[ashwinprakas]

Originally Posted by ethanhunt123

Without starting the big vs small debate - i would invite you to go Test ride a Liter class motorcycle and try WOT even on 1st gear leave alone 4th or 5th gear on public roads in India. If you come back alive or without a heart attack - we can take this conversation further. This comment just shows your experience with any big capacity bike.

Sir'ji, the point I made seem to have gone way over your head and instead hit a chord somewhere else.

In the interest of not veering this thread off-topic I end my response here.

Cheers,
A.P.

[sreeJiva]

Originally Posted by Red Liner

Hopefully this sells a bit, and opens the horizons of its erstwhile partner, a certain Honda to start bringing more capable dirt bikes here.

Amen to that! Is CRF range too far away to dream about?

[ashwinprakas]

Originally Posted by sreeJiva

Amen to that! Is CRF range too far away to dream about?

We've been given handed down variants of the CRF and NXR series for a while now.

1. CRF230 - ZMA.
2. CRF150 - CBZ Classic
3. CRF150F - CBZ Xtreme(Sans Balancer)
4. NXR Bros 150 - Impulse(Literally the same bike)

And anyone going through historical evidence could see that every iteration that came in Desi clothes was a market success where as the one time there was a bold move to bring out a motorcycle as it is, the result became a colossal failure.

Hence as we stand right now, the closest thing to a road legal CRF you'll get in India ATM is the Xpulse 200.

They did not simply rebore the motorcycle, they've done everything as per the book this time, no skipping engine parts or anything.

I'm not a fan of Honda's and wouldn't touch one with a pole considering my usage, but this product does inspire some serious confidence, sans the OTC experience and attitude, but then Honda has it even worse at Kollam, hence I'm happy.

Cheers,
A.P.

[Red Liner]

Originally Posted by sreeJiva

Amen to that! Is CRF range too far away to dream about?

Yeah it is. Honda will wait for the CB300 to settle down a bit. And IF AT ALL, they might bring down the crf after the bs 6 regulations take effect. Maybe in two years. IF AT ALL.

It will only come in ckd, will be serviced at the new premium showrooms, and will be priced at par with the CB300 for sure.

I would still buy it and self service. Until then, the xpulse is a fantastic cheap little toy to begin honing skills on and general riff raff in the city without looking like a commuter.

May i also say that folks here are losing the plot with this bike. Its just an entry level cheap as chips offroad ready motorcycle to go have some fun on. Like how people in the USA are gobbling up the Mahindra Roxor.

[sreeJiva]

Originally Posted by ashwinprakas

I'm not a fan of Honda's and wouldn't touch one with a pole considering my usage, but this product does inspire some serious confidence, sans the OTC experience and attitude, but then Honda has it even worse at Kollam, hence I'm happy. .

AP, Are you saying you won't touch Honda or is it a Hero?

From my experience dealer attitude is not consistently bad or good. We'd just have to pick a place who treat us better.

I have visited close to 10 Hyundai showrooms from Trivandrum -Kottayam-Ernakulam for servicing my automatic Verna and only Kazhakutam Popular Hyundai were able to find the root cause, rectify and deliver a reliable vehicle.

Same with Honda. Muthoot Honda at Ranny, Pathanamthitta is bad. Evm Honda at Kazhakutam is worse. But EVM Honda at Kaimanam have a great attitude for both service and sales and are very approachable.

Coming back to Xpulse, my cousin has a first gen Xtreme. Having driven it close to 500 kms I can say that I always felt the need for 6th gear - was not refined at all - and ergonomics was a disaster.

My cousin said he test drove the new xtreme and says there is heaven and earth difference and that the need for 6th gear is gone.

Reading this with Xpulse having a bigger sprocket with addition of a teeth, this could be decently powerful for light offroad use. Does anyone know whether Xtreme engine has been retuned for Xpulse at all?

But I really wish this was as exclusive as Impulse on the road.

[girishv]

Originally Posted by sreeJiva

Coming back to Xpulse, my cousin has a first gen Xtreme. Having driven it close to 500 kms I can say that I always felt the need for 6th gear - was not refined at all - and ergonomics was a disaster.

My cousin said he test drove the new xtreme and says there is heaven and earth difference and that the need for 6th gear is gone.

Reading this with Xpulse having a bigger sprocket with addition of a teeth, this could be decently powerful for light offroad use. Does anyone know whether Xtreme engine has been retuned for Xpulse at all?

I hope your cousin is not saying that the power has reduced and with it, took down the need for the sixth gear.

I always keep searching for that non-existing sixth gear on my eliminator even in city rides and I can imagine your (cousin's) plight.


