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Z3n posted:It's an option, especially before all the stuff goes out for paint. Is the axle solid? If so how about a Nut Splitter?
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Jul 3, 2015 09:13
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 The Update It's been over a year since I've bought my dear SuperDuke, and I think I've had enough miles on it now to actually offer some realistic long term ownership feedback. The bike now probably has somewhere in the range of 15k miles on it, hard to tell due to the time I was running it without a functional speedometer. Odometer says ~13.5k. I've done the usual set of mods:
Mechanical Stuff Standard maintenance items have been:
The chain was an early failure - it tightspotted for some reason. Not sure if it was a factory defect, but I have replaced it with another one, which is starting to show the same behavior. I think this might just be a reality of the bike - that much torque does a number on chains. I got some minor brake pulsing showing up, which is common with the OEM Brembo rotors, and KTM goodwilled me a set of replacement pads and installation of the Powerparts rotors, which I'd already bought. I almost fragged the engine reinstalling the cam chain tensioner after doing the valve adjustment, I thought it had deployed, but it hadn't. Saved by my habit of turning the engine over by hand to double check timing before firing the bike up. It jumped time and I fixed it before starting it up. KTM also goodwilled me a new rear shock after the mudguard gouged out a little divot in the rear shock. Rear wheel wobble is still exactly the same as it was when I got the bike. The bike is great to work on, everything goes on and comes off really easily, and most everything about it is designed with maintenance in mind. The chain tension check is the best I've ever seen (2 marks on the top run of the chain, lift chain to those marks to see if it's in spec), the tension adjustment takes 30 seconds (undo 17mm bolt, adjust hub eccentric, tighten 17mm bolt). The transmission has broken in really nicely, doesn't miss shifts or have any such issues. The ergos were adjusted slightly by the different handlebar mount kit, bringing the bars up and a bit closer to me, but that's not a huge change. A rear tire seems to last around 5-6k, depending on compound and pressures maintained, fronts are getting replaced with rears because that keeps the bike handling sweetly. Performance Well, the sad truth is that the human brain is a many wondered thing, and the bike is starting to feel pretty slow as I've adjusted to the power of the bike. Wouldn't have thought a bike that pulls the front wheel off the ground off a crest in 6th would ever feel slow, but that's the reality. It doesn't help that you pretty much immediately get comfortable with the bike and it builds speed with such calm ease that a ~3 second 0-60 feels sorta mundane. I had SPS revalve the shock after they got one in and decided it had a bit too much high speed compression. I've given up a very small amount of track performance (less than 5%) for significantly better compliance on the street, which is great. I've done a number of long days on the bike, and it's been awesome, as well as some 2 up on the track, which the bike handled with minimal issues, easily reaching 140 down the front straight of Thill for a few laps before starting to cook the braking system and the rear shock. I've started to come to terms with the idiosyncrasies of the traction control, so management of small wheelies and spinning up the rear tire is less of a big deal now - I've figured out how to stop the TC from immediately slamming the wheel back into the ground after it lifts, which basically involves more throttle modulation at a lower level of wheelie than I'm used to doing. At the last trackday I took it to, I did some 2 up on rides on it, and it easily does 140 down the front straight of THill 2 up, and lasts 3 or so laps before the shock is overheating and the brakes are cooking, not bad for hauling another person around at track pace. Best gas mileage thus far is 56mpg - freeway, doing almost exactly the speed limit. I average about 38-42 under mixed commuting, and around 34-36 under exclusive twisty use. Long Term Ownership Thoughts I still absolutely love the poo poo out of this bike. In fact, it's made an honest man out of me - this is the only bike I own now, and I'm super happy with that. I spend more time riding my 1290 now than I do working on bikes, which was the historical baseline for me. I'm still making payments on it, but that hasn't bothered me any, insurance is reasonable, maintenance is easy, and I plan to ride the thing into the ground. The biggest issue I have is that basically all other bikes are ruined for me. I want a Superduke for street and one for track, and I can't bring myself to want anything else. The S1000XR looks interesting, but the reality is that I can't imagine a bike that suits me better that the 1290. I'd still like to do a little more modifying - customize the accents on the bike to blue from orange, do blue/black wheels in the style of the prototype, maybe extend the suspension a little, but the bike is so good I'm loath to mess with it when I could be riding it instead. I'll have SPS redo the front forks as well to match the rear shock. I've also considered throwing a slipon at it, as it wouldn't make any difference to the relatively stealth nature of the bike, but I can't bring myself to spend money on something like that just yet. I should also really make a new gauge cluster mount in carbon rather than with bent metal, and re-foam the seat again, but I'd rather be riding. And to me, that's been the best part about owning the bike - it's there for riding, and I'm gonna be riding it for a long time. All hail the King! ReelBigLizard posted:Is the axle solid? If so how about a Nut Splitter? Might have worked, just sawalled through the frame and swingarm pivot, don't give a gently caress. Z3n fucked around with this message at 06:46 on Jul 23, 2015 |
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Jul 23, 2015 06:42
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I sat on a SD yesterday waiting for my wife's PR4s to get put on. I have some lusty thoughts about that bike. Nice thing is it's made for a normal American sized person to fit on, feels roomy but at the same time compact and athletic. Might try to scam a ride one day, they've been trying to get my wife to ride a R1200R around.
