Sprints and Drag Racing
BMW K1200 R at Santa Pod
The Too Fast crew took the ballistic BMW K1200 R to a "run what you brung" event at the famous Santa Pod 1/4 mile strip.
Arrived at the Pod nice and early to beat the queue to sign on, just show your photo road licence plus the paper bit, you pay a total of £30 for the day for as many runs as you can manage, then join the line of bikes and await my first run. There are all sorts of bikes in the line, mostly stock road machines but some heavily modified monsters running exotic fuels and long wheelie bars.
This is my first time at a sprint event of any sort, so as I arrived at the "Christmas Tree" not entirely sure what to do, the starter pointed me to the start lights, the finish looks very close and you cant believe you will reach any sort of serious speed in such a short distance, when you are in position the yellows start the brief countdown, I hold the bike at 5,000 rpm and at the green quickly feed in the clutch, we shoot forward, in a heady mix of full throttle and red line through the gears its all over very quickly. Time 12.8 sec at 120 mph.
Arrived at the Pod nice and early to beat the queue to sign on, just show your photo road licence plus the paper bit, you pay a total of £30 for the day for as many runs as you can manage, then join the line of bikes and await my first run. There are all sorts of bikes in the line, mostly stock road machines but some heavily modified monsters running exotic fuels and long wheelie bars.
This is my first time at a sprint event of any sort, so as I arrived at the "Christmas Tree" not entirely sure what to do, the starter pointed me to the start lights, the finish looks very close and you cant believe you will reach any sort of serious speed in such a short distance, when you are in position the yellows start the brief countdown, I hold the bike at 5,000 rpm and at the green quickly feed in the clutch, we shoot forward, in a heady mix of full throttle and red line through the gears its all over very quickly. Time 12.8 sec at 120 mph.
Then join the back of the queue and push the bike slowly forward until its your turn again. In the calm of the queue I go over my first run in my head, not quick enough off the line so more revs next time, I remember hitting the rev limit in first gear so change earlier, and then hold it to the red line through the gears. At the end of each run you get a printout showing your stats including reaction time, elapsed time and top speed.
Second run, I hold the bike at 6,000 rpm and at the green dump the clutch, much better, rev limit comes up very fast in first, changed too late again, time 12.2 sec at 125 mph
As the day goes on my times improve on every run, my best was 11.1 at 131 mph. With more practice I will get into the 10's. On every run I am up against a Suzuki GSXR 1000 or Yamaha R1 and beat them all without any real problems, the BMW K1200 R is a rocket ship and very stable off the line only lifting the front wheel when I get too brutal with the right hand.
My last run of the day I come up against a fully blown drag bike, that thing was in a different league, and I had the best seat in the house to see this monster blast away at the lights. During the walk back afterwards we got chatting, he started on a standard road bike in events just like this, and the bug bit hard, I know what he means, now where can I get a Nitrous Oxide kit for a BMW K1200 R ?
Second run, I hold the bike at 6,000 rpm and at the green dump the clutch, much better, rev limit comes up very fast in first, changed too late again, time 12.2 sec at 125 mph
As the day goes on my times improve on every run, my best was 11.1 at 131 mph. With more practice I will get into the 10's. On every run I am up against a Suzuki GSXR 1000 or Yamaha R1 and beat them all without any real problems, the BMW K1200 R is a rocket ship and very stable off the line only lifting the front wheel when I get too brutal with the right hand.
My last run of the day I come up against a fully blown drag bike, that thing was in a different league, and I had the best seat in the house to see this monster blast away at the lights. During the walk back afterwards we got chatting, he started on a standard road bike in events just like this, and the bug bit hard, I know what he means, now where can I get a Nitrous Oxide kit for a BMW K1200 R ?
BMW K1200 S at Wroughton sprint.
Have a go at Sprinting with the VMCC here at Wroughton Airfield, Wiltshire, England. This time on a BMW K1200 S.
The bike is prepped to go, racing numbers are simply taped on paper plate
The club use the airfield runway as the race track. But at the speed I was traveling it was quite bumpy. On the start line, hold 6,000 revs and feed the clutch in fast. I was rewarded with a 10.9 sec pass at 134 mph.
The bike is prepped to go, racing numbers are simply taped on paper plate
The club use the airfield runway as the race track. But at the speed I was traveling it was quite bumpy. On the start line, hold 6,000 revs and feed the clutch in fast. I was rewarded with a 10.9 sec pass at 134 mph.