tour reports » Linear acceleration

Not really a tour report as it’s my commute but even after 3 RS over 8 years or so I still have the occasional revelation.
I live in Poole and the office (for this contract) is Bath. It’s about 62 miles each way.

I leave early as I like to get ahead of the traffic. Today I chose to run up the A350 between Blandford to Shaftesbury. I know it reasonably well and treat it with respect, but it is a technical tour de force with tight slow(ish) bends, long sweepers, tricky sight lines, villages all the usual local country road challenges here in the UK. I was not really on it today skills wise and the bike just takes care of the rough edges and laps it up.

On the way back heavier traffic, roadworks, etc then I get to a roundabout on a short dual carriageway - and it’s clear. Come off the roundabout in second, pin the throttle and use the quick shifter to change up at about 7500 rpm. Effortless grunt, what felt like linear acceleration. No flat spots, no waiting for the power band, no faffing about with the clutch, just gone!

I’ve not the experience of full on sports bikes but the range of abilities the RS has makes it one hell of a package.

The RS has plenty of "get up and go", no doubt about it. On my mountain ride yesterday, outrunning thunderstorms, I got to experience some high RPM horseplay (now that the RS is broken in). It definitely rips.

However, it's nothing compared to a 4-cylinder literbike. Whole different animal.

I do have a question, though: Can you "hear" the Shift Cam when it engages? I keep hearing something "change" when accelerating. Not something amiss or anything, just a sense of something happening.

I did take a S1000RR out for a test a while back and did give it the beans! It’s much quicker - no doubt about it, but so many revs, such drama!

With shift cam - yes, exhaust note changes and whoosh! 4th gear is a peach!

The standard exhaust muffles the sound, but with an alternative you can hear the difference as the cam shifts, and sometimes there's a small pop.

Benefit of shiftcam is the engine breathes very easily at high load and revs yielding lots of power. Usually with that high air flow a high performance engine will be difficult at low load and revs, being lumpy and unresponsive and difficult to manage. But with variable valve timing you can make an engine breathe well at high revs and smoothly at low revs. Best of both worlds.

I can definitely hear the shift cam now with a slip on pipe installed. It does pop too. I like to try to keep it on the lower cam when bopping around town for some reason but it don't matter at all i guess ...

I know the liter bikes are lighter and raceyer but if you check, all the BMW performance bikes, the m1000r, the s1000xr, the r1250r, and the r1250rs, are all very close on paper. In 0 to 62 (0 to 100 kph), quarter mile and roll ons they are what I consider very close up to a buck 40 ... the source being mototop channel. The RS in was a tad slower in it's test but I think with a better run it would have done better, I think he baby'ed it a little for some reason but the m1000rr and the r1250r were tied in the 0 to 100 kmph at 3.1 seconds and only a second difference in the quarter .... due to the 14000 rpm redline on the rr it of course has a much high top speed (190). And it also has launch control but still didn't perform that much better in most of the other tests .... I would say that for a touring bike the rs performance is stellar imo ..... I might be repeating myself here a little .....

No question, the RS is strong. When I passed some vehicles on the road into the mountains, I really scooted...I mean, REALLY. They were standing still and when I looked back...they were wayyy back. No lack of power here.

What the RS/RR comparison hinges on for me is...smoothness of the RR. But comfort...RS hands down.

And did the riding position feel good at that sort of pace?