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Jul 23, 2015 16:36
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You should - KTM often forces dealers to have demo bikes for a period of time so it's not like it should be a big deal.
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Jul 23, 2015 17:31
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Brutale 800 Engine Service Manual posted:Rotate the drive shaft until completely unwinding the springs relative to the valves on which intervening (TDC). ITALY 
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Aug 23, 2015 21:06
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Rotate the driveshaft until the valve springs are uncompressed. Then have a wild, gesticulating argument with your girl, then your mother, then your mother has that argument with your girl, until grandmother's ragu intervenes and makes everyone happy again. ITALY  
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Aug 23, 2015 21:32
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I've been meaning to make this post for some time, and finally have the time to sit down and do it. It's going to get into much more of the theory around safe riding as opposed to the hands on practical skills. That said, I think there's stuff of value here for riders of all skill levels. This model is a simplification of reality in pursuit of a way to better help folks avoid getting in accidents, and to hopefully help the conversation along when it comes to discussing what makes more experienced riders safer vs. newer riders. Risk In this post, I'm using the word risk to refer to our chances of ending up on the ground. Easiest to conceptualize as "If I were put into a bad situation 100 times, how many times would I make it out upright?". It's worth noting that risk can never be taken to zero except by not riding a motorcycle. It's also worth noting that someone can ride in a very risky fashion and be lucky for an extended period, and not crash. However, regardless of your skill level, you ride in a high risk fashion for long enough and it will eventually catch up to you, regardless of skill level. I generally categorize risks into two categories: Environmental and individual. Environmental risks are the broader risks that are present in the world out there, everything from pavement quality, the weather, the density of traffic, the chances of road debris, etc. These are the things that determine my "baseline pace". If I'm on a back road in the middle of nowhere with no cross streets, on a sunny day, with good pavement, and I haven't seen a car in 20 minutes, my pace will likely be higher as the environmental risk is relatively low. If it's raining, I'm in SF with city traffic, pedestrians, etc, my pace is going to be much slower. The amount of environmental risk determines my baseline pace. If you're riding at a pace where nothing that you come across surprises you, chances are you have established an appropriate baseline pace. If you're riding at a pace where a completely unexpected hazard comes up, you should re-evaluate if that hazard was completely unexpected or if your pace was too fast to allow you to identify that risk. Individual risks are individual, tangible things that are increasing risk right now. That can be a pothole, gravel, bonzai pedestrians, an erratic car, and other things that directly increase my risk by potentially knocking me off my bike. Individual risks are also things that contribute to higher risk by robbing me of situational awareness and visibility or otherwise reducing my chances of identifying a hazard. Individual risk is a thing that determines if I'm going to be going faster or slower than my baseline pace on a per situation basis. If I've got good sight lines, excellent situational awareness and visibility, I might go significantly faster than my baseline pace through a corner, despite high environmental risk. If I can see a couple of potholes on approach to a blind corner, I'm going to be going significantly slower than my baseline pace. There is also a dedicated skill of identification of risks in the environment. I'm going to just leave that out for the moment, as that's a complete conversation unto itself, and I want to focus this post more on risks and mitigations than I do identification. Risk Mitigations So now we've got a baseline for our mental risk model - environmental risk as a broad, large scale thing, and individual risk as situations that expose us to additional risk. With that baseline, we can move on to the important thing: Risk mitigation. The first form of risk mitigation is "reactive mitigation". Reactive mitigations are when you have to do something or you will have an accident. It's the additional lean angle to avoid running off the road, it's panic braking to avoid colliding with a car, or swerving into the gap to avoid a car doing a sudden lane change while you're splitting. This is the last ditch effort that relies on reaction time and individual skill and motorcycle performance to prevent an accident. The next way you avoid risk is by what I will call "predictive mitigation". Predictive mitigation is when you have identified the situation in advance, and you have taken the appropriate action to reduce the chances of that situation requiring a reactive mitigation or causing an accident. These sort of reactions are things like pre-emptively hugging the white line on a blind right hander in case a car comes around the corner, slowing when you see gravel signs, slowing when