Haslam has first ride on new BMW
Haslam had one 2011 bike and one bike with a 2012 chassis and bodywork and several other new parts, in advance of the machine's official launch at Valencia a few days later. He said of his first taste of his 2012 equipment, "A new bike so we were trying things and it was a short day finishing at three o'clock. The main difference was obviously set-up, with different chassis mods and the engine felt pretty good straight away. I was really playing around with balance. We ran out of time a bit but it went well because we were quicker than we were in the race, and that was always a positive."
All the advances to the new S1000RR racebike, both internal and external, have been devised to make the machine more rideable, and to centralise mass. Chassis changes include a modified swingarm pivot point.
This test was also used by Pirelli as part of their process of determining which tyres to take to the first round in Australia next year - as most options will be shipped there, rather than flown out like the machines and specialist tools.