Re: Chasing my dreams... The S1000RR comes home!

A compilation of the best parts of all videos since I bought a GoPro, almost two years back! Saying it was a massive task to edit this is an understatement Now that my interest in video making is back, I plan to do such videos more often. Hope you enjoy watching it!




Regarding the bike, I was very curious what this line on the tyre was, front tyre too had similar line.





But as it turns out, its nothing to worry about . Its called Antenna tread and its there to dissipate any static electricity built up on the tyre. Got the info from What Is Antenna Tread? | Motorcycle Tire FAQs

Re: Chasing my dreams... The S1000RR comes home!

Here are few updates regarding the bike,

I had ordered engine case covers, just to add a bit of extra protection and decided to install it last weekend, as its pretty straight forward. Just have to remove few of the engine bolts, put the cover in place and put the bolts back.

The engine bolts are of star type (torx to be precise) and I didnt have the full tool set but there was one as part of the bike toolkit. Removed one bolt easily with that but for the next two, I ended up smoothening the bolt head almost fully! The tool I had was a size smaller and I didnt realize that, damn! I decided to take it to showroom this week to drill the bolts and use the screw extractor Couldn't believe I messed up such a simple thing.

Yesterday I decided to buy the full tool set and try to remove the bolt and luckily, there was just enough groove/thread to remove it. Here is how the engine looks like now A lot more black. I prefer the original look, but these are meant to provide protection which they do.






Meanwhile, on a lazy sunday afternoon, I had nothing better to do than this



And I also bought my first leather suit, Macna Exone 2 piece



Macna is a relatively new brand and there were zero reviews for this particular suit as it is their latest variant. But I got feedback that they are a good brand from multiple sources so decided to go for it.

I also tried 1 piece suits but man, it was so difficult to get in and out of. I couldnt even fully wear it myself the first time and the person from store had to help me out The two piece is so much easier. I also got an under suit and now getting on and off the suit is as easy as any textile jacket Will post my first impressions of leather suit after using it for some time, but for now, it just feels awesome while riding!

Re: Chasing my dreams... The S1000RR comes home!

My first track day on the RR and what an experience it was!








The rainy 3rd and 4th session





Can you spot my bike?





other group getting ready for their session...






Here is a video from one of the laps.





This was organized by Motorsportschool and was also part of BMW Motorrad Track Experience, which I was one of the lucky winner

I was in Level 1+ group and the focus was mainly on getting the lines right and the hang off positions.

First two sessions were dry and the next two were wet. It was easier to follow the instructor on the wet track as the tyre was creating a line on wet road and I simply had to go on top of it!

Learnt a lot about the bike and the riding techniques, one of the best Mondays by far!

I also realized I made quite a few rookie mistakes like,

1) Sometimes, looking at rider ahead or the cones at apex instead of the road where I am supposed to look.
2) Feeling uncomfortable when rider in front or rear is quite close. (In the video, you can see I was trying to create a gap with the rider in front as I didnt want to be too close to him)
3) Holding bars a bit tightly (which I realized only at the end, while riding in pitlane)


Now I know exactly what not to do


Another point to be noted is, the moment you start riding by hanging off, you need to put a lot of physical effort to move around on your bike. I didnt realize this that day but the next day I had a bit of thigh pain because when you hang off, its like a squat exercise, esp when you hangoff left and then immediately to the right. Like they say, good fitness levels are a must for regular track days.


Also, the circuit zolder was nothing like I had seen before. So many race teams and serious track enthusiasts had setup camp in the paddock with their big vans/trailers to haul their race bikes to & from the track. I was surprised to see so many people being so much into track riding. Got to see many race prepped bikes, the hottest of which was a Panigale 1299, absolute beauty! I tried to get all this on video, which I will hopefully prepare soon


And regarding the bike, there is nothing like getting a corner right and exiting it with that glorious inline 4 howl and pinning the throttle in straight.. its pure bliss!

Re: Chasing my dreams... The S1000RR comes home!

Stock tyres on wet track???

Re: Chasing my dreams... The S1000RR comes home!

Yes of course, I have only one set of tyres It was quite decent actually and since we just follow instructors, they were controlling the speed and were purposely slow so that nobody makes a mistake.

