Re: S1000RR 2015 Seat Cowl Fitting Mod
If you'be ridden blades for a while, then you'll know what I mean when I say that they are telepathic...a well set up blade is sublime.....shove the bars, drop it on its side, hit the apex, use the mid range to grunt out of corners whilst loving that feeling of the rear tyre being buried on rails in the tarmac...superb, a great track bike that's also great on the road, it couldn't get any better....or so I thought.
The S1000RR is simply in a different league. The Blade always needed a little more shove anyway, right from the off. IMHO the 08 really needed more power and that theme continues right up until today....the trouble for Honda is that the competition has moved on, and they've not seemed to keep pace or wanted to look after their customers in Europe; take the crankshaft recall, for instance, which applied only to US customers.
My new S1000RR seems to be better in almost every area. The engine is bloody fantastic, with no choppyiness or lag from the ride by wire, the power it makes even when limited is smooth and licence-losing on the road, and it pops and burbles and sounds truly awsome!
You have to consider tooling...I've built up over the years a pretty extensive set of manuals, parts catalogues, tools and knowledge..if you do your own fettling I'm sure you know what's significant about 84 ft lbs, or what the best base settings for your blade are.
Well that stuff does translate, but what's cool, the S1000RR manual is pretty good in helping to learn the new bike as well. I did find that it's taken me a lot longer to dial in then I thought it would, and its not been quite so easy to hold a line. So far I've only done 700 miles on mine, and I really could do with getting a few hundred miles on track, but no can do as it's still in its running in period. If you buy new, at first it 'feels' heavier, until you get right settings dialled in and things loosen up. And, it seems to feel better and better the more miles I do!
Also I've been experimenting with different settings, all at the click of a few buttons and DDC, how cool is that? You really can feel the changes made, and its actually quite nice to be learning something new.
Then there's the quick shifter which is completely addictive, the DTC to bail you out, different modes, abs.... going back to a blade now might feel, well, a little agricultural, I think.
On balance, there are a few things that were surprising...the frame gets quite hot, and this radiates into the footpegs and on hot days my feet have cooked a little...but I'm sure that on cool days that's going to be alright. BMW's prices for some things can make your hair curl. And on the road I forget I have a quick shifter and keep using the clutch!
So, if you are willing to re-learn and forgive a few foibles then I'd say go for it! Seemed to be a natural evolution for me, anyway.
Can I be the first to say welcome to the S1000RR club
