BMW Concept 6

How's this for one sweet, sweet looking ride?

This is the BMW Concept 6, an inline 6-cylinder 1600cc beast that screams speed. This monster has 170 horse and 130Nm torque (in comparison, my CRB125R has 13hp and 10Nm) and the engine is supposed to be the smallest inline-6 to date. The bike will still be heavy though (I don't have a figure) but will easily compensate with sheer power throughout the RPM range. Even more impressive though are the looks. It's one sexy ride!

No idea if it'll ever go in production, and pretty sure it'll never be within my budget, but one can only dream.

First few weeks on my CBR125R

I've already posted about my first ever ride here. My second ride was a week after, during which time I was thinking about the sense of speed and freedom I felt going at a whopping 40km/h! Also though about some of the things I did wrong, and what I needed to practice more. On the list was u-turns, blinkers, smoother gear changes, higher speeds, hills, takeoffs...pretty much everything.

Second ride went fairly well. Felt a lot more confident taking it out and just driving around randomly. My gear changes became smoother (although still not great by a long shot), I stalled only two or three times, and I even managed to use the blinkers once (although forgot to turn them off for a while). Besides that I tried going faster and reached around 55km/h when I experienced a strange side-to-side wobble that felt a little scary. I gently slowed it down and stuck to under 50 for the rest of the day.

When it started getting dark I pulled in to a small car-park and started driving around in wide circles in second and first. Almost dropped it once or twice when going too slow and turning too sharp but managed to keep it up by sheer force (it's a pretty light bike). All in all second day went well, although the wobble was a little concerning.

Another week later, my third ride out proceeded as normal - took the bike out and drove around randomly for a while. I then started practicing some slow-speed riding for around twenty minutes or so. That is, just going as slowly as I could in first or second. Doing this I learned to combine the back break and throttle for stability control, and got better at finding and riding the friction point. Also took the bike out to the car-park close by and practiced some u-turns and figure-8s. Didn't almost-drop it this time, but leg was coming down a fair bit to keep it upright. Finished off the day by taking it out on a long straight and going 55-60km/h when again I felt the strange wobble.

I started getting worried about this and though there might be something wrong with the bike. Did a little bit of reading and found out a wobble can be induced by flat tires, worn tires, mechanical problems in the steering head, bumps in the road, matching the harmonic frequency of the bike, etc. Also watched some youtube videos of wobbles or tankslappers (because your knees/balls start slapping the tank when this happens). Mine wasn't really that bad though, but still alarming. I read that a steering damper can help eliminate these wobbles, but that it shouldn't really be used as it just covers up an underlying cause. After a bit more research and forum trolling, I was advised against a steering damper and told to check tires etc, but also to take note of my grip on the bars. That is, something as simple as a tight grip can be the cause of wobbles.

So the 4th Saturday out I get on the bike and take it to the straights. I make a mental note to myself to grip the bars as light as possible, and also to pull in the knees and hug the tank with my thighs firmly. Sure enough, doing this I was able to go 50/60/70 kmp/h without any wobble! The instructor in my pre-learner test kept telling me to relax and to hug the tank, and he was spot-on right. A tight grip is dangerous and can de-stabilize the bike and likewise if your knees are fluttering about.

I kept practicing for the rest of the day reminding myself as often as possible to keep a loose grip and keep knees in. By the end I felt a lot more comfortable riding and a lot more in control of the bike. I also found I could ride comfortably one-hand in a straight, but only with a loose grip. For the rest of the day I just practiced driving around 60 or so, and practiced some emergency breaks (I found my weight shifts forward a lot and my hands are applying a lot of pressure to the handlebars when I do this). Also practiced some more slow-speed maneuvers in the small car-park near by. Started getting much better at this but still need a lot more practice.

So far I've been out on 4 or 5 rides, totally about 6 or 7 hours and no drops yet (keeps fingers crossed). I still need a lot more practice, namely on more confident take-offs, take-offs and u-turns on inclines, and eventually on starting to enter traffic and dealing with lanes, lights and idiot drivers. All in good time though, I'm in no rush :-)

First ride on my CBR125R

I had my Honda CRB125R delivered by the dealer on a Monday night but due to logistic reasons, I can only ride it on Saturdays. The 5 day wait till my first ride after just having gotten my L's seemed to drag on forever. I had vivid thoughts picturing myself walking it out on the road, pointing it straight, hopping on, turning on the key, pressing the clutch, shifting to first, finding the friction point, releasing the break, giving it a bit of throttle, etc. I was both excited and a little anxious at the same time.

On the first Saturday, I hopped on my bike on the drive way and practiced what I had visualized all week, i.e. just getting it started and moving slowly in first. I went back and forward doing this in my 10 meter driveway for about twenty minutes, just learning the friction point, the sensitivity of the throttle, the weight of the bike, etc. This gave me a little bit more confidence as I knew that once you get it going, it's pretty easy to stay on.

So off I go inside, grab my gear, and give it another go in the driveway. First thing I notice is that the thick leather gloves severely reduce the feel and flexibility in your hands and fingers. I found it much harder to reach for the controls and harder to get a feel for the throttle, but adjusted after about another 10 minutes of practice.

I was then ready to take it out on the back roads around my house. Thankfully the roads around me are pretty quiet most of the time with very few cars going around and no traffic lights, round-abouts, speed-bumps, etc. So I get on my bike, pop it in neutral and walk it to the other side of the road pointing it in the right direction. Put it in first, check the mirrors, head checks, make sure there's no other cars around and off I go!

I revved first a little too long before changing to second, but managed to get there, and then to third, and off I went for around 500 meters till I got to a dead-end. Not confident enough to try a u-turn on the somewhat narrow street, back in neutral it went and I slowly pedaled it around then took off and drove back to in front of my house. Did this back and forward about 3 or 4 times before I started getting confident enough to drive around randomly through the neighborhood taking lefts and rights.

Think the top speed I reached was around 40km/h on the day, which felt like warp speed! The rest of the time I was just slowly riding around at 20 or 30, keeping an eye out for other cars and pulling over to the left whenever I saw one behind me. I couldn't use the blinkers yet either, my thumb had no idea where the little slider was and there were enough things going on in my head to worry about that.

I wasn't very smooth on the gears, the bike would often jerk when down-shifting one-too-low, and I stalled it a number of times trying to start from second or third and I'd often loose track of what gear I was in but around an hour later it started getting dark and it was time to call it quits.

First ride. No drops. Success!