What do you give that special person in your life who already has it all? I imagine those were the thoughts of BMW's engineers as they sat down to plan out this latest iteration of the S 1000 RR. It was already a fire-breathing, tech-loving class leader, and despite being four years long in the tooth, it wasn't exactly on the ropes or questionable when compared to its peers. But complacency is a fool's game, as the likes of BMW know better than most, so something had to be done to the RR – and done it most certainly was.
Bucking the trend of most manufacturers this season, BMW's actually gone to town on the new RR for 2023, but you'd be forgiven for thinking otherwise because it looks similar enough to the outgoing version… well, assuming you're horrendous at ‘spot the difference’ and haven't picked up on the model's new winglets that are a direct hand-me-down from the outgoing M 1000 RR. As you'd expect, they're there to add downforce as well as look pretty, with a claimed boost of up to 17.1kg of load being added to front wheel when you're tootling along at 186mph. The other major aesthetic difference is to the rear of the bike, with a new subframe and seat unit… a combination to suit those of a loftier disposition, because the rider's perch now towers at 832mm (it was 824mm before). Add to this mix a change of three colour options and some slightly different graphics and that's your lot on the surface of the Beemer, but there's so much more to talk about.
Naturally, power and weight are
