Re: 2 Plug R1100SA Top Speed...

[Jack Bunce <jackbunce@xxxxxxx>]

On May 24, 2004, at 4:47 AM, oilheads-digest wrote:

> SNIP

> Let's see.  The bike is rated at 98HP at the crank and you think 90.1 
> at the
> rear wheel isn't right?  Sounds right to me.   You could be losing a 
> little
> extra from the drive shaft.  All the other  bikes you mention have 
> chains.

No... that 90.1 is the output of my son's 600-cc Suzuki. Mine was only 
putting out 76 rwhp which is below the 85 rwhp I would consider 
nominal, i.e., crank HP - 15% . Take a look at the latest Motorcycle 
Consumer News. They have an article about trying to achieve more 
horsepower from an R1100S using bolt ons. They spent $1,250.00 or so 
and ended up with only about 1.2 hp more than they started. That tells 
me two things: BMW knows what they are doing, and the engine is 
probably very susceptible to negative variations in output if one 
deviates from the BMW recommended tuning parameters.

> SNIP
> Don't know how long you've had your bike, but if it's not broken in 
> yet (12K
> to 20K), give it a little time.   It'll get better.  Oil consumption 
> drops,
> the engine smoothes out and performance will improve.  The Japanese 
> bikes
> have more power, but not more riding pleasure.   I consider the S to 
> be more
> like a BMW 6 series or Mercedes SL, not a Porsche or Viper.  Sporty, 
> but not
> state of the art, powerwise.

Got my 04 R1100SA on June 15th of last year. Mileage is about 20,600 or 
so today and the oil consumption has essentially stabilized.

Being an Porsche ex-owner I differ with your characterization. I think 
the BMW S models are very close to what a Porsche is: a very 
responsive, fine handling vehicle, utilizing state of the art 
engineering, suitable for daily driving, and, which, when driven on the 
track acquits itself very well exhibiting no major handling or power 
faults while demonstrating the engineering competence and build quality 
inherent in its underlying design and construction.

I think the non GT K's and non-S Rs are the BMW models which fit your 
analogy.

> The point of these bikes isn't that they are faster than the Jap bikes.
> They are built better, have excellent power delivery and can be ridden 
> very
> high miles as a practical touring bike as well as being hauled around 
> nicely
> on a track day.

Naw, I know mine isn't faster than the Jap bikes, but, I did expect it 
to live up to the performance figures published by BMW. Their 
advertising claimed 140 mph and that fact was a significant factor in 
why I purchased the R1100S over a different BMW  model. The other 
important consideration for me was that the R1100S was a mature design.

Now, you may think me foolish for believing the BMW advertising; but, I 
was under the impression from my Porsche days that the German 
government had specific regulations which required (of automobile 
companies at least) that any advertised performance figure be 
achievable by all units.

My purpose in desiring to have the ability to reach a very high top 
speed is to be able to dispatch pesky cage driving idiots with a simple 
twist of the wrist when necessary in the interests of motorcycle 
safety. Empirically, I can say that such idiots usually start to give 
up on reaching triple digits but some fools will persist 15 or 20 mph 
past that. The need to do this seldom arises, usually slowing down, 
turning off, etc., is a much wiser and safer course when available.  
Unfortunately there is always that ten percent and the other options 
may not be available.

In my view BMW no longer enjoys a build quality advantage over the Jap 
bikes. Most of the Jap bikes today seem to be appliances; they just 
work. The VFRs, FJRs, Goldwings, etc., just go and go. In the old days, 
for me that is 1972 when I bought my first bike, a Kawasaki F9, it was 
the quality of my tool kit which seemed to have an inordinate influence 
on the success of my daily rides. With modern bikes that is no longer 
true. Today the only tools one really needs are a tire plugging kit, a 
cycle-pump and a pressure gauge.

My R has been the subject of two safety recalls; a wire routing problem 
and the fuel tank line o-ring connector problem. In addition, the oil 
pressure sensor wire had two insulation failures; one from a routing 
defect (bend radius was less than 5 times the wire diameter around a 
nut) and the other was somewhere under the seat. The latter two 
resulted in oil pressure lights and significant expense in time and 
money as well as lost bike utility. Most of the other problems have 
been dealer mechanic induced by either sloppy work or failure to follow 
recommended procedures (Not by my local dealer Canton Cycles; they have 
been quite good at finding problems induced by other dealers!). (See my 
previous post regarding the genesis of this problem.)

My point (not very well made, if at all) is that BMWs are no better 
than the Jap bikes and could arguably be considered worse.

No matter the foregoing, my R1100S seems to do just about everything I 
wanted it to do. It travels well, hauls a bunch of stuff, handles and 
performs well, looks good and suits my needs just about perfectly. It 
is clear to me (and probably others too) that the R1100SA is a better 
bike than I am a rider. Nevertheless, I do lust after a K1200S!

So, as you can see we may be more in agreement than disagreement. 
Thanks for the response.


cheers.... jack, '04 R1100SA, Waterford, Connecticut, U.S.A.

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