’m so much more comfortable. Upper riding position is not that much different but the Attack rearsets on the Daytona are fantastic and the Daytona’s tank offers a better outer leg latch, though the Aprilia is the best of them for that.
Because the suspension is pretty much box setup on the BMW, the front end is stiffer than I would like. I’ll likely put 9.0 springs in it with a bit more preload (I suspect it has 10.0 now). What is interesting to me though is the data. As is, I’m already more comfortable carrying more speed on the way into corners—my trail braking numbers are consistently higher as well as my peak braking G. On the way to turn 2 at Thunderhill East, I forced myself to carry the throttle longer than I normally do so I would have to use more brakes to get the fork deeper into its stroke. I’d never actively thought about this kind of thing before while riding so the fact that the bike isn’t setup for me is giving me cause to think of things in a different way which is fascinating.
One thing that frustrated me on day 2 of riding it was having to wait to finish getting direction (getting the bike on the trajectory I’m wanting). On the Daytona, it doesn’t make so much power that 50% throttle is going to throw you off the intended trajectory so I felt like I could exit a couple of turns sooner and more aggressively than I could with the BMW. The corner where this was particularly noticeable was the final bit exiting T5, after you’ve come down the hill but are still turning right. I’d find myself accelerating too much and heading toward the left-side T6 curbing instead of a more centered trajectory. Then, I’d have to over-slow the bike and my apex would be extremely late. It’s all rider stuff, not the fault of the bike by any means. This is part of my own learning to ride a 1000. On day 1 of riding it (again, only changing front preload), I was within 1 second of the Daytona’s PB. On my second day of riding it, I was faster on it than the Daytona by a bit more than a second. The bike’s composure through turns 7 and 8 and slowing for turn 14 were the highlights for me.
There’s an aspect of the BMW that I’m not sure I like or dislike and that’s the linked brakes. I noticed in the data that there was rear brake pressure in some of the corners requiring me to use a good amount of brakes. I didn’t do that, it was the bike activating the rear brake. I never felt the bike doing it and the numbers are fairly low (for rear brake pressure, which takes a lot more to make it noticeable). There are setup options that eliminate it but I’m not to the point where ABS is intrusive and I would rather find that first. It’s just an element that I’m aware of from the data that is interesting.
Now if you’re into data, just using a Solo 2 DL and the 2015+ BMW ECU profile, you can get good stuff like the below graphs. I’m new to this bike so I have lots of bits to clean up but so much good stuff I can use to work on my own riding.
I’ll be riding the bike for the last few track days of 2024—Buttonwillow specifically. My plans for changes to the bike and/or parts:
Bursig stand - I love these for being able to easily move the entire bike around, pivot it and such. It also lifts the bike by the frame so it makes spring changes and potentiometer calibration so much easier.
Suspension and Geometry - I hope to get the bike on Mike’s schedule over the winter to get a solid base setup that I can work with through 2025.
Brembo calipers. There’s nothing wrong with the OEM Nissin calipers but I have 2 other bikes already that share the same brake pads so having some consistency means fewer parts to keep in inventory.
Stahlbus bleeders. I put these on nearly every bike I have, just makes brake bleeding/flushing so much easier and faster.
Rearsets - I’ve reached out to Attack and apparently they’re in development. The Alpha Racing rearsets are beautifully made but I miss the Attack adjustability and grippy pegs. If I don’t see anything from Attack early into 2025, I’ll probably look at the Gilles rearsets.
L74 quick change rear kit - once you’ve used a quick change setup, it’s kind of miserable to change a rear any other way. I have a feeling my rear tire consumption rate will be a bit higher with this bike so anything that makes that part easier is something I’m interested in.
L74 pull-cup front axle - The BMW uses a 22mm female hex on the front axle. For some reason I can never find that tool when I need it. I’m a big fan of anything that makes the mechanical work during a track day easier.
Spare OEM rear wheel - again, a time-saver. I’ve got 2 spare rears for the Daytona and it makes life so much easier when you already have a rear on a rim with a quick-change setup.
AiM ECULog - this is a super small logger that I’ve been wanting to try out. It does not have a compatible display so I’ll probably keep my S2DL as well so I can glance down and see data. I’ll use an external GPS antenna with the ECULog so it will give me that precision I like.
AiM SmartyCam 3 GP - I need to find a place to mount the controller for it so this is a *hopeful* thing. The cameras are expensive so I won’t do this until I know that I can mount it. I have one on the Daytona and I’d rather leave it there. In the mean time I’ll keep using the SC3 Sport.
The bike really is a great tool and riding it and the Daytona back to back was a much more effective exercise than I would have imagined. I think I can actually speed up my own development by doing more days where I ride them both in the same day as long as I continue to be conscious of the differences but I feel like I have the tools to work on that. As always, a huge shout out to my riding coaches, my mechanics, and especially Ken Hill who worked with me session by session remotely on getting a base suspension setup.