Did a bunk from work today, what with the good weather supposedly disappearing by tomorrow..
Anyways, went out on the Busa to have a natter & cuppa with the resto chap doing my LC, ended up coming the long way home and popping out near my local BMW dealer..
Salesman was a nice chap(and a fellow LC owner!) so after a brief chat I made some noises about interest & test ride on the S1000R.
They had a demo bike , sporting a Akro pipe (I think it was an Akro)they just sold that day and rather handily, had taken the limiter off ...
After signing my life away, I rode off the forecourt and popped it in race mode at the first set of lights, as you do.
Ive made comment in the past about how these things are getting too revvy now, torque and peak HP being too high and to be fair the power is stacked well up top but in reality ,after a weaker spell up to 4Kish (...and I was looking for this, the Busa is a torque monster with 99ft lb at a lowly 7,000RPM), I was really surprised at how hard it drove.
So much so I reckon after 90MPH in a top gear roll on, the Busa's torque being blunted by its weight and longer gearing , the BMW revving harder and faster , with snappier gearing would leave my Busa flondering.
It handled beautifully, brakes are like all modern stuff now, just not comparable to kit from the 90s , it was amazingly fast, really quite comfy , aside from the really intrusive anti wheelie(couldnt find how to switch that off on my 60 mile ride) it is an amazing bike, im glad I went out on it thats for sure
...but I still prefer the Ducati 1198, the BM is "just" another IL4 with more go and handling I cant exploit, as an all round experience, the Duke edges it for me.
Maybe its more of an age thing for me nowadays, 10-20 years ago maximum HP was all I(we) was bothered about, looking at how diverse motorcyles are now, is a great thing in my book, I really enjoyed the BMW but I CANT WAIT to ride my LC !