With a liqht-weight chassis covered in trick parts, the HP2 Sport is the third model in BMWs'high performance range and has the most powerful boxer motor produced
Unlike some bikes. where you can almost taste their eagerness to embarrass and hurt you for the smallest riding indiscretion, BMW's new HP2 Sport wants to help and guide you despite being the lightest most powerful race-orientated boxer twin ever produced. Of course. I suppose it had no option, it is after all still a BMW.
It begins the second you turn the ignition on. Where most machines simply display engine temperature [or lack of it), the HP2 Sport advises you what to do about it through the new 2D dash. Being totally digital means the dash can adapt to things in real-time. So when the bike is cold. the solid black bar indicating the rev limit moves right down the rev- range to about 3,000rpm before slowly moving upwards as the engine gets warmer.
The programmable shift lights also count down as the engine oil warms up. Of course you can ride off before this process completes, as we did for our first laps of the day around the 26 turns that make up the 3.4 mile Ascari circuit, and the bike won't stop you.
The help doesn't stop there It's been a while since I last rode on track but it didn't matter much on this bike. While I may be out of practice at thriming a bike around the HP2 Sport wants to throw itself around. At first I thought it was me over compensating but the sensation remained throughout the day. It's ultra-fIickable. Showing the Sport a corner is like saying 'walkies' to a dog. It getsatmost annoyingly excited.
How the engineers have achieved this I'm not sure it's so contradictory. It's not likeyou have to put much effort into the bars or even think about it too much. The bike just seems to fall over realty quickly, implying it's. unstable and yet, seems completely stable the rest of the time. Some of this might be down to the new forged aluminium wheels that are lighter than normal allowing the bike to move more freely. And of course there's the crankshaft. which is more sympathetic to flicking than conventionally mounted crankshafts although the HP2 Sport holds a significantly better line when the engine is at higher revs and feels more planted mid-corner.
One thing you can't get away from when cornering though is the fear of decking-out those cylinder heads and I was conscious of It all day although never actually did (you should be able to lean 54 degree before they touch). A couple of people scraped them without any problem thanks to the built in engine sliders which looked very neat.
Slimline (teu)tonic
Wheels and engine aside, the biggest influence on how the HP2 Sport behaves is perhaps its lack of weight and how that weight is distributed. By cutting everything in half and making it out of sponge cake, the engineers got the claimed dry weight down to 178kg [amazing really. as even a pencil drawing of a shaft drive bike weight more than 50kg). Wet and ready to go, the bike still weighs less than 199kg and most of that looks concentrated around the engine and BMW claims a 'favourable' centre of gravity.
There's hardly any frame to speak of thanks to the Telelever front end that passes most of the braking forces directly to the engine-meaning the suspension doesn't reatty dive into corners, leaving it free to suspend, which it did very well. Although the faster you go the more underdamped it seemed.
The rear frame is tubular steel (modified from the R1200S and is really just something to bolt the self-supporting carbon fibre seat unit too- By itself this saves 2 kilos compared to a conventional subframe and seat unit, The front fairing is also self-supporting carbon but you don't think about or notice these when you're riding of course, but they 'll be great to boast about.
Instead, all your attention is focused on getting in and out of corners as quickly as possible. This is after all what the HP2 Sport is designed to do As far as getting into corners goes. the brakes are one of the Sport 's best features. Being of the radial bolted four piston Brembo mono-block variety, they're of course immensely powerful. There isn't much heavy braking at Ascari, but they didn't fade in what they were asked to do.
More importantly, the braided steel brake lines and clean looking Magura master cylinder gives you bags of feel so you can confidently trail the brake deep into corners with out worrying about what the Telelever front is doing. Of course ABS is an option on this bike. although wasn't fitted to the bikes we rode. If it is fitted the press blurb says it can be disabled-but more interestingly it has an anti-hoppy function.
Under control
Where normal ABS stops the wheels locking, the HP2 Sport's system also prevents the rear wheel lifting (presumably by controlling the amount of front brake force). While undoubtedly increasing rider control in emergencies, it'll be interesting to see what it does to the overall stopping distance As it was. without ASB fitted the HP2 Sport remains quite controlled under hard braking anyway.