Sometime back, I enquired about a commuter bike with flat seat for occassional lady pillion rider. This bike ticks most of the required boxes. Since I am not planning for any touring anymore, this may be a blessing. I am only waiting to sit on the bike to see whether 825 mm seat height is a hindrance as I am of 5'6 only.

[ashwinprakas]

Originally Posted by sreeJiva

AP, Are you saying you won't touch Honda or is it a Hero?

Honda, Hero I can get by with a bit of patience, the online spares portal helps as well.

From my experience dealer attitude is not consistently bad or good. We'd just have to pick a place who treat us better.

I have visited close to 10 Hyundai showrooms from Trivandrum -Kottayam-Ernakulam for servicing my automatic Verna and only Kazhakutam Popular Hyundai were able to find the root cause, rectify and deliver a reliable vehicle.

Same with Honda. Muthoot Honda at Ranny, Pathanamthitta is bad. Evm Honda at Kazhakutam is worse. But EVM Honda at Kaimanam have a great attitude for both service and sales and are very approachable.

Granted, but I work on my own motorcycles and for me the only dependence on the SVC is for procuring spares, hence the attitude of how they chauffeur me is out of the question.

My only expectation is that there's no downtime, and sadly irrespective of where I go i.e TVM or KLM, the response is pathetic for Honda's

So rather than blame my fate if I take the educated route and decide to reach out to Honda, then there would be no response.

Back in 2012 we had to reach out to a Japanese guy from HMSI for them to acknowledge a manufacturing issue with a CB150 we got. And the contact was't easy to get as their website was useless, luckily a fellow enthusiast with connections who'd faced similar issues forwarded us the contact details of the said individual.

Makes you think whether you're scoring contraband or buying spares for a motorcycle you've paid unreasonably big bucks for.

Now this might be the norm for most motorcyclists in our country but after having shifted to Bajaj in 2013 and currently on my 3rd Bajaj motorcycle, I'd say I'd rather put my faith elsewhere and Hero wins me over at that as the spares network is not as reliable as Bajaj but its ages better than Honda, especially after they've dedicated resources to set up independent spare outlets around the country;



The recent online spares portal just makes things even better.

And if neither work, fill in the complaint form on their website and you have your nearest SVC ringing you up within a matter of hours with the details you seek.

Coming back to Xpulse, my cousin has a first gen Xtreme. Having driven it close to 500 kms I can say that I always felt the need for 6th gear - was not refined at all - and ergonomics was a disaster.

My cousin said he test drove the new xtreme and says there is heaven and earth difference and that the need for 6th gear is gone.

Its more to do with user feel and experience as other than a higher compression piston and head and different ignition map the Gen 1 and Gen 2/3 CBZ's have not been altered much in terms of performance, I've confirmed with a fellow enthusiast and even the sprockets were the same it seems.

Having the opportunity to help a fellow enthusiast rebuild his Gen 2 CBZ-X;



I got to ride it for a few hundred km's after the rebuild and MAN! The motorcycle was a firecracker to ride, and this is me coming from a P220 and weighing about 110kgs at the time.

Crack open the throttle and you'd surge past anything in the near vicinity! The torque was just WOW! Now the motorcycle did vibe a lot, but that was due to Hero/Honda being cheap and replacing the counter-balancer with a dummy collar on their respective models, which Hero later on rectified by including in the Impulse and the Xtreme 200.


Image Courtesy: Ashwanth R @ xBhp.

So I guess you see why I'm super excited about the Xpulse 200 sporting a bored-up iteration of the same motor, now improved.

But I really wish this was as exclusive as Impulse on the road.

The exclusivity of the Impulse was that it was too hip for the general census, back in 2011 when it was launched I'd attended and myself and 2 other enthusiasts were the only ones present.



With the exception of us the showroom floor was literally empty and this was the biggest showroom of the biggest HH dealer in the south.

I hope things change with the Xpulse and interested parties do their own re-search rather than go with folk-lore, because if this were to fail then I'd mostly loose hope in the Indian motorcycling scene.

Cheers,
A.P.

[neil.jericho]

Originally Posted by ashwinprakas

Now this might be the norm for most motorcyclists in our country but after having shifted to Bajaj in 2013 and currently on my 3rd Bajaj motorcycle, I'd say I'd rather put my faith elsewhere and Hero wins me over at that as the spares network is not as reliable as Bajaj but its ages better than Honda, especially after they've dedicated resources to set up independent spare outlets around the country

Ashwin, from what I know, Hero had a terrible reputation in Kerala for being unable to service basic spares for the Karizma and ZMR. An old riding buddy of mine Praveen (you might know him from Xbhp) who was an avid tourer had so many issues with sourcing spares back in the day and he used to reach out to all the dealers to get them. Im glad to see that Hero has taken positive steps to rectify this long standing problem. Now if only they can manufacture more motorcycles like the Xpulse 200 that appeal to enthusiasts!

