Had a test ride..

[Matt]

Strange I got a really good trade in price there for my D675. I know they are selling bikes with ease at them moment and especially the HP4, so maybe that is it. I think if you went into Honda and BMW with cash you would get a much greater discount off a Blad than HP4

Blades are relatively cheap, and they don't do deals on HP4's, so im told...

 

[chorsley]

So just a little update...

I phoned Kirk at Manchester BMW last Wednesday telling him that i wanted to come in on Friday and put a deposit down for the HP4 as previously discussed, i also mentioned that i needed a reasonable price for my R1 and i didn't want to waste my time or his time if a reasonable price wasn't going to be possible. I first went to BMW Manchester about six weeks ago and their manager offered me £8500 for my R1 agreeing that it was in showroom condition. On my test ride Kirk assured me that he would "sort me out with a better deal". So once again over the phone Kirk put my mind at rest saying that he would give me the very best deal for my R1, he said "just come in and lets get this done....

So on Friday i went in had a quick chat with Kirk, he told me he needed to speak to someone on the phone over what he could offer for my bike, I told him that was fine and that i had my deposit with me. To my shock and horror he came back with an offer of £7000, so in just a few weeks according to him my bike had lost £1500?? I asked if this was him helping me out with a better deal, he just shrugged his shoulders and said thats all he could do. I got up and walked out a very very disappointed person...

I thought maybe my bike just wasn't worth much so on Saturday i took it to Hunts which is the Main Honda Dealer in Manchester and asked them how much they would give me for my bike against a new Fireblade, £9000 was their answer.. I told them what had happened at BMW and they had a good laugh, they said please say your not going back to BMW who are blatantly trying to rip you off..... Their right, how can i deal with people who have just tried to rip me off, i have no faith or trust in?? I know their selling large numbers of bikes, especially HP4's, there were 3 there on my last visit all waiting collection, so maybe they can be picky.

The fact as i see it is, i obviously won't go back, a very good friend who has spent two years saving for a s1000rr says he wont deal with Manchester BMW because of this so they've lost £30,000 just for the sake of given me £2000 extra for my bike which they could of still sold for £11,200 making a nice little profit.....

I still want the HP4 and my friend still wants the s1000rr so we are looking further a field........

The Problem with BMW is they cant resell your bike in their showroom they have to sell it to a trader who is looking for a big profit, had similar issue with my partners bike agiast a K1300S a couple of years back got a much better deal agianst a VRF1200 at dobles in Croydon.

 

[chorsley]

Blades are relatively cheap, and they don't do deals on HP4's, so im told...

I got told the same thing when i asked for a discount on an HP4, so I bought a S1000rr instead and got a fantastic deal over £1600 off RRP and a blade is not a patch on S1000rr in my opion I tried every 1000cc bike on the market before parting with my money and the S1000rr is the best by far.

 

[yam-andy]

Spend some bucks on suspension on the R1 and it will make a better road bike than a s1000rr, you know yourself the r1 will pull ahead out of every corner with the grunt it has over the s1000rr, ask yourself is a hp4 really worth paying extra 10 grand plus for, I very much doubt you would see a huge noticeable difference in your riding unless you were a really poor rider and need fancy set up to keep it up right, in my opinion go with a s1000rr or reflash, and splash out on some suspension for the r1

 

[Matt]

Spend some bucks on suspension on the R1 and it will make a better road bike than a s1000rr, you know yourself the r1 will pull ahead out of every corner with the grunt it has over the s1000rr, ask yourself is a hp4 really worth paying extra 10 grand plus for, I very much doubt you would see a huge noticeable difference in your riding unless you were a really poor rider and need fancy set up to keep it up right, in my opinion go with a s1000rr or reflash, and splash out on some suspension for the r1

This is exactly what im now thinking mate, in fact ive not thought of anything else for the last few weeks. I do love my R1 and it has been flashed tuned so the difference in speed with the s1000rr isn't much..... I ve had two members here pm me advising me to keep with my R1, one has just gone back to the R1 after selling his s1000rr. I have a couple of friends who think im mad to even consider selling my bike, they have both ridden it and think it rides perfect and is scary fast. I even challenged Kirk at BMW to have a go of my bike just to prove there isn't much difference in speed....

Ive spoken to Wigan Yamaha and they are more than happy to give me the money i need for my bike if i decided to sell it... So the money side of this is no problem.. I think the biggest deciding factor here is the problems BMW seem to have with build quality. It doesn't matter where i look or who i speak to more often than not people are having problems with one of the many things that seem to be dogging the BMW with build quality. Dan started that thread asking for peoples experiences and i think 2 out of 30 had had no issues, thats far to many for me. In the last 10 or so years ive owned 2 R1's and 2 cbr 600's and had absolutely no issues with build quality or mechanical.... I accept that if i have a fault BMW are always happy to fix it however the thought of having the bike in the garage over and over again when i should be out on it is a turn off.

Im hoping that BMW will in the next year or so fix these problems because im still determined to own one at some point....

I enjoy coming to this site and if its ok will continue to do so....

Matt..

 

[Alps Pacino]

A s1000rr is a much quicker bike than a crossplane r1. I had my old crossplane mapped at swan Yamaha and it made 175bhp and 85lb/ft at the rear wheel which apparently is really really good going for one of them. I loved my r1 but the s1000rr makes it feel like a massive heavy slow out dated bike in comparison.

 

[DanRR]

I now own a x plane r1 and have had two s1000's and in my opinion the r1 is much more fun and the power delivery is better. IN MY OPINION I think the R1 is faster where you need it to be. Yes the bmw has better handling with the brembos and being lighter but i honestly think, in the real world, the r1 is quicker. the s1000rr is probably faster after 160-170 mph but in the real world does that matter? Your going to get bias answers asking this question on a s1000 owners forum.

if you do sell are you interested in selling your fairings?

As ive said to you before mate, be very careful with this one...

 

[DanRR]

Spend some bucks on suspension on the R1 and it will make a better road bike than a s1000rr, you know yourself the r1 will pull ahead out of every corner with the grunt it has over the s1000rr, ask yourself is a hp4 really worth paying extra 10 grand plus for, I very much doubt you would see a huge noticeable difference in your riding unless you were a really poor rider and need fancy set up to keep it up right, in my opinion go with a s1000rr or reflash, and splash out on some suspension for the r1

Agree with this. The BMW just came out the factory with a few more expensive extras so if you throw a bit more money into the r1 such as suspension etc you will have an amazing bike without the extra 10k of a hp4!! The money difference is insane for a bike that does 160 to 180 0.3 (guessing) of a second quicker!

 

[Niven770]

A debate like this could go on forever as there is no real answer.

Whatever you are most comfortable with is the best bike for you, what is best for one is not necessarily the best for another.

Taking it to extremes, if a lot of "power" scares you and you are not relaxed with it you may well find that you will perform better and enjoy say a "400cc" bike and turn in better lap times (if that's what you are into). In this case more is not always better.

Regards
Davy

 

[Alps Pacino]

I really don't understand the "real world" argument the r1 feels like its got a lot more grunt but in reality they only make the same torque as the rest of the litre bikes. If you can ride an s1000rr at a decent pace it will pull away from a crossplane in every situation both on the road and track.

Like I said I had a 2010 r1 with 3/4 Yoshi system power commander with custom map and quick shifter, once all that was done to it I realised I should have just saved my money and spent it on the s1000rr in the first place cause it still felt big, heavy and slow in comparison.

After writing that I thought what was the point cause all it comes down to is personal preference and what bike you get on with and feel comfy on.

 

[DanRR]

Just got back from a ride out on the R1... We have an awesome curvy road (A134 near thetford) and a s1000rr passed me. I thought perfect chance to test this out. We had a proper play, both of us really pushing ourselves and the bikes. It was great fun.

We pulled over and had a chat after. Never met the guy before, was a really nice chap on 2010 motorsport s1rr.

Truth be told, there was sod all in differences. He pulled away towards the end of some of the straights and i caught up in some straights.. simple as that, both awesome bikes and next to nothing in performance differences. We BOTH agreed on that.

Alps is right, its down to personal preferences and litre bikes are so good these days that where there are differences were never really going to notice it unless your Rossi or something!

good luck! just think of the money, its only two wheels and a toy!

 

[UrbanRacer]

I did try to PM you Matt and keep this off the main forum but the forum is ******.

Anyway, had a test ride of a X-Plane R1 today and i instantly loved it, straight away the first thing i noticed was how good the gearbox felt, just putting it into 1st first gear and i had that confident click into gear, same with neutral, not faffing around trying to be ultra gentle so as not to skip across neutral and into 2nd.
Then the noise.. WOW! the bike had Akra end cans on it and by christ the noise was incredible popping and banging down the road, i was giggling away in my helmet like a kid.
Handling wise i instantly clicked with it, its obviously a difficult thing to explain but for the first time in 8 years of riding i understood what riders mean when they say "front end feel". i went down one of my local roads that i know well and in every corner i felt i could have gone faster despite me actually already going faster into them.
Performance, I felt i needed to hang onto the gears a bit longer on the R1 compared to the S1K which allows you to be a bit more lazy. I could definitely feel the difference in power but only when i was at high speeds and tbh I'm never really at those sorts of speeds much so I'm not bothered.
When I was on my way back to the dealer I was disappointed to be going back to the S1K. My S1K can be handed back in September and as soon as its gone i'll be down to Yamaha with a deposit on the new R1.

If I was you Matt I would try and ignore the hype and enjoy what you have, BMW have had 3 years to sort out all the issues with the S1K and they've done f**k all to sort it so don't hold your breath.