McCormick and the 2020 BMW S 1000 RR

It’s been seven years since I’ve hopped across the pond to ride motorcycles, and in those seven years a lot has changed. Getting the call to take part in the 2020 BMW S 1000 RR media launch for Inside Motorcycles was an honour, and an opportunity I couldn’t turn down. Seven years ago I headed over to start what I hoped was a long career in World Superbike, and now I headed over to start what I’m hoping is a long career in journalism and test riding! The trip was really successful and I’m looking forward to sharing the full bike review with everyone in the next issue of Inside Motorcycles.

This photo gallery will serve as a little bit of a teaser for the upcoming article and hopefully give everybody the itch to hear more details about the new BMW. The weather cooperated for our group in Portugal and the venue didn’t disappoint. Estoril is just outside of Lisbon in Portugal, and a little bit of a hidden gem these days. MotoGP hasn’t used the track in their schedule for quite a while, but there were some epic races there back in the early 2000s. The circuit has a little bit of everything going on with slow corners, fast corners and a long start straight. The combination of corners at Estoril make it an ideal candidate to do a bike review and the consistent weather in Portugal never hurts. The sun was shining all day for us during the testing, making for some epic photos and ideal conditions to push the limits of the new BMW.

BMW had quite a few members from the new S 1000 RR’s development team on hand, from Head of Design to Electronics Engineers, so it was really informative to chat with them about everything new. Being a Mechanical Engineer I was in heaven around the new bike and all of the interactive displays showing off the new technology. I didn’t hesitate to interact with the staff they had on site to hopefully shed light on some of the finer details of the new bike with everyone. The new bike was impressive in a lot of aspects, and didn’t do too many things I wasn’t a fan of. It’s awesome to see such a high level of motorcycle coming in stock trim. I can’t wait to finish the review of the bike and share that experience with everyone in the article!