I've a already mentioned how quickly and easily the bike goes from upright to leant over (allowing you to hit almost any mark you want to) and the suspension works very well at soaking everything up, which begs questions about how good the new engine is out of turns? The answer is very good, but don't expect to out-drag any of the litre bikes.
The new valve train, lighter piston and con rods allow the engine rev a little higher to 9,750rpm while a new cylinder head gets the required air in and out to make it worthwhile. But it's still a boxer twin and it's still only got 130bhp. So other bikes can afford to corner 30-40bhp slower, and make simply up for it on the straights.
When you do pin the Sport's throttle the power delivery is unmistakable. You get the same thrumming and 'phutting' sound from the stainless exhaust, from all boxer engines and at low revs you're aware of the lateral vibrations. It'll pull though. It quite happily completed fourth gear laps, and although sluggish out of turns it didn't bog down.
As the rpm bar on the 2D dash rose the engine became keener. There's a valve fitted just in front of the end can to increase the spread of torque and this operates around 6,000rpm. Something you can see quite clearly on the dyno graphs. You can feel it too.
Up to 6,000rpm the motor feels strong and delivers what you'd expect Then at 6.000rpm it gets excited, smooths out and really takes off towards the rev limiter where you feed it another gear. Interestingly, the chassis geometry feels flat so the bike translates thrust into forward (rather than vertical) motion very well. You just keep pushing on.
This is of course a lot easier to do thanks to the DE quick-shifter (a first for a production movorcycle). It operates just the same as all other quick shifters, don' t shut the throttle, just simply lift the gear level and the engine backs off enough to angage the next gear.
The system is slightly smarter than conventional shifters though. Normally Trick shifters cut the fuel injection or ignition for a set amount of time then turn it back on. This is known as a hard cut.
"It'll give a lot of bikes a hard time on the road simply because it's easy to use and not too much of a handful."
First of all it looks at throttle position and engine rpm. It then picks a different delay time depending on what these are and backs off both the injection and ignition enough to allow the shift and feathers them back in for the smoothest possible shift. There is of course an unavoidable jerk as the next gear slots home but otherwise it works well and should be very good for town riding.
The worst thing about the engine is actually getting on the throttle. There's a translation period on every bike between slowing down and speeding up-but it's not only to do with throttle position on the HP2 Sport. There's a period as you initially open the throttle before the engine actually starts to pull It's like taking up the slack in a tug of war, and it seemed to take a relatively, long time on the Sport and was a little unsettling.
Wind it on
After some experimentation, it turned out the best way to ride was at the point where you wanted accelerate, simply wind on about 8% of throttle instantly and wait for the engine to respond. You could then feather the throttle to suit as the engine chimed in. While it sound odd, it wasn't I hard to do once you remembered, and actually made the bike a whole lot more predictable.
Instead the detonation and lambda sensord are used to keep the engine safe if a lower grade fuel is used (it really needs super unleaded) however, other people have told me there is some closed-looping going on in BMW's ECU causing them to sometimes surge when cruising.
So it works and does everything you'd expect it to well. But will it sell? Here's the catch. There's no doubt in my mind that it's a quick and competent motorcycle. It'll give a lot of bikes a hard time on the road simply because it s easy to use and not too much of a handful. Styling wise it's no more ugly than everything else seems to be the this year and it's got plenty of unique features for people who like that sort of thing.
Then you get to the price 14,500 Euro is proper expensive, and I'd question the price v/s performance ratio compared to the Japanese litre bikes. Despite this 60% of the UK's allocation is either already sold or has deposits taken for. As it is, no wonder HP4 Sport would be exciting.
RIDING POSITION
Bars and footpegs are both adjustable. The footpegs have an eccentric adjustment (a little like the chain adjuster on the 916) while the drop angle on the bars can be adjusted to 6 degree or 9 degree. The seat is quite narrow and a bit square but this works great for track use and it seems comfortable.
SUBFRAME
Built of pre-prog carbon fiber the seat unit is self-supporting and weight 0.5kg. So there's no need for a conventional subframe assembly (weight 2.5kg). meaning they've reduced 2kg of weight from a high-up far back position. Apparently BMW are very proud of the bolts you can see on top of the seat unit. They hold the exhaust and carbon fiber together but allow the exhaust to expand without breaking the carbon.