Some had supercorsas and other such near slick tyres and they didnt ride when it was wet.

Re: Chasing my dreams... The S1000RR comes home!

Here are few updates which I had missed to share.

In this video, I mainly talk about features of the bike and a quick review of tank and tail bags. Also some exhaust note revving



Here is some high speed action during my recent ride to Alps. Since I had all my luggage and a long ride ahead, I decided that was enough

Re: Chasing my dreams... The S1000RR comes home!

[7000kms update]


The odo is around 11400kms. I have done all types of riding on it, city, curvy roads, mountains, track days, long highway runs, autobahns and riding at 35C+ temperatures and I feel now is a good time to share my perspective of what this bike is like. So here they are,


Things I love


Power :

First and foremost as BMW says, Welcome to Planet Power. 193hp on 2 wheels is just ridiculous If not for traction control/wheelie control/ride-by-wire, whacking the throttle on this could have serious consequences. And it goes deceptively fast, sometimes before you realize you are already well over speed limit this used to happen quite often initially but now I know how it behaves so I can prevent this! And that rush you get near top end from 10k-14k rpm is just indescribable! I used to genuinely get scared when I did that earlier, even now, its scary and exciting If I get one of those smart watches with heart rate monitors, I am sure there would be a spike whenever I whacked the throttle!


Engine :

All I have to say is, this thing is so well tuned, so well engineered right from factory that many who have modified their bike with Akra full system exhausts and non perfect ECU remaps/PowerCommanders etc have actually got less power than stock when tested on dyno! I am not saying it cannot be modified for more power, but that modification has to be perfectly done and tuned on dyno, with same level of accuracy as was done at factory.
Another thing I love about the engine is how lazy I can be and just ride the twisties in one gear and also have loads of fun, irrespective of how tight the corners are or how steep the incline is. For eg, I can simply stay at 3rd gear, go from 20kmph to 220kmph without breaking a sweat (granted, I wont be doing 220 in twisties but that was to just to state the bike's capabilities) there is so much torque/power available on tap even at low rpms. If I need a bit more thrill I can slot it into 2nd to get that extra bit of rush. The point is the engine is never really stressed throughout the rpm range.
It is also very efficient for the kind of power it has. I regularly get 17+kmpl while out riding on twisties. The highest was 19 something kmpl.


Electronics :

This is one of the single biggest reason why this bike became so popular. All the electronics it has does a phenomenal job of ensuring most of the rider mistakes are forgiven on this bike There was a graph in s1000rrforums which showed the ride-by-wire in action, how different were the amount of throttle opening and actual amount of the butterfly valve opening on the fuel injectors. The ECU decides what is best at that particular speed/rpm/gear/lean angle and opens the appropriate amount. So even when someone suddenly opens the throttle, the actual opening of the butterfly valve was much more smoother and optimal, providing the highest acceleration for that situation while ensuring the safety.

There are only 4 power modes Rain, Sport, Race and Slick. The slick mode has to be unlocked with a device plugged into the bike. I have not bothered to do this as I have no plans of using slick tyre. So I have 3 modes. Each mode not only controls the power delivery but also the traction. Rain has highest intervention from traction control and Slick has least. Many manufacturers these days provide traction control in terms of steps from 1 to 8 or even more. But here you dont have to worry about finding the right setting for your riding style, BMW has found the most generic and optimal setting for you, which again changes based on the mode. I wouldnt prefer to have such intricate control over electronics as I would keep fiddling with it then
Put it in rain mode and half the worries you have regarding wet road is gone, the power delivery is very linear and the bike is relatively sluggish. Sport is the mode I ride in rest of the time. Race can also be used.
On a side note, all that traction control does is, when you are leaned over and you accelerate too much, the rear tyre can lose traction and cause a power slide, the traction control prevents this from happening by reducing the throttle the moment it senses a possible slide. In Rain mode, it intervenes at slightest hint of a slide and in Race mode, it allows some slide and intervenes after that. The traction control cant give you traction magically when none is available! It also controls the wheelie and only allows the front wheel to hover few inches above the ground. I am no wheelie junkie so I am happy with that.


