CBR1000RR test ride / 600RR 4k service

[test ride pics and my bike with new tyres+bungs]

Ok so the good news is I'm still alive :-)
Took my own bike down to Ayr for a service etc and blagged a test ride on a fireblade. What a gorgeous day for a bike test ride.

To my surprise it was a black one with only 98 miles on the clock !
Advised to keep to ~6k rpm max ! but I did on the odd occasion go past that....
[to be fair if this was my own bike I would now ignore the 6k limit and run it in this way anyway , as long as it s not full throttle low rpm and to the limiter...]

First impressions...feels much bigger but familiar ,switchgear is slightly differently positioned,sounds completely different on startup,no fuel gauge (just a light!). Instantly I felt at home , in fact I felt it was easier to ride at slow speeds compared to the 600. A really tall first gear feels odd and combined with an odd feeling hydraulic clutch can make pulling away a bit tricky. Especially when running in I would be keen to avoid loading the engine at low rpm.
Despite the power it was not intimidating or unwieldy which is great.

Decided to take it down a back road I know , just feels like a bigger 600 , feet much wider apart on the pegs, tank is much wider and the steering damper can definitely be felt on faster bends. I felt the bike needed much more effort from me to get round corners though.

I managed to do 100 miles and the fuel light was still off (!) , cbr forum members say the 1000RR is 100 to 140 miles on a tank (and of course I wasnt wringing its neck). By comparison I get at most 100 miles to the reserve flashing when thrashing the 600RR.

In summary I loved it , a much more relaxed ride with effortless power in any gear.
Controllable but requiring much more throttle 'control' and I guess you must be very wary in the wet. Comparing the 600RR vs 1000RR is just chalk and cheese they are just so different I couldnt believe it.
600RR is highly strung needing lots of revs for maximum effect.
100RR is just ballastic from any revs (but strangely feels very calm)
I even managed to wheelie the thou in second without really trying !
As a comparison I reckoned I was around 20 mph faster without realising it on the thou.
Downsides?? I love my 600RR :-) its very 'chuckable' and 'lithe' compared to thou.
On the 600 it feels like my body weight makes up the largest prop of package ( and Im riding it) , whereas on the thou it feels like Im a smaller % and its taking me for a ride. Make sense???

Both bikes are great and no doubt I will change to a 1000 soon enough.
Only thing currently stopping me is the 2005 1000RR colour schemes...........

Now my bike.....
Was in for 4k service / New tyres / Fit bike design crash bungs / replace indicator.

Guys at North Harbour did a great job as ever. I cannot fault them.
Rear BT014 was flat (no tread in middle) , front was fine but I would only replace as pair.
I have replaced the Bridgestone BT014R tyres with Metzler Sportec M1 and so far they seem superb. I had planned to bed them in , but took the back road from ayr to paisley and just thrashed it as normal :-) Not only that the tread pattern is sexy as f*ck LOL

For fun ! heres the bill..........
4 hours labour @ 32 = 128
Oil Filter @ 7
Oil @ 20 (!)
Indicator @ 46 (!!)
Tyres (120/70/17 180/55/17) 77 + 75 = 150
+ misc
Grand Total ----> £430
(Incidentally that almost exactly 3 months since 600 mile service, 150 quid a month ! and that doesnt include insurance/fuel cost ....!)

Great job all round and at last the crash bungs are fitted....

J