the vanishing point is closing down, and other actions you take in anticipation of risks, as opposed in reaction to them. The final forms form of avoiding risk is to not ride at all. This is strong risk avoidance - choosing not to ride because you are sick, tired, or under the influence. It's an important tool when you don't feel like you are capable or your bike isn't in a functional, safe state. For some people, this is the only acceptable way to deal with the risk of motorcycling, and as a result they do not ride at all. For me, it's a decision I make when I'm not confident I can effectively avoid risks by predictive mitigation. Putting It All Together The reason that I categorize risks this way is because it simplifies safe, quick, and fun riding. Thinking through the environmental risk before I even swing a leg over the bike helps me get my baseline pace right. Once I'm riding, that baseline pace gets modified based on the encounters with individual risks I have. If I'm on a long ride and encountering minimal individual risks, chances are good I can turn up the pace a little bit and be just fine. If I'm on a ride and encountering many individual risks, I can back the pace down to reduce the chances of any of those individual risks knocking me off the bike. Furthermore, as a new rider progresses in experience, their risk mitigations should be moving from more reactive mitigations to more predictive mitigations. Reactive mitigations are easy to mess up, rely on the performance and skill of the rider to be performed successfully, and if you fail to perform a reactive mitigation, you are highly likely to crash. Predictive mitigations are low risk, low skill maneuvers that are taken in advance of a hazard becoming highly risky. Obviously, this relies on predictive thinking and anticipation of situations in advance, such as predicting the conditions that are going to show up around a corner, or the actions of a car in front of you, and using techniques that allow you to maximize your space cushion and awareness. The goal is to put you and your motorcycle in such a position on the road that you have pre-emptively taken any needed actions to avoid an accident. Performing predictive mitigations is a continual process that will be constantly changing as you move through traffic or up a road, as you take into account new information, discard old information, and identify new hazards. It's a very good idea to think through your history of reactive risk mitigations, and consider how those could have been pre-emptive mitigations instead. The other thing that I would strongly encourage riders to consider is to look at each encounter they have not on an individual basis, but as an average for the number of miles they ride, and the number of years they expect to ride. I expect to be riding for at least another 40 years, so that means that if I have a single high skill required reactive event while commuting every 2 months, I will have to successfully navigate 240 high skill events over the next 40 years to avoid crashing while commuting alone. That isn't a particularly acceptable risk level for me, so I have adjusted my riding, speed, and approach to lane splitting and traffic to keep the number of reactive events down. As it is, I've managed to successfully move the vast majority of my risk mitigations from reactive to predictive, and as a result, have a much lower chance of being involved in an accident. I hope my perspective helps other riders have a new tool for approaching the risks of riding a motorcycle safely - as always, remember, all models are wrong but some models are useful, and I've found this one very useful over the years. I hope others find it useful as well. More to come on actual project stuff at some point soon 
Z3n fucked around with this message at 20:57 on Sep 6, 2015 |
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Sep 6, 2015 20:28
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Z3n posted:I hope my perspective helps other riders have a new tool for approaching the risks of riding a motorcycle safely - as always, remember, all models are wrong but some models are useful, and I've found this one very useful over the years. I hope others find it useful as well. Thank you. I think much along the same lines; perhaps it is because I learned at a formal school. Don't forget to include  in your risk assessment 
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Sep 7, 2015 06:46
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Keldoclock posted:Thank you. I think much along the same lines; perhaps it is because I learned at a formal school. Don't forget to include Posthaven doesn't have smilies!
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Sep 7, 2015 09:13
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Keepin' it simple.
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Sep 8, 2015 14:56
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 New job, new commute, new bike. Life is pretty good.
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Sep 27, 2015 02:14
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Z3n posted:
Wait, did this replace the Superduke? I loved riding my buddy's S1000RR, and the standard style one-R version is definitely on the list of bikes I want to own someday, how is the ADV version?
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Sep 27, 2015 02:47
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Z3n posted:
 It's like the super serious, can't-take-a-joke german I4 superduke.
