HEART OF THE BEAST Pumping out just over 200hp, the XR’ s heart is the 999cc transverse inline four cylinder, Shift- Cam, full-fat motor from BMW’ s Superbike. The rev-limit, as mentioned above, is super high. I think it’ s the only test bike I have never hit the rev limiter on. I apologise. There are a few reasons for this, primarily it is scary bloody fast even at‘ only’ 12,000rpm. But, I also suffer from the seriously debilitating nervous issue of high demerit points and the inner voice of my advancing years telling me to‘ slow down you bloody idiot’. The power delivery from this hugely powerful motor is … wonderful. Despite claiming over 200hp, it’ s a very flexible, useable motor. For most open road riding you will only ever need
one gear, sixth. 100km / h has the engine ticking over at 4000rpm which, oddly, feels a little high, but when you consider it still has 10,600 revs to go it is a non-issue. The Shift-Cam offers hugely torquey and flexible power from low revs and as revs rise it just snowballs until you reach fully mental power outputs. Zero to 200km / h can apparently be achieved in just 7.2 seconds which should give you a more than fair chance of winning the race to 50km / h from the lights. In everyday road use, the low to mid-range power is perfect, it’ s so smooth, effortless and rider friendly. Simply leave it in top gear, flex your right wrist occasionally and the job is done. Normal riding, even going modestly quickly, does not truly expose the frenzy of wild horsepower lurking at high revs. It’ s phenomenal. The M-XR
72 KIWI RIDER