rchase

What did you find? On mine I have found fasteners that needed to be tightened. Worn consumables like brake pads and sprockets. Leaks of all varieties. I even found a cracked frame once while cleaning. While a really unpleasant surprise I would rather find out about a cracked frame in my driveway rather than at speed on the track or in tech inspection. I had the frame replaced on the R6 it's a common issue with the first generation bikes unfortunately. It was not cheap but the bike has huge sentimental value for me being the first sportbike I ever owned. My bikes are a lot newer now and I don't find as many issues as I once did with the older ones. Actually my BMW's have been pretty much issue free other than a worn set of brake pads. I still go through the trouble of cleaning and inspecting them before I go to the track. It's not only my safety but everyone I share the track with as well. Cleaning also goes a long way to keeping the bike operational. Keeping the ABS ring clean and free of debris and junk makes them work as designed. The same thing goes for sprockets and chains and many other components on the bike. Keeping fork legs clean of debris and crud can extend the life of fork seals.

I agree with khp on this. While we don't agree on engine sounds we do agree on oil and oil threads. I have a couple of RR's as well and one has the Race ECU. I trust BMW's engineering a lot more than my guesswork so I only use the factory oil. I do the same with many of my other bikes and even have to jump through some hoops to get the Agip/ENI 4T racing oil imported from Italy for one of them. The manufacturer did a lot of testing with the engine to make sure the lubricant worked perfectly and they would not get warranty repairs. I do however double up on my services for bikes used mostly on the track. I usually will haul them into the dealer for a 2nd oil only service right in the middle of the regular service interval. A lot of people go a bit crazier and change all their fluids after every time at the track. That seems a bit excessive to me. I keep an eye on the color through the sight glass. If it's looking not so great you can always change it. At the end of the day however it's your bike and you have to do what you think is best for it. I don't fault anyone for choosing what they think is the best choice even if there's guesswork involved. For people involved in racing an oil sponsorship can save them a massive amount of money and slow their descent into racing induced bankruptcy. If you really want to take care of your bike one of the best things you can do is keep it clean. Sounds really simple of course but a simple cleaning before you head to the track allows you to physically put your hands on every single component and find potential problems. I clean mine before and after track use and have found a few problems before they found me.

KHP Here's one for you. A Ducati Desmosedichi RR flat out on the straight. A very unusual 4cyl Ducati with a great sound.

Absolutely. It's physics. As the wave is compressed and as the wave is no longer compressed in regards to the listener. The thing is that most bikes the Doppler effect seem less pronounced than it does on the BMW. It's subtle but it's quite distinctive to the RR. Some bikes do sound "similar" but the speed and the quickshifter of the RR make it a very distinctive sound. I know when an RR is on the straight due to the distinctive sound as it passes. Maybe It's just me. The growling bikes certainly do have their charms but my preference is the bikes screaming at high pitch. Another bike that sounds very interesting. The Honda 250RR. A little 4cyl 250 that revs all the way to 20K RPM! My preference for high revving engines comes from the amazing sound that F1 cars make. Here's a Renault V10 on an engine test bed. I love that strange harmonic you get with V10's.

I have to agree the RSV4 has a great sound as well. A friend of mine has one and it's quite amazing to listen to. Here's a video of that sound as well. Although I can't say that I recommend going those speeds on a public road. :/

And of course. It's a cold day and I can't ride. So now I'm looking up sound clips on youtube. Troy Corser's BMW Race bike on the Monza straight. One of the things I love about the distinctive BMW sound is the Doppler effect as it approaches and starts going away from you. It's a very distinctive sound to the bike.

Here's another F4 that's making noise in a tunnel. Sounds great even without the tunnel.

