BMW R1200R Forum banner
21 - 40 of 68 Posts
Unless you are going to a drag strip, I highly doubt you will see a busa around a road course. They are pretty heavy bikes... :p
 
First, where is that TURBO???

I have seen somewhere else some dude who took his R on a similar adventure, I'll share as soon as I can find it.

I'm also ready for my track day, I bet there will be people on 250s passing me all the time as well as people in hayabusas slow as ****.

This TV commercial basically sums it all.

2012 Ninja ZX-14R - BusaBuster - YouTube

in the mail somewhere.. road course track day?
 
Hi everybody. I'm planning on signing up for a track day at Road Atlanta in early April, and this thread was very helpful. It answered my primary question - is it reasonable to take my R12R on a track? The answer is clearly yes.

Are there any mods (besides those mandated by NESBA such as taping lights, removing mirrors, and safety wiring) that you would recommend? For example:

  • Should I get special brake fluid?
  • Should I put in a different oil? The bike has 1,600 miles on it so I'm running BMW 20W-50 dino juice
  • What tire pressures should I run? I'm on stock BT-023 tires
  • Any other changes before going on the track?
 
Hi everybody. I'm planning on signing up for a track day at Road Atlanta in early April, and this thread was very helpful. It answered my primary question - is it reasonable to take my R12R on a track? The answer is clearly yes.

Are there any mods (besides those mandated by NESBA such as taping lights, removing mirrors, and safety wiring) that you would recommend? For example:

  • Should I get special brake fluid?
  • Should I put in a different oil? The bike has 1,600 miles on it so I'm running BMW 20W-50 dino juice
  • What tire pressures should I run? I'm on stock BT-023 tires
  • Any other changes before going on the track?
I rode mine from Brooklyn to the NJ Motorsport park, 140 miles away, went to have dinner, came back to the hotel, covered the lights, check the fluids, secured the oil filter and that was it.

Left everything else stock, and came back home right after the track day was over.




And one of my favorite ones
 
Thanks for the advice everybody. The track day is in (just under) two weeks. I'll let you know how it goes. I have been on a track once before when I did the California Superbike School (level 1) on one of their S1000RR's. I'm not as nervous as I was that time.
 
Track day

I had a lot of fun on the track a few weeks ago, embarrassed a number of superbikes in the turns, but they just run away from you when it opens up. I started worrying that I would dump the bike as it was lifting off the pot, later in the day I was climbing off but it looked weird...

If I were going to do more track days, a 600 / 750 rice burner is the way to go...:001_smile:
 

Attachments

NESBA track day at Road Atlanta 4/6 on R1200R

I did a NESBA track day at Road Atlanta on Saturday and had an absolute blast. The track had a really nice flow to it. It was very hilly which was a little scary at first but really enjoyable after I got to know the track. It’s also a lot curvier than the track map would lead you to believe.

My R1200R performed absolutely flawlessly. It felt really composed and stable when leaned over, even on my stock Bridgestone BT-021 tires. The bike was somewhat eager to turn in, probably because of the wide handlebar, so I had to use a gentle touch on the bars. It also had great drive out of the corners, at least when I was able to get my act together and downshift before entering the corners.

Some pictures of my rear tire are attached. I’m rather proud of the effect on my tires. :D The track had mostly right turns so the right side got chewed up more than the left.

I think I had the only bike there without a fairing. It seemed like everybody, even in the beginner group, had a dedicated track bike! The beginner group also went pretty darned fast. It makes me think that the classification “beginner group” is somewhat of a misnomer. A lot of people zoomed by me on the straightaways, and then I found them bunched up in the corners and slowing me up. I asked someone about this and he laughed and said that many people are “straight line heroes.” A number of people seemed curious about my bike. I’m just glad I didn’t embarrass the R12R as I think I carried pretty decent corner speed. I asked one of the control riders how I could improve and he spent almost an entire session with me. He said that I was following the flow of the track pretty well, but my biggest mistake was that I wasn’t hitting the apexes. He said I wasn’t in the middle of the track, but was still many feet wide of the apexes. I think it’s just a habit from street riding where I like to leave a large safety cushion.

In between sessions, I went to the tire/suspension vendor and had them adjust my rear suspension (I don’t have ESA, and only the rear is adjustable on my bike). I had stock suspension settings, and the sag on both front and rear was pretty high. The tech said that since the front is nonadjustable, he didn’t want to make full adjustment to the rear since it would unbalance the bike. He ended up adjusting the preload towards hard until 3 lines were showing (I’m 5’8” and 153 pounds). He also turned the damping screw from stock about 3/4 turn towards hard. The rear felt MUCH more planted on the following sessions, but now feels way too hard and overdamped in regular street riding, so I just adjusted it back to stock settings this morning. I’ll see how that feels this afternoon.