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Sep 27, 2015 03:23
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HotCanadianChick posted:Wait, did this replace the Superduke? Nah, Superduke will serve double duty as wife's bike, trackbike, and something to tinker on when I'm bored. I've actually got a S1000R in the garage right now on loan from a buddy in exchange for the SD - I wanted to commute on it for awhile to see how the engine was, what kind of mileage I could get out of it, and if I liked the chassis and platform. Obviously, the answer ended up being yes - the primary thing I didn't like about the R is that it still has the standard seat to footpeg ratio for a sportbike, which is murder on my knees. I picked this one up along with the tall seat, radiator guards, engine guards, and some other random odds and ends. I might strip the windshield to get cleaner air on to my chest, but my neck muscles might also just need to harden the gently caress up. Besides that, the dual direction quickshifter is awesome although not quite perfect (sometimes it's a little chunky, although that could also just be the transmission breaking in), I hope I never have to use the cornering ABS, TC seems solid, need to put 600 miles on it to get the dealership to turn off the 9k rev limiter and let me start doing my own work on it. They only deliver the fully spec'd out one to the US, so I've got every option under the sun. Interestingly, the one sorta weak area on the S1000XR is the brakes - despite using what seem like the same calipers as the S1000R/RR, it uses an axial mount master cylinder. With a completely fresh system, it's fine, but the system was a little thrashed on the demo bike and the brakes were kind of disappointing. My brand new one is good but not great, so there's a Brembo MC somewhere in my future. Slavvy posted:
Yeah that's pretty much exactly it, it's perfect - going to pile on all the commute miles on this thing. Plus did some 2 up with the wife, just flip the buttans to 2 passengers, dial up or down the damping a bit, and go have fun. Also, actually owning one, listening to people whine about the vibrations is loving hilarious. Like, yes, the bike has vibrations, it's a liter supersport based bike. There's a place where the bike vibes noticiably, but with how people were treating it, you'd think it was vibrating enough to gently caress with the quantum reality of the universe. If you're crusing at a fixed speed, just set the cruise control and pull your hands off the bars. If you're not cruising at speed, you're not going to notice it. If you wouldn't buy the bike because of the vibrations, I hope you never ride a dirtbike because you'll just swear off all motorcycles forever. I'd imagine all the BMW engineer eyeballs are all over the floor after they rolled out of their heads from reading the reviews. For example: quote:But it’s in the real-world where the XR starts to annoy. Like, how do you write those words and not thing "wait, maybe the problem is that I don't actually know what the gently caress I'm doing, and I should go buy a GS1200 for my LWR cosplay". Riding the bike back to back with the S1000R, the vibes are maybe 10-20% worse, roughly on par with a S1000RR. They're easy to fix by filling a bar with shot, heavier bar ends (the GS uses 15 oz ones, the XR uses 2.5 ounce ones), or shortening the bar slightly so that it's not so drat wide - but I probably won't do any of this because they're a non-issue in the first place. If you death grip the bars, you're probably going to have a really bad time with the vibrations, because they do exist. But if you ride like you should, with your hands gently resting on the bars, it's a non-issue. These are really basic supermoto/dualsport type lessons to learn, so pretty absurd to see someone slagging off a completely phenomenal bike because they can't relax their hands enough to ride properly. "If you want to spend more money for the bike that is a slightly worse S1000XR left in rain mode, buy that Ducati!" http://www.bennetts.co.uk/bikesocial/reviews/bike-reviews/group-tests/ducati-multistrada-v-bmw-s1000xr/ posted:
Also doubling down for the irony of the Ducati losing the "dating a supermodel" crown to a (cheaper) German bike. Never mind that the new ducs have a bunch of weird electrical glitches and the BMW has been perfectly reliable. Then again, I shouldn't be surprised, motorcycle journalists are just a subsection of motorcyclists, who are majority terrible.
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Sep 27, 2015 09:09
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Congrats on another uber-bike. The only moto journalists I can reliably tolerate are the ones from Bike mag (UK).
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Sep 27, 2015 16:03
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Infinotize posted:Congrats on another uber-bike. Good modern motorbike publications: Bike SuperBike Both are UK.
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Sep 27, 2015 18:57
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Z3n posted:"wait, maybe the problem is that I don't actually know what the gently caress I'm doing, and I should go buy a GS1200 for my LWR cosplay".
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Sep 27, 2015 19:00
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Installed cbx carbs. Forgot to install choke and throttle cables first. WHELP, IT WAS A GOOD RUN GUYS
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Sep 27, 2015 20:41
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Z3n posted:
Now all you need to do is replace your grey aerostitch with a hi-vis version. Move to the dentist side young padawan. Grats on the new bike!
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Sep 27, 2015 20:43
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Z3n posted:Installed cbx carbs. 95% percent complete project only needs some throttle cables and she's good to go for the summer $5,000obo.
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Sep 27, 2015 22:33
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Chiming in to say that up to my 7k on it now, my thoughts on the SD are pretty much on par. Before buying it I had bike ADD and looked at everything as a potential new ride, now every other bike I have ridden / sat on / looked at is "Not my SuperDuke". I'm glad I'm not the only one who thinks the bike feels slow after getting used to it though.Guess I need to go buy a BMW now though. Digital_Jesus fucked around with this message at 22:53 on Sep 27, 2015 |
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Sep 27, 2015 22:50
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Yeah I'm all in on dentist. I only bought the BMW because of the longer commute - full review to come
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Sep 29, 2015 06:52
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Z3n posted:
Et tu, Brute? 
