Bike purchase advice?

A stock R1 won't "eat" much. With a lot of work, maybe. Stock to stock, a Panigale R will "eat" that R1 and spit it out at just about any performance metric. Just saying, the money isn't entirely mis-spent.

Shall I recount being able to pick R1s out of the Pro SBK lineup just by watching which bikes were pumping the shock so badly (from the crapasstic traction control) that they were bouncing up and down on the whole front straight of Shannonville? Don Empey and I stood at the end of pit wall laughing at how comically bad it was. Bohdi Edie ended up on his face from the bike jacking the front end out from underneath him.

TwistedKestrel said:

Chances of survival of a crash are the same. Chances of actually crashing are not.

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OP, this is part of the statement you should take to heart.

It sounds like money isn't a terribly big concern, nor presumably the insurance costs even if you end up in facility...which as I mentioned earlier, you quite likely may as there's virtually no insurers that will underwrite a brand new rider on a $40,000 superbike.

So, all that aside, ask yourself if you have the skill to ride it as a complete newbie rider. Re-read the quoted part above. Contemplate.

Honestly, buy yourself a more suitable beginner bike and learn to ride for at least 6-12 months before buying something that is unwise or simply unsafe for someone without the knowledge and skill to operate it safely.

In every sport there are people who dive in headfirst without thought to their skill level...and then pay the price.

I've seen it with horses. Everyone thinks riding is easy..you just sit there right? So people with money that decide to join the horsey circuit buy a hot horse and discover it's anything but, and they soon end up in the dirt. Over, and over, and over again. Then they discover that riding is actually hard - REALLY hard, and that lessons are required...but they don't want to lower themselves to that level, so they just keep trying and falling off even more. Eventually they get injured and they either sell their horses or they finally decide to start lessons on a schoolie horse instead.

I've seen it with aircraft. Google "forked tail doctor killer" and read what happens when people with more money than experience jump in feet first into an aircraft that far exceeds their skill level.

I've seen it with cars - look on YouTube for videos of people who buy high performance vehicles and then discover that their driving skill doesn't match...soon followed by a crash.

Don't be that person just because the money side of the equation isn't of concern to you.

PrivatePilot said:

OP, this is part of the statement you should take to heart.

Don't be that person just because the money side of the equation isn't of concern to you.

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Thank you for your input, guys. Much appreciated, especially in terms of what to get at my novice level.

Shaman said:

A stock R1 won't "eat" much. With a lot of work, maybe. Stock to stock, a Panigale R will "eat" that R1 and spit it out at just about any performance metric. Just saying, the money isn't entirely mis-spent.

Shall I recount being able to pick R1s out of the Pro SBK lineup just by watching which bikes were pumping the shock so badly (from the crapasstic traction control) that they were bouncing up and down on the whole front straight of Shannonville? Don Empey and I stood at the end of pit wall laughing at how comically bad it was. Bohdi Edie ended up on his face from the bike jacking the front end out from underneath him.

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A couple of riders on brand new bikes that were having issues....not surprised. It sounds like you should be tuning for some top teams and your bikes dialled in after a full season on the same track.

I don't want anything to do with FT-ECU and tuning the R1. And I'm really tired of dealing with setup of a bike that has flaws.

Doesn't change the fact that the much-vaunted TC on the R1 doesn't work in racing conditions. Rob Holmes also was struggling pretty hard with it at Grattan this year, randomly lighting the rear tire or wheelying in high gears. They handle well and make good power... but the delivery is mud. Very low engine inertia is a tough nut to crack in any motorsport as it causes at least as many challenges as it solves.

The '15+ S1000RRs, RSV4s and the Panigales systems are sorted and race-ready from the factory... ZX10R needs a little time to gel but is working reasonably with the kit setup... R1 is not. Stef from 613 is one of several who have told me about their struggles with the bike... will probably get everything sorted out in the next year or so but I'm not going to make any excuses for Yamaha here... their bike doesn't work right now. I wonder where Herrin would be right now if Yamaha hadn't swooped in and gave Graves a giant paycheque to get Meen's SST effort out of the gutter, but you can't benefit from their success either, because the Canadian ECU and code are not compatible with the U.S. variant (again, Stef from 613 and others including David Grey).

If you're really, really good with bike feel and FT-ECU, maybe you'll get somewhere. More likely, you'll end up turning off most of the TC and living with it.

On the street? Pick whatever blows your hair back.