Discussion
tight5 said:
Ouch!Only thing reasonably priced on there is at the bottom - request a test ride
Out with the old...
Took the bike straight to the track for 2 days. Fantastic in every way. Totally different bike. Great power, agility, stability. This is a quick bike. A light year from the previous version which I had for 4 years.
The electronics were very good. I started in B-mode (A-mode being the most aggressive). PWR=2 (out of 4) TCS=3 (out of 9), SCS2 (out of 2) - higher numbers mean more intervention.. This was a good mode to get to know the bike. Later I used A mode (PWR=1 TCS=2). The throttle is much more abrupt (but not as bad as the previous R1 in A mode). After a few laps it was fine and gets you on the power quickly. The traction control is magic. First, you can't really tell its working until you do something that should have the bike spinning/sliding and it clearly isn't. Example there's a tight 90 degree turn in to an uphill stretch. I could use 1st here (which is a very tall gear) and nail it with confidence out of the turn to make an easy pass. TCS kept everything fine and the lift control just gave that delicious feeling of the front wheel hovering 8 inches off the road. Quickshift to second and it stays up there throughout. The old bike would tie itself in knots riding like that and you'd have to use 2nd...There's another turn at this track. A huge 180 degree right. very wide. The fast way is to double-apex it with turn point deep towards the outside of the track at 90 degrees and drive hard out. It takes serious bottle because you enter mighty fast and there's long drive out. The bike was super stable on the brakes and you could really get on the throttle on the way out with no issues and kick gears at it down the straight... the sheer power of the thing is breath taking... you have to hang on tight. The impressive thing about the electronics is you don't ever notice them working and for a very average rider like me it gives huge confidence to push harder. Fabulous.... I could jabber on all night about this bike.... its brilliant.
Took the bike straight to the track for 2 days. Fantastic in every way. Totally different bike. Great power, agility, stability. This is a quick bike. A light year from the previous version which I had for 4 years.
The electronics were very good. I started in B-mode (A-mode being the most aggressive). PWR=2 (out of 4) TCS=3 (out of 9), SCS2 (out of 2) - higher numbers mean more intervention.. This was a good mode to get to know the bike. Later I used A mode (PWR=1 TCS=2). The throttle is much more abrupt (but not as bad as the previous R1 in A mode). After a few laps it was fine and gets you on the power quickly. The traction control is magic. First, you can't really tell its working until you do something that should have the bike spinning/sliding and it clearly isn't. Example there's a tight 90 degree turn in to an uphill stretch. I could use 1st here (which is a very tall gear) and nail it with confidence out of the turn to make an easy pass. TCS kept everything fine and the lift control just gave that delicious feeling of the front wheel hovering 8 inches off the road. Quickshift to second and it stays up there throughout. The old bike would tie itself in knots riding like that and you'd have to use 2nd...There's another turn at this track. A huge 180 degree right. very wide. The fast way is to double-apex it with turn point deep towards the outside of the track at 90 degrees and drive hard out. It takes serious bottle because you enter mighty fast and there's long drive out. The bike was super stable on the brakes and you could really get on the throttle on the way out with no issues and kick gears at it down the straight... the sheer power of the thing is breath taking... you have to hang on tight. The impressive thing about the electronics is you don't ever notice them working and for a very average rider like me it gives huge confidence to push harder. Fabulous.... I could jabber on all night about this bike.... its brilliant.
I lent the bike to mate for a couple of sessions - he made a nice video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1dwKkLUZV1g
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1dwKkLUZV1g
George29 said:
Are you not supposed to run the bike in before taking it on track? 
That is one school of thought... but another is that the track is a good place to run in a bike... progressively but harder than the road. I have done it this way for many years and with many bikes. I never had a problem and all bikes made good power. The bikes also got very regular oil changes (at least every 1000kms)... so I have no worries here...George29 said:
Are you not supposed to run the bike in before taking it on track?
With the last generation r1 padgetts told me to ride it as hard as I want but don't sit at a constant rev for extended period of time ie motorway sitting at 70, don't actually hit the limiter and don't sit in too high a gear going up hills so that it doesn't struggle if that makes sense. Pretty similar to when we just got a new Nissan (I know it's not a performance engine) but it was pretty much exactly the same advice.
Mort said:
That is one school of thought... but another is that the track is a good place to run in a bike... progressively but harder than the road. I have done it this way for many years and with many bikes. I never had a problem and all bikes made good power. The bikes also got very regular oil changes (at least every 1000kms)... so I have no worries here...
Fair enough, it's your bike. Personally I wouldn't be doing it just for the sake of taking it easy for a few hundred miles. What is in the handbook just out of curiosity? George29 said:
Mort said:
That is one school of thought... but another is that the track is a good place to run in a bike... progressively but harder than the road. I have done it this way for many years and with many bikes. I never had a problem and all bikes made good power. The bikes also got very regular oil changes (at least every 1000kms)... so I have no worries here...
Fair enough, it's your bike. Personally I wouldn't be doing it just for the sake of taking it easy for a few hundred miles. What is in the handbook just out of curiosity? I would change the oil after that though.
The best way to run is this..
DO NOT let the bike idle from new. Go straight out and run it up through the rev range, BUT (and here's the important part) once you get up to a certain rev, shut the throttle and coast until you've slowed down a fair bit. Repeat this, with the revs getting higher and shutting the throttle for longer. If you can run down a hill with the engine revving but on a closed throttle that's ideal.
The key is to create a vacuum in the cylinders which pulls the rings out and makes them seat better.
Do this for 50 miles and then change the oil.
You're done.... That's it, ride as you like now using full rpm.
Lazy running in makes a lazy motor don't do it.
Does it work? Well i've run in 3 friends race bikes this way and they're all making substantially more on the dyno than the average for the same bike. Cylinder Vacuum is the key.
Use it, Dont use it. Your choice
DO NOT let the bike idle from new. Go straight out and run it up through the rev range, BUT (and here's the important part) once you get up to a certain rev, shut the throttle and coast until you've slowed down a fair bit. Repeat this, with the revs getting higher and shutting the throttle for longer. If you can run down a hill with the engine revving but on a closed throttle that's ideal.
The key is to create a vacuum in the cylinders which pulls the rings out and makes them seat better.
Do this for 50 miles and then change the oil.
You're done.... That's it, ride as you like now using full rpm.
Lazy running in makes a lazy motor don't do it.
Does it work? Well i've run in 3 friends race bikes this way and they're all making substantially more on the dyno than the average for the same bike. Cylinder Vacuum is the key.
Use it, Dont use it. Your choice
I am really interested in this bike. I've just converted my 2013 ZX10 road bike into track only so I am looking for a replacement road bike and I am torn between this and the RSV4. Ideally I'd get the new RSV4 RF but at 18K it is just too much so I was looking at the "old" RSV4 Factory (new @ 14K) versus the R1 (15K). I don't suppose anyone has ridden both and has any opinions have they ?
Cheers,
Ed
Cheers,
Ed
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