Huge high-side holds Abraham back ahead of Superbike debut

Karel Abraham was left cursing a 'huge' crash on the first day of World Superbike testing at Phillip Island that disrupted his progress and adaption to the Milwaukee BMW S1000 RR.

A faller at the fast turn eleven on Monday morning, Abraham was forced to miss the majority of the afternoon session. A day later and he was unable to make substantial progress thanks to numerous stoppages, and ended the test 21st on the time sheets.

Making the switch from MotoGP, Abraham admitted the test was 'not really good' as the limited track time didn't allow him to work through a series of issues he was experiencing with the S1000 RR's electronics.

"It was not really good," offered the 26-year old. "Unfortunately I said before these two days that it would be the most important two days for me but it didn't go the way I expected or wanted because the first day I had a bad crash, very early. We didn't manage to go out for that day any more. We actually did but we only did two laps so yesterday we skipped the whole day. Today we had a lot of things to try."

The most frustrating aspect of his spill on the first day was that the bike's data stick was lost in the subsequent shards of debris, denying the Czech rider the chance to fully comprehend the reasons for the fall.

"We can't say what it was because we lost the stick with the data in the crash, which is very frustrating. It was my first crash on a Superbike and it was a big one. It was a huge high-side in the penultimate corner. I didn't expect it. There were several things that I wanted to and needed to check. Unfortunately we didn't have the data so I don't know.

"I went through the corner normally. I didn't even push 100 percent. I was just going through. It was a really good lap though and then I high-sided.

Then the barrage of stoppages and hot conditions didn't aid his quest further on the final day.

"We had a couple of problems in the morning and then found our way. I did not really trust the traction control because of Monday's crash. I was slowly getting into it. Then in the afternoon, in the last two hours, you know what happened..."

Like new team-mate Josh Brookes, Abraham feels the machine's electronics system is the area in need of biggest improvement, but offered his opinion on the differences between riding a Superbike and MotoGP prototype machine.

"Well we have a couple of things that we need to work on. I'm not really sure what Josh thinks after today. I guess but I'm not sure. There are a lot of things that we need to work on but through the season it is always like that. Overall I'm quite happy so far."