First off, I am typing this with one severely banged up finger, so please excuse any typing errors.
Secondly, the shop where I work is NOT a BMW motorcycle dealership. We are in the process of becoming one, but we have not received final approval yet.
But, we were far enough along that we got approval to attend the S1000RR dealer release. Which included quite a few briefings on the bike, some comparisons between the bike and other literbikes, and most importantly three sessions on the bike at PBIR, organized by the Kieth Code school, which is now using S1000RR's.
This bike is hands down the most amazing motorcycle I have ever ridden.
The ambassadors for the bike were Nate Kern:
and professional stunter "Teach" McNeil:
The intro was the the Four Seasons Palm Beach:
They had a few other models there for comparison
As for the bike itself, like I said, it was the most amazing motorcycle I have ever ridden. All the bikes had ABS and traction control, as well as quick shifters. The bikes themselves were so confidence inspiring that I had a knee down on the second lap, on a bike I had never ridden before, and a track I had never ridden before. The ABS and traction control is seamless, you never feel it working, but occasionally you see the light on the dash winking at you.The traction control works so seamlessly with the quickshifter that I could snap full-throttle upshifts at nearly full lean coming onto the PBIR backstraight. The slipper clutch works so flawlessly that I was able to drop from 6th gear and almost 170mph to 3rd while practically standing on the brakes and the bike just slowed down faster than anything I ever experienced. You can get on the gas earlier, and brake later, than on any bike I have ever ridden. And you can trail brake to the apex like a pro. And the throttle response is so smooth! It has a few different mapping modes, but rather than feeling like you are riding a bike that is being held-back, it simply feels as though you are riding a bike with less HP. I can't go into specifics, but suffice to say there's a lot more than wheel-speed measuring going on there. We had over 160 riders in one day, and a total of 3 accidents, all low-sides. Considering it was a 193hp bike mostly being ridden by owners of BMW dealerships who have never ridden a sportbike before, much less on a track, that is one hell of a testimony to the bike. That bike will make you faster, or at the very least give you the confidence to go faster.
BMW's goal was to generate conquest sales from Japanese sportbikes. I can tell you this, after riding that bike on the track, I was sitting in a meeting learning more about the bike, and adding up how much I could get for my GSXR, KTM, and pit-scooter and wondering what dealer cost would be on the bike. I want one, bad.