BMW S1000RR first ride impressions

MCN’s Chief Road Tester Trevor Franklin is at the Portimao circuit in Portugal for the track launch of the new BMW S1000RR.

• Win a BMW S1000RR!
• First ride: Troy Corser’s WSB S1000RR

He has just phoned in this first impression:

“I’ve just come in from the first session, which we were meant to use to learn the track but I’ve been here before so I could go fairly hard from the off.

• All the latest info on the S1000RR

“All the bikes were set in Rain mode, to break us in gently with lower power (148bhp) and gentle throttle response.

“But even so, from 6000rpm the BMW accelerated very hard – the power delivery is so immediate that I would have guessed at 170bhp.

“It’s early days, but the bike seems to be everything we hoped for. I’m particularly impressed with how easy it is to ride – after half a lap I was relaxed, comfortable and feeling at home.

“It bodes well. The next session will be on full power, though we might need the traction control because there are some big rain clouds about…”

More updates soon. Full indepth report in tomorrow’s MCN, on sale Nov 18.