SUSPENSION
Telelever front and Paralever rear arrangement works extraordinarily well. This may of course be thanks to the Ohlins damper units fitted as standard to the front and rear. Both units are adjustable for preload, compression and rebound damping although if anything they're a little under-damped at speed.
DASH
There are two main modes, race and road to choose from. The difference being how and where Information is displayed. In race mode gear position is displayed bigger than speed for instance and vice versa. They're completely configurable (or should that be muck-up-able?). but luckly there's a restore to default button.
TYRES
K3 compound Metzeler Racetecs fitted as OE, don't make the mistake of replacing the 190/55 rear tyre with 190/50. It would drop the rear nearly 10mm and reduce the contact patch area when leaning.
ENGINE
New pistons and con rods allow it to rev higher (9,750rpm) while new cylinder heads with machined inlet port and bigger inlet and exhaust valve let it breathe. Most in now active is the camshaft orientation. Each cam operates one inlet and one exhaust valve. Because the valve are angled, the cams have to be ground at an angle to compensate for this.
BRAKES
ABS is of course an option on this bike but you can turn it off if fitted. Interestingly as well as preventing a wheel lock, the HP2 Sports's ABS system avtively prevents the rear wheel coming off the floor too.
SPECIFICATIONS
Engine
Type: Oil Cooled DOHC 8v opposed twin
Displacement : 1,170cc
Bore & Stroke : 101x75mm
Compression : 12.5:1
Carburator: F1,52mm throttle bodies
Gearbox: 6 speed shaft
Power: 130bhp@8,750rpm
Torque: 84.8lb-ft@6,000rpm
Cycle Parts
Chassis: Steel tube trellis and self-supporting carbon fiber seat unit.
Suspension:
(Front) BMW Telelever (Ohlins damper fully adjustable
(Rear) BMW Paralever (Ohlins damper fully adjustable)
Brakes:
(Front) Dual 320mm discs 4 piston radial mount Brembo calipers
(Rear) 265mm disc two piston caliper
Wheels/Tyres:
Forged aluminium
Metzeler Racetec
Rake/Trail: 24 degree/86mm
Wheelbase: 1,487mm
Wet weight: 178kg
Unlike some bikes. where you can almost taste their eagerness to embarrass and hurt you for the smallest riding indiscretion, BMW's new HP2 Sport wants to help and guide you despite being the lightest most powerful race-orientated boxer twin ever produced. Of course. I suppose it had no option, it is after all still a BMW.
It begins the second you turn the ignition on. Where most machines simply display engine temperature [or lack of it), the HP2 Sport advises you what to do about it through the new 2D dash. Being totally digital means the dash can adapt to things in real-time. So when the bike is cold. the solid black bar indicating the rev limit moves right down the rev- range to about 3,000rpm before slowly moving upwards as the engine gets warmer.
The programmable shift lights also count down as the engine oil warms up. Of course you can ride off before this process completes, as we did for our first laps of the day around the 26 turns that make up the 3.4 mile Ascari circuit, and the bike won't stop you.
The help doesn't stop there It's been a while since I last rode on track but it didn't matter much on this bike. While I may be out of practice at thriming a bike around the HP2 Sport wants to throw itself around. At first I thought it was me over compensating but the sensation remained throughout the day. It's ultra-fIickable. Showing the Sport a corner is like saying 'walkies' to a dog. It getsatmost annoyingly excited.
How the engineers have achieved this I'm not sure it's so contradictory. It's not likeyou have to put much effort into the bars or even think about it too much. The bike just seems to fall over realty quickly, implying it's. unstable and yet, seems completely stable the rest of the time. Some of this might be down to the new forged aluminium wheels that are lighter than normal allowing the bike to move more freely. And of course there's the crankshaft. which is more sympathetic to flicking than conventionally mounted crankshafts although the HP2 Sport holds a significantly better line when the engine is at higher revs and feels more planted mid-corner.
One thing you can't get away from when cornering though is the fear of decking-out those cylinder heads and I was conscious of It all day although never actually did (you should be able to lean 54 degree before they touch). A couple of people scraped them without any problem thanks to the built in engine sliders which looked very neat.