I love the RR's. Nothing beats their high pitched scream as they are going through the gears on the quick shifter. Especially if they are equipped with an exhaust. An interesting video. Nate Kern on one of the original pre-production RR's at Roebling. Pretty amazing sound as at the time no additional exhaust options existed for the bike. Second to the amazing sound of the RR would be the MV Agusta F4. The F4's engine was co developed by Ferrari and originally based off one of their F1 V8's that got cut in half. They make that distinctive Ferrari sound and are a sheer pleasure to listen to. Here's a video of a special edition Senna F4 (a tribute to Aryton Senna the "greatest driver that ever lived") without exhaust baffles.

I suppose the best option is to provide as little detail as possible. "Motorcycle Accident". Any other information beyond that won't help you much and gives them traction to deny your claim. :/

Interesting. I have not heard of this but quite honestly nothing surprises me anymore. I'm going to go check out my policy though ASAP!

Just a comment... The installation photo. The bracket at the bottom of the fork tube obviously does not provide enough clearance around the large portion of the fork. That angle that the sensor is mounted at is going to distort the accuracy of the readings. If the sensor is designed to be installed this way and "corrects" for the angle it's fine but unless there's correction the sensor has to be installed parallel to the fork in order for the readings to be 100% correct. Another installation consideration that you may want to keep in mind is steering stops. The BMW kit includes steering stops to keep from crushing the sensor. You may want to check the clearance once the sensor is installed to make sure that the sensor does not touch anything. If the steering stops don't protect the sensor you could easily damage the sensor if you get some head shake. Please let us know your experience once you get everything installed and start getting some data. Not a lot of people have these sensors on their bikes and it would really be interesting to understand this technology better. You actually have peaked my interest in what other information that I can get out of my data by understanding what my suspension is doing underneath me. While I probably would not use this for adjustment it would provide additional perspective into my riding that I don't currently have now.

BMW offers this on the RR and HP4 to provide additional data to the DDC system. The data from this sensor also logs to the datalogger and can provide additional information to the rider. Here's a photo of the 2D sensor on a BMW HP4. For myself I don't understand suspension technology enough to really understand what I would really be looking at. A data aware suspension tuning person would be pretty amazing for someone like myself. They would be able to take their knowledge and experience and instead of using my input to tune the suspension they could look at the riding style and what the suspension was actually doing to do their adjustments. Even then however DDC might be a better choice for me as having that level of knowledge onboard adjusting things to be perfect 100x a second would be much better. I'll probably do DDC on my next RR. You might have a lot more experience with working with your suspension and this might really help you see what was going on while you were riding. One thing that you might want to keep in mind would be the ability to relate movements you see in the suspension with the track surface and the available grip/slip rate. Ripples in the pavement could easily send you on a wild goose chase trying to figure out what's wrong with the suspension when it was just the suspension reacting normally to the pavement surface. In addition to that there's a lot of analog technology that's useful for measuring suspension travel at a fraction of the cost. A zip tie on the fork tube can give you a lot of information as well as the seat of your pants. Despite this I think it would probably be worthwhile at least to provide you with additional information as to what was going on. Just take what you are looking at in the data with a grain of salt and pay specific attention to ripples in the pavement if you get the opportunity to do a track walk.

That's kind of interesting to see the way it's done in other parts of the world. Here in the USA we are required to have liability insurance if a bike is ridden on the roads. There's some weirdness depending on where you live with the ability to get a plate on the a bike in the future if you let the registration lapse for track use. More times than not when you decide to go back to the roads the local tag office will demand all of the back tag registration in order to issue a new tag. I plan to keep tags and insurance on all my bikes regardless of their "on road" status due to this. Being able to slap a plate on with tape and being able to kinda sorta legally do a quick road test if needed is kind of nice. They tend to impound you if you are completely unregistered and uninsured. No headlights and tail lights are another matter but usually either a warning or a ticket. Having a plate available that comes back to a valid insured bike in your name also tends to answer questions right away if there's ever a question of ownership. Not so much with them being able to just check the VIN number.

I think in a lot of cases ABS gets a bad rap from some of the earlier systems that were not as refined as the more modern ones. There are a lot of bad ABS systems still on the market too so that does not really help. The really promising thing for us riders though is these systems continue to get better and better.

