BACKROADS • NOVEMBER 2021
O N T H E MAR K MARK BYERS
GET SPORTY At 58, I decided to get a sportbike. I wasn’t looking for one, but circumstances placed it in my path and I, as usual, succumbed to temptation. I like all genres of motorcycling, from trials to hare scrambles to dual sport to touring, but I have never owned a pure sportbike. I certainly have bikes with a sporty nature, but the ones I have with fairings, low bars, and rearset footpegs scarcely make 70 HP. So when Stuart Beatson at Morton’s BMW pointed out a 2012 BMW S1000RR on their floor with only 6,300 miles on it, I was smitten. My first draft had a paragraph justifying why it’s “now or never,” but the only accounting I need to make to anyone is to myself. I’m not the slowest bear and more importantly, I’m predictable and safe on track, so it comes down to a simple desire to experience the performance and handling of a toptier sportbike while I still have the physical abilities to do so. Hopefully that will be for a while - I know an 82-year-old mentor who is still out there giving it the stick. And what about that top-tier performance and handling? It’s staggering! You can’t come close to owning a Formula 1 car without stacks of Bitcoin, but for under $20K, you can own a bike that just a couple years ago, in the right hands, would have been competitive at World Superbike. The same features and systems that make today’s sport machines highly competitive also make them highly safe and easy to manage. I am amazed by the amount of aircraft technology built into bikes. The newest machines have gyros that detect lean angle and adjust the suspension, braking, and power delivery accordingly. Even my nine-year-old
Page 5 machine has a ride-by-wire throttle and depending upon which mode I choose, it senses my inputs and meters fuel accordingly. There’s a load cell on the shift linkage that senses when I want to upshift and it cuts the ignition ever so slightly while the transmission snicks smoothly into the next gear. On more recent models, it also senses downshifts and increases the RPM, making the clutch a “start and stop only” thing. The suspension has similar instrumentation to an aircraft, with sensors that detect strut compression and adjust the damping on the fly. Wheel speed sensors on each wheel not only feed information to the Antilock Brakes, but the computer also compares them and quickly adjusts for any rear wheel spin or wheelie tendencies. The suspensions offer many adjustments for rider weight and damping, although I defy most people to require more than factory settings, which test riders like Nate Kern have taken great pains to create. Even the aerodynamics are advanced and I was surprised when I rode my prize home how the air was directed to take load off my hands and arms, a definite plus given the sporty riding position. There are actually little winglets on the fairing of the 2012 and the 2021 M-series has big winglets just like Ducati MotoGP bikes. Finally, the polymer chemistry of today’s tires makes them capable of far more than most people are willing to use. If you want the unaltered, unaided, full-metal-jacket experience, the antilock brakes and traction control can be switched off. You can override the shift assist and use the clutch if you like. With the traction control abated, you can pull a big, stonkin’ wheelie if you want and if you have the balls and the skills, you can drift the rear into and out of corners. Actually, the slick mode of the traction control will allow a little of that fun. My one track day so far showed me that my fitness and flexibility are more likely limitations than my skills: looking up and through turns given Continued on Page 10
