[dkaile]

^
1st service cost is quite negligible. But rear brake failure and other niggles are not worthy for an international brand.

[samschenker]

Originally Posted by sridhu

First service update :

Fixed the fuel gauge & chain slap.


The rear brake has died - apparently the effect of a diesel wash, whatever that is.

How was the fuel gauge issue fixed?

Did you get the bike cleaned someplace other than the ASC? If yes they could have used diesel during the wash. IIRC diesel hardens the brake pads which leads to lack of bite.

[sridhu]

Did the service @ the Kasturba Road ASC. It does feel like a hard rear brake pad.

Fuel gauge - he said he checked the various resistances. Does not seem to have found any issue but it sure as hell kept reducing the amount of fuel available as I was driving instead of suddenly informing me after I have chai that I have no fuel left. Best it to budget for about 230-250 km range. That is what I have been getting.

@dkaile: I would not term it 'brake failure'. Apparently they know it will happen & inform people to drive safe for 30-40 km till the brake reverts to normal. Will remember to tell them not to diesel wash next time. BTW, time does not fix it either - I drove my bike yesterday about 15 hours after service. The brake still did not feel normal.

Any ideas on the RPM 1 & 2 settings?

[Added_flavor]

The lack of bite on the rear brake happens after the service. Ride it for a few km and it'll be fine.

On the rpm settings, we don't have to worry about it anymore. If you're particular about shifting at a particular rpm, you can set it.

[sridhu]

I did a couple mods to the Flamberge - thought I will share with the group.

- Did a little bit of stickering to improve visibility mainly & also to personalize the bike.

The wheels


The hand guard



- More importantly, got an original Givi E450 Monolock box with the KTM Duke 125 mounting kit.

I present below my experiences & opinion in fitting the Givi box

Looks
The box is extremely well finished. Not very flimsy. Quite light. Hinge seems a bit low rent. About 5 kgs

The frame is very well made. Quite heavy & feels well engineered. About 3.5 kg

It cost about 775 MYR to buy.

Note: If you are bringing it from abroad, be warned tha the customs folks dont think it is personal baggage & hence put on a 36% customs duty. I convinced them that only the frame is dutiable and paid about 1000 INR.

Another note: I had a look at the Givi X.01 helmet - it is amazingly engineered. Exceptionally modular. Did not buy because I did not have the budget for it (800 MYR ~ 16,000 INR). Have a look at the webbikeworld Review for more details

Tools required
Nothing earth shaking- need a set of hex spanners to remove the original bolts. A good set of box spanners is good for tightening the bolts. A phillips head screwdriver. A cutter. That is about it.

Installation procedure

- Remove the original grab handles.


- Align the frame with the holes. Insert spacers & loosely hand tighten the bolts. It is important to have a bit of play. Also ensure that the frame is not blocking the rear brake light.



- The frame they supplied is for the Duke 125 (Did not see ANY 390s in KL). The under seat bolts are in a slightly different place on the 390. I found that if you reverse the orientation suggested in the poorly detailed manual, and loosely screw it in, it is possible to assemble the frame. Also fit the bolts for the cross piece at this time.



- once you have all the bolts in, tightening opposite bolts so that the frame is not bent. Do not over tighten. (I think I screwed up one bolt! )

- Once the frame is done, you can go ahead close the pillion seat.


- The mounting rack gave me a bit of pause. See image for how I mounted it. It seems pretty firm. There were no instructions in the box for how to mount rack! The square grill pattern locates the washer accurately & the longish slit gives you adequate play. The bottom clamp is not very intuitive. Finally fitted it the way you see in the image.

There are also 2 very thin, easy-to-miss screws that fasten the top plastic plate of the mounting rack. Do not miss these! Also, there are 2 washers per bolt. Had to redo a couple of them.

Ease of use
- The box goes on and off very easily. It can take 2 helmets easily. Locks very securely and can be easily removed entirely when not needed.


- It comes with 2 keys. There are 2 buttons on the box - the top one is for unlocking the lid alone.
- Closing the lid is a bit counter intuitive - you need to press on the hinge like lock to close.
- You cant remove the key without locking the box.

- You need to move the key to the unlock position to remove the box. All it takes is a press of the lower button.

- To mount the box, you insert the 2 tabs in the back into the appropriate slots on the rack and press down. Goes on nice & easy and the 'click' assures you that it is fitted securely.


Impressions
Everybody, including me, hated the box as it does spoil the clean lines of the Duke.

With Givi



Without box




The frame itself is pretty nice & does not disturb the looks all too much.

The box is bulky but very well engineered.If you are going to tour, you need it. And if you need a box, it is pretty hard to beat the Givi in functionality or even looks. The white matches the Duke's white perfectly.

The best part is that it does not sacrifice the pillion and lets the pillion ride more easy as it prevents them 'slipping off'. .

For 16k, it is expensive, no doubt. But I still think it is value for money.

I did not want the hassle of jerry rigging the frame and hence wanted an off-the-shelf solution. Of the box & frame, the frame was more expensive! (
Having said that, the frame is easy enough to reverse engineer. THe detail shots should give you enough of an idea to do it yourself. )

The box itself is reusable & not bike specific. A bit like the Thule system.

Are there cheaper boxes out there, sure. Are there better boxes? I dont think so. Obviously, you might think otherwise.

If the pillion is not very important to you, the Power parts box is at the same price point. The box is smaller & I thought the frame for OE equipment was a bit flimsy.