Slimline (teu)tonic
Wheels and engine aside, the biggest influence on how the HP2 Sport behaves is perhaps its lack of weight and how that weight is distributed. By cutting everything in half and making it out of sponge cake, the engineers got the claimed dry weight down to 178kg [amazing really. as even a pencil drawing of a shaft drive bike weight more than 50kg). Wet and ready to go, the bike still weighs less than 199kg and most of that looks concentrated around the engine and BMW claims a 'favourable' centre of gravity.
There's hardly any frame to speak of thanks to the Telelever front end that passes most of the braking forces directly to the engine-meaning the suspension doesn't reatty dive into corners, leaving it free to suspend, which it did very well. Although the faster you go the more underdamped it seemed.
The rear frame is tubular steel (modified from the R1200S and is really just something to bolt the self-supporting carbon fibre seat unit too- By itself this saves 2 kilos compared to a conventional subframe and seat unit, The front fairing is also self-supporting carbon but you don't think about or notice these when you're riding of course, but they 'll be great to boast about.
Instead, all your attention is focused on getting in and out of corners as quickly as possible. This is after all what the HP2 Sport is designed to do As far as getting into corners goes. the brakes are one of the Sport 's best features. Being of the radial bolted four piston Brembo mono-block variety, they're of course immensely powerful. There isn't much heavy braking at Ascari, but they didn't fade in what they were asked to do.
More importantly, the braided steel brake lines and clean looking Magura master cylinder gives you bags of feel so you can confidently trail the brake deep into corners with out worrying about what the Telelever front is doing. Of course ABS is an option on this bike. although wasn't fitted to the bikes we rode. If it is fitted the press blurb says it can be disabled-but more interestingly it has an anti-hoppy function.
Under control
Where normal ABS stops the wheels locking, the HP2 Sport's system also prevents the rear wheel lifting (presumably by controlling the amount of front brake force). While undoubtedly increasing rider control in emergencies, it'll be interesting to see what it does to the overall stopping distance As it was. without ASB fitted the HP2 Sport remains quite controlled under hard braking anyway.
I've a already mentioned how quickly and easily the bike goes from upright to leant over (allowing you to hit almost any mark you want to) and the suspension works very well at soaking everything up, which begs questions about how good the new engine is out of turns? The answer is very good, but don't expect to out-drag any of the litre bikes.
The new valve train, lighter piston and con rods allow the engine rev a little higher to 9,750rpm while a new cylinder head gets the required air in and out to make it worthwhile. But it's still a boxer twin and it's still only got 130bhp. So other bikes can afford to corner 30-40bhp slower, and make simply up for it on the straights.
When you do pin the Sport's throttle the power delivery is unmistakable. You get the same thrumming and 'phutting' sound from the stainless exhaust, from all boxer engines and at low revs you're aware of the lateral vibrations. It'll pull though. It quite happily completed fourth gear laps, and although sluggish out of turns it didn't bog down.
As the rpm bar on the 2D dash rose the engine became keener. There's a valve fitted just in front of the end can to increase the spread of torque and this operates around 6,000rpm. Something you can see quite clearly on the dyno graphs. You can feel it too.
Up to 6,000rpm the motor feels strong and delivers what you'd expect Then at 6.000rpm it gets excited, smooths out and really takes off towards the rev limiter where you feed it another gear. Interestingly, the chassis geometry feels flat so the bike translates thrust into forward (rather than vertical) motion very well. You just keep pushing on.
This is of course a lot easier to do thanks to the DE quick-shifter (a first for a production movorcycle). It operates just the same as all other quick shifters, don' t shut the throttle, just simply lift the gear level and the engine backs off enough to angage the next gear.
The system is slightly smarter than conventional shifters though. Normally Trick shifters cut the fuel injection or ignition for a set amount of time then turn it back on. This is known as a hard cut.
"It'll give a lot of bikes a hard time on the road simply because it's easy to use and not too much of a handful."
First of all it looks at throttle position and engine rpm. It then picks a different delay time depending on what these are and backs off both the injection and ignition enough to allow the shift and feathers them back in for the smoothest possible shift. There is of course an unavoidable jerk as the next gear slots home but otherwise it works well and should be very good for town riding.