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Sep 29, 2015 12:42
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builds character posted:Et tu, Brute? Wait, that doesn't go there? Oh no, I suspect he isn't taking a nap at all!
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Sep 29, 2015 15:19
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Ha, that's Gogo's SuperDuke from like 5 years ago. Crashed minimizing the injury to another rider who went down in front of him - according to the doctors, saved the other guy from paralysis. Snapped the bike in half though. He just also just blew his 1290 engine by using a quick shifter on it during a race, it ejected a shim 
Z3n fucked around with this message at 15:22 on Sep 29, 2015 |
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Sep 29, 2015 15:20
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Z3n posted:
Nice bike! I want to trade my C14 in for one of these pretty bad. Love my C14, but it's just so goddamn heavy.
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Sep 29, 2015 16:53
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BlackLaser posted:Nice bike! I want to trade my C14 in for one of these pretty bad. Love my C14, but it's just so goddamn heavy. It's pretty fantastic. Break in service was finished today, hello dynamic pro mode and all the rpms!
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Oct 3, 2015 23:16
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Z3n posted:
Saw one of those the other day by the hotel, wasn't sure wtf it was until I saw this post. You weren't in Emeryville last week were you? Cool bike, looks like a nice combo and great for commuter duty.
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Oct 4, 2015 23:18
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NitroSpazzz posted:Saw one of those the other day by the hotel, wasn't sure wtf it was until I saw this post. You weren't in Emeryville last week were you? It could have been me, I'm not far from there. Was there a Givi top box on it with no side bags? Are you out this way permanently or just in the area for work or something?
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Oct 5, 2015 04:08
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Z3n posted:It could have been me, I'm not far from there. Was there a Givi top box on it with no side bags? Yup top box and no side bags so it definitely could have been you. I was out for two weeks to babysit a couple systems, back in TN now. I may be headed back out later and will get in touch if I do. Great looking bike.
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Oct 5, 2015 11:40
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NitroSpazzz posted:Yup top box and no side bags so it definitely could have been you. I was out for two weeks to babysit a couple systems, back in TN now. I may be headed back out later and will get in touch if I do. Great looking bike. Ahh, yes, system babysitting. Definitely let me know if you end up out here again, would be great to grab a drink and hang out. In other news, I've been delaying on getting more stuff done on the bikes, but soon the KTM will get a complete tear down for the 18k service, including lubing all the suspension linkages and such, plus another valve check, and replacement. The CBX wouldn't fire up, only backfire and afterfires, so I think I need to check the ignition timing. Who knows what terrible things the PO did to it.
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Oct 5, 2015 15:42
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If you've been following my bike history (why wouldn't you?), you'd know I bought in to our electronic future about a year and a half ago, with a 1290 SuperDuke. As of 2014, there was nothing that could compete with that bike in the arena of top shelf suspension, brakes, electronics, horsepower and an upright seating position. But while the SuperDuke is exceptional at a short haul through tight traffic, or ripping up a twisty road, it's not in its strongest suit when you start riding the undulating slab of the 580. As I'm nothing if not a purist for the type I like, the SuperDuke still fits my ideal motorcycle nearly perfectly. But it was time for a change: rather than being focused on street hooliganism and track performance, it was time to revamp for for dominating a commute, interchanges, merges, and carrying me to work with speed and efficiency. The range to do at least 160 miles before hitting reserve was a requirement as well, which the Superduke does neatly by virtue of getting 45+mpg on a casual commute. But getting a SuperDuke to push towards 50mpg is the ultimate pyhrric victory, like beating diabetes by replacing your blood with HFCS, and gives no satisfaction. This surprise ruined by the title. Although the world doesn't need another case study on the Faustian bargains you can make with highly paid marketing consultants to build a Brand Experience, I'm still going to drag you through the sordid details. After all, you can't talk about an S1000XR without talking about the rise of the ADV scene. The ADV scene contains wonderful mainstays of Long Way Around R1200GS cosplay, and riders who lovingly order stickers from around the world to affix to their dentist's thrones, while talking about how one day they're just gonna take off and ride, man. But the best marketing always contains a drop of truth, and that truth homeopathicically distributed through this bucket of marketing indiscretions is that in dirt riding you find clean, solid design principles. Horsepower is available in spades because you're only riding dirt to roost your buddies, refined long travel travel suspension to handle your poor life and line choices, an upright seating position that helps you target fixate off the shortest cliff, and light weight so that you spend less time begging your buddies to help you drag your bike back to the trail. And