Guido’s blog
August 20, 2009
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I talk about this more in my column in
Motorcycle Trader magazine number 222, published later this month – but what the hell is it with four-wheel-drive owners? All too many are aggressive bastards, and I include women and men in that description.
Like many, I tend to look for opportunities in traffic when on a bike, though it’s done at low speeds. What gets me is the number of 4WD clowns who clearly resent anyone on a little vehicle who tries to take advantage of the gaps.
Over the last few weeks, I’ve had a few encounters where people are quite happy to risk causing serious injury (or worse) rather than see a motorcycle grab a gap.
It comes down to jealousy – there is no other explanation.
Doubly aggravating is that lane-splitting or lane-filtering (call it what you like) is definitely illegal in ACT – which is funny when you see their roads – and questionable in Victoria. There was an attempt at a national ban, which failed.
There is no statistical or road safety reason to discourage the practice. In some parts of Britain, motorcyclists are taught how to do it safely. In Belgium, there is a law against trying to block it. In Victoria, Australia, there is a Vic Roads report which concludes filtering is doing the rest of traffic a favour, because it reduces congestion. Weirdly, the same state has laws which try to discourage it…
There are people who will try to tell you that lane-splitting is dangerous, but there simply is no info to support the theory. Fact is, it’s quite safe. But folk trapped in their tin-tops get jealous and nasty when they see someone else getting what they perceive as an unfair advantage. That’s what it’s really about.
BMW has released pricing on its S 1000 RR sport bike, or superbike replica. And I’m shocked. A base model is about $21k, while one with all the electronic fruit (race ABS, traction control) will come in under $25k. On-road costs will add significantly but I’m pleasantly surprised by the pricing.
Let’s go back a decade. When the company introduced its first cruiser, an R-series with a C in it, a senior local bloke asked me to guess the price.
I went through a little mental process thinking, “BMW, which is premium pricing, so think Japan and add a fair bit.” I still came under the real asking price – by a long way. Neither of us were happy…then again, neither were the sales…
This time around, I reckoned about mid-twenties with the electronics would be a sharp price, but in reality I was expecting closer to $30k as the company traditionally charges serious rent. So about $25k for the full package is better than I expected – much better.
Okay, so 21 base price is still a fair bit higher than the Japanese premium kit, but it’s not out of the ball park. It’s also very competitive with potentially arch-rival Ducati. And senior Japanese reps will swear all day (off the record) that they’re undercharging.
If the bike does what it says on the tin, the company deserves to sell loads of them.
I’ll admit to an interest here, which is I want one. A ride on the firm’s high-stepping 1300s when they were launched convinced me it finally got its corporate head around motorcycle performance. It’s had cars nailed for years, but somehow the two-wheeler brand lagged. No more.
The S has the potential to be the company’s equivalent to the M3.
Now all I have to do is find one, and work out how to pay for it. And I reckon the exercise will be interesting, as conventional wisdom says you should not buy the first generation of anything – because that’s the one with all the teething problems. At the moment, I’m willing to take that chance. We’ll see…
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