I found this rather interesting article on ABS technology that some may find of interest. http://www.americanmotorcyclist.com/Features/RideReports/AntiLockBraking.aspx

Super helpful reply there! I tend to self insure where I can as I'm not a big fan of having to negotiate just to get the bare minimum that will make me whole again. Some times you end up ahead in the long run not paying premiums and just eating the loss rather than having to go through the hoops of getting an insurer to pay. I do that with a few of my cars already. That might be the case on a dedicated track bike as well. Unless the bike tumbles most of the time the damage is just cosmetic or limited to the levers and pegs and other easily breakable bits. Even if you do end up with a tumbled and crumpled mess of a bike it's still worth "something" in parts. I have heard of cases of insurance companies totaling bikes for simple cosmetic damage which in the grand scheme of things makes the coverage slightly useless at the track anyway. I had not considered home owners covering theft of the bike for theft nor exclusion clauses in my life insurance. It sounds like I'm going to have to have a long chat with some insurance agents and see what I can find that suits my needs better than what I currently have. They probably aren't going to like it when I want copies of policies up front so I can read them before I'm willing to sign up for coverage. On the track day thing. Nearly 100% of the track days I have ever attended include "coaches" which can provide you education if you chose to work with them. While they aren't full schools a lot of people learn to ride at the track that way. I suppose that's the gray area that some insurers won't cover and some will. Market dependent of course. Like everything else in life. Insurance is complicated.

Today I discovered I need to move my bikes to another insurance provider. I got a non renewal notice because my bike "Exceeds the maximum allowable amount". I called to ask about and they offered to have an underwriter review my policy and perhaps get an updated appraisal to make them less uneasy. I then discovered with my chat with the representative that my bike was not covered on the track at all. She was helpful and pointed me to the exclusions section in my policy that had this information. Not just the age old racing disclaimer either. My policy excluded any coverage for "temporary or permanent closed circuit courses" all written in cold insurance company boilerplate. I'm glad I know now and never had to make a claim. Does anyone have any experience with insurance companies that will insure a bike used for track days? It would be helpful as well if these companies were able to easily evaluate bikes that are well equipped with lots of "go fast" parts. This will help me in narrowing down the options for shopping for a new policy. Providers that also insure cars would be a plus as it just saves hassle when it's time to pay the bills. I'm considering converting this bike over to 100% track use and going with bodywork on it to keep my factory stuff out of harms way. If you had an RR equipped with a lot of HP race parts would you be willing to ride it at the track and self insure? The big one that's kept me from doing that already is theft. Hearing other people's experience and approach would be really helpful. If you ride your bike at the track I urge you to go right now and read the exclusions section of your policy. You might have to pull this up online as some companies don't send the full policies out to customers or you may have overlooked it when they did. Make sure your policy covers the bike on the track. Regardless of what you hear online policies vary from market to market and some of them contain some very limiting language regarding track coverage. Even if you have been "told" by your insurance agent they cover bikes on the track what's written in the policy will be the only thing used to define the coverage. Nobody likes insurance companies other than perhaps people who own them. I fully understand this and don't particularly care for them myself. I have intentionally left out the name of my insurance company to protect the names of the not so innocent. Lets keep this thread positive and only name companies that can help us enjoy our passions rather than the names of those who can't.

Riding a powerful bike is fun too, blasting by bikes at full throttle as if they were completely stopped is the best part. In all fairness though big 200hp 1L machine or amazing handling little 250 they both are equal with the amount of smiles per hour they put out.

Being on the back is a way different experience. With the complete lack of much input at all into the bike every corner trips off every possible SR you could think of especially because of the speed differences between an average rider and someone with "a bit more experience". Of course that's where it becomes a good thing that you have so little input into the bike as all of those SR's would be able to actively cause you problems. As for the gain in time. I honestly don't know where I stand in relation to the lap record at Roebling. I pay very little attention to my actual times and a lot more attention to the trends of where those times are moving. I should probably look that up sometime as it could be helpful in the future when I get more serious about lap times. If you ever get the chance to sit on the back with one of the "fast guys" you should do it. It really helps cast away a LOT of doubt.