Quickshifter :

Upshifting without clutch, its a beauty! Its so much fun to use. I used to think earlier that quickshifter is a gimmicky feature useful just for tracks and not for roads, oh how wrong I was! Unless you have ridden a bike with quickshifter, you wont know how good it feels, trust me!


Handling :

I havent ridden other litre class sport bikes to compare but from what I read, this is the most flickable in the segment (Post 2015 things mightve changed and R1M could be better). But one fact with these higher capacity, heavier bikes, is that the turn in is obviously not as easy as on smaller bikes, so it needs a bit more effort, but man, once its turned and leaned over it just holds the line. Another advantage of the sporty riding posture is that cornering just feels right! Its very easy to hang off the bike and maintain good body position and use all the techniques typically taught in track days. It just feels natural to ride in a technically correct way and you clearly know when you are doing things right and when you arent. These are not so obvious while sitting upright.


Comfort :

This is something I was a bit concerned initially to be honest, as I had no idea if I could ride this for long but I am happy to say that I have ridden maximum of 10hours, 750kms in a single day and 10 min of relaxing at the hotel was all that was needed to recharge myself. The recent 10 day, 3200+kms ride was proof enough for me that I could tour on it for days.
The only discomfort I have after a long day of riding is in wrists and leg. Back and butt are totally fine, in fact, I dont know if its because the seat is that good or that in this posture, wrists take some weight, I have zero issues with butt



Exhaust note :

That sweet sweet inline 4 exhaust note! I was a sucker for it since I was a little kid so its obvious why I love it so much!


Attention :

I have met lot of bikers on the way esp around Alps and I was a bit surprised by how people reacted at this bike. Almost everyone is a fan of this bike and they think that it takes some great skill to handle this rocket between your legs but honestly, I dont think its that difficult, all you need is a calm mind, some basic riding techniques, know when NOT to whack open the throttle and respect the machine and you will do just fine.


Looks :

That assymetric headlamps are not for everyone and even when I first saw this bike back in 2011, I was like why would BMW do this? But then it grows on you and now those headlamps have become a symbol and when you see it on your rear view mirror, you better give way, hehe



Things I dont like


Buzz at 4k rpm :

Its not a big deal, but its there. At 6th gear, on highway speeds of around 120kmph, rpms are around 5k-6k so it is out of the buzzy zone. When you are riding for fun, you obviously wont be anywhere near 4k rpm. I see in s1000rr forums people complaining about numb hands etc but I dont have such problems. One can also reduce this buzz by getting heavier bar end weights. Also the engine noise is a bit higher than other inline 4 engines, which is audible mainly while idling. The moment you start riding, the exhaust takes over.


Throttle blipping can get tricky at times :

I am not sure if it is the ride by wire interfering or something else. Have seen others mention this as well. Because of this, I dont get perfect downshifts all the time. It has slipper clutch so one can downshift without blipping but I dont prefer doing that.


Slip on exhausts are useless :

Not really a big issue though. This is because most of the muffler is under the bike and the slip on wont change that part, hence the sound is quite close to stock exhaust. Even on other bikes, slipons only offer marginal benefits compared to a full system exhaust but on this bike, even that marginal gain is lowered. I am still not bored with stock exhaust note btw but even if I did, I mostly wouldnt go for a full system exhaust as those are quite expensive. I would rather spend that money riding around Alps instead.


Lastly, all these positive and negative points dont matter one bit when it is your dream bike! Every day with it is a privilege

Re: Chasing my dreams... The S1000RR comes home!

Nice write-ups and videos.

I am not an expert, but, by blipping I think you save the wear and tear on the clutch. The slipper clutch becomes your backup in cases you don't get the blipping right.
It takes a bit to get a hang of blipping and shifting, once you get it, it becomes muscle memory.
The newer bmw's have auto blipper, hence my assumption above


As for wrist pain, for short rides, it will help if you squeeze the tank with your thighs and use your core to support yourself.
Your wrist should be barely holding on to the bars, if you take your hands off (not literally) your posture should hold. Safer to try this while on the side stand.

I was also told to keep the arms free while cornering (core and thighs for support). Try doing the 'chicken dance' (hands still on the bar ofcourse) while cornering, serves as a reminder till you get used to this.

