In the past 30-odd years of racing, owning and working on BMW bikes I can truthfully say that the cheapest thing on most of the bikes is the rider.
First post! Conditions weren't that great and cloud cover kept the track kind've cool. Times were roughly right, our clock was 1:46.06 but nobody saw an official time since the rain set in a bit later in the day and threw everything into disarray. The reason that he didn't win the first race is... he crashed! Toye said the front end felt so great in the turn that he just kept picking it up and then overloaded the front on the brakes trailing it in, over a bump. Just ran out of fork travel which was a problem all weekend. Split times showed he was over a second faster on that lap *in the first 3 turns*, so I guess he was on a 45.0 or 44.something. Guess the bike wasn't.... The bike is pretty amazing, it came home from the dealership two weeks ago and was rolled into Lee's Cycle on April 26th, rolled off the lift into the truck to buttonwillow! Jeremy has decided to reposition Lee's Cycle around the BMW package and try and build up the information and technology for other club racers, it's clearly going to be the package to beat for the future. Probably start a new thread here at some point.
They went through a RFP process last year but at the end decided they didn't have the money to spend supporting a front-line effort capable of winning. So they did nothing. Which I guess means, when somebody funds a program.
Amen, brother. I see it every day. Today a guy stopped by to buy one spark plug for a BMW twin. He rode about 35 miles, paid tolls, burned gas, and got one frickin' spark plug. I hope the S1000RR brings a new kind of BMW rider. I'm sick to death of the old kind.
I hope to see the german quality pull through in bike racing. I love my Gixxer but would love it more if it was german made. Toye said some of the things on this bike are real Trick, when he was doing the build on the Locust bike. I'm not trying to sell it, just pointing out some facts. German made automobiles to me are so much better to work on than the japanese. That's why I own a Mercedes. Never ever would by a Jap car , but that's just me. I worked for BMW in the collision repair department. Most of the BMW automobile customers are well.. Weird..
Randolph was absolutely flying on that KTM too - I know he's fast but damn, when he's keeping up with Toye on the BMW it's more like holy shit.
so far i've written service for just about every car out there, (gm, chrysler, ford, lincoln, mercedes, lexus, porsche, audi, vw, subaru and kia i would say right now subaru is the most reliable car i have worked with, lexus being second, (although they have stumbled in recent years) the subaru isnt the most exciting looking vehicle, but have very little problems, the thing is with all these electronics is they are nice when they work, but can be a problem to repair (software flashes freezing ecu's parts availability etc...) on bikes or cars
Take heart, my brethren...there IS something worse than a BMW customer...a MOTO GUZZI customer! AHHHHHHRRRRGH!!!
I was scrolling down the page getting ready to ask that very question. I lost it when I read your post.
Yes, there were definitely some insanely trick parts on the bike stock. Take the gas tank for example, yes it's aluminum but my god was it light. The fuel pump itself was on little rubber shock absorbers to cancel out vibrations while running and on the bottom side of the fuel filler there was this metal pendulum attached to the vent lines that would swing to the side and close the vent if the bike crashed. very, very trick.
Sigh... Nothing is an understatement. Blue Moon and Ironhorse BMW have both funded a program....BMWNA's response seems laxadaisy at best.
