GIRO DAY

THE RUTTER TEST / S1000RR v R1 v 1299 S
‘The motor spools up like a turbine
then turns the line of cars inside out,
leaving them spinning in its wake’
especially with an insanely tall
first gear – I often find myself
trying to shift down into a gear
below. Rutter has the same issue:
“It’ll do over 100mph in first,” he
points out. “This isn’t going to be
much fun in hairpins. There’s a
lot of engine braking, too, and
it’s easy to lock the rear.”
Throttle response needs fine
judgement to avoid jerkiness. I’m
not sure if it’s a fuelling thing; I
reckon the actual grip is
physically stiff to turn, as if the
rubber is fouling the bar end (it
isn’t) or a cable is trapped (it isn’t
either). The S1000RR’s fly-bywire
grip turns like a lightlysprung
volume dial in
comparison. Either way, I find
myself using a combination of
clutch and rear brake to smooth
things out. We stop for a coffee
and I mention the problem.
“What mode are you in?” asks
Johnny Mac. Er, it says Mode 1
on the big colour screen. We
used to call them clocks, but
that’s no longer sufficient. Is it
officially now a dash? A swarm
of acronyms and pictograms is
very cool but will anyone be
admiring the brake pressure
monitor when their eyeballs are
glued to the visor?
“Try it in Mode 3,” suggests
McAvoy. “It’s the same power
and delivery, just with softer
throttle response.” Rutter nods.
With no manual, we stab at
buttons – a rocker switch system
on the left bar, a scroll wheel on
the right. Once you work it out,
it’s fairly simple to master.
We hammer off again into the
Lincolnshire Wolds. The throttle
still feels stiff. But the roads are
dry, the tarmac is warming up,
and the R1 starts to deliver on its
promise of A-road supremacy.
It’s truly, madly, deeply sublime,
pulling wheelies off crests with
electronically-controlled
accuracy, back end sucking into
the tarmac and releasing grip in
tiny, metered stages of slippage
– and all the while with the
droning, baleful moan of a
bewitching powerplant. It’s
sportsbike heaven. In fact R1 is
so calm and collected at speed, it
doesn’t feel significantly faster
than the other two. But it gets
where it’s going so much sooner
than either of them that it must
be. No wonder Rossi cuddles his
M1 all the time. Surprised he
doesn’t nip off with it for a
quickie. It flatters your riding,
inspires new confidence to go at
it harder – not faster, as such,
just smoother and better.
We swap bikes and I take the
BMW S1000RR. Michael Rutter
is raving about it: “It’s fucking
beautiful. You feel like you could
ride a million miles on it and
then go racing with it without
even thinking about it. Thank
God for the heated grips early on
though – without them I’d have
said ‘Fuck it,’ and turned round
and gone home.”
I covered 10,000 miles on the
original S1000RR in 2010 and
around 4000 on the tweaked
2012 model. I’ve also ridden this
bike before, at the launch. So I
know it’s going to feel amazing.
It’s basically taken the cool bits
of the old HP4 – semi-active
suspension, enhanced
electronics and braking, engine
tweaks – and added them to the
S1000RR package. Until the R1
was announced, it sounded
unbeatable.
But after riding the Yamaha,
the S1000RR – yes, I know this
sounds crackers – feels large,
doesn’t turn as sweetly; it’s more
practical and road-oriented than
the R1, a feeling backed up by
heated grips, cruise control and
the best quickshifter and
autoblipper of the three. Rutter’s
impressed: “You’d never think
you’d need them on the road, but
they’re just fantastic. Now I’ve
tried it, I wouldn’t buy a bike
without one.” Purists may mock,
but this stuff is genuinely useful.
The BM also has a roomier
riding position than the R1, with
a longer reach to the bars. “The
S1000RR is the most
JUNE 2015 | PERFORMANCEBIKES.CO.UK 53