BMW S1000RR ... click pic for road bike gallery
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BMW HAVE unveiled their S1000RR road bike to the world's press at the Monza World Superbike Round, today (Saturday) in Italy.
I was there at the press conference and my over-riding thoughts are that this is a serious contender from BMW, which, although may not yet be winning races, it has the full commitment from the BMW factory and their engineers have an overwhelming belief that this bike will lead the way in the superbike class both on the road and on the track. A bold statement.
The S1000RR is closer in size to an R6 and looks incredibly well finished. It's bursting with technologial innovations and features which I hope will raise the bar in the litre-superbike category.
According to BMW, the S1000RR has been designed for top performance, excellent rideability and throttle response, superb handling and traction, with a low weight and a compact and dynamic design.
BMW have spent 4 years developing this bike totally from scratch and are confident that this will be the new benchmark in road-going superbikes as well as a future race winner.
According to BMW, the S1000RR has the best power to weight ratio in its class (against the Fireblade etc.) with a dry weight of 183kg, and 204kg wet, it produces 194bhp @ 13,000rom at the crank. The maximum torque figure is 82lb/ft @ 9750rpm. BMW claim it features the most advanced fuel injection system available on a motorcycle today and coupled to this, it features ram air which BMW don't put a figure on, but say leads to exceptional bhp gain at high speed.
The S1000RR will have the option of ABS, ABS and DTC (traction control), a shift light and an immobiliser. It is also available with a quickshifter. The ABS and DTC options are also variable, the DTC has four modes; Rain, Sport, Race and Slick. In Rain mode, the power of the S1000RR is limited. The ABS is enabled on all modes except Slick and it also has 'Wheelie Protection' which is also enabled in full in all modes except Slick.
The wheelie protection has 'Lean Angle Detection' which means that with an angle of less than 20-degrees, the bike will still be able to wheelie for at least 5 seconds in Slick mode.
The ABS is developed for use on the road and the track, it was labelled as 'Race ABS' and has a total weight of just 2.5kg. It can be adjusted into different modes and can also be disabled completely.
The S1000RR has been extensively developed in the BMW F1 wind tunnel for maximum rider comfort and aerodynamic advantage. Small details like the holes in the screen to stop rider buffeting and the 'fins' on the bellypan to aid wind channeling are key signs that BMW have thought about the finer details.
The gearbox is 6-speed and the S1000RR features a slipper clutch. The front end is a fully-adjustable 46mm USD fork, the swingarm features an eccentric pivot, enabling different adjustments to raise and lower the height of the S1000RR and therefore the steering geometry. The really clever aspect of the suspension is that alll the adjustments are labelled 1 to 10, which means clicking in preload and adjusting rebound will be easier than before. The brakes are Brembo radial, with 320mm fully-floating discs.
The aluminium frame is welded from 4 individual castings and the engine is load baring, the rear subframe is made form aluminium tubing and the front subframe bracket is made from magnesium.
The wheelbase is 1432mm which BMW say enables the rider to get maximum traction from the chassis.
The exhaust system features two different types of valve. The first one on the downpipes enables the gas-flow to be adjusted, giving the S1000RR additional torque in the mid-range and the second valve is located before the end-can and is there to minimise noise.
The bike should be available by November 2009 but will definitely be in dealers by January 2010. BMW UK have not revealed a UK price but say it will be 'competitively priced' which means it will realistically be around the £13,000 price-tag. It will come in three colours; Silver, Black and Yellow.
