[ebonho]

Originally Posted by Marias

Agreed Aargee sir, maybe I should put more miles & plan trips carefully before looking at panniers


Yeah should go with better planning. Also have to realize that people dont exactly carry knives & linger around in parking lots to slice open luggage bags


While on my way back from a trip [I was solo], I was an hour away from my hotel in Tirupati and was famished. I thought I could make it but suddenly felt hunger pangs. Luckily found one restaurant, which had a clear LoS to the parking, albeit car parking. Bike parking was somewhere inside. It wasn't rush hour (around 4pm) & there was good space there for my bike. I told the security guard calmly about my luggage & the valuables inside. But he was adamant & asked to park in the bike parking area. I was frustrated, more so because he refused to see reason in my situation. But I just didn't have any energy to argue. I just left the place, stopped at a roadside stall to have a cup of tea & went to my hotel to have a delicious biryani On hindsight, I don't really blame the security guard. He was just doing his job, maybe he had a bad day, maybe he was reprimanded by his superiors for exactly the same thing in the past. Anyways, those are the times I think I should have had panniers, he he, or should have planned better. Though I think when riding solo, you have the luxury of stopping when & where you want, so, much of it is adhoc.

Such places with high handed chowkidars or owners flexing and giving me attitude do not get my business. Period. It's a mental thing about money and got nothing to do with my bike. If you are located on the highway you know people are traveling. This is not a city restaurant or mall parking. There are (usually) enough places you can get a cup of tea and at least a wada pav or misal or paratha or idli or poha or even just a packet of biscuits.

For me personally, on tour, there is no compromise on line of sight. Thousands of kilometres from home, your bike takes on a whole new meaning. I'm least fussed about guys fiddling with my luggage. The straps are so complicated that no opportunistic luccha is ever going to figure each of them out in time. The bags only come off at night at the lodge. But the bike has got to have an enclosed parking. Clean bed sheet and pillow cover. And a toilet with no shades of brown ... and I'm set.

Cheers, Doc

P.S. All my solo riding is without planning of night halts. I just know my route (usually the next night's destination and the major way point cities ir towns in between). There is no way you can plan stops along the way. Either for food or fuel. That's just too much logistics for me and would totally kill the spirit of a road trip. It's your country. Explore.

[aargee]

Originally Posted by Marias

Agreed Aargee sir, maybe I should put more miles & plan trips carefully before looking at panniers

Boss, pls read the above post, that's experience talking; every word in above post is to be strongly agreed by everyone who has experienced solo motorcycle touring in this country (or in any country for that matter)

Again saying, one does not stand to lose anything by staying cautious, but refraining to do so has potential to bring all the harms. Embarrassment? Phew!! End of the day, it's our ride, our journey & all the more our life!!

[ninjatalli]

Originally Posted by Marias

Good to see another fellow rider installing the lowering kit. I also got the lowering kit done based on Torino's feedback ( I am 5'5). Its been almost 6 months, and the confidence the reduced height inspires is out of this world.

Thanks for this. Do you mind sharing more detailed feedback on the lowering kit? I guess I missed the earlier updates by others on this thread (hard to keep track on such an active thread), but we have a suspension thread for the Twins. It would help other INT650/GT650 owners to have the feedback on that thread rather than trying to search through this massive common discussion thread.

Also did you get the suspension changed by Melvin (and his team)? Or got it done from a local mechanic/garage?

Related thread (Suspension Upgrades for the Royal Enfield Interceptor 650 & Continental GT 650 Twins).

[Sankalp05]

Originally Posted by tharian

Finally, bit the Bullet and joined the bandwagon.
My Canyon Red Interceptor 22' make.

What a fantastic color! I believe Canyon Red is the most underrated of all the colors Inty comes in. Congratulations on your worthy acquisition brother. It is passionate people like you who help me inch closer to my own dream of getting one for myself, practicality be damned! Happy Riding

[nasirkaka]

Found an interceptor seat plate being sold on olx and on impulse, got the plate and a seat made from Sahara seat of Hyderabad.
post a ride of 25kms to work, the seat feels comfortable. The padding is better and help absorb road undulations better than what i had. the lower back support helps as well as i am used to that o my other bike. The quality of the seat seems nice. But the seat restricts movement and locks the riders in mostly one position. Moving around too much on the seat on long rides may be an issue, will have to experience and see how it fares. The seat does not aesthetically gel with the bike but its not that bad either. sharing some pics.

[jomson13]

Need a damage assessment here:

Fact - The bike ran with oil lower than the min level for at least 1000 kms. No audibile or tangible differences being felt on the bike as of now.

