I've never ridden a BMW so I was eager to ride what I've always read about ‘Beemers that is and I was riding the new K1000. As far as first impressions go it seems that the motor from a Yamaha was stuffed in a BMW chassis. The look was futuristic, the bike sported a "Duolever" front end and shaft drive, just no" jugs" coming out the sides which is usually a ‘Beemer trademark. I figure the "Idea" of the ride was a naked sport bike.
Firing it up was different (non Japanese switches) and as Wade said "to find the proper switch functions was confusing and to look down was dangerous". More than once I pushed the wrong button. It would take getting used to. The posture was comfortable and seating centered which made it easy to get the leverage to toss the bike around, which would soon be needed.
The motor sounded promising , revving it up I rode to my secret S.F. test route, short but thorough, time to tear it up. On the way to the jump section there were rail lines and offset sections in the pavement, the bike stayed true. Starting my run at a standstill, we ran up a hill at full throttle and at the first jump... no air, a great disappointment, definitely not an R1 motor and mine's a '99. "OK Alx, rip it", and up the next hill and jump... nope, and not very arm pulling. Hmmm.
At the top of the hill there's a long right, I do this at speed because I can and purposefully tried to upset the chassis, it was rock solid to movement, as in a passenger shifting per'say. I've never ran ABS or these weird front ends, so the imput was all new to me. The brakes rock on this bike, trust me. However they did chirp on a full lock" trying" to do a stoppie up hill. Down hill the bike didn't loft the front or fly, too bad BMW. Once heading up Twin Peaks Hills on the gas the bike responded well, under four thousand RPM the bike really lagged as in a rubber band winding up, not cool (Wade had mentioned this) Tossing it around was very easy as long as you danced with it... Beyond that it was really responsive, not pull your arms out but good enough to elicit a smile. The motor sounded great while on the gas, as they all should.
I really try to get a bike into the toughest shit in the shortest amount of time to find it's limitation. This BMW was taken through the roughest haphazard tarmac I could take it around Twin Peaks. The K1000 passes with flying colours. Most impressive was the front end, I took a down hill rutted broken tarmac section under heavy braking,( a regular bike would be all over the place ), then I set up for the turn regulated the brake and ran it in, cool baby, pure control. The bike does take an amount of body english to make her turn, however to do so inspires speed. As far as the shaft drive I never knew it was there, nice BMW . If you ever need a racer for your bike I would run one, so there.
~Cheers, Alx