Somebody posted on another site that the new BMW S1000RR has aluminum alloy connecting rods. To my knowledge no production engine has ever used aluminum alloy rods due to low fatigue limits. I know all the drag racers use them but replace every 8 to 10 passes. If I'm mistaken someone please correct me.

I just heard tht the S1000RR is a loss leader for BMW at 16 large, they stand to lose money or break even on every unit at that price in order to get name recognition and capture market share. Here's my question for you, this bike is purported to put out more top end beans than anything else by a healthy margin but there's a catch.....at 14,200 rpm. Low end is reported to be non-existent and midrange gutted. How well is this going to work on American tracks, with the exception of Daytona maybe, that much topend oriented power may not be useable. Last I checked, the Honda CBR 1000 mopped up the last few years in almost all the liter shootouts by virtue of it's light weight, responsive handling and potent midrange weighted powerband which gave it quicker laptimes than the competition albeit under non-pro testers who probably ride more like you and me. My point is if midrange gives quick laptimes where does that leave the new Beemer?

The new beemeer will not be good for all around sport riding I don't think. I think it's cut out for fast tracks and that's about it. Nice but i would just get a Jap liter and if i started to worry about peak hp, there's always ways to bump that up for for a small investment.

The Japanese have been waiting for this day. I'm sure they have already rolled the plans out and will meet the new age with pride. Only thing is we won't know what they have done for a couple years. The Japs won't be announcing their improved hp/tq #s. It will be almost 2012 before there will be official stats published.

There is no reason to grab any new bike based solely on best performance. I think the current liters are all just fine for a long time yet. The new breed of liter bikes is just beginning---good time to wait and see what happens while we all enjoy what we have now.

Does anyone think any bike is going to outperform any other by a wider margin than rider skills already do?? I would almost guess the bikes from 10 years ago still can hang in with the new ones on the street and probably not far enough behind on the track to matter to most of us.

The downside to all of this is that if the manufature go crazy with the power big brother will step in so they really need to be careful. I would like to see a big reduction in weight not an increase in power.