[audioholic]

Went on an impromptu breakfast ride/drive with Parag to Kunigal and it was a superb ride, only problem being the bike just doesn't let you run in gently and begs for more throttle. Accelerated gently in the lower gears but gave it some nice bursts in 6th. Beauty of the sixth ratio is its very drive able as said earlier. On those huge speedbreakers it pulls well in sixth from as low as 40kmph. Though it is short it is at 85kmph at 6k RPM and if it can really pull till redline I guess it will be around 170+ kmph.

Braking has become better with the new tyres and run in. Had some fun with Tempo Travellers trying to overtake me at 80kmph and a flick of the throttle and they disappear in my RVM After riding the Ninja, I feel the acceleration of my Dio which I earlier believed to be impressive is just nothing. Enjoyed some good Idlis with Parag and later we returned at our paces. There is some roaring noise from the tyres at certain spends but not sure if it's from the tyres or something else.

[paragsachania]

Originally Posted by audioholic

Went on an impromptu breakfast ride/drive with Parag

Thanks for the invite man. As I said such drives happen only when the notice is super short.

Few pics of you and your ride (along with mine )

[rockyjee]

Originally Posted by Paleo

How much were the Akrapovic for. Do they have one for a 650 ?

The 650 unfortunately has a full system... so a slip on doesn't work, you need to get the entire exhaust replaced, which IMHO is a bummer compared to the price of the bike in the first place.

See available options for Ninja 650 2016:
http://www.akrapovic.com/#!/motorcyc...4436&phaseId=1

http://www.akrapovic.com/#!/motorcyc...36&yearId=4436

[audioholic]

Spent some time this weekend to finish the pending PPF work on the sides. The only unprotected part now is the tank which somehow didnt look good after PPF application. Hence I decided to leave it as it is until I find a better solution. The sides of the tank where the knees will be and the area near the rider seat is covered though since they are prone to body contact damage.

Here are some pictures for reference:





Also the green area around pillion seat was covered in PPF since I bumped my legs while getting on in cramped areas and the edges of the seat cowling will be prone to scratches due to tying my laptop bag to the rear seat.



The raw material:



First service is coming up this weekend and I will mostly get it done the coming Saturday. Odo now stands at 740kms.

[audioholic]

First service update:
Got the first service done today, exactly a month after purchase and with 877kms on the odo. I wanted to hit the 1k kms mark but with the bike mostly used for office commute, distance did not accumulate. It was a pleasant experience during service and I have only good things to say.

No pictures to accompany, but in short, I had told them earlier that I would be coming in for service. I took the vehicle to the service station at 10AM by when the staff were still arriving. The staff who were already there prepared the job card, and started draining the oil. After a general inspection, lubrication was done at many places with various lubricants from oil to silicon lubricants to chain lube. The chain was cleaned thoroughly and later new oil was filled.

I was expecting them to use Motul 300V factory line, but instead they used the fully synthetic 7100 instead. I use the same oil for my Dio and it is a fantastic product. Since the oil capacity was 2.2L, they used 3 cans and gave me 800ml of the remaining oil so that I can use it for the next oil change/for my Dio's service since it takes in 700ml .

After oil change, the bike was washed for a good 30 minutes VERY elaborately. This was handled by some guy from 3M so he used their equipment and microfiber cloth. After washing, it was dried by air and another round of lubrication followed which was mainly for the exposed areas which would have been contacted by water, like the stand, foot pegs, chain etc.

The vehicle was ready by 12PM, and I met Bhanu in the middle. This guy is the boss of the show, and definitely has an attitude that is much needed. I discussed with him the issue of handlebar wobbling which had almost become nil after the tyre change. However, he was not convinced. He went for a long test ride and returned to ask me if the handlebar was tight. I acknowledged and he immediately got it loosened and went on another test ride. The minimal wobbling which was present at 65kmph is now gone, and the handlebar feels very light to operate.

Big cheers to him and his people for getting the job done without any complaints or pressure from my end. I was there throughout, and we discussed a lot of topics. I should appreciate his knowledge and friendly nature.

The total bill came up to Rs. 4.7k which was definitely less than what I expected. To be honest, thought the MRP of the oil is 810 per liter, they have only charged 710 which is a little more than what I paid in Amazon when I brought the same oil for my Dio two months back. Here is a picture of the bill:



I understand that the spares are priced somewhat high, but thats of concern when something comes up for replacement, and for most of the parts that come up for replacement due to wear and tear, we always have very good alternatives available abroad, which can be brought for a cheaper price than what is sold here. Hence, I am least bothered on that front. If they can do the regular maintenance for me, the rest can be tackled.

Since I will be out of country the coming weeks, there wont be much usage or updates. The bike will be stored with cover, mostly used by my dad for a short run or two.

On the service initiatives front, they are travelling to various towns in Karnataka every weekend or comfortable day and arranging service camps to help owners in those towns. Given the low numbers of sales overall, it wont make sense to open service centers in these towns. At least, they can conduct camps occasionally and serve customers. I was also told that a second service center is coming up in Bangalore, on the Northern side to serve customers around the area. Right now, this is located in south Bangalore, which is difficult to access for people from the other side of town. Thankfully for me, its in my Neighborhood itself

[nikhn]

Originally Posted by audioholic

The total bill came up to Rs. 4.7k which was definitely less than what I expected. To be honest, thought the MRP of the oil is 810 per liter, they have only charged 710 which is a little more than what I paid in Amazon when I brought the same oil for my Dio two months back. Here is a picture of the bill:

Attachment 1694940

I understand that the spares are priced somewhat high, but thats of concern when something comes up for replacement, and for most of the parts that come up for replacement due to wear and tear, we always have very good alternatives available abroad, which can be brought for a cheaper price than what is sold here. Hence, I am least bothered on that front. If they can do the regular maintenance for me, the rest can be tackled.

Since I will be out of country the coming weeks, there wont be much usage or updates. The bike will be stored with cover, mostly used by my dad for a short run or two.

On the service initiatives front, they are travelling to various towns in Karnataka every weekend or comfortable day and arranging service camps to help owners in those towns. Given the low numbers of sales overall, it wont make sense to open service centers in these towns. At least, they can conduct camps occasionally and serve customers. I was also told that a second service center is coming up in Bangalore, on the Northern side to serve customers around the area. Right now, this is located in south Bangalore, which is difficult to access for people from the other side of town. Thankfully for me, its in my Neighborhood itself

I pass by this SC almost daily and looking at the number of Kawasaki bikes present, there seems to be a lot of sales happening. Good to see that you were satisfied with your service. With all the negative reports of Kawasaki SCs, this is something positive.
I looked at your bill and something caught my eye. What is done for final inspection that ₹177 is charged? It's a seperate part of the bill. I thought the Kawasaki SCs are charging labour by the hour.

[Red Liner]

Originally Posted by nikhn

I pass by this SC almost daily and looking at the number of Kawasaki bikes present, there seems to be a lot of sales happening.

No. That is just the wait time for spares. #truestory

And it looks like kawasaki have moved to a per work charge instead. Fantastic news. I will be visiting them soon. Thanks audio.

[audioholic]

Originally Posted by nikhn

I looked at your bill and something caught my eye. What is done for final inspection that ₹177 is charged? It's a seperate part of the bill. I thought the Kawasaki SCs are charging labour by the hour.

Apparently if billed by the hour the labor costs are higher. Hence the new system is to bill by the job. Though lesser, I don't think it's very cheap either. Things like charging separately for oil change and oil filter change is absurd. However if you see the total labor charge it's 1700 for the service. That comes to a hourly charge of 850 for a two hour job. Which is less than their earlier hourly charge.

Originally Posted by Red Liner

No. That is just the wait time for spares. #truestory
.

Haha yes that's true to some extent. Most of the bikes there are waiting for the spares but those are the ones parked inside in the various corners. Yesterday by the time I came out there were 12 bikes that had come in for service since it was the weekend. Not sure about the load on weekdays though. And there were some more bikes there for ad hoc tasks like a bulb change, chain cleaning etc.

[CrAzY dRiVeR]

Originally Posted by nikhn

I looked at your bill and something caught my eye. What is done for final inspection that ₹177 is charged? It's a seperate part of the bill. I thought the Kawasaki SCs are charging labour by the hour.

Charging by the hour really pushed the bill amount up. This feedback was passed on to the dealers at various meetings and they seemed to be making some changes.

Yes they do put in some atrocious things now like inspecting their own work - but the final amounts seem to have reduced by a decent margin.

[audioholic]

Two weeks back, just before leaving the bike to rest during my travel, I had to attend an outing from office in the outskirts of Bangalore near Shivagange hills which is around 65kms from my house. Since I had to travel the very next day with no packing done yet, I could not depend upon company transport and decided to go on my own. Initially I thought of taking my car but I had not ridden the Ninja much after service except to work as usual. Hence, in order to give the bike some good exercise before its prolonged rest, I decided to ride to the place. To add to this, a friend and colleague wanted to ride as well in his Thunderbird 500.