[ashwinprakas]

Originally Posted by neil.jericho

Ashwin, from what I know, Hero had a terrible reputation in Kerala for being unable to service basic spares for the Karizma and ZMR. An old riding buddy of mine Praveen (you might know him from Xbhp) who was an avid tourer had so many issues with sourcing spares back in the day and he used to reach out to all the dealers to get them. Im glad to see that Hero has taken positive steps to rectify this long standing problem. Now if only they can manufacture more motorcycles like the Xpulse 200 that appeal to enthusiasts!

Indeed, I know Praveen though I've not had the opportunity to ride along with him, he had a ZMR around the time, my case was similar as I was riding a ZMA back then.

Spare availability was crap and it was quite a surprise how Hero pulled up their pants and changed things around. From riding all the way to EKM to source spares, all I had to do was place an express order at my nearest spares outlet and I'd get a prompt call when the hard to find part reached their goddown within a couple of days of me placing the order.

Recently for the earlier mentioned Gen 2 CBZ-X I had gone to source a huge list of parts as the whole clutch and head was being rebuild and since the head was being taken off I had decided to get a new timing chain kit and ring kit, the whole ordeal took 2 hours from the moment I reached their dedicated spares outlet to the moment I walked out cursing the delay.

But in retrospect, the only reason I cursed them was because Bajaj had spoiled me in the past few years, because waiting 2 hours to source a 50L top box full of spares for a discontinued(technically) model was leaps and bounds better than the effort I had to take to even source the simplest of parts back in the day when Hero was running aloof providing support only for the 100cc segment, all the while ignoring their flagship customers.

After the EBR design fiasco, and their flagship sales hitting all time lows, Hero has been threading carefully, the result of which was evident when we went to buy almost 30k worth of spares for our scrap rebuild ZMA a few days ago, there wasn't even a single part that was out of stock, everything was ready for billing!

[Red Liner]

Xpulse runs a 13 tooth front sprocket. Does anyone know whether a 12 tooth sprocket is available in the hero family or outside that will fit in there? That will allow the chain to be kept stock, maybe remove a link or two.

[Red Liner]

Nice short video to refect on.

https://youtu.be/4t0ukWhLE1U

[ashwanth]

Folks, can anyone tell me why the Fi version has a kickstarter - can the magneto provide enough juice to run the fuel pump and injector?

[Red Liner]

An article from spurge of Revzilla. Granted, it eulogizes the spiritual grand daddy of the xpulse, the CRF250L.

https://www.revzilla.com/common-trea...ban-motorcycle

[ashwinprakas]

Originally Posted by Red Liner

Xpulse runs a 13 tooth front sprocket. Does anyone know whether a 12 tooth sprocket is available in the hero family or outside that will fit in there? That will allow the chain to be kept stock, maybe remove a link or two.

I presume not as the ZMA/ZMR was the only one to sport a .520 pitch chain last time I checked and it would be unlikely that the new motorcycles would drop below that pitch as it has become the standard more or less.

And 13T is threshold on OEM machines, mostly due to favoring chain life, as a smaller sprocket has a aggressive curve that can wear out the chain prematurely, hence why thumb rule is to play with the rear sprocket.

Originally Posted by ashwanth

Folks, can anyone tell me why the Fi version has a kickstarter - can the magneto provide enough juice to run the fuel pump and injector?

Even the ZMA launched in 2003 had a full DC ignition as observed from its stator(Read, Missing Primary Ignition Coil);



Meaning the motorcycle wouldn't run right without a battery in place, yet it still came with a kick-starter, and many even to this day follow the outdated practice of kick-starting it in the morning.

The idea is that the Starter Motor puts maximum load on the battery and hence negating that load with a kick-starer helps to get the motorcycle running in the event that the battery is low on juice(Read, Though low on juice the battery is still present).

Cheers,
A.P.

[Motard_Blr]

Originally Posted by ashwinprakas

....
Meaning the motorcycle wouldn't run right without a battery in place, yet it still came with a kick-starter, and many even to this day follow the outdated practice of kick-starting it in the morning.

The idea is that the Starter Motor puts maximum load on the battery and hence negating that load with a kick-starer helps to get the motorcycle running in the event that the battery is low on juice(Read, Though low on juice the battery is still present).

Cheers,
A.P.

Actually the reason is very simple but not obvious. Indian customers don't maintain their bikes very well and running with a low battery is very common. Without a kick starter, most two wheelers in India would not be running!