So get to the gym and get started on some core workouts, they really help; don't need to lift weights for this.

If you are talking long rides, something is gotta hurt, for me it is my legs and at times shoulders. Things hurt less on twisties and more on straight roads.

700kms is the max I have done in a day (single day ride) on my bike, was pretty tired to the end, this was a few years ago. I think I can do that distance a bit easier now.

Keep the updates comming, always fun to read.

Re: Chasing my dreams... The S1000RR comes home!

Originally posted by becham_79 View Post

Nice write-ups and videos.

Thanks a lot

Originally posted by becham_79 View Post

I am not an expert, but, by blipping I think you save the wear and tear on the clutch. The slipper clutch becomes your backup in cases you don't get the blipping right.
It takes a bit to get a hang of blipping and shifting, once you get it, it becomes muscle memory.
The newer bmw's have auto blipper, hence my assumption above

You are right, the slipper clutch is a backup and blipping makes the downshifts smoother by avoiding the heavy engine braking. Regarding the issue I have with blipping, this guy describes it best,

https://youtu.be/xL5in5vs0kU?t=8m2s

On other bikes once I know how much blipping that bike needs (depending on its engine braking) I mostly get it right, but on S1000RR the amount of blipping seem to change. Sometimes the same amount of throttle movement results in good blip but sometimes it doesnt, mostly to do with ride by wire and the rpm/speed.

I have read in s1000rrforums where people complain about flat spots while blipping, which is similar to what I face. There its mentioned it happens when blipping at 3-5k rpms but I havent seen at what rpms I face this, I need to check. But its no big deal really.




Have been doing all this, thats how I managed the 10 day ride Thanks for posting them anyways.


That's true. And on such long rides, any bike will have some level of discomfort (maybe except goldwing/k1600gtl )

It kind of feels like a workout when riding this bike for long, I like it And any discomfort I have would disappear after a good nights sleep.

Glad you enjoy my updates, I will try to be more regular.

Re: Chasing my dreams... The S1000RR comes home!

Went on a ride through the Ardennes forest in Belgium yesterday and here is a pic from one of the lavender fields I came across...





I had also ridden to Intermot last week, it was good to see the xBhp stall. Later rode towards Eifel National Park in Germany and had an interesting ride with a fellow biker, as you can see below

Re: Chasing my dreams... The S1000RR comes home!

Just some sunday fun in the Belgian Ardennes forest, which is the only part of Belgium having some good cornering roads. Had an external audio recorder to capture that exhaust note. Hope you enjoy!

Re: Chasing my dreams... The S1000RR comes home!

(This will be a long write up about my journey to the RR, so grab a cup of coffee, relax on a comfortable chair as I take you along on a time machine)

Now where do I start? Let me go to the very beginning!


I grew up in a regular middle class family, living near Udupi, on coasts of Karnataka. When I was a kid my father had a Bajaj Super FE scooter and maybe that's when the seed for the love of two wheelers was planted. My father would open the rear portion of the scooter near the engine to clean up and I always enjoyed looking at various parts of the engine even though I had no clue what they were. I never got to ride it as it was sold off when I was a kid, but I remember my elder brother learning to ride on it and on his first ride (with my father as pillion) he ended up doing a wheelie right after he started and went straight for our neighbour's compound wall. Nobody was hurt as both of them didnt fall and the scooter was also fine. I cant remember the specifics but I am sure my brother got an earful! Hehe, fun times


Fast forward several years and it was time for me to get my car driving license. But we decided to also get the license for two wheelers as it will be easier to get it over with once and for all. But I didnt know how to ride a motorcycle! So one of my friend taught me on his Hero Honda CD100. After a couple of days of riding it, I was good enough to pass the exam. All that I had to do in the exam was to ride around a tree in front of RTO office while the examiner watched, total duration lasting 20 seconds or so! Unbelievable isnt it!


Getting my first bike!