While the distance was not a big deal at all, the destination was at the foot of a rocky hill and the access to this place was from a village through a narrow road which was unpaved. There was some climbs and decent as well as we had to cross a few smaller hills to reach the place. In order to cover up some slushy regions, the owners had dumped unfinished rocks all over the path where we had to climb up the hill to improve traction. But if you know what I mean by unfinished rocks, these are the stones which are just blasted out of rocks and are not ground to smaller sizes. They have sharp edges and can cut tyres.

I was able to negotiate these patches very slowly, in first gear maintaining constant speed so that there will not be any jerks or loss of grip. My friend on his TB500 would run through some places, and slow down only in the worst areas. However I was happy that the underbody or fairing did not scrape anywhere. Unfortunately I did not click any pictures or videos since I did not have my action cam with me. After some distance, the path became better with only mud and then finally we reached the place to be welcomed by colleagues with their jaws wide open, not because of the bike but because we made it there on a bike

Two cars suffered punctures and one car with slightly old tyres had a sidewall cut after negotiating this stretch. Seeing this, I was too scared about any punctures on my bike since getting help there would not be easy and I would have had to tow the bike out of that place in case of a puncture. However, I was lucky and so was my friend since his tyres on the TB500 was pretty old too.

Waiting near the Nelamangala Elevated Highway


After reaching safer waters


The return was more tricky, since in a few places we had to descend a hairpin bend full of rocks. In some instances, trying to brake would lock the front wheel and the bike could not be steered. Solved this problem by braking on and off, and using the rear brakes since the rear tyres had great traction. That improved my handling skills and I did not end up tracking straight in the hairpin. My friend took advantage of the greater weight of the TB500 towards the rear and used the rear brakes mostly. But he was slower than me and crawled down the bends <10kmph while I was doing around 15-20kmph.

After this, we had a blast on the highway. Since the first service was done, I was not worrying too much about the engine speed and the bike did not disappoint at all. The best thing I loved about the engine is its ability to respond quickly to acceleration even when already at a high speed. To what extent I have taken it to, it did not struggle anywhere. However, it was only at a few stretches that I really pushed it just for some fun, but rest of the place we were cruising at around a ton. The TB500 was comfortable at that speed only and I had let my friend take the lead.

Overall, what amazed me most is the ability to cover distances without breaking a sweat. Of course, since I am new to this, I have not covered serious distances at all, but both the onward and return journey on the highway was just effortless and hardly consumed any time. I covered the 65km distance from there to my house in an hour which felt like nothing.

On a side note, it looks like my bike did not like Speed 97. I filled a tank full of 97 prior to first service, and maybe it was the need for an oil change or something else, but compared to the experience I have in my Celerio and also my Dio(it does get 97 once in a while) there was no increase in smoothness in my Ninja. I also feel it is because of the lower compression ratio compared to my car. Should check again to see if its the same or better.

There are some items arriving in courier by the way...

[audioholic]

Its been a long time since I updated this thread. Due to a busy schedule with travel on and off, I never got time to post any update. Moreover, I had some mods planned which unfortunately met with a series of hiccups. Hence, my intention to update after they were done was not met and here I am with some updates.

First and foremost, the run-in period was completed after I returned from Germany with a trip to my village. Once the run in was over, I began to explore the engine northwards of 8k RPM and man, that engine is phenomenal. Sometime on the way back from my village, the engine was properly warmed up and there was an empty stretch of road ahead. I opened the throttle more than usual in third gear and held it open and it was nirvana. The engine pulled and pulled and kept on pulling until it hit the limiter at 13k RPM. The engine gets smoother as the revvs build up and the engine note at higher RPMs is musical. That was the only time I have gone beyond 10K RPM and usually I dont push it that much.

Once the run-in was over I cared less to look at the tacho. Inside the city I upshift at around 6k RPM which is good for quick overtakes. Until 4k RPM the engine is not so eager to rush but after that it picks up well. After the run in, the engine got smoother, mainly noticed in the absence of any buzzing feeling on the footpegs and tank.

Most of my colleagues dont believe the fact that I am getting a healthy 27-30kmpl on this bike and this has been so consistently. The worst was 25Kmpl before the first service. Afterall, its a small 300cc engine under the fairing The brakes have considerably improved in bite and I have got used to it too. However, I am pretty careful and maintain distance from vehicles ahead since I am not so sure about sudden braking capacity, especially without ABS.

If that is the good part, there is another side to the ownership experience. Like I said before, from day one of ownership there was a slight handlebar oscillation felt at exactly a certain speed between 65-75kmph. Before I changed to Michellin tyres, this was at 70kmph, but then the intensity reduced but the oscillation was felt at a little higher speed. Coupled with this, the handlebar was pretty tight. Initially I thought it was a balancing issue/issue with IRC rubber but later read that certain bikes had an issue with the cone set.

During the first service I had reported this issue to Bhanu who is the key person in the ASC and he acknowledged the issue and also suspected it to be a tight cone set. They loosened it and he took the bike out for a ride and came back saying that the problem still exists but is hardly noticeable. He wanted some more time to be able to open up the cone set and examine further. Since that was a Saturday, I told him that I would return on a weekday so that we can work in peace. After that my travel kept me away from the bike and this issue.

Once I returned and the running in was completed, the bike was just flawless, except for this issue. It was like a speed alarm for me whenever I passed through the 70kmph mark. There would be a very momentary oscillation felt in the handlebar which went away at higher and lower speeds. Upon follow up, I came to know from Bhanu that certain Ninjas have had rusting inside the cone. This caused the issue. However, upon opening mine, there was not much of rusting found. After fixing it back, the oscillation is completely gone. But I am promised a better resolution, which I believe is a new cone set.

The thing I am happy about is the attitude of the person, who has been facilitating things very well. Recently I went to the ASC to meet fellow BHPian IronH4wk when he got his Ninja 650 for service. That time I came to know that there was another recall for my bike. More details about that later since I need to add some pictures.

Overall, I find the experience pretty good and the ASC has come a long way in terms of stocking parts, taking care of bikes during service etc compared to the horror stories that were heard before.

I was always fascinated by the paintwork, and this led to me giving the bike the common ceramic coating which did make a difference to the depth of black and the gloss. This was prominently visible at the ASC where another 300 which was just a month old had come for service. I will add pictures in a separate post since I need to take them out of the phone and upload. For now, this bike has put a grin on my face everytime I went out riding it. Once upon a time I felt that my Dio was still needed for nearby errands, but somehow, I end up taking the Ninja even to buy groceries.

On the way to office, I find many cabbies making way for me without any action from my end. This gives a nice feel and I dont have to dodge narrow gaps and overtake from the left.

More updates to follow soon..

[audioholic]

The Headlight upgrade

I had mentioned elsewhere that the headlights on my Ninja were pretty good especially in high beam. However, inside the city especially in the area around my office, there is a lot of construction activity going on and it leads to lots of surprises in the form of random potholes, road cutting which haven't been closed properly, cables jutting out of the road and what not. Hence I was looking for an improvement in the low beam. The last thing I want is to dump the bike into a pothole and damage the rims, which are way more expensive than this whole upgrade done multiple times And smitten by the projector bug, I went searching for ready to fit assemblies which I wanted to directly swap with the existing setup. However, luck was not in store for me and it totally changed the path.

My first discovery was that the headlights of the ZX6R was directly swappable with the Ninja 300 and Versys and they were dual projectors, one for high and low beam. This was just what I needed and coupled with a HID kit for the low beam, I could have left the halogens on high giving a nice combo of spread and range. My first find was on Aliexpress and I ordered the product immediately. This was the first time I wasn't convinced with the item description but I ordered it seeing the price to be around 5k INR. Since it was too good to be true, I ended up getting the regular reflector headlights on the N300. I also read reviews from other buyers that this listing was fake. This was the first bummer. Thanks to Aliexpress, they refunded the money for me since the item didnt match the description. Now I was left with a spare headlight assembly which I thought of selling.

I then ordered another assembly from USA and my friend was supposed to bring it to me. I had hopes on this to be done during Christmas vacation and then the second bummer happened. This guy passed it to his friend who then left it since his luggage was overweight. Now the assembly was stuck in house, with both people in India for a few weeks. By now I was both furious and disappointed. Randomly I explored the idea of the projector assemblies from China. These were available for peanuts and their output as seen from many XP Micro users(who actually paid a bomb for the same product) was pretty good. For a cost of 3k, I was getting the entire kit consisting of projectors and HID kit.