The worst thing about the engine is actually getting on the throttle. There's a translation period on every bike between slowing down and speeding up-but it's not only to do with throttle position on the HP2 Sport. There's a period as you initially open the throttle before the engine actually starts to pull It's like taking up the slack in a tug of war, and it seemed to take a relatively, long time on the Sport and was a little unsettling.
Wind it on
After some experimentation, it turned out the best way to ride was at the point where you wanted accelerate, simply wind on about 8% of throttle instantly and wait for the engine to respond. You could then feather the throttle to suit as the engine chimed in. While it sound odd, it wasn't I hard to do once you remembered, and actually made the bike a whole lot more predictable.
Instead the detonation and lambda sensord are used to keep the engine safe if a lower grade fuel is used (it really needs super unleaded) however, other people have told me there is some closed-looping going on in BMW's ECU causing them to sometimes surge when cruising.
So it works and does everything you'd expect it to well. But will it sell? Here's the catch. There's no doubt in my mind that it's a quick and competent motorcycle. It'll give a lot of bikes a hard time on the road simply because it s easy to use and not too much of a handful. Styling wise it's no more ugly than everything else seems to be the this year and it's got plenty of unique features for people who like that sort of thing.
Then you get to the price 14,500 Euro is proper expensive, and I'd question the price v/s performance ratio compared to the Japanese litre bikes. Despite this 60% of the UK's allocation is either already sold or has deposits taken for. As it is, no wonder HP4 Sport would be exciting.
RIDING POSITION
Bars and footpegs are both adjustable. The footpegs have an eccentric adjustment (a little like the chain adjuster on the 916) while the drop angle on the bars can be adjusted to 6 degree or 9 degree. The seat is quite narrow and a bit square but this works great for track use and it seems comfortable.
SUBFRAME
Built of pre-prog carbon fiber the seat unit is self-supporting and weight 0.5kg. So there's no need for a conventional subframe assembly (weight 2.5kg). meaning they've reduced 2kg of weight from a high-up far back position. Apparently BMW are very proud of the bolts you can see on top of the seat unit. They hold the exhaust and carbon fiber together but allow the exhaust to expand without breaking the carbon.
SUSPENSION
Telelever front and Paralever rear arrangement works extraordinarily well. This may of course be thanks to the Ohlins damper units fitted as standard to the front and rear. Both units are adjustable for preload, compression and rebound damping although if anything they're a little under-damped at speed.
DASH
There are two main modes, race and road to choose from. The difference being how and where Information is displayed. In race mode gear position is displayed bigger than speed for instance and vice versa. They're completely configurable (or should that be muck-up-able?). but luckly there's a restore to default button.
TYRES
K3 compound Metzeler Racetecs fitted as OE, don't make the mistake of replacing the 190/55 rear tyre with 190/50. It would drop the rear nearly 10mm and reduce the contact patch area when leaning.
ENGINE
New pistons and con rods allow it to rev higher (9,750rpm) while new cylinder heads with machined inlet port and bigger inlet and exhaust valve let it breathe. Most in now active is the camshaft orientation. Each cam operates one inlet and one exhaust valve. Because the valve are angled, the cams have to be ground at an angle to compensate for this.
BRAKES
ABS is of course an option on this bike but you can turn it off if fitted. Interestingly as well as preventing a wheel lock, the HP2 Sports's ABS system avtively prevents the rear wheel coming off the floor too.
SPECIFICATIONS
Engine
Type: Oil Cooled DOHC 8v opposed twin
Displacement : 1,170cc
Bore & Stroke : 101x75mm
Compression : 12.5:1
Carburator: F1,52mm throttle bodies
Gearbox: 6 speed shaft
Power: 130bhp@8,750rpm
Torque: 84.8lb-ft@6,000rpm
Cycle Parts
Chassis: Steel tube trellis and self-supporting carbon fiber seat unit.
Suspension:
(Front) BMW Telelever (Ohlins damper fully adjustable
(Rear) BMW Paralever (Ohlins damper fully adjustable)
Brakes:
(Front) Dual 320mm discs 4 piston radial mount Brembo calipers
(Rear) 265mm disc two piston caliper
Wheels/Tyres:
Forged aluminium
Metzeler Racetec
Rake/Trail: 24 degree/86mm
Wheelbase: 1,487mm
Wet weight: 178kg
0 comments:
Post a Comment