Thanks for the comment. Quite honestly I had much the same thoughts about go fast parts before I actually experienced them. I was convinced they would make no difference at all due to my inability to get near the outer envelope of the bikes performance with my own riding on standard equipment. I'm happy to say I was proved completely wrong. Those types of parts make riding easier and more enjoyable for pretty much anyone. The fast guys of course are able to take that ease and turn it into blistering speed. Perhaps one day I will be able to as well. Roebling on paper looks super easy if not even slightly boring. When you actually ride it it's a different story. There are lots of surprises waiting for you. Turn 4 due to the shallow angle you enter at is harder than it looks. Turn 3 often takes people out on cooler days as the left side of their tires cool like crazy from the right turns from 6,7,8,9, the 160mph+ straight and then 1 and 2. I think you meant to say the uphill section of turn 9 leading onto the straight. That's certainly a place to be cautious but you can go much faster there than you think. I know someone who goes through there on the rear tire and enters at well over 100mph.

Wow. All I could think about with that video is how I would never even have to shift gears and how much of an absolute handful a 1L bike would be on that track. On a 1L you would just get tired fast and watch the little bikes make mincemeat out of you.

Hey Shannon! Welcome to the forums. I would tell you about all the help that you will find here but since you have been lurking you probably already know. I have to agree with you on the "This stuff works" comment. Each and every time I go to the school I make massive improvements in my riding and confidence. It's always an amazing experience.

For sure!

LOL. I knew I left myself open there.

Thanks for this helpful comment. The timing of course could not be any more perfect. Last Sunday I did a track day with lots of long sweepers on a track I had never ridden before. I was also riding my street RR that on stock suspension and standard wheels. For one reason or another I did just fine on the stock bike even though I expected it to be a challenge. I learned the track just fine after a session and the heavier wheels and standard suspension were non issues. I still don't "like" long sweepers but I had a lot of fun on this track and experienced very few problems other than having to figure out the line all by myself (coaches were busy and focused on other riders). While I don't have any real data either way that the geometry on my other bike might not be optimal for my current style that's certainly worth more looking into. The only "back to back" testing I have ever done with both bikes was when I was test riding the 2nd one at the track before I bought it. I got off of my stock street bike and rode the new one which was equipped with light weight wheels and upgraded suspension having been owned by a much more skilled and experienced rider. It was on a track with very sharp technical corners and the new bike made the street bike seem like it handled like a truck. The turn in for both bikes is very different and it's worth exploring the differences more. I'll probably find a track with a combination of tight stuff and sweepers and ride both to compare. While I probably won't make any changes to the track bike until I completely understand the differences and what the changes might do to affect the bike (hint: I'm a suspension idiot). Despite its aggressive turn in it's not unstable and it's sharper lighter handling comes in handy on tight technical tracks. Quite honestly in the tight stuff it's lighter feeling than some 600's I have ridden which is amazing. It's interesting why I was riding my street bike rather than my much better equipped bike at this track day. I did a day at Barber a week prior in absolutely glorious 68 degree weather (it's ok if you all hate me it was worth it). Towards the end of the day I had a realization that my tires were completely heat cycled and somehow averted an accident when the rear tire lost traction during a ham fisted mid corner downshift. When it regained traction it gave that classic "snap" that attempted to launch me out of the seat. I'm glad it happened and I'm glad it did not result in a crash. I learned an incredible amount of stuff in a fraction of a second. The tires were a full season old and I should have known better! I got caught up in the fact that it was wonderful late season weather and I wanted to get out and ride a few times before the season ended. One more track day won't hurt right? And another and another. I think you get the idea. New tires are already on order.