Fast forward few more years, I finished engineering and got a job in Bangalore. I never rode a motorcycle after circling-the-tree exam In Blore's chaotic traffic, bike seemed to be the best option to commute. The buses were also packed on weekdays, esp the ones I had to take and this made me buy the bike asap. I was always attracted towards TVS Apache RTR180, mainly because of their TV ads (Racing DNA unleashed and what not). Took a very short test ride from showroom, which was my first ride after circling-the-tree exam! I didnt know much about bikes but 17hp sounded cool. After me, my brother took it for a spin and when he rode off in first gear, I just fell in love with that exhaust note and decided that's the bike for me!


I missed to mention one important thing, my brother was frequently riding on long tours and he came a few times from Blore-Udupi (around 440kms one way) and it was a big thing back then, esp for my relatives and family friends. They just couldnt understand why anybody would come by bike instead of bus So anyways, he laid the groundwork for me and hence it was easy for me to convince my parents that I needed the bike for office commute and I will stay safe in traffic etc.


After arranging the money and other formalities, it was finally the day I got my first bike on July 28, 2011!





My brother was sitting pillion and I was struggling to ride the bike. Please note, after circling-the-tree exam and a 200m long test ride, I had never ridden a bike in past years, and now I was trying to ride with a pillion in Blore traffic! I dont know how I had so much courage back then After a km or so, we exchanged seats and I was happy to be a pillion!


After few weeks of riding in city and getting used to the bike, me and my brother rode to Nandi hills, around 70kms one way from Blore. That was my first ever bike trip and I was so excited. I had never even ridden on 3 lane highways before (coastal karnataka didnt have such highways) and it felt great to ride on such open roads. Riding in hills was again such a revelation and after completing the ride, it was clear, this is what I wanted to do in my free time! The biking bug had bitten me hard.


Fast forward some months and I was part of couple of riding groups in Blore and was having a great time riding to different places in south India. The longest ride was a week long trip in Maharashtra and I can still recall most of the ride details, shows how great it was


When I first read about S1000RR!


This was sometime in 2012, while just browsing through xBhp, one fine day I came across this thread from @ken cool about his test ride of S1000RR http://www.xbhp.com/talkies/bike-rev...test-ride.html. I had heard the name before and knew about it only a little and I was completely dumbfounded by what was written! I was wondering how can a motorcycle be this good and do all that ken said! I think I read the article few times that day! I had made it a point right then that one day I will own this machine, doesnt matter how long it takes or how difficult it will be. I also knew very well it might just be that momentary josh after reading the article which will disappear after few days and that its childish to think that I will buy it one day. Oh how times change



Getting bitten by the upgrade bug!


Fast forward a couple of years, tinkered the Apache with aftermarket parts with the quest for more hp but not everything went as expected. The upgrade bug was also somewhere in the back of my mind. At that time Triumph had recently entered Indian market and they opened a showroom close to my office. Went a couple of times with my biker buddies to take a look at the bikes (read ogle!) and sat on a Street Triple for the first time and man it felt brilliant! I loved that posture. Few days later took a short test ride in traffic filled roads and I loved it. That exhaust note was truly something! 9L on road price was way too much for me but riding the street triple made me realize there are so many better bikes out there and I had to upgrade. This was towards the end of 2013.


Thus the research began on internet, I read a lot about Street triple even though I knew I couldnt buy it, watched a lot of videos of it as well. Next in the line was Ninja 650, again the same, read a lot, watched a lot. The Ninja seemed to tick all the right boxes but the weaker brakes and not having ABS seemed to be a big drawback. Since showroom didnt give any test rides, I test rode one of my good friend's 650 for a short ride on empty Inner Ring Road at Blore and it felt amazing! And even though it costs lot less than Striple, it was still a lot of money! So I came further down the budget list, somehow I was never really attracted towards Ninja 300 so the obvious choice was Duke 390 and it again ticked all the right boxes, with a big tick for VFM. Also the newer lots had less issues than the first batch which seemed reassuring. Took a test ride of 390 and even though the engine felt rough, the acceleration and handling was brilliant. I decided to go for it and with the money I save by buying 390 instead of 650, I can happily tour around.

The day orange fun machine came home on Feb 25, 2014!



I had a brilliant time riding this and here you can read my experience after a year of ownership of Duke 390 (http://www.xbhp.com/talkies/motorcyc...ml#post1127635) but bottomline, I didnt regret it one bit.


