BiffBird Down

[750Y]

bugger biff baff! glad you never hurt yourself. the bike doesn't look too bad in the pics.
man that's a big bike to punt around a track in any case, you did well to get that far. I have ridden the track a few times with a blackbird just like that one & the guy was getting up good speed on the straights but had to do his braking way earlier than everyone else or it'd get real interesting coming into the corner. he loves it tho but said it's more suited to the road. anyway shit happens huh.

[scumdog]

Bad luck BB, still you got out of it lighter than most regarding injuries.

(In about 20 years your body WILL remind you of this particular off, oh yes believe me it will!!)

[Riff Raff]

(In about 20 years your body WILL remind you of this particular off, oh yes believe me it will!!)

And children will run every time they see him rub his hip, knee, shoulder etc because they know it will be the precursor to "back in my day, when I were young and foolish, I had me this Blackbird, which is one of them motorcikkle things, and I were racing it round the track going at 500 million miles an hour when bla bla bla ....."

[Sniper]

Damn Biff mate. Sorry to hear about that. Sorry its taken me a while to send my condolenses (Sp?)

You still gonna be up and riding soon?

[Paul in NZ]

Sorry to hear that mate... At least you are still here to write about it..

Hope it all goes back together OK and you get some higher pegs for the next track session.... Bit of a bugger though...

Heal well...

Paul and Vicki

[vifferman]

I rearley use rear brakes in such suituations

That's because the VTR's rear brake is almost useless.

........ but as for out there touring in style like the Bird is built for.... linked brakes are the muts nuts 'my view only'

I reckon the linked brakes are OK, especially in shit weather like today, where I can use the rear brake and get better retardation and less chance of sliding than using either brake on a bike with the DCBS. Combined with ABS, it'd be terrific.
I reckon.
In my humble opinion.
However, although it works well, I'm not fond of the extra weight and complexity it adds. Apparently bleeding the system is a curse, and there's more maintenance required (like keeping the pivot on the left-hand side actuator in good nick).

[TonyB]

Hey at least it's not like the brakes on the new BMW bikes. They are power assisted, and allegedly if you happen to be applying the brakes when the engine is started, the self diagnosis test will report a failure, and you will have NO BRAKES AT ALL. A few testers have allegedly been caught out when stopping for a photo op on a hill, starting the bike and trying to do a down hill U-turn- the bike takes off with no way of stopping it. Bet thats a great feeling...

[Riff Raff]

Hey at least it's not like the brakes on the new BMW bikes. They are power assisted, and allegedly if you happen to be applying the brakes when the engine is started, the self diagnosis test will report a failure, and you will have NO BRAKES AT ALL. A few testers have allegedly been caught out when stopping for a photo op on a hill, starting the bike and trying to do a down hill U-turn- the bike takes off with no way of stopping it. Bet thats a great feeling...

Yet another in a long list of reasons why you should NEVER buy a BMW!

[White trash]

Yet another in a long list of reasons why you should NEVER buy a BMW!

But you spent the whol weekend telling me you wanted this?!

[Krusti]

But you spent the whol weekend telling me you wanted this?!

See what happens when bike designers take drugs

[Slipstream]

But you spent the whol weekend telling me you wanted this?!

It's whatever gives you the best ride and makes you look good doing it, aye Riff

[Blakamin]

Sorry to hear that mate... At least you are still here to write about it..

Hope it all goes back together OK and you get some higher pegs for the next track session.... Bit of a bugger though...

Heal well...

Paul and Vicki

what he said.....


you might wanna buy a Duc..... they go AROUND corners... (or so I've heard...)

You'll be sweet.... hondas dont die, they just ...um ... dont????

(ask my old cbr)

[Ixion]

Hey at least it's not like the brakes on the new BMW bikes. They are power assisted, and allegedly if you happen to be applying the brakes when the engine is started, the self diagnosis test will report a failure, and you will have NO BRAKES AT ALL. A few testers have allegedly been caught out when stopping for a photo op on a hill, starting the bike and trying to do a down hill U-turn- the bike takes off with no way of stopping it. Bet thats a great feeling...

I suspect that it is not *no* brakes but no power assistance. On all BMW ABS systems, the system runs a self check at startup. This may fail for various reasons , including low battery, moving the bike forward with the ignition on but engine off while the self test is happening, or applying the brakes with ignition on , engine off while self test is happening (it's OK if the brake is applied before the self test starts.)

And regardless the self test will not complete until the bike has reached a speed of approx 4 kph after first startup.

Until the self test completes satisfactorily, you *will* have brakes but no ABS and (more significantly) no servo assistance.

All BMW ABS systems provide some measure of linked braking and servo assistance, but the new Integral ABS provides full power braking (like a car).

I'vre ridden mine without ABS (flat battery), and the brakes worked OK but needed a *hell* of a lot of force compared to normal. I was expecting this so it didn't take me by surprise but it would have been pretty scary if I hadn't been

Given that Integral ABS has much more power assistance, I imagine that trying to brake with the ABS disabled would feel like no brakes at all ("I'm squeezing like hell and nothing's happening").

The ABS state is shown by two very bright warning lights. Just make sure they're off before relying on the brakes.

If you've ever had to brake a modern car with the engine not running you'll know the feeling - the brake pedal is just solid, doesn't seem to want to do anything .

[TonyB]

No, it's no brakes at all apparently. One tester was taking photo's as I described and went to do a downhill U-turn, the only thing that stopped him from going over a cliff on the other side of the road was a low rock wall. I'll look up the articles when I get home.

[vifferman]

No, it's no brakes at all apparently. ...

The one I read (in Two Wheels), they reported it to BMW, and they were apparently going to do some mods, as the examples being tested were early or pre-production models. They also broke one bike completely, and not by crashing it either.

On all BMW ABS systems, the system runs a self check at startup. This may fail for various reasons , including low battery, moving the bike forward with the ignition on but engine off while the self test is happening, or applying the brakes with ignition on , engine off while self test is happening (it's OK if the brake is applied before the self test starts.)

It's amazing the amount of processing that goes into some of these systems. On the VFR, the ECU is slightly larger than a pack of cards, and measures air temp, coolant temp, barometric pressure, engine revs, throttle position, intake pressure, bank angle, road speed, Oxygen levels in the zorsts, intake airflow, etc etc. It even monitors whether the sidestand is down, whether it's in neutral or not, and what sorts of mood it's in itself! If anything's not happy, it illuminates the FI light, and you have to play the "20 Questions" game, counting the number of flashes.
Hope it doesn't have a bad hair day...