Keep riding. There is a plan in the office to do a BLR-Goa ride. Might just join it!

[sridhu]

Sorry - just realized that I had not actually posted the image of the clamps of the rack.

Here it is.



Mods: Dont know how to edit the earlier post. Would be grateful if you could merge this & the earlier post.

While I am doing this, I thought I will post a few more images:

The rear view of Flamberge with the Givi


The attachment detail of the frame. (Tried reusing the original bolts. Dont - the spacer is essential. Otherwise the gap is too much. The OE grab handle has a welded on spacer underneath)


The Givi - open

[VW2010]

@Sridhu

That is so HUGE. Unless you are touring, this is going to be a big hindrance even in touring and i am sure it requires some careful riding to get an understanding of the new dimension of the bike.

Ugly or not is an individuals pov. I am not commenting on that, but the size is pretty huge.

For the helmet, look at the evoline 3 series from Shark which is now on close out and would come around 20k mark. Also at that price point there are few better full face helmets including the quest which are very highly rated. Arai RX-Q is considered the best for touring but comes at a price.

All these helmets in US is far cheaper and you can request a friend to carry it for you.

[sridhu]

@Vw2010 - it does look pretty big assed, no? :-)

But having said that, it is not QUITE as big as it looks in the photos. The wide angle of the phone camera exaggerates perspective. It is quite usable. (Saw bigger bikes in KL having this on the back). Wanted to be able to put in my laptop bag or camera bag when I ride. Does not affect ride quality at all.

Not really looking for a helmet but was intrigued by the X.01. Looks like an interesting solution for the air flow & safety compromise, particularly for somebody from Madras, like you.

[rk_sans]

Finally your quest for the helmet box is done. Personally feel it looks good. Could you please post some pictures with the helmets in it. Space for two helmets is quiet awesome.

[Shubz]

Regards to diesel wash of break pads - i thought that is done only at the local roadside mechanic shops.

KTM service folks (should and Auto service does) use 3M or equivalent brake pad/disc cleaning solutions.

[black12rr]

Wonderful ,I love the top box and bottom plate . We should meet up for ride ,I want to see it in person .If I were you ,I would also have painted the top half of the box in BLACK paint . Ignore the naysayers , the box is wonderful .

[sridhu]

Originally Posted by black12rr

Wonderful ,I love the top box and bottom plate . We should meet up for ride ,I want to see it in person .If I were you ,I would also have painted the top half of the box in BLACK paint . Ignore the naysayers , the box is wonderful .

Sure @black12rr. You need not wait for a meet up; come have a look at it whenever it works for both of us!

There is a Black painted version available already. I preferred the white.

Santosh: images with 2 helmets below. THe box closes whether the helmet is laid on the side or kept straight. Think it may be a bit tight if 2 Sol size helmets are stored.

Lying on the side


Straight



Think they should have lined the box with something soft & had some hooks for bungee cording stuff so that they dont shake around. OTher than that, the box is perfect. No interference while riding.

[nasirkaka]

Sorry - just realized that I had not actually posted the image of the clamps of the rack.

i have extensively used a GIVI hard box from JC road Bangalore, on my C5. DOnt think its original GIVI , but does the job well. It is of quite a decent quality especially considering the cost from frame + box @ 2600 INR. I have used it for close to 30,000 kms without much issues. The frame bolts gets loose once in a while. I have been using this box in conbination with cramster saddle bag, and there is plenty of available space for many days of touring.
here is the link to what i have:

http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/motorb...thread-40.html

thinking of getting a frame made on the similar line as you have, for the 390. That way, i can keep swapping the box between the bikes

[sridhu]

@Nasirkaka you are actually the inspiration for the dubba! Saw your thread earlier.

Was planning to go to JC Road but went to Malaysia earlier. Hence the original Givi! The box is OK but I was very keen on getting the frame.

[sridhu]

We nt on a 450-500 km ride over the weekend from Bangalore to Hassan.

Don't believe anyone who says the bike has a limited range. I got 42 kmpl on the trip to Hassan, making the range almost 450 km. You just have to keep it at 3000-3500 rpm in sixth (the bike does about, 60 in that situation) and you will get 40 kmpl. What is that? Boring? So what? You get mileage no?

What happened was that we were riding in a group & the rest were on Bullets. The lead guy decided 60 kmph was he safe speed. We did this for about 1 hour until better sense prevailed and 2 of us opened up to more normal speeds. To give you an indication, we took 5 hours from Nelamangala to b On the way back I took 3 hours to reach home in HSR, an additional 50 km more, with one 15 minute stop. The to trip averaged about 30kmpl & the return a more normal 26.

The road was brilliant but utterly devoid of character.

The bike performed flawlessly when allowed to perform.

A note on some of the accessories :
- got a Sena SMH10 fit the trip. While the other guys did not have one the unit even on single user usage is a must have if you plan to tour at all. Could have phone conversations easily without any disturbance & being able to listen to music while riding was heavenly. Hooked up an ipod to the aux in of the unit to conserve battery. Lasted 8 hours easily.

- also got Knox knee guards. They are absolute crap. Don't stay on place at all. Completely avoidable.

- The Rynox gps holder on the other hand worked as advertised - stable & leak proof at least in the light drizzle that we experienced.

- The Quechua shoes were an absolute pleasure to use - firm & comfortable

- The Roots Windtone horn made even trucks take note of the bike in a completely legal way! What's not to like?!

- The x-treme vision bulb lit up the unlit highway at night adequately. Recommended.