There was a dark side to Saturday’s track day. Over the course of the day, about 10-12 riders went down, and two were airlifted by helicopter. My wife is a nurse and said that means those riders were on their way to a trauma center. Other riders said they had never seen anything like this. They said that in a typical day, 1-2 riders go down. Nobody was sure what was going on. Maybe spring fever? People going too aggressively on the first track day of the year? They did warn us to take it easy on the first few laps because the track was clean with no rubber down. Despite this, two riders went down on the warm-up lap for the beginner group and one was carried away by helicopter. By the end of the day, this so spooked me that I decided to skip the last track session. Turns out I didn’t need to agonize over that decision as NESBA cancelled the last track session because they were concerned.

All in all, it was really fun and I’m planning on going back to Road Atlanta in May.
 

Attachments

Seems to me if even the beginners were out of control fast, someone in charge at the track was not emphasizing control over speed.
 
i've taken the 1200r to the track about 6 times last year, and had a great time and learned alot about riding in general from my experiences. but if we are going to be honest about the bike we love, i think it's safe to say that the 1200r was not built to be ridden at the track. that does not mean it can't hold its own there with the right rider, but it's a touring/standard bike and it is most comfortable in that environment. i love my R and tour on it, ride the canyons on it and it's a blast, but to really get the most out of the track, you need a bike that is built and designed to be comfortable there. and a twin with a 7,500 RPM redline, gearing that has limited RPM range, a clutch that emphasizes engine braking, torque and HP that is more than enough for the street but just does not have enough at the track, etc, the R is just not ideal for track riding. if you're going to go to the track on a regular basis, getting a bike with 10,000+ redline, gearing and shifting that accomodates higher speed transitions, better ergonomics, etc will change the experience no matter what level. sorry, i love my R, it's my favorite bike, but i'm just being honest here :)
 
i've taken the 1200r to the track about 6 times last year, and had a great time and learned alot about riding in general from my experiences. but if we are going to be honest about the bike we love, i think it's safe to say that the 1200r was not built to be ridden at the track. that does not mean it can't hold its own there with the right rider, but it's a touring/standard bike and it is most comfortable in that environment. i love my R and tour on it, ride the canyons on it and it's a blast, but to really get the most out of the track, you need a bike that is built and designed to be comfortable there. and a twin with a 7,500 RPM redline, gearing that has limited RPM range, a clutch that emphasizes engine braking, torque and HP that is more than enough for the street but just does not have enough at the track, etc, the R is just not ideal for track riding. if you're going to go to the track on a regular basis, getting a bike with 10,000+ redline, gearing and shifting that accomodates higher speed transitions, better ergonomics, etc will change the experience no matter what level. sorry, i love my R, it's my favorite bike, but i'm just being honest here :)
But you have to admit that the look the sportbikers gives you before the 1st session & after the sessions is....PRICELESS!!:cool:
 
Well I guess I am going to change my stance on this a little bit. I read an article that was comparing the previous 800cc motoGP bikes to the new 1000cc class of last. With 40 extra horsepower they were able to only break 2 track records out of the whole season. The article pointed towards rider skill, chassis geometry, and holding the right lines. Seemed relevant to this topic.
 
One of the biggest advantages I noticed on my bike and from others who have riden my R1200R is the brakes. The brakes are top knotch on the R1200R. I run EBC Double Sintered pads front and rear and they stop the R12R like a steel wall.

With a confident rider and a good tire setup, you can take corners as hard as those sports bikes. The power is about on part with a 600CC bike. Keep in mind, sports bikes are geared for acceleration whereas our bikes are not. Brake late, lean that bike over, and dive into that corner with speed.

These bikes are amazing at what they can do... They can't do any one thing perfectly, but they can do just about anything you want them too. To me, it's 90% sports bike, 90% touring/cruiser, which is about as well rounded as you'll get without going to a Multistrada or Sprint ST, but even then they are different beasts in their own way.

Parts aren't exactly common for our bikes. For example, I busted my oil cooler this past weekend on my 08 R12R. There's 1 Oil cooler left in the US, located in a CA warehouse. The other 27 remaining units are home in a warehouse in Germany. Fortunately, mine was repairable, so I didn't have to get a new unit... I'm more afraid of the $bill$ should the R12R go down, and at the track **** happens. You may not go down today, or tomorrow, but if you keep going to the track you will go down one day.

That's why I'm looking into an R6 or a GSXR 600. Parts are cheap and a dime a dozen. Be careful tracking your R12R's folks!
 
21 - 40 of 68 Posts
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top