And so to the R1250RS Sport. That's Austin Yellow to you sir, none of this mustard thank you. Judging from the website and the value on the day insurance, it appears to have been a base model with lots of accessories. Its easy enough to swing a leg over, bit lower than the 1250GS I had a while back. Side stand irritatingly under the NS cylinder but I was getting used to groping for it after a couple of hours. LH switchgear as all standard in the RS and GS range. I find the Japanese style indicator button annoyingly small, I'm sure my old jap bike buttons were bigger. It would be nice if the array of buttons was backlit as thumbing the right button in the dark is difficult, I suppose you would learn eventually. The dash screen is nice although some of the font is pretty small, too small to take in in a glance, but the important stuff is clear enough. I like the rev counter display, and it gradually moves the red line up the range as the engine warms up.
Having fiddled about with everything I finally got out of the drive. Instant drive from the engine like the 1250GS , very easy and smooth to ride straight away. First junction nearly disappeared over the bars, the fork dive is dramatic, I do forget how little the K moves. The brakes are really good, very light to operate and powerful, reinforcing there is something not quite right with my K brakes. It was in road mode when I got it but as with the GS I did not like it, and it was into Dynamic very quickly. Gave it the beans out of town and boy does it pull hard from very low down, a real shove up the backside in all gears. Overtaking is easy enough in roll on without shifting gears. However I sometimes got this weird feeling of surging/galloping which could be the active suspension. Generally smooth without any noticeable vibration anywhere in the rev range that I can remember. Cornering is fine but different to the K but quickly got used to it. Chucking it about on the B3306 at relatively low speeds was easy enough. Coming back up the A30 at speed I found the windscreen worked better in the low position and gave good protection well into 3 figures. Whether the protection in the wet is better then the old R1200RS was is difficult to say. The headlight is much better than the old one. I was very comfortable, the seat is nice, and the bars are a bit higher than the K and narrower than the GS, just comfortable, tank is easy to grip and slide around. The dash was saying 55mpg when I got home, and I had not been riding for economy.
Definite contender for a K replacement, but the model list and options definitely bears some investigation, its bloody complicated, but the other models come in less garish colours. The price of buying a new bike is a killer when you can get a second-hand K13 for 50-60% of the price though.
Of course the S1000RR is total different. First thing that struck me was the clutch adjuster that looked like something off my old SR500. Then I tried to get on it and nearly cricked something, may be I wasn't warmed up as it got easier later. Seat is a bit high and I felt perched on top of it, I was worried on our uneven drive I was going to tip it over. So light though compared with K, RS or GS. The bars are way lower than the K so initially I felt very awkward. The dash is smart but the text is very small, I eventually realised the funny squiggles in the middle were a lean angle indicator and G force indicator.
Mode was Rain, Sport or Track so I chose Sport and wobbled up the rooad. Having successfully got out of town I gassed it up the hill. I literally had to check at the next roundabout if the speedo was set to mph not kph. Off again having established those were miles not km I ran through the gears but found at low revs it was very buzzy/vibrating generally, so started to stay n the lower gears. Frankly 3rd does all you need. The acceleration is addictive but tiring, and certainly in Cornwall you never get enough space to let it rip, consequently its on the gas on the brakes fast slow fast.
After half an hour I was starting to get used to it but felt I was only tickling the bottom end of its capability. My feet being tucked up under my bum even more so than on my K with the low seat was getting uncomfortable. I was able to move around on the seat a bit, but found that I needed to grip the tank with my knees pretty hard most of the time to keep the weight off my wrists. It may have been easier if I was moving around more but finding a piece of road that I could get to lean more than 39degrees without worrying about going too fast for the surface and or oncoming traffic was not happening. The brakes are excellent needless to say. This has been the first bike that I have ever felt I was in danger of falling off the back of and having to hold on tight. It is sooo quick. However there is no way I would want to ride it to Holland.
I've ridden the 1000XR and found it too frantic and after a short while uncomfortable as I was wedged in position unable to shuffle my bum. Going back to where is our K replacement, I think if they can squeeze another 15bhp out of the boxer you'll be near enough there, the 1000 4s are too sportsbike/race bike oriented. I want to go to the TT not win it. A detuned 1000 engine with more at lower revs might make sense. Remember the first Fazer with the detuned R1 engine? Maybe that's a better route for the 1000.