2015 BMW S 1000 RR
FIRST RIDE
P48
We're at Circuit of the Ameri-
cas (COTA) in Austin, Texas, to
ride the new 2015 BMW S 1000
RR. The opening session to
learn the track provided a proper
whetting of the appetite as to
what engineers in Munich have
been up to. Not ones to rest on
their laurels—especially when
they have a top-seeded Super-
bike several years running—
BMW has made refinements that
take the RR into rarified air within
the realm of modern sportbikes.
It's hard to believe the BMW
S 1000 RR has only been with
us for six years. It leaped onto
the scene in 2009 with a lot of
skeptics casting doubt that the
German manufacturer could
produce a decent superbike.
Well, right out of the gate BMW
garnered the coveted mantel po-
has consistently put their cre-
ation at the top slot for produc-
tion liter bikes.
To say the new double R is
fast is only part of the story. The
real story, the pertinent story, is
the exceptional ease at which
the bike can be ridden at closed-
circuit speeds. All the speed in
the world is not going to do you
much good if it comes with quirks
and uncertainties, because
there's nothing more disconcert-
ing on a motorcycle than having
questions at speed. What the
advancements BMW has imbued
their RR with is provide a motor-
cycle that delivers amazing per-
formance sans a lot of the anxiety
that can arrive at the upper end of
the speedometer.
With base elements (engine,
drive train, chassis) having
reached the outer edges of
sition on many superbike shoot-
outs. Six years on the company
shows no sign of letting up on
the focus and determination that
(Left to right) Engineers have
packed a great deal of information
into a very small, yet smartly laid
out instrument cluster. The shock
that talks to the front fork, at 10
millisecond intervals. The muffler is
six pounds lighter than last year, and
has lost nothing of its sophisticated
exhaust note.
