[Ketan]

Originally Posted by daretodream

I have taken the plunge: I booked Xpulse 200 4V Pro today evening and taking delivery tomorrow afternoon. My use case is to use as City Commuter in non-existent Bengaluru roads. I am 6 feet tall, so height was never an issue and I wanted the bike with best suspension this side of 8-10 lakhs. Of all the bikes I test rode, nothing connected with my feelings than XPulse Pro!

Many Congratulations! Wish you many happy trails and dirt tracks ahead with the ride. However, I'd suggest to take a note of your surrounding when you are going over the speed brakers without any braking, other vehicles, folks around may predict you to be braking at those points and should not land into an unpredictable or undesirable situation. Save that capacity of your forks/suspensions for some dirt tracks you'd be doing on your weekends.

Originally Posted by kedar3223

Has anyone tried the xpulse pro or rally kit with stock xpulse rear mono shock? How's the balance with this setup? Asking wrt more accessible reach to the ground while having adjustabilty at the front.

I've not heard anyone trying this and providing some useful feedback about it. However, I'd suggest not going with this setup. It may change the overall motorcycle dynamics, either making it more aggresive or passive depending on suspension height difference at front and rear. This difference does matter when it comes to body dynamics.

Originally Posted by 2StrokeJunkie

The approach I would recommend would be to first test ride both bikes and see which one he prefers.
.
.
If he goes with the Pro
- He could just learn how to ride it and live with it for no extra cost.
- He could change the adjustable rear suspension back to standard - which would be redundant on the Pro if you ask me.
- Knobby offroad tires

You can check the Hero accessories website to get an idea about prices for these parts.

I agree to the later approach. I know that your friend is looking forward to a motorcycle to be used in the city, commuting. However, this seat height is being taken as a typical mindset by all of us in India. It's just a matter of learning how to manage with that seat height. You'd learn the butt sliding technique in matter of no time, in case if you in-seam is not deep enough to get you both the feet on the ground.
In contrary, this may become an interesting skill that you'd learn and a satisfying experience eventually. You'd love mounting/dismounting cow-boy and many other techniques as you continue to learn and explore.

Originally Posted by Sensible_Speed

But, there's a troubling issue with the throttle calibration and gearing of the bike that makes it irksome to ride in the city. The first two gears are way too short to ride comfortably in the city. This problem compounds when you hit really technical sections on the trail, or even a monsoon bombed rural road. Add to that the abrupt fueling and the bike becomes very temperamental to ride at low speeds. This is a major deterrent in Bangalore traffic conditions.

I would highly recommend a remap to fix the fueling and maybe consider changing the gear ratios for slightly taller gearing. A stop gap fix could be changing the rear sprocket, but these will void your warranty. If you plan to hang on to your bike for a long time and are mechanically inclined, making the aforementioned changes will improve your experience by miles.

Happy riding!

I'm experiencing this short gears as you explained and accelerator behaves jerky, mostly with those two gears, for the reason you mentioned I guess.
I'd love to fix this problem. However, need to think twice and clearly understand the change before changing the sprocket size/teeth. I need to check if RD has their FuelX or PowerTronics to address this problem.

Originally Posted by Aragorn

Have made some basic mechanical modifications and visual changes - but like I said - this is a machine which has lot of modification potential. It will evolve with ownership.

Congratulations on your new ride and glad you'd be making it to some good use now!
You're right, this is modification friendly motorcycle and there are quite a few things one can try to get maximum fun out of it.

my updates:
Coming back to an update from my side, I have been liking the new footpeg hangers, it has made a very big difference in terms of how I stand-up, adding a better footpegs would improve it further for sure.
I usually avoid making changes on cosmetics/aesthetics side. I'm trying not to make too many performance changes at this time while I'm learning some skills and motorcycle is also in the warranty. However, I have made this ergo change (footpeg hangers) which was needed and it really makes a difference.

Rally seat:
I've tried the rally seat today when I visited the ASC for some work. I really liked the ease of standing up, it further improved it, just a little distance/time between the sitting and standing up position. I decided to get it. I keep interchanging between the stock and rally seat. Rally seat being narrower, it'd be easier to but-slide on it, I can still tip toe both sides with my boots on and not finding it difficult in normal conditions. Since it's narrow and bit more spongy than the stock seat, I feel it'd start causing the pain on long rides sooner than the stock seat, that is not so spongy and bit flat/wider too.

My usage is mostly commuting between small towns and villages in outskirts of Bangalore, I rarely visit the city. lots of short rides and breakfast rides with other riding groups and friends. Another purpose would be to learn some new skills riding dirt tracks and trails. I don't think I will be using this motorcycle for touring, at the most, for some solitude ride (slow travel, riding solo).

[Aragorn]

Originally Posted by Ketan

my updates:
Coming back to an update from my side, I have been liking the new footpeg hangers, it has made a very big difference in terms of how I stand-up, adding a better footpegs would improve it further for sure.
I usually avoid making changes on cosmetics/aesthetics side. I'm trying not to make too many performance changes at this time while I'm learning some skills and motorcycle is also in the warranty. However, I have made this ergo change (footpeg hangers) which was needed and it really makes a difference.

Rally seat:
I've tried the rally seat today when I visited the ASC for some work. I really liked the ease of standing up, it further improved it, just a little distance/time between the sitting and standing up position. I decided to get it. I keep interchanging between the stock and rally seat. Rally seat being narrower, it'd be easier to but-slide on it, I can still tip toe both sides with my boots on and not finding it difficult in normal conditions. Since it's narrow and bit more spongy than the stock seat, I feel it'd start causing the pain on long rides sooner than the stock seat, that is not so spongy and bit flat/wider too.

My usage is mostly commuting between small towns and villages in outskirts of Bangalore, I rarely visit the city. lots of short rides and breakfast rides with other riding groups and friends. Another purpose would be to learn some new skills riding dirt tracks and trails. I don't think I will be using this motorcycle for touring, at the most, for some solitude ride (slow travel, riding solo).

Congrats Ketan on your machine. The machine looks so purposeful with the rally seat on.

