Dookoo
Registered
Well, its been just over three months since my accident on the Busa (Dec 22) and I've finally been given the green light from my doctor to start walking again. Three months just to be able to be a biped once more. A month of being bedridden, graduating to a wheelchair, then to crutches and now walking. Crazy. Needless to say, between the injury, surgery and physical therapy 3x a day, it has been an eventful and painful journey thus far. Physical Therapy now has a name, “The Pain”. My therapists are all smiling sadists, bless their hearts. I've another 2-3 months before I can hopefully go back to work. In the meantime, as many of you know, unable to walk or ride, I purchased a new BMW S1000rr. Mods: Yoshi R-77 Carbon, exhaust valve delete, suspension tune (local), Yoshi fender eliminator, Whelen TIR3 LED aux brake light, Clearwater Darla LED lights on forks, Q3's, Motodynamics rear vent LED lights, Yoshi muffler mount/passenger peg delete, Chinese rear cowling ($36 vs BMW $350+), Yoshi bar ends, engine plugs and oil filler cap so far. All mods performed from a wheelchair. Like any new bike, she filled my empty hours with aftermarket wishes and champagne dreams. By Feb, I was able to bend my right knee enough to mount the bike and I started to ride again despite rumblings from the wife and doctor. And when I say ride, it was from home to a turnaround point and back home since I was still not ambulatory. My biggest concern was, ’What if I need to go pee?’ Problem solved. No traditional coffee before riding. My rides were typically 150-250 miles long. You could always tell it was me because every chance I got, my aching right leg would be sticking straight out off the pegs. I now have 2500 miles on the S1000rr and on my second set of tires, Q3‘s. Riding was the epiphany of recovery, both mentally and physically. It’s Why We Ride.
My plans to get the Busa repaired are on hold since I have no time for another bike at the moment. However, I do miss the Busa for sure. For 95% of my riding, the Busa is better in every way. The Busa is much less expensive, smoother, compliant, comfortable, torquier, roomier, useable/practical (with the modded storage), wicked fast and the engine and chassis so forgiving. It is the rpm range between 10,000 and 14,000 that the BMW comes into its own and stamps its dominance. Even my tuned GSXR1k track-only 181 RWHP has no chance against the broad rush of useable power the S1k puts out. I ride nothing but twisties and after 3 hours on the BMW, I'm beat...done. My bum and upper body cannot wait to abandon ship for my nice LazyBoy. I never remember feeling this way after riding my Busa.
I have two Laguna Seca track days coming up in June. By that time I should be close to full recovery. I also have track days at Infineon, Thunderhill (long 5 mile road course) and Buttonwillow. My only real issue being that my right knee is lacking full flex making right handers with the proper body positioning difficult as well as painful. After the trackdays, I will have a much clearer opinion of the S1k as I have ridden Laguna with my various other bikes, my current tuned GSXR1000rr track bike with full Ohlins, my Goldwing with all RaceTech suspension (why not) and of course with my 2012 Busa with RaceTech. The Busa did surprisingly well at Laguna.
Back to the BMW. I’ve never had a bike where I actually had to soften the bike from its factory suspension settings. When I first rode the bike, the suspension was very, very harsh. I thought this was due to the suspension needing some breaking in. However, after checking my sag, I was only getting 13mm of sag out of the rear. No wonder she rode like a rock. Completely unacceptable! Did BMW assume that the average American rider weighed 250 lbs? I weigh 180 and close to 200 with all my gear. After setting the rear to 30-35mm sag for street and the front to 35mm and fiddling with compression and rebound, some of the harshness is gone. Square edged bumps and potholes still cause me to sphincter up. On rough country roads where my Busa would go unscathed, the S1k still bucks and kicks. I even went with very stiff 1.1kg/mm spring up front on my Busa and it is still way more compliant. The first real performance modification to the S1k will be suspension. Talking to the guys at Dan Kyle and to Dave Moss himself, both stated that the rear shock was good but the front needed aftermarket cartridges. Ugh, another $1k in parts but I’m first going with fresh synthetic 15w and more fiddling as suggested by a friend.
Power. The S1000rr is magic. If the engine really was reverse engineered from Japanese inline fours as the rumor goes, BMW hit a home run. They must have reverse engineered a WSBK engine by accident. Happy to tool along at the lower rpms, the rush from 10k to redline has to be experienced to be appreciated. Where the Busa accelerates smoothly like a jet turbine, the S1k is on afterburners. The difference being that the power is completely useable as it surges in such a linear fashion. Not one big unmanageable hit but a steady building freight train you can modulate efficiently with the throttle. Amazing. Take one for a test ride just to feel it. No stock bike compares, not even the ZX10. Best useable power delivery of any engine I’ve ever owned.
Brakes. I do not use rear brake. Ever. On the plus side, the rear brakes will never wear out. The front brakes with OEM pads are fantastic. One finger braking all day long. Best brakes of any bike I’ve owned.
Suspension. This is still in uncharted territory until I get to hit the track and spend more time tinkering with the suspension. Street wise, it is Busa all the way. Unfortunately, there is no doubt that the S1k will be great on the track. No doubt at all. Front end feel is amazing and the bike seemingly handles better the more you push it. I can already feel that this bike will be very capable on the track in stock form. Track tarmac being buttery smooth compared to the moonscape of my local, tax starved roadways.
Factory quick shifter: Why we don’t have this on any of the Big Four is beyond me. There is nothing like banging through the gears at full throttle. Imagine pulling away at least half a bike length from a clutch shifting bike at every gear shift. So far the factory equipped quick shifter has been flawless. It makes up shifting a no brainer so you can concentrate on other tasks.
ABS and traction control: Unfortunately, I ride with those options disabled and cannot give you feedback. I bought the 2012 Busa over the 2013 because I did not want digital intervention. I prefer analog feedback. I like feeling the bike not doing something right because I caused it. But that is just me. If I have an opportunity to enroll in a Keith Code Superbike school at a track near me, I will do so in order to get a better understanding of the factory ABS and DTC, which I am sure is fantastic. I’m just and old guy with an old school mindset. I do not mind a computer making me drive faster and safer. I want to know my lap time, not my lap time with computer assistance. I do mind not having the choice. Luckily, the ABS and DTC is easily disabled with a push of a button.
Hooliganism: Ever since I got my Busa, not one motorcycle or car has given me the stink eye. The only way to find trouble in my Busa was to go looking for it. However, when I’m on the S1k, drivers in cars and on motorcycles blip throttles at stop signs, want to do pulls on the roadways and generally act as if I am somehow their designated challenger, as if I had a sign which read, ‘Race Me!’ Has the Busa fallen that far off the notoriety list. It seems so. Has the S1k lived up to the promise of Glory in impromptu challenges in the canyons and straight line chest puffing? Yes it has. I may be older but I’m still a sucker for a little action. The S1k is the current performance benchmark and I now understand why. But like I said, for everyday riding up to moderately spirited canyon carving, I'll take the Hayabusa anyday.
Last edited by a moderator:
lease:
