2012 BMW Motorrad Experience

A few weeks ago I had to opportunity to take part for the second time in the BMW Motorrad Experience at Autódromo do Estoril (last time had been in 2009).

It’s and event for BMW clients and other bikers. It’s free but with limited number of entrances available.

There are three parts of the experience:
Road, Track and Offroad Experience.

BMW Experience 2012 Oficial Video

My track experience was scheduled for early Sunday morning, and what a better way to start of a Sunday then lapping around one o Estoril on BMW S1000RR?
Granted the laps are done at a fairly sensible pace, given it’s not a trackday but still, what a ride!
It was my first ride of the S1000RR and it lasted only a few laps but just loved the bike, such smooth power and handling. The quick shifter was fun too!
Why would anyone buy a S1000RR for road riding is something I don’t understand though. It’s far to small and unconfortable for my liking on everyday use, and probably no faster than a ZZR or a something like Speed Triple on real roads. For a trackday though, must be spectacular fun!

Unfortunately I don’t have any photos of me on the S1000RR as my mates where home a sleep and only arrived later.

The Road experience for me has the most surprising. Had the opportunity to ride BMW’s new flagship model, the K1600GT.
Didn’t know quite what to expect has the biggest bike I’ve ridden before was a Yamaha FJR1300, and didn’t really enjoy it (too big, too slow, not that much more comfortable then.. say a K1200S).
At first sight the K1600 is huge! Wide, tall with very high bars and that huge 6 cylinder engine.
Sat on the back and started trying to find out what all the buttons do, radio, GPS, heated this, heated that, LCD screen…. It would take me probably a couple of hours to get familiar with all the gadgets and gizmos, so just turned on the radio, set the riding mode to Sport and set off.

The pair of K1600GTs ready to go

After 2min the radio was disturbing me, don’t really like the music coming from the fairings (strange I know, I have no problems with listening to music with headphones while I ride but for some reason didn’t like it) and also the 6 cylinders sound beautifully trough the dual akrapovics “my” bike comes fitted with.
Has for the ride, what a ride!! For a big bike it handles fantastically, just point it where you want it and it just goes! Even in tight back roads you can throw it around with relative ease and agility, and the engine just makes it so easy to drive out of corners.

Akrapovic cans

Kept it in Sport mode most of the time, the other two modes smooth the throttle, make the traction control more intrusive and reduce power (in Rain) don’t really saw any advantage in them, at least on this short ride, maybe because I’m used to having bikes without selectable power modes.
But the absolute best thing about the bike? The Engine!!! What a wonderfull peace of engineering! So smooth, powerfull and absolutely linear! Just roll the throttle at any revs and it just goes like a cream powered rocket!
Please BMW make a hyperbike with this engine!! Hell Kawasaki make a 6 cylinder ZZR! Other then the smaller size I can see no advantage of a inline 4 Vs a inline 6. The 6 (at least the one on the GT) is just amazing!

I didn’t fall in live for the bike, but the engine blew me away!

Haven’t tryed any of the competition in terms of Big Touring bikes, but I can say I hardly believe anyone has made a better one then BMW. If I was 50 and in the market for a comfortable, fast and damn expensive tourer, this would be the one I’d go for, in a heartbeat. If not for anything else, for that engine.

Have I told how much I loved the inline 6? Oh, ok. ’cause I did!

The final experience was a Offroad experience on a sort of trail/Offroad track built next to the Parabólica. A bunch of GS650 where available, all equipped with the standard mixed (albeit road oriented) OEM tyres. I whent for the Sertao version, with higher riding height and stiffer springs… Which proved to be a mistake… But I’ll get to that in a bit.
The instructor for the course was none other the professional rider and several times participant in the Dakar rally Bianchi Prata, so if we made a fool of ourselves it was our one fault, and I did make sure of that!

Taking it easy and trying not to crash…again

I’m far from and experienced Offroad rider, I regularly ride enduro bycicles and love to Offroad in this form of two wheels, as for motorcycles though my experience resumes to a day riding a Honda CRF450 in Portalegre Region with the awesome Dave from Enduro Republic.
Loved the CRF and the whole day went really well that time being able to tackle all types of terrain without crashing.
I was therefore relatively confident when I grabbed the GS, for the first 100m at least, before I went down a slope, lost the front of the bike and ended up crashing it after only 30s on the saddle!
Luckily the only thing bruised was my ego, and so after picking up the bike could continue. And… I hated it! Well, not the track but the bike! The road biased tyres where useless in the sand and the bike, to heavy and tall was very hard to controll whenever the front went loose. Had a couple other moments, on of them going down a steep slope, lost the rear, then the front and was able to keep it rubber side up but just!

I guess I’m not an adventure ride kind of guy. For serious Offroad a enduro bike is much faster, safe and fun, a WHOLE LOT more fun!! And I would love to own a real enduro bike like a CRF450 or something like a KTM300. For ridding in stretches of unpaved road I can just use my bikes, the SDuke or the ZZR wich can cope with it perfectly and are actually pretty fun to powerslide! The only problem are the potholes (especially for the ZZR with it’s soft suspension and low fairing).

Offroad Experience Video by Bianchi Prata

In conclusion, loved the event, as I did in 2009, and just wished more brands made this kind of events too. They’re great fun and help build a serious fan base. So Kawasaki, KTM, Honda, etc stop spending all your money on magazine adds and MotoGP and give something back to your clients, the people that actually buy your bikes and ride them everyday!