[Added_flavor]

Excellent Niranjan! Congratulations brother!

Sridhar Sir, great write up!

OT: You are one person I refer to when I tell my father that even senior guys ride KTMs! No offence please and you'll surely not be as old as him!

In other news, only I know how much I am cursing myself for having missed this event!

[razorBlades]

Originally Posted by niranjanrvce

Thanks. I was bike # 61 and # 58,59,60 were all my friends - I think we spoke briefly during the class sessions. You had a CF LS2 helmet right?

Ah! Nah, I had the Sparx with a goPro on with a black mesh A* jacket!

[sridhu]

Apex racing put out the complete timings for KTM Track Day.

Attched here

KTM Track Day Timing.xlsx

My observations: the spread between first & last is fairly consistent across sessions. Not much variation in the fastest & slowest persons.

Please feel free to slice & dice it to your heart's content.

[dkaile]

Really invigorating to see you enjoying your ride sridhu Keep it up man...

[Tassem]

Hi Sridhu,

Noticed that you've gone for the Registration number on the front mudguard. Any trouble with Bangalore cops?

I've got it done recently but haven't had an opportunity to take the bike out yet.

Thanks,

Tassem.

[sridhu]

@Tassem: none yet. But I understand it is illegal.

After the track day, I got a stickering job done on the windshield.

@dkaile: thanks bro. Wife is allowing it, until now! Think it will taper off during monsoon/ summer & start at the other end of summer.

[Tassem]

Originally Posted by sridhu

After the track day, I got a stickering job done on the windshield.

Can I trouble you for a pic please?

I've gone for an all black look with no graphics. Just rim tapes. The sticker on the mudguard looks great. However, if a small one is sufficient on the windscreen, I can go for that too.

I have the KTM optional windscreen.

[sridhu]

@Tassem:

I have added the image. My needs are different - hence the top is left uncovered. This should give you an idea on how it looks.

[Tassem]

Thanks for taking the time out for this Sridhu, appreciate it.

So have you left them both on? The number ie. Would come in handy if you plan on riding without the windshield from time to time.

[sridhu]

2nd Service update :

Got the bike serviced yesterday at 3600 Km.

Total damage : 2800 +1 pair Givi Gloves

Issues reported :
- Gear slipping into neutral (all gears, high revs)
- chain slap
-change crash bar

All issues seemingly resolved. Straightened the crash bar saying it is still good. Replaced all oils, spark plug etc. (Don't know what is free about the service!)

Bike sounds smoother & moves more eagerly. (maybe my imagination)

The belly pan started rubbing against the cash bar, setting up an irritating buzz. Burnt the fabric of my glove's lhs thumb on the exhaust while pushing & prodding. Glove 1:: thumb 0!

Planning ride on the weekend - more updates after that.

[Bluu]

Originally Posted by sridhu

Burnt the fabric of my glove's lhs thumb on the exhaust while pushing & prodding. Glove 1:: thumb 0!

Planning ride on the weekend - more updates after that.

It's not your imagination. I recently rode sandeepmohan's 390 for 5-6km immediately after his second service and the bike pulled and stopped better than my Duke which is still a 1000 or so away from second service.

I burnt my hand near the chain area after a ride. Was trying to wipe off excess chain lube with a cloth (without gloves). Lesson learnt!

May I ask where you are planning to ride to? Sandeep and I are heading to Chikmagalur on Sunday.

[ebonho]

Originally Posted by sridhu

Straightened the crash bar saying it is still good.

A crash bar that has been bent and then straightened only looks like a crash bar from that point on. But it will fold like paper and crack and break the next time you go down on that side. Please get it replaced bro. It costs like 180 bucks or something for each side.

[sridhu]

@Bluu: dont really know! :-)

Couple of friends (on a Harley & Bullet) and I are heading out toward what was vaguely described as "towards Ramnagara or Denkanikottai" on Saturday.

[sridhu]

Decided to do a minor modification on the bike (Inspired/ copied from Santosh's idea)

- Wanted to cover the gap in the rear wheel tyre hugger
- Stickering the new hand guards

So, here is how I did it.

