“ none of the stress that normally accompanies riding a hyena with its ass on fire”

Lots of people can handle this bike just fine. Maybe you don’t have the skills or confidence but those of us who have been riding supersports for years/decades are perfectly at home on a 200hp bike. Furthermore, the technology packed into this and other current flagships only makes them even safer to operate.

awesome photo!

Great, write up on this. The part I loved most is the comparisons of the bikes between two riders with two different styles, body types, and experience. Having multi-person perspective on a review is something I have not really seen before, let alone a side-by-side comparison like the one we have here between Lindsay…

I can’t promise I will always have the time or ability to beg and plead my friends to come help me for free, but hopefully your encouragement will help :)

Absolutely.

Really liked the added perspectives of some different POVs (since we’re not all 6’ tall dudes). That was one thing I was really hoping to see with the “new” lanesplitter, so A+!

Although I think you are correct that the R1 is currently the bike-to-beat in the literbike category, even more important is what it means to the competition and industry as a whole. Just like with performance cars, we’re in a new era of performance motorcycles that we haven’t seen since the 2005-2006-ish time frame.

At 436 pounds, the 2015 is over 20 pounds lighter than the previous iteration.