Ken F
IBA #44567
All I can say is "Holy Carp Batman"
Stopped in at Bentonville BMW today, and was drooling over the new Demo on the showroom floor. Bob came over and said you want to take it for a demo ride?
My response was, Bob, there is no way I can afford to buy that. He said that it was there for demo rides and that BMW would not even let him sell it -it was strictly a demo bike. At that point my arm began to hurt from him twisting it behind my back, and my knees were getting weak. Finally I relented and agreed to ride it. Bob pushed it outside, and went over the controls (new designs) with me, and told me that it really didn't hit it's powerband until about 11 grand, and that it was redlined at 18, but ran out of steam at about 17 so there was no point pushing it past 17,000. OK.......He insisted that I try it past 11 however, to feel the afterburners kick in.
The Bike is absoutly the finest machine I've ever driven, including Ferrari's, Cobras, BMW's, MBZ, Massaratti's and Audi's. It pulls like a tractor from 2,000 rpm in any gear, reminisent of the K-bikes, but geezus! From 11K-17K you better be holding on! I passed a car running about 50 in 2nd gear and just hammered it.
I didn't even realize I was carrying the front wheel until it set back down!
I got really lost twice on the backroad twistie road-map that Bob had given me, and wound up being gone 2 hours, and about 3 times the distance of the test route. I never entered a corner that felt uncomfortable, even at about double the speed that I would have attempted on my R11RS. All it takes is some throttle to pull you around any corner. I remember thinking "I didn't realize I could ride this good!"
I've never been more glad to get off of a motorcycle in my life. It is definatly not a touring machine, and there seems to be no way to sit comfortably for anything over about 20 minutes. I was sore, my knees hurt, my wrists hurt from holding my weight up, and my heart was pounding like a war drum.
My God, what a sweet machine! I'm buying more tickets!
460
Stopped in at Bentonville BMW today, and was drooling over the new Demo on the showroom floor. Bob came over and said you want to take it for a demo ride?
My response was, Bob, there is no way I can afford to buy that. He said that it was there for demo rides and that BMW would not even let him sell it -it was strictly a demo bike. At that point my arm began to hurt from him twisting it behind my back, and my knees were getting weak. Finally I relented and agreed to ride it. Bob pushed it outside, and went over the controls (new designs) with me, and told me that it really didn't hit it's powerband until about 11 grand, and that it was redlined at 18, but ran out of steam at about 17 so there was no point pushing it past 17,000. OK.......He insisted that I try it past 11 however, to feel the afterburners kick in.
The Bike is absoutly the finest machine I've ever driven, including Ferrari's, Cobras, BMW's, MBZ, Massaratti's and Audi's. It pulls like a tractor from 2,000 rpm in any gear, reminisent of the K-bikes, but geezus! From 11K-17K you better be holding on! I passed a car running about 50 in 2nd gear and just hammered it.
I didn't even realize I was carrying the front wheel until it set back down!
I got really lost twice on the backroad twistie road-map that Bob had given me, and wound up being gone 2 hours, and about 3 times the distance of the test route. I never entered a corner that felt uncomfortable, even at about double the speed that I would have attempted on my R11RS. All it takes is some throttle to pull you around any corner. I remember thinking "I didn't realize I could ride this good!"
I've never been more glad to get off of a motorcycle in my life. It is definatly not a touring machine, and there seems to be no way to sit comfortably for anything over about 20 minutes. I was sore, my knees hurt, my wrists hurt from holding my weight up, and my heart was pounding like a war drum.
My God, what a sweet machine! I'm buying more tickets!
460