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Posted

So. 569 miles as of this evening. Got my suspension done this afternoon (looks crazy with no forks). Tomorrow is 600 mile service time. It feels a lot more planted now that the suspension has been dialed in.

 

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Posted

Whewww... I did it.....

 

610 miles on it as I rolled into the service department. They took it right away into the waiting service bay to get to work on the 600 mile service. Big box of goodies are going to go on it this afternoon and it should be ready to go. I also requested they safety wire the bike so I don't have to worry about it on my next track day.

 

I'm going to pick it up tomorrow and get it loaded into the trailer and will head down tomorrow to Barber.

 

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Posted

Awesome r. You didn't miss a trick that I can see. Much luck and all the best. Nic

Posted

Thanks Nic. Really looking forward to doing some good learning. I'm just glad to have a bike I won't have to worry about. I love the older ones but they are not without their problems. :)

 

As well. Thank you to each and every person who helped guide me along the way to getting this bike out of the plastic and ready for the track. Without the input and suggestions from the members here I would be a LOT less prepared. I don't think you guys realize how much your input helped me.

Posted

Drive careful today, see you this afternoon and I'm really looking forward to seeing the new steed.

Posted

Thanks ScrmnDuc. Literally just walked in the door from the dealership. Going to load the bike here in a bit and hit the road. So much to do. So little time. :)

Posted

So the story is not over yet. This weekend I had the time of my life again with all the great coaches at the school. I made some amazing progress and achieved every single goal I had in mind and even some that I had not thought of. A VERY productive two days.

 

Special thanks to Laura, Dylan, Johnny, Chris, Will, Lyle and everyone else that helped me at the school as none of my progress would have been possible without you! I even was able to put some screen names with faces and really enjoyed meeting people from the forum. Thanks again to everyone on this thread who helped me with the advice to get the bike from the showroom to the Superbike School.

 

Before anyone says "Pix or it did not happen" here are a few from this visit. See you guys next year!!!!

 

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Posted

You may want to stay away from the more loud and screaming exhausts.They get annoying pretty fast.

 

A mellow exhaust whose baffles you can remove for the track should do nicely.

Posted

You may want to stay away from the more loud and screaming exhausts.They get annoying pretty fast.

 

A mellow exhaust whose baffles you can remove for the track should do nicely.

 

Interesting. I don't know what the noise limits are like for tracks in the States but here in the UK we tend to put the baffles in for track days and take them out for the road. :)

  • 7 months later...
Posted

I saw Dave Moss asking about how people upgrade their bikes on Facebook and I shared this link. I went through the post and realized that I have not updated this thread with the other things that have been done to the bike. I moved from the Woodcraft rearsets to the BMW HP rearsets for more adjust ability. I also put the BMW HP race seat on for more grip with my leathers and a taller riding position for my long legs. I also ditched the stock exhaust and went with a slip on and a belly pan mostly for cosmetics. Here's a photo at a recent track day.

 

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After riding a close friend's super well dialed in bike I realized that I probably should look at the suspension and some other options to make the bike a bit better on the track. I started doing the math and to get the bike where I wanted it for the track it was going to be upwards of 10K+. My friend ended up needing to get rid of his bike to get a new 2015 model so I bought it from him.

 

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Recently I rode both of these machines back to back on both the track and the street. On the track the new bike makes my 2014 seem like it handles like a truck. On the street however it's a bit of a handful. The riding position is great for the track but not so great for the street. It also has a number of engine upgrades that cause problems. Because of the additional power you are pretty much stuck below 3rd and have to be really careful on the throttle. The 2014 is a MUCH better street bike. More comfortable riding position and you can actually ride it normally without worrying about speed as much (it's still 193hp). I understand better now the choices that BMW had to make when tuning these bikes for street and track. The new bike will become my dedicated track bike and the 2014 will be mostly a street bike and a backup bike for when it rains.

 

The new bike changed my perspective a bit on the electronics and how they are tuned. I was always super conservative with the mode I put my 2014 in and often found myself fighting against the electronics and pinning the ###### out of the throttle when I ran into the electronics. Still being in that mode of expecting the electronics to get in my way coming onto the straight at the track the new bike showed me the err in my ways by promptly launching the front wheel in the air when I thought I was being gentle on the throttle. The bike was in rain mode. Needless to say I was surprised. I found out later the bike has full power in all modes and very little wheelie control in any mode. If anything I have a better understanding and much less fear about the power. It's weird how that works.

 

Because of the identical paint I refer to the bike as "the twins". They might look the same but they are VERY different machines.

Posted

So, a classic case of "Good Twin, Evil Twin" here rchase? ;)

Posted

Heh heh. Never thought of it that way. :)

 

In one of the editions of Road Racing world Chris Ulrich got a chance to ride a lot of S1000RR race bikes and wrote an article about it. While I'm sure the machines he was riding were more impressive than mine the article really made a lot more sense to me after my back to back comparison. A bike tuned for lets say the TT would be a handful on a small tight track. A bike tuned for a small tight track would get left in the dust by the TT bike probably on it's back wheel at 180mph on the TT circuit.

 

I don't fully understand all the tuning yet and exactly the dynamics but at least now I can recognize it's importance and how much difference it makes even for an average rider. I used to be of the opinion that most average riders would not notice the difference in a well setup bike vs stock. I'm happy to say I was completely wrong. I noticed the setup differences of the new bike at the very first corner with it's effortless handling and low RPM power making my exit.

 

Now to improve my riding so I can further take advantage of more of what the new bike has to offer. As well so I don't get in over my head. :)

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