Background - This is my first enfield, and it is pre-owned. When I got it (16,500 km run) I remember seeing oil in the sight glass. (The bike was in cold condition)
The current odo reading is 19,000 km and today I realized that the oil level was low; it was not visible in the sight glass even after being parked for an hour.

I had some Motul 20w50 lying around and used it to top up the oil level.
I am aware that this is not the exact grade but my reasoning here is that
1. It is pretty close to the spec - 10w50 vs 20w50
2. Summers are approaching - so the thicker 20 oil should come up to temp faster
3. Any oil is better than no oil!

It took 200ml oil for the level to come upto the min level and a total of 500 ml to get it upto the max level.

Questions:

1. What kind of damage would already have been done due to running below min oil level?
2. What is the usual oil consumption? I will make sure I keep on checking more regularly.

[setuniket]

I am not sure about effect on engine so won’t comment.

However mixing up grade is not advised. Moreover RE has not recommended any other grade or suggest temperature based grade, it would be better to drain this oil and replace with correct grade.

Right now other than liquid gun, we have Motul, liqui moly, castrol and Total in 10W50 grade.

Originally Posted by jomson13

Need a damage assessment here:


I had some Motul 20w50 lying around and used it to top up the oil level.
I am aware that this is not the exact grade but my reasoning here is that
1. It is pretty close to the spec - 10w50 vs 20w50
2. Summers are approaching - so the thicker 20 oil should come up to temp faster
3. Any oil is better than no oil!

It took 200ml oil for the level to come upto the min level and a total of 500 ml to get it upto the max level.

Questions:

1. What kind of damage would already have been done due to running below min oil level?
2. What is the usual oil consumption? I will make sure I keep on checking more regularly.

[Captain Slow]

Its been over 3 years of trouble-free ownership of my 650 Interceptor.
Got my bike delivered on the 1st of Feb 2019, delivery experience wasn't the best. I had issues with the dealer and delivery.

My bike visited the A$$ only once for its service after that I took the risk of avoiding warranty and doing everything at my trusted FNG or DIY route and my bike is doing very very well compared to the bikes that have visited the A$$ and other famed FNG's

The bike has done close to 15,000KM - To date, I have changed nothing except for regular oil, oil filter and air filter changes. The bike did suffer from the famous 650 wobbling issue- which the RE service guys could never solve or even diagnose. (seen them mess up other bikes in the group) -
We tried greasing them, torquing them down to spec-nothing solved the issue. The only thing left to do was change the damn fork bearing!
The only bearing available during the lockdown was the - SKF 30205, (The RE OEM's are also SKF) Post the fork bearing change -no more wobbling! this did solve the wobble issue - The bike Feels very very stable even at 3 digit highway speeds.


(Did give a thought of ntn bearings but at 2x-3x the cost? ) Did not seem worth so much and they were not available when I wanted them.
NO other part has needed a change, No Electrical issues, (still running the OEM battery, brake pads, tyres and even the fuel cap rubber has never been changed.
Yes, the instrument panel does fog up when I ride in the rain.

Based on the group's feedback I have changed the fork oil to Motul 20W(fork oil) and that has improved the front end a lot! (CHEAP AND BEST)
Engine oil - 7100 Motul 10W50 (Using this oil from 2500-3000KM) Engine feels much much smoother - gear shifts are way better.

My preventive maintenance ( cheap and simple )-
Once a year Change
1) Oil
2) Oil Filter
3) Air Filter (I'm not a believer of all those fancy expensive b.s K&N or high airflow filters .)
4) Check Spark plus (change planned at 20,000KM, NO FANCY PLUGS)
5) Lube all the cables and joints.
6) Change fork oil
7) Wheel turning
8) Detailing ( Full Detail and cleaning of the bike)

Every 4 months
1) Check the oil level
2) Check chain
3) Clean/Lube the chain (I use the cheapest gearbox oil of amazon as chain lube -)
4) Check brakes
5) Check Battery
6) Check swing arm bushes
7) Check cables
8) Check Electricals

One mistake I did, Tried wheel balancing by some big-name wheel alignment shop and things went horribly wrong! The Handlebar on the bike started wobbling at 40 KM! They put over 140 grams of wheel weight on the front wheel charged me over Rs-/ 800.00 for a single wheel!


(All these weights were added by this big alignment shop, just for the front wheel of the bike
Finally, I had to go to my local spoke wheel alignment guy and he fixed this for me.

Special thanks to the admins (Hemant, Anup, Anoop) of the Namma Bengaluru 650 group for their crazy and fun group for helping me understand and maintain this beast!

[catkins]

Originally Posted by Captain Slow

Once a year Change
7) Wheel turning

What is "Wheel turning"?

[Captain Slow]

Originally Posted by catkins

What is "Wheel turning"?

Autocorrect works very well! - WHEEL TRUING

[sandeepmohan]

Originally Posted by jomson13

Need a damage assessment here

For now, don't worry about it. As long as there was some oil to lubricate the engine and gearbox, you're okay. Even if it were the wrong grade.

Get a full oil replacement done along with a filter change and observe. It is a concern the sight of oil disappeared in just 2500km of running!

Check for leaks around the engine and oil cooler.

If the engine was really starved of oil, you would have noticed a change in sound.

Damage assessment is hard, unless you strip the engine and gearbox apart. You don't want to do that on a bike that's running perfectly fine.

Check your exhaust. It should be free of smoke or soot deposits. If it is black at the tip, that hints at a problem. A little white smoke during a cold morning start is fine. That is condensation inside the exhaust making its way out.

With the prescribed service interval (5000km) and the engine in good health, there should be zero oil consumption. I've run my bike 2000km over the recommended service interval and the level was just below the line, when observed from the window. May have used 50 - 100ml tops. I did not measure nor did I ask the service center to measure. It had discolored a little which is expected. As long as its not burnt black, you're all good.

[ninjatalli]

Originally Posted by Captain Slow

Its been over 3 years of trouble-free ownership of my 650 Interceptor.
....
The bike has done close to 15,000KM

Ditto here - can say your first few paragraphs are talking about my 3 year old ~15k kms done INT650

My bike visited the A$$ only once for its service after that I took the risk of avoiding warranty and doing everything at my trusted FNG or DIY route and my bike is doing very very well compared to the bikes that have visited the A$$ and other famed FNG's

Mind sharing the FNG contacts/details? I'm tired of going back to to these RE guys and figuring out they didn't do what they were asked to do (or doing minor fix-ups and the problem comes up again in a few weeks). Been on the lookout for an FNG in Bangalore who is good with INT650.

[jomson13]

Originally Posted by sandeepmohan

Check your exhaust. It should be free of smoke or soot deposits. If it is black at the tip, that hints at a problem. A little white smoke during a cold morning start is fine. That is condensation inside the exhaust making its way out.

No deposits on the exhaust as of now, will keep a look out.
Do you mean sooty black or oily black?
I think sooty black is expected with normal running

Originally Posted by Captain Slow

The bike did suffer from the famous 650 wobbling issue- which the RE service guys could never solve or even diagnose. (seen them mess up other bikes in the group) -
We tried greasing them, torquing them down to spec-nothing solved the issue. The only thing left to do was change the damn fork bearing!
The only bearing available during the lockdown was the - SKF 30205, (The RE OEM's are also SKF) Post the fork bearing change -no more wobbling! this did solve the wobble issue - The bike Feels very very stable even at 3 digit highway speeds.

My bike also has the wobble issue.
I have not yet shown it to the ASC, I plan to change tires first (maybe in a month or two) and then see if the issue still persists.
If it does I too will go ahead and replace the bearing.

Could it be that due to the excessively soft stock front end the coneset bearing takes quite a beating and hence develops play quite early?
If yes, then the root cause is the soft forks and a fork oil replacement needs to be done alongwith the bearing change.

Thoughts?

[pramods]

Originally Posted by Captain Slow

....
We tried greasing them, torquing them down to spec-nothing solved the issue. The only thing left to do was change the damn fork bearing!
The only bearing available during the lockdown was the - SKF 30205, (The RE OEM's are also SKF) Post the fork bearing change -no more wobbling! this did solve the wobble issue - The bike Feels very very stable even at 3 digit highway speeds.
..

I have been struggling with wobbling, service people dismantled and looked and the bearing and found it to be ok, their assessment. Still have the wobbling issue, planning to change the tyre now.
If this don't fix the issue, will have to specifically ask them to change the bearing irrespective of it state.

Mine GT is Dec 2018 one, got the fuel cap replaced 3 times and am not sure the seal problem is solved yet!

-Pramod

[saikishor]

Hello everyone. Need advice on a Ventura Blue GT.

2019 Dec purchased, 2nd owner, 10k kms.
Spoke with the owner, he seemed like a genuine person. Bike has been religiously maintained. But the owner told me he had used it for track days. The bike has an aftermarket AEW exhaust. Asking 2.65.

I will go to see the bike on Saturday i.e, 26th of February.

Early replies will be highly appreciated.

Thanks in advance.
Saikishor