25. juli 2010
After an hours drive on the highway, going towards Copenhagen crossing the island Fyn, I could feel that I had a slightly higher load on my wrists than I'm used to with the Blade. This small difference was also observed later during the weekend by Teis.
The Hayabusa is much different in this aspect. At low speeds there is a high load on your wrists, while you seem to be flying completely weightless on the stearing handle at any speed above 130 km/h! - and I litterally mean weightless. There is no force required at all on your wrists, except what is needed to keep the gas on. If you go faster than 130 km/h on the Hayabusa, you just bend your albows a little to find balance between up and down forces - that is amazing!
Speaking of Fyn and stepping away from the main topic of this article, I noticed - once again - that car drivers on Fyn don't know how to use their 4 lane motorway (2 lanes in each direction) effectively. They all seem to think that one lane is reserved for trucks, and the other lane is for cars only. The result is that the rightmost lane holds nothing but trucks at 100 km/h, typically spaced several hundred meters apart, and the overtaking lane is holding an endless row of cars with 2-3 m spacing doing only 105 km/h, because some assh... up front thinks he`s spot on the speed limit at 110 km/s and hence don't need to pull in right. They all seem very frustrated over the endless (selfmade!) trafic queue and will not let anybody pass. In other parts of Denmark the flow is much more relaxed with plenty of space between all vehicles because drivers in these regions know how to pull into the right lane when someone from behind wants to overtake. Strange that such a small country can have such big differences in trafic culture.
I made a stop at my father in Langeskov on Fyn. His dog came out as always when it hears
motorcycles and greeted me wagging tail and barking. It took some time before my father
came out because he could hear it was not the sound of my bike. "It sounds extremely
good - like a high quality engine!" he said. He has had lot of experience with motorcycle
and engines when he was young, so he knows what he`s talking about.
The rear seat on the BMW was a big positive surprise! From the first glance at the
rear seat we expected the BMW seat to be just as uncomfortable as on the Blade, which is
realy hard and bumpy according to my wife Lotte. The BMW rear seat however - despite its
very small size - proved to be very comfortable and much less bumby than the Blades.
Still - neither the BMW nor the Blade can compete with the Hayabusa when it comes to
passenger comfort.
The brake system on the S1000RR is magnificent and extremely comfortable to use. When you apply increasing pressure, the bike responds with progressively harder braking. For light braking it is just as on the Blade, but to achieve hard braking you only need to increase the pressure a little. It is like the bike thinks "oh - You really want to brake - then I will help You!"
The brakes on the S1000RR are also forgivingly safe under all road conditions. Teis really tried them out width the system set in "rain mode". Even when it rained cats and dogs, he was unable to get the bike into trouble, no matter how hard and suddenly he applied pressure on the brakes or twisted the throttle.
The "rain mode" makes this bike safe to ride even for the less experienced driver.
If the driver is wise enough to keep his speed within reasonable limits, and has learned
how to turn the bike, e.g. on a training course, this 193 hp bike is actually much safer
to ride than a typical beginners 35 hp bike with no ABS and no traction control! The
typical owner of a high performance car has already learned to keep the many horse powers
under control, and here the S1000RR brings a totally new and surpricingly safe way to
also drive high performance mc (see Buy Car and
Motorcycle).
Although the Fireblade is extremely comfortable and easy to drive, I would never recommend
it to an inexperienced driver as there is no traction control available for it.
See also:
First Year
with my Fireblade
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