There are definitely failures, no doubt about it, my mates dropped a valve after a engine refresh and then it threw a rod, so appeared to outsiders like "Oh another R1 that threw a rod" and those were the comments on the day, but he had done 2.5 full seasons of racing and trackdays, and the bike had been a trackbike since new so was already 4 years old when he bought it and started racing... Black engine bikes are stronger, there's no argument there, but a lot of these EDR posts about snapped cranks need some context... For example EDR posted about 'end float on the crank' yesterday where a race bike cam chain had worn into the engine case due to crank float, but my mate messaged them and they admitted it had aftermarket manual cam chain tensioner, so there's just too many variables to simply say "Bad Yamaha".
The R1 is the dogs bollocks. I wish i had never sold mine but i just wasnt using it enough. So so so easy to go fast on and puts the Ducrappy pani in the shade in terms of price and how easy it is to ride.
The oil BMW currently pedals is made by Shell and according to the blurb from BMW, meets both API SN and JASO MA2. Dig deeper and the API (American Petroleum Institute) SN spec is relevant to car engines and the JASO (Japanese Automotive Standards Organisation) MA2 is relevant to all modern high performance motorcycles with a wet clutch. It really does look as basic as that. Motul claim 300V exceeds all current standards so IMO, the Bahnstormer tech is skating on thin ice. As an aside, BMW changed their motor oil supplier from Castrol to Shell in 2014, mainly because Castrol synthetic oils were difficult to obtain worldwide. Shell Advance 4T AX7, https://www.shell-livedocs.com/data/published/en-GB/8f769e24-4d31-4d59-b0a6-8cf818ae1284.pdf, is half the price of the BMW branded shell oil. Andy * I will add, Motul do not recommend 300V for road use as it doesn't contain the quantity of detergents other road biased oils do..
My bet is that it was the camshaft. My 22 s1000rr has a “service enhancement” scheduled. Basically a new inlet camshaft and rocker check. Not a recall (this time) but a stealth “upgrade”. I agree with Andy. Highly unlikely (verging on impossible) that a quality oil would cause such a failure assuming right grade etc
Don’t trust a technician. They will always tow the party line - it’s their job. Takes personal relationship and a few beers or when they have left the brand to know how regular these ‘it’s unheard of’ events are
A mate was doing some comparisons as he’s building a s1000rr engine, the r1 Conrods are pretty chunky but titanium, s1000rr much smaller but still 40g heavier Anyway.. here’s mine on a good day… And currently in bits!
You’re not wrong. The gen 4 beamer has stacks of issues. I did a press day the other year and we had two brand spankers blow up in one day and one go down with electrical issues
The only thing wrong with the gsxr is it isnt fashionable. Price wise alone it an amazing bike also backs it up on the track. But its not made any more, isnt on TV so isnt considered by many . Their loss.
Is it the only thing wrong with it really though........ as a track bike, Rubber brake hoses as standard, not a big cost to change but REALLY, on a modern litre bike, the brakes in general are widely reported to be really poor on track, so if people were buying them as a track bike all this would be on their mind. Then there is the build quality, Suzuki as much as I hate to say it have absolutely appauling build quality, yes it might not be the end of the world for a track bike (although you are still spending £11k+ on a motorbike) but especially on the road, the things just dissolve. My mates 2018 looked like it had done 20k miles within 1k miles, corroded fittings on the brake lines, all the bolts and engine bolts furring up etc. Oh... and that dash board... I know the argument is that it doesn't matter for a track bike but it's still a lot of money for a bike, and its not about fashion, it just doesn't do anything that well. BTW, that's a sad thing to say, first big bike I rode was a GSXR600 K1, I absolutely adored it and have always loved them but since around 2009 they have been built like absolute garbage and the proof of that is that they don't sell them anymore...
I had my bike run in on the dyno and some other bits and pieces done, plus I already had it mapped by PCR last year which meant I didn't have to fork out for another map key. You'd be better to call them mate and ask for an individual quote
I've been round the R1s since I got my bike license in 2002 and had about 9 or 10 of them in various guises. For sure there are loads of engine failures on the 15-19 bikes (hopefully sorted with the 2020 engines) but almost all of them have been track/race bikes that have all went past refresh intervals or had aggressive maps/improper tuning. You'll very rarely see a road going 15 on R1 fail that's been maintained properly and that goes for race/track bikes if they're refreshed in time which is eye wateringly early and expensive should it all go wrong. Just rebuilding the engine for my 2nd bike now:
I can imagine the design team conversations though mate, in the 90's they probably worked to a 30% over engineer factor on weights and strengths, and over the years, the easiest thing to try and cut cost is by trimming what they consider to be the fat... However.. the most recent trend to release specials which really aren't suitable for joe bloggs and his average trackday maintenance schedule is a bit worrying, M1000's with 2 ring pistons, V4R which has in bold letters that for track use the pistons should be replaced in a matter of a few thousand miles. It's getting silly...
To be fair to them, the performance that they are getting from 1000cc it's not surprising that things go wrong when they're either repeatedly pushed hard or not meticulously maintained.