indeed, all of these things hold similar virtues on the street. Horsepower brings danger closer, faster. Light weight increases confidence and maneuverability, while refined suspension carries you through corners you never should have made, and an upright seating position lets you rise above the human concerns of traffic and dream of freedom. There's also the continuing drive towards electronic aids on the street, which overpriced ADV bikes wallow in as essential bullets in their marketing fluff, and is another entire debate I'll sidestep entirely by pointing out that those that disparage modern rider aids are moronic neo-luddites and those that welcome and spend money on them are the golden heralds of the new age. After all, there's something to be said for an electronic package that allows a terrible rider to maximize the speed at which they fling themselves off the shortest cliff their ADV inspired bike allows them to find, regardless of its impact on the secondary market. And this is the point where someone chimes in and says something about how the sport touring community has been doing this for years and the VFR750 was the pinnacle of the gentleman's sport touring ride and - well, they'd continue, but they need to take a break to check that they took today's medication, and by the time they get back from doing that, had a quick detour to the bathroom, they've forgotten what they were saying, the name of the person they were talking to, and are primarily preoccupied with if their suspenders are going to hold their pants up for the remainder of the trip home. And indeed, that's actually a pretty good reason to ignore the sport touring market entirely. The bikes are over weight, under suspended, slow to react, and most of the motorcycle manufacturers have realized that the entire marketplace is rapidly expiring, and have discontinued the bikes with no plans to continue onward. As the stock and trade of a modern Renaissance motorcyclist is subtlety and wit, I have left only the barest implications that there might be a relationship between sport touring bikes and their riders - consider this a puzzle for the reader to explore. And while there is a value in the knowledge that occasionally bubbles to the surface in the sport touring scene, this is often akin to the dilemma that those of us who are friends with KLR riders face. While Kawasaki may have built a perfectly functional motorcycle out of pot metal, polyurethane, and the design principles of the Roman empire, these are probably not the staidly functional choices we should build a lifestyle around. After all, this sort of reasonable, responsible thought isn't going to Make America Great Again, and we can't allow the usefulness of a cheap sport tourer or a KLR to detract from the dream of propping up a failing American ideology via a last ditch set of poor decisions on financing, balloon payments, and wealth transfers to those that replaced their sense of decency, worth, and social responsibility with a bank account balance. Ahem, where was I? Oh, yes, the S1000XR. Let's have a picture:  A BMW in it's natural habitat: The garage. Well, I mean, you can read a thousand reviews that say things about the motorcycle. It goes fast! It has suspension bits that bounce both up and down at both ends! More buttons than a hipster's wardrobe! But I think that a refined reader of my words deserves better than that. So in the time honored tradition of terrible management across the board, I'm gonna poo poo sandwich this bike and we're gonna see what it's like to actually live with. The bike itself is a wonderfully aural experience - firing it up, it emits a raspy, lumpy idle, and if you put it in most powerful modes, it emits a burble coming off the throttle that reminds you of an F1 car blowing a gout of fire from its tailpipe. Slam up the gears without touching the clutch, and be rewarded by the flat static burst of the quickshifter, slam it down the gears without the clutch and appreciate rev-matched downshifts and the burble and pop of race bred DNA. At low RPM, the engine pulls smoothly and without drama, gathering itself to spring, and at 5k it begins to wail with a distinctly un-gentlemanly howl before loving straight off into the territory of an ex-AMA racebike. If any government agencies besides the NSA are reading this, I'm happy to be the brave anonymous tipster on the clear violation of sound emissions in exchange for buyback rights to all motorcycles found in violation. Just send me an email, I'm sure you already have my information. And much like the effortless shifts of government direction in the interests of its controllers, the engine jumps to respond to any input change with the frictionless synchronization of a backroom deal. It's quite clear that there has been minimal change during the theft of the dark heart of the S1000RR to jam it into this new chassis. The dual direction quickshifter is also equally interesting, it works in a wide variety of configurations from seamless changes that are too good to be believed to the occasional misstep as you fail to shift strongly and positively enough and instead simply bounce your foot off the shift lever ineffectively. But it works well enough, often enough, that it will handle the majority of your downshifts, with only occasional reaches for the clutch when it's actually needed. And despite the size and wheelbase of the motorcycle, it steers into a corner with wild abandon, tempered only slightly by a clinical team of engineers debating the exact speed at which the human brain can handle a change in direction with some form of accuracy. With the amount of leverage courtesy of the wide bar, I found it somewhat over-sensitive. I fixed this by applying a bandsaw to the last few inches of the bars, reducing leverage to a more useful ratio, while also slimming the bike for lane splitting. In the ergonomic space, as I am a man who also once dabbled in the black tar