Covering the gap

I saw that Santosh had cleverly noted that an additional tyre hugger fits perfectly between the small pointy bit near the monoshock (rear hugger) & the OE tyre hugger. Kudos!

SO, basically in the spirit of friendship & communism, I stole the design without so much as a "By your leave".

A post on t-Bhp elicited a response from BHPian Surajit who kindly consented to donate the hugger from his 200, in the interests of science.

Donor hugger secured, waiting the usual 30 days to ensure that one does not spring into action when laziness would do just as well, finally I decided to undertake the project this Sunday.

Preparations

Before I took anything off the bike, I separated the hugger from its frame (Note: frame available to anyone who wants it!). Then, I trial fitted it on the pointy bit & the OE hugger & marked the position.

Please note that the extra hugger best fit the gap when the KTM is pointing towards the front, in the opposite direction from the OE KTM logo.

Tools Required

You need:
- A set of allen/ hex keys
- A decent drill with a good assortment of bits
- Duct/ gaffer tape
- Binder clips - 2/3
- Colour pencil ( I chose silver!)
- Box spanner set (a must)
- 4 small (0.5") nuts & bolts with washer. I whacked mine from the Kastruba Road SVC after exercise of due charm.



Removing Existing Stuff
- remove the tyre hugger frame by removing 4 allen bolts. The two bolts on either side are, confusingly, different sized.

- Remove the 2 normal bolts on either side of the monoshock to remove the rear huger. The metal cover for the hole will also come off. Be care with this - liable to fall off. You can only remove these bolts with a box spanner set with an extender.

Preparing the donor hugger
- Cover the 3 screw holes on the inside with gaffer tape. After all the whole point is to prevent splatter.



- Now you realize that when you were doing the trial marking, you should have marked the centre line. Curse freely & use the binder clips & gaffer tape to attach the donor to both the huggers.
- Mark the centre line on both the donors & the OE huggers.
- Do other random markings that you might think is necessary

Like this:



(But, only the centre line marking is required!)

Mark off 2 points about 4 cm on either side of the centre line & about 3 cm from the edge of the hugger.

Drill holes that would be slightly smaller than your bolt at the 4 points you marked on the donor hugger.

Being super paranoid, I aligned the setup again and marked the corresponding points on the OE huggers instead of just marking 4cm x 3cm spots. This is useful on the rear hugger side as the curvature is different for both huggers. Drill holes on the OE huggers.

Now, all you need to do is to to bolt them together. When you are done, your new hugger (smother?) should look like this:



Putting it all together

Now it is just a simple matter of finding all the bolts from the various crevices they go hide under once you take your eyes off them. (DIYers know all about this propensity of nuts, bolts & screws to, well, screw you). The only tricky bit is getting the bolt into the LHS mount (near the chain). This requires a lot of patience, good swearing and luck.

When you finish, your bike will look like this:





Now you can go anywhere in the rain without the fear of mud splattering on your newly replaced flexible-plastic-thingy-under-the-seat. Of course, you also lose about 50% of the coolness that the 390 brought to you but then, if you are a middle aged man, that should not matter much!

Stickering
Got new handguards from Aaayush, couriered via Sandeep, both BHPians. (The powerparts guards are fricking 6000 rupees! Thirumala had the 'same' part for 3500.)

Think getting the OE handguards (which, as I can attest, do really guard your hand) from people who do not need them is the best course, IMO.

Since I saved between 3000-5000 rupees, needed to sticker them up! Also I liked the black guards that were shown with the black 390. So, stickered them up in black, did the name as a cutout on the sticker.

Here it is:



I think they turned out pretty good.

[Surajit333]

Hey Sridhar,

Real cool stuff!

Appreciate the ingenuity and mind behind the mod. Thanks for sharing. By the way, I traded in the 200 for the 390, I was surfing about windshield, and, the one in your bike seems quite functional. Can you please let me know the approx weight of the windshield, does it make the handlebar seems heavier? How is it living with the windshield, as, by now you would have spent considerable riding hours with it.