Contacted the seller and checked if he could offer quick shipping and he agreed. With no sign of my ZX6R assembly reaching me from the US, I ordered this projector and much to the sellers promise, he shipped it through a private company called JNET and these guys got me the product within a week which was impressive.
The projector assembly:


By then, I had opened up the spare assembly I had and had blackened the reflector:




Though this was how I wanted the setup to look, there was another bummer. The projector, though I had ordered 2.5inch variant didnt even enter inside the reflector bowl. The slim reflector bowl of the N300 didnt even take the first half of the projector in. All my efforts of blackening the reflector with a slight touch of chrome was useless. Enough is enough, I thought. I then demolished the reflector and cut it until only the mounting part was left. The below picture shows how much needed to be cut:



Thank goodness I did this on a spare assembly and kept the OE headlight assembly untouched. This also gave me freedom to damage how much I wanted without worrying. I also blackened the projector shroud leaving a small circle of chrome around just to spoil the monotony of matte black. You can notice how big the projectors are compared to the reflector.



After this, I had to align both projectors to get the correct rotation. Finished it by sealing them back with 3M urethane sealant since this was a stronger alternative to silicon.





In the middle of all this, there was a fourth bummer. The projectors were LHD though I had explicitly requested RHD projectors. Hence I had to modify the shield to convert it to RHD pattern for the cutoff, the job was not so perfect IMO.



Since the shield was made of fragile metal, I couldn't file it smoothly which has brought some kinks to the cutoff line.

Here are the final results, which is just too good for a bike. I end up over shadowing the headlights of many cars, including the HID lights of the Baleno. After all the efforts and repeated bummers, I finally found the results to be worth it.







For replacing the headlight assembly, I had to strip down the entire fairing of the bike. The wiring was done using the harness provided in the kit which was a plus point and the only modification this required was it had a H4 plug which I converted to twin H7 pins to suit my bike. The replacement itself was a half day job since each panel interlocks with another and in order to remove the headlight assembly, we have to start with the panels below the front seat. Then move to remove the side panels, remove the windshield, mirrors, number plate, lower fairing and then unscrew the headlight assembly. Its very tedious this way





The only issue with this setup is that due to the excess weight of the projectors on the reflector, the alignment screws which hold them have a little play which has resulted in slight vibration when going over rough roads. I think I will live with it until the ZX6R assembly arrives after which I will take a call on what to do next. As of now, this is awesome and more than sufficient for my need. Considering the overall results, this is the ultimate setup I can think of keeping the originality in looks and function intact. Would recommend it to anyone looking for better lighting.

I have used 4700K bulbs since I felt this was the best color for all types of roads. I had earlier brought a CNlight kit with 6000K and felt it was too bluish. I used the CN Light ballasts in my current setup since the one sent along with the projector was slow to start and had some flickering issue. The CN light ballasts are excellent and start quickly within a second whereas the one supplied in the kit used to take a good 3-4s to stabilize the color and intensity.

[nikhn]

I was looking at the comparison video of EVO between the current Apache RR 310 and other bikes like the KTM RC, Ninja 300 and so on. I was surprised to see the ABS sensors and toner wheels on the Ninja 300.

I thought it did not come with ABS. The video looks like it's shot in India so I don't think it's an international version. This is confusing.

[audioholic]

Originally Posted by nikhn

I was looking at the comparison video of EVO between the current Apache RR 310 and other bikes like the KTM RC, Ninja 300 and so on. I was surprised to see the ABS sensors and toner wheels on the Ninja 300.

I thought it did not come with ABS. The video looks like it's shot in India so I don't think it's an international version. This is confusing.

Attachment 1722295

Attachment 1722296

Nice observation. Even I saw the video but didn't look closely. It isn't the OE ABS unit. They have used the kit from the KTM bikes and seem to have done an aftermarket installation which is quite impressive. The toner wheel on the Ninja has smaller holes when coming from the factory. Also the pickup sensor at the wheel is mounted on the fork with a dedicated spot for it. Here it seems to have been mounted from the hub through a separate mount.

I was planning an ABS fit myself and this has given new options to me. One of the roadblocks was to mount the front sensor. This is an eye opener.

[nikhn]

Originally Posted by audioholic

They have used the kit from the KTM bikes and seem to have done an aftermarket installation which is quite impressive. The toner wheel on the Ninja has smaller holes when coming from the factory. Also the pickup sensor at the wheel is mounted on the fork with a dedicated spot for it. Here it seems to have been mounted from the hub through a separate mount.

Surprising. The ECU also has to be flashed with a different software or an OE ECU has to be used which comes with the ABS equipped bike. Even then, using a non OE HU and that too from another bike is risky. Calibration will be off. I don't think it's worth the risk.