heroin that is supermoto riding, I also appreciate that a high seat is offered, expanding the seating position out to more dirt bike inspired dimensions. There's a low seat, too, for the inseam challenged. The suspension is useful, but clearly a compromise point for BMW, as they are trying to reconcile the yin and yang of sport riding against the history they have build on cushioning the backsides of rich urban bikers to and from the local artisan coffee joint. As such, while road mode is nicely damped and supple, it lacks the appropriate rebound damping, meaning each bump is a novel exploration of the rebound waveform collapsing. Dynamic mode, on the other hand, fails to handle potholes with grace, but is beautiful up a twisty road, with excellent sport riding settings. The single rider mode lacks enough preload in the back, but cheating it with the rider and luggage mode fixes the problem. Ironically, the right settings are all available, they're just mushed up in the wrong places. Rider plus luggage road mode on the front with rider only dynamic mode on the rear shock would probably be a great commuting setting, and rider plus luggage front and rear in dynamic mode with the compression settings from road mode would be a nearly perfect sane street pace ride. As it is, rider plus luggage in dynamic mode comes into it's own up a relatively smooth twisty road, and the 2 up preload setting makes you think your pillion has disappeared entirely. So all of those things are standouts about the bike - but there are a number of things that are marginal as well. The dark side of the frictionless, quick reving engine is essentially zero rotating mass, which means pulling away from a stop requires a significant fistful of revs, or the RPMs drop alarmingly as you let the clutch out. Expect to burn the clutch a bit. Also, the gear ratios are nearly unchanged if changed at all from the S1000RR, so you've got a frankly moronic 6 speed that's so tight ratio, the difference between the gears is marginal. It would be great to have a first gear that topped out at lower speed, and an overdrive 6th that dropped you into the nice spread of torque available at 4k. Of course, this is how BMW has been winning all the top gear roll-on competitions, so fair play to them for trouncing the competition there, just a pity it comes at the cost of real world usability. Essentially, I find myself operating the motorcycle like a 4 speed: First, 2nd, 4th, and 6th. The difference between 5th and 6th is about 400RPM at 60mph, which makes the top gear feel pointless. It would have been wonderful if they had shortened first gear significantly, spread 2nd through 5th lightly, and then made 6th a very tall, true overdrive gear. And while we're talking about the clutch, you spend $19,250 on a bike, and BMW gifts you with a non-adjustable clutch lever. That, paired with the axial mount master cylinder, makes me wonder if they started developing the bike from the ground up, made it to the top, and just phoned it in for the levers, brake MC, and windshield, all of which are marginal at best. The windshield does a wonderful job of taking an otherwise smooth, reasonably quiet riding experience and throwing dirty air straight into your helmet, increasing buffeting and noise dramatically. If you stand up on the pegs and get into clean air the noise level drops approximately 60%, which is just staggering. As such, I'm removing the windscreen and the windscreen mounts, which I anticipate will completely fix the problem. As I'm 5'11 with the legs of someone who's 5'5 and the torso of someone who's 6'5, I think my physical construction here is as much to blame as the bike's, but hey, I bought the drat thing, you have to listen to my gripes about it. That's just how the deal works. There is also the little point of the bike actually having linked brakes, which is a feature most reviewers don't even bother to mention. I first noticed it when the rear brake lever felt very inconsistent - well, as it turns out, that's because it uses the ABS pump to engage the rear brake when you apply the front brake. I think this actually contributes a large degree to the stability of the bike on the brakes in the corners and while upright, as a computer based engagement means when you apply the front brake, the bike can actually apply the rear brake very effectively based on speed, lean angle, front brake application, etc, to establish and exploit available rear traction to help control dive and smooth brake application. The system is so transparent that you wouldn't notice it unless you're riding the rear brake as you apply the front brake, where you'll notice the rear lever becomes oddly firm. It's nothing like the linked brake systems of the past, and I believe it contributes in a huge way to confidence applying brakes in a corner, especially when paired with the cornering ABS. Interestingly, despite this excellent functionality, the power of the brakes is somewhat disappointing, as I feel like it takes a significant amount of force to get the bike to really engage the front brakes. The braking power is there, it just requires more force than I would like. I'll probably fit a Brembo master cylinder to address this particular issue - I'd imagine this is a place where they skimped a little, because it's acceptable to reduce front braking power when you're building an "ADV" bike. There's also the obvious other caveats, that this bike simply doesn't work in real offroad riding. You can absolutely fire-trail it, double track, it'll handle dirt roads just fine, but it's not going to handle true singletrack. But no one's buying it for that, either. It'll go to Alaska and back no problem, but you're an idiot or a glutton for punishment if you want to ride this thing anywhere serious offroad. I purchased the OEM engine crash bars for it, which amusingly, require taking a dremel to at least one fairing to fit. You can get away without