Living With A Bavarian Bullet: Gen 1 S1000RR

I’d heard loads of good things about theS1000RR, so after years and years of Fireblade ownership I decided to make a change and start searching for a Beemer to try.

- Adam Kosmala

I’m live in Reading, and I’d set my eBay search preferences to a 50-mile radius – or at least I thought I had. I saw the bike I liked, so I threw a bid at it and won it for £6,300, but it was in Manchester! I thought it was a good price though, so I didn’t mind trekking up north to collect it. When I got there I asked him about the ABS, as I wasn’t really sure how it worked, but to my surprise he told me that this model didn’t come with ABS – I think it was just an optional extra on the ‘Gen 1’ back in 2011, when this bike was new.

Loads of people had told me how powerful the RR was so I was really looking forward to my first ride on it, and I can remember it like it was yesterday because I wasn’t disappointed! The thing is fast.

The way the bike made me feel when you are going in a straight line is unbelievable – it’s just so powerful. And the spread of power means it doesn’t matter what gear you are in, there is always enough power to really accelerate, hard – you just have to open the throttle and the power is there. Other bikes I have ridden, like my old Fireblade for example, didn’t have anything like the same spread of power, so you had to drop down a gear or two if you want to suddenly accelerate. It makes it an easier bike to ride because you can stay in fifth or sixth gear and you know you can just open the throttle and you’ll be away.