with massive flywheel wanting to just keep spinning with all that inertia , the R18 keeps rolling on ! Which brings us to stopping ...
STOPPING ALL THAT MASS The brakes are 300mm discs all around and they all have four-piston calipers , and they work ok . But ... there is no denying this is a rather heavy motorcycle . Being picky I ’ d say that I ’ d prefer 320mm discs up front for a little more initial bite and overall power . The strongest stopping came when using a reasonable amount of rear brake too . While that is fairly obvious , the percentage of slowing from the rear feels greater than on the majority of bikes , perhaps because of the BMW ’ s great length and weight . Even though the front brakes are actually linked to the rear , using the rear pedal as well did enhance stopping performance in a more immediate way . Far more annoying is the design team didn ’ t fit a fuel gauge for the 16 litre tank , just a near empty warning light that doesn ’ t really go with a premium machine like this . I get the whole minimalism thing of reducing clutter , but it ’ s a pain . Also , the rear shock action is not good enough for our poorer roads . Maybe the roads are far smoother in Germany than they are here , so there wouldn ’ t have been a problem on their test rides , but here in NZ we have to live with such conditions . The bottom line is that at open road speeds on our substandard roads , the rear shock loses comfort , bottoms out and beats up my lower spine . Perhaps a lighter rider would fare better . The problem seems to mainly stem from a ‘ form over function ’ design that doesn ’ t have enough shock travel or damping progression . Only 90mm of preload-only adjustable travel means barely 60mm of useable travel with rider
58 KIWI RIDER