dremeling the left fairing, but the right one it is a necessity - I'm assuming this is some sort of "you're going to drop it, you rear end in a top hat" indoctrination. But it's time for the last slice of bread: This bike is legitimately amazing. The complaints that I raise are almost entirely nitpicks, and easily fixed by throwing a few hundred extra dollars at the bike. Some might balk at spending another thousand bucks or so to fix these sort of problems, but everyone's gonna have a different opinion on most of the things here, with the exception of the non-adjustable clutch lever, which is a very odd oversight in a premium bike like this. As it is, I'll probably just make something that fits and uses a Brembo lever to match the master cylinder I'll end up buying. The bike as a whole package is exactly what I wanted: A ballistically quick, well suspended, upright steed with top shelf electronics, that is equally at home lane splitting home at 8PM, tearing up a twisty mountain road solo or 2 up, or strapping a pile of luggage on to go out camping for the weekend. It nets 40mpg under casual use, pushing range to an easy 160 miles, the TC lets you slide enough to have a good time, and you can click it off the fly to perform wheelies for the kids or impressionable middle aged men. Throw a topbox on it, enjoy the invisible luxury of aping the responsibility of the sport touring crowd while riding a bike that will do 0-100 in the time it takes the officer to figure out you're not over the hill. It's the perfect bike to rack up thousands of guilt free, fast, safe miles on. It'll also probably make fools of arrogant sportbike riders when I take it to the track. It's a very worthy companion to the SuperDuke for those who, like me, are willing to support the American way of life on a financing plan. As they say, if you can pretend to have the means, I highly recommend it.  PS: Someone's gonna say something about vibrations or some poo poo, and to that I have to say: There's your proof that BMW riders are all dentists, and also, they mostly seem to go away after you break the bike in. Between break in, fitting the engine bars, and shortening the handlebars, the vibration profile changed enough that I don't notice them. Also, cruise control means you can take your hands off the bars on demand. PPS: Also, thanks to SF BMW for being awesome and getting me a bike really quickly once I decided I wanted one. Buy all your bikes and stuff from them. I'm off to ride my bike around, ciao!
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Oct 11, 2015 21:43
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That was great!Z3n posted:riders who lovingly order stickers from around the world Guilty as charged. 
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Oct 12, 2015 10:46
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Z3n posted:BMW stuff Awesome entertaining review. I don't think I'll be able to afford anything like this in the near future, but it's nice to know there are plain awesome bikes out there. Also completely agree with the technology stuff: the more gizmos let you have more fun safely, the better. Also agree about your vibration point: cb650f was supposed to be vibey as hell according to the comparos, but it feels butter smooth after my cbr250. I think some journalists need to man up.
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Oct 12, 2015 11:40
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I like how you've already started bandsawing stuff off. drat I want a modern bike with all the electric goodies.
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Oct 12, 2015 14:58
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I just buy the stickers from where I ride Also, the 17" adv segment is our new ST. Interesting to see it re evolve independently out of dentist rides.
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Oct 12, 2015 17:49
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Happy to see folks are enjoying the review So glad those stickers are still out there kicking around  I actually think the ADV segment is the modern standard. It's a bike that has most of the tech of the modern world, but is designed for real world use. Never minding the marketing side of the equation, they're bikes that are all around good at everything, much like the standards of back in the day.
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Oct 12, 2015 20:26
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I agree. Seems like people have no idea what they actually want in a bike so marketing comes up with a million different bullshit models every generation, but popularity always seems to lie with models that are 'good' without being specialised at anything.
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Oct 13, 2015 00:39
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Apologies for sideways viewing, wasn't exactly expecting it to start: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RhPqDcAfP1M Reason I wasn't expecting it to start:  PO installed the primary shaft 180 degrees out of alignment, so the ignition was completely loving out. Need to split the cases to fix it - or just mill some fresh alignment holes in the ignitor...
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Oct 19, 2015 06:24
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As a result of your post I went for a test ride on an XR this weekend. It is quite a machine. You dont expect something with such an upright riding position to be that quick. I did notice the buzziness in the handlebars. It only seemed noticeable to me because of how smooth everything else was. I also took an R model out and didn't notice it at all. Now I just need to decide if I am ready to give up the more aggressive sport bike riding position.
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Oct 26, 2015 14:53
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