Moving abroad!


In early 2015, I heard of a job opportunity in Europe (Belgium to be precise) and I just thought of giving it a try as my past work experience was a good match for them. I got selected and I just had a month and a half to move there! That was a huge decision for me, leaving behind everything and everyone I know back in India. But it also meant getting to know different work culture, people and a golden chance to experience different things so I took it. Also in the back of my mind, I knew all the big bikes would be cheaper there and maybe I could finally go for my dream


So I put the Duke on sale and started looking at license laws in Belgium. And what a bummer! It states that the Indian license can be used along with IDP (International Driving Permit) only for a tourist, a long term resident need to get a Belgian license. But Germany allows Indian license upto 6 months since the date of arrival in EU so that was comforting, I could atleast rent from Germany in the first 6 months.


Moving to Belgium showed how the other part of the world worked! The biggest difference is in the traffic and I was stunned by how pedestrians have the highest priority on the road and if I was standing near zebra crossings, the cars would just stop and wait for me to cross, it took me a while to get my head around that fact! You all know how it is in India


It took a while to get settled here as I had to start from scratch. Had to learn cooking as well which took quite some of my free time! (still does btw!) Also I slowly started buying motorcycle gear one by one (as I had sold my Indian ones, wanted to buy newer, better ones here) and sportsbikeshop.co.uk was my friend.
Since I could ride from Germany for only 6 months, I had to plan for what happens after that. But to apply for any license, I needed the Belgian resident ID card which took ages to arrive (3 months to be precise!). In the meantime, I did a 5 day Alps ride at end of June 2015 by renting from Germany and that has been my best ride ever till date! Never had I dreamed of doing such a ride before and going to Leh in India always seemed impossible to plan. You can read more about it here (http://www.xbhp.com/talkies/tourer/3...omplished.html)


Getting a license in Belgium!


The driving license exam in Belgium consists of two parts, Theory and Practical and I came to know that one can take the exam only in Dutch or French (national languages). They offer theory exam in English only for cars as it has high demand and not for motorcycles. So I went for the car license first as having a car (or atleast being able to rent one) can be very useful esp to move items around. I had painful experiences in the initial days when I had to lug furniture in buses and wished I could drive a car or atleast hire an auto rickshaw!


The theory exam is not easy by any means, one has to get a minimum score of 41 out of 50 to pass. So I bought books for it and mugged the rules and passed the exam with 47/50. Even the practical exams are quite difficult as they expect you to drive and follow rules like in textbook in other words, it should be perfect.

One thing I missed to mention, getting a license here is a very expensive affair. The exam costs are not much but for 1 hour driving lesson, schools charge 60-70 euros! For cars, the mandatory lessons are 20 hours and for motorcycle it is 12hours so you do the math!


My Indian license had one main use though, I didnt have to take any mandatory lessons before taking practical exam! Phew, it saved a lot of money. But nobody can pass the exam here with only Indian driving experience, it is simply too stupid to even think of that. So I attended few lessons and managed to pass the exam in first attempt. This was in October 2015.
I thought of buying a car and even started looking for some but something told me to wait and get a membership of car sharing service instead (its like a car rental but you can book the car for even 1 hr or less). Also one of my good friend here bought a car and since he only had provisional license, I became the main driver when we had to go around


Then came winter and it was anyways not a good time for riding so I almost completely dropped my plan of getting a motorcycle license. And also to even think of getting that license, I first had to learn Dutch so I started learning it by myself on Duolingo.com (There were some evening Dutch classes organized by some associations but I was too lazy to go there after work). I also used google translate heavily for all the Belgian websites here and I started picking up those formal words which are used in exam.


Fast forward to Feb 2016 and I was confident I could pass theory exam in Dutch. One thing I missed to mention was that the content for theory exam of motorcycles was almost same as that of car but there were some more questions related to riding gear and riding techniques (the exam even has questions where they show a photo of a corner and ask you to show where to brake, turn, accelerate etc really useful stuff!) and I managed to pass the exam again in first attempt, phew! Such a huge hurdle crossed! Next was practical exam, which was in two stages, one in a track and if you pass that, the next one on street.


