Hickman has had a tough two weeks with the Superbike version of the M1000RR, with the Englishman beaten by Michael Dunlop on the Hawk Racing Honda in the opening race for the class last Sunday.
The FHO rider detailed “unnerving” brake issues on the bike caused by a lack of stability, while he also had to battle a quickshifter problem.
Despite this, he was under 10 seconds away from Dunlop at the finish and came close to an outright lap record of 135.445mph.
Hickman’s team spent the week since then trying to fix the issues with the Superbike, but only made a breakthrough on Friday morning in the solo warm-up lap.
The team fitted data logging onto the bike for the first time to better understand the issues, with the team able to solve the braking problems.
Hickman told Autosport on Thursday that he was still planning to race the Superbike despite a dominant run in the first Superstock race of the week on Tuesday.
Hickman’s decision for the Senior TT was thrown into further confusion on Friday when he dominated the Superstock race for the second time this event and set a new outright lap record of 136.358mph.
After the race, he said no decision had been made.
But on Saturday morning, the FHO team confirmed to Autosport that Hickman would be riding the Superbike version of his BMW in today’s Senior TT.
Running the bike in the warm-up lap on Saturday morning, Hickman was said to have been much happier with it.
Hickman won last year’s Senior TT on the FHO-run BMW and will be looking for his 13th victory at the event.
Saturday’s Senior TT is set up to be a duel between Dunlop and Hickman, with the former looking to match the all-time win record of 26 set by his late uncle Joey Dunlop in 2000.
Dunlop looked set to do so on Friday in the Supertwin race before a mechanical issue forced him out on lap one.
Autosport understands both of Hickman’s Superstock wins were protested this week, but no official case was brought as no transgressions had been found by scrutineers.
Picture credit @ttracesofficial/Pacemaker Press
