My reasonable not tracking Yolie YET is I'm still not comfortable with her in every situation. Every once in a while I get the feeling she's glaring at me when I get off, saying "dude wtf?!? You trying to kill us"

I've already done $7.5k worth of damage to her so the street has already scrubbed off that new bike smell. If anyone asked me why I bought such a powerful bike and not ride it to its potential I'd Prolly collapse laughing.

I have my egotistical moments. But I'm not delusional enough to think I'll ever have the skill to come anywhere near her potential. Near my potential? Definitely. Hers? Hell no. So I can't waste her. Every time I ride, Yolie is teaching me. Slowest I can stably ride her is 4 mph. Took a lot of work with throttle control, friction zone and brakes to get there. The TC light only comes on when I get happy with the throttle on takeoffs (and the occasional pile of leaves in the middle of a turn).

And dammit I look GOOD riding a BMW. Definitely no waste here

 

Kuro,, im a bit qurious.. does yours have traction control?? and do you use it.. whats it feel like???

edit: scratch that... i get the TC refernce.. anyway, whats it feel like???? Tc

 

I'd buy a 1000cc bike for the same reason anyone would have a trophy wife; more trouble than she's worth and probably 'wasted' on me, but dang she'd be pretty to look at and I'd have fun!

No matter what you do someone will always have a problem with you doing it, so do what makes you happy and defend that.

If you aren't hurting anyone or breaking the law, why is it anyone else's business anyway?

 

My opinion, the owner is allowed to whatever he/she wants. I bet about 25% of the people that are riding him hard for being worried have been to a trackday, just like we see here on this forum. The rest are just bluster and people who like to talk big on the interwebz.

If BMW's intention for this bike were for it to be put on a track, they wouldn't have bothered with making it street legal. If they wanted they could produce a track only version of the bike, stripped of the lighting, and with lightweight fiberglass race fairings.

they didn't do that - they built a bike that was created to be ridden on public streets, even though it has extremely good racetrack ability, this is a street bike, and the owner has the right to decide where/when he wants to use it. It's his wallet.

edit: forgot to add if my bike is being "wasted" - No, cause even though our bikes are capable of a lot more, it is a mode of transportation, and an escape for nice days. You don't have to be dragging knee everywhere to enjoy a quick bike. Hell, even Harley riders enjoy going fast from time to time.

 

Not with the coastal road on my island, it's huge! Great scenery and a few tight twisties, I get much pleasure from taking that ride no matter how much power I use.

 

Traction control on the S1000RR basically adjusts power transmission based on wheel speed differential. When you get happy in gears 1-3 and your front wheel decides to take off, the power cuts off and it plants you back on the ground (a couple times I've had my bike pogo 3-4 times because I was a bit toooo enthusiastic in lower gears). When you're going over rough pavement/gravel/leaves or whatever have you and you're straight up and down, it feels like the worst bog ever... almost like the engine decided to up and die on you. When you're in a clean corner and you decide to hammer it a bit too hard around the apex, you can't really tell, it's like a progressive rotating slide that's being managed (kind of like loading the front in a car through a turn) with just the TC light flashing in your face telling you that you're doing something wrong (or something really right ). Let me tell you, this last situation has happened to me a couple times and it made me feel like a ****in rock star.

I've had it only cut in a few times on me and since using Michelin Power Ones I haven't seen it once on the track... although I did slip on some slimy stuff through an intersection where I got that nasty bog.

 

Damn good description Ray. Especially the bog... tho straight up on a manhole cover, it feels more like "damn dude, you owe me one".

 

I am going to say..

dont track your vehicle if you cannot afford to write it off.

 

i get out of my stuff what i want to get out of it, so NO, it isn't wasted. what other people do with their own property is no concern of mine, and their opinion about me is equally irrelevant. if getting the maximum intended output out of something were the requirement for owning it, we'd all have nothing.

 

Spot on!

Years ago when I bounced better, I took my brand new Suzuki TL1000s to a track day and binned it. My fault totally. But I just trailered it home, took off all the broken bits, ordered the new ones - not insured for the track so, $5,500 later (in 1997), I had a spanker with lots of new carbon fibre bits. Rode the bike for years before parking it.

Still have the bike, just bought a carbon fibre lower fairing for it and plan to race it on the salt next year - straight line 'cause I don't do corners so well any more

You have to know your limits and track days are good for finding them. But don't push to those limits if your afraid of scraping the fairings or bending metal - or can't afford the repairs.

Cheers, SB