So I again had to take few lessons (having Indian license prevented me from taking all mandatory lessons) and it took me total 3 hours of riding on track, doing the set of 10 maneuvers confidently enough for the exam. I rode for one hour on public road, but since I had enough experience in this from India, it went well.


So the exam day was here on Mar 23rd at 9am. There was a half hour practice before exam so I went to the riding school at 8:15am, rode on the track with lot of confidence and since I didnt make any mistakes, it kept my confidence high. Rode to exam venue and the instructor followed by car. I had opted for translator (examiners are allowed to talk only in official languages, so they cant speak in English even if they know it, I had done the same for car as well) and the first was on track exam. A few basic oral questions were asked which I answered. Then came the maneuvers and it went exactly how I practiced, phew! I was so happy, I knew even if I failed the next exam on road, I could still ride in Belgium on provisional license. But the exam on road went really well, the only mistake was that at one particular road, the initial speed limit was 50 and I was following cars which were doing 60, but soon it became a 70 zone so the mistake was not big enough to fail the exam since the rest of the exam went perfect I can still remember every single second of the part where the examiner showed me a thumbs up after the exam! I was smiling ear to ear and the translator (she was also my translator for car exam btw so she knew me for sometime) hugged me seeing my excitement Ah, I just went back in time while typing this!


Buying the bike!


This was such a tough decision! Every bike from every manufacturer is available, how do you pick only one from it? What type do you choose? Its impossible!


Considering how big this decision is, I was thinking of the kind of bike I want to buy long before I got the license.
I always fancied dual sport adv type bikes when I was India, esp the legendary R1200GS. For Indian road conditions and abundant trails, adv bikes are perfect. But here, those bikes are too common and the sad part is, there are very few trails open to public. I realized this on my Alps ride where most of the interesting off road trails had a no entry board at the start. So buying adv bike and riding only on road is injustice to the bike in my opinion. Moreoever, I am not tall enough to comfortably ride such adv bikes without modifying the seat height.


So that removed a lot of options and made it slightly easier to choose. I was not keen on big tourers or small street bikes either. I was considering something in 600-800cc range.
All this time, I also kept thinking if I should really go after my dream, the one and only, you know But I felt it would be too much and I am not a skilled enough rider to go for it.


So I was a bit inclined towards sport touring and came across a used BMW F800GT with all optional packs and it was in great condition. I was discussing my plans with my brother but something told me not to go for this bike. I saw lots and lots of ads for bikes in this price range. It was beginning of summer so lot of bikes were available.

I soon ditched my plans of sport tourers mainly because I can ride sport tourers later on in life but I cant say the same about supersports. This was my one chance to ride supersports so I had to take it. I anyways cant buy them in India so if I ever thought of owning one, it should be now. I was a fan of zx6r after watching their Isle of Man promo video and there were some good deals for used as well as new ones.


One fine day I was messaging one of my friend Ajay Ananth (@strider, you should read his truly inspiring thread here http://www.xbhp.com/talkies/superbike-imports/16196-my-r1-story-papercut-dream.html) about the bike plans and he was happy that I was going for supersports, saying that Europe is the place to own such machines where there is infrastructure to properly put such bikes to use. In the end this is kind of how our conversation went,
Ajay : Why not litre class?
Me : I thought about it too, my dream bike is S1000RR. But I am afraid, it will be too much for me, I am not skilled enough.
Ajay : That's ok. You will learn with the bike. That's one easy litre class bike to ride.
Me : Isnt it too much power for public roads?
Ajay : You are in EU. Its not too much. You have the right fuel and facilities to use it.
Me : I will think about it, I feel zx6r is enough for me.
Ajay : But if u get the zx6r, everytime you see an s1000rr you feel like you shouldve bought it.
Me : Yeah I guess. Let me see, I should get the license first before anything!


The idea of S1000RR was lurking in my head for so long and this conversation just gave it a booster shot! I was imagining how the S1000RR would look like in my empty parking spot every time I went past it! I started searching for ads of used RR and the price was decent compared to Indian price. I had seen few ads before but now I got a good idea on how much it costs and what I can expect. I was particularly interested in pre 2015 ones, mainly because of the looks (that's what always came to my mind when somebody said S1000RR) and also its cheaper than newer ones.


I was still not convinced to go for it so I also kept looking for 600s and 800s. I contacted one of the BMW showrooms which had a 2014 RR with only 1600kms on it. But I didnt have a license yet so I couldnt test ride. The sales person was really friendly and welcoming over emails and I thought of checking it out after I get my license.


But a week or so later, the ad disappeared and as it turned out, it was sold. There were only two other 2014 RR available in White/Blue/Red colour scheme and I was not going to settle for any other colour! I finally got the license (which you just read above) and test rode Duke 690 and 1290 SuperDuke just for fun, before I could book a test ride for RR. I also visited the BMW Brussels showroom and saw my to-be bike for the first time The showroom person didnt seem that interested, maybe because he thought I wouldnt buy it and came there just to ogle at bikes. I didnt want to decide anything before a test ride and as they cannot provide this bike for test ride, I booked one for 2016 version, which was after few days. By the time I completed the test ride I got an email from the Brussles showroom from a different sales person that the bike is sold. Damn, now only one option left and that showroom was a bit far and was priced quite high but had only 665kms on it. Yes, only 665! I waited for few days but since I didnt have any other option, I decided to go have a look at the 665kms one and that day I get a mail from the original sales person in Brussels showroom that the bike is available and it was a misunderstanding! Phew, so now it was clear what I had to do.


Thanks to banks here, arranging funds went smoothly. They provide loans for used motorcycles, just as if you were buying a new one and if the bike is 2yrs old or less, then the interest rate is very low.


The D day!


On April 14th, which was Ugadi, an auspicious day for us, my loan was approved and I completed the payment for showroom. But the banks here arent as fast as India. When the transfer is between different banks, it can take 3 working days or more. There was a long weekend in between, which you can imagine how it went! So by April 20th I had the sale proof from the showroom.


Here the buying process is different from India. The number plate belongs to the owner, so when the seller sells the bike/car, the buyer will get a new number plate.
Once you have the registration documents and the sale proof from the seller, you take the docs to insurance company and they will do the registration for you. But here is a catch, for used motorcycles, they need to send the hard copy to the authorities and once it is verified, they will send me the new number plate. It can take a week or more! For cars, used or new, the insurance company can do it online so you get the number plate the very next day.


So even though I completed all my formalities on 21st, I had atleast a week long wait ahead of me What a drag! And here I was, expecting to have the bike in couple of days after payment on 14th!
After what felt like an eternity, I finally received the number plate on April 29th and as I wasnt home, they put it in one of the collection centres and I could only collect it the next day. So I got it on 30th morning, which is saturday and guess what, the showroom doesnt deliver on saturdays! Their workshop isnt open and they deliver only when mechs are also present! Arggh! So I had a horrible saturday and a sunday to go through before I got the bike on monday!


Finally the monday arrived, my happiest monday by far! Took an hour break from office before lunch, went to showroom with my colleagues and finally, finally the dream was real
The S1000RR was mine!





If I have to thank all the people responsible, it will be a long vote of thanks speech so I will just say that a big thanks to all of you who made this possible for me!

Re: Chasing my dreams... The S1000RR comes home!

Lovely write up. Very well narrated and I was able to live through all of that.
And I forgive you for upgrading. That too twice!

Re: Chasing my dreams... The S1000RR comes home!

Duke should have been sent to Delhi/NCR as gift. Huhh

Re: Chasing my dreams... The S1000RR comes home!

Haha, thanks for the forgiveness moderator saab and really glad you enjoyed the write up, took me quite a while to write all that down

Woh scale model thodi hi hai


By the way, I had a long weekend for Diwali here as well so I went riding to Black Forest in Germany and here is a short trailer video from it.




And few pics,


Atop Kandel mountain, luckily the fog was only limited to one side of the mountain which resulted in this amazing view and the ride to the top was completely clear and dry..





Went on a short trail as well (why should ADV bikes have all the trail fun? )





Looks straight from a fairy tale





Getting a pic of the milky way had been on my list for so long but I never got the right opportunity. Either the sky was always polluted with light or cloudy, unclear weather conditions ensured the stars werent visible. But this time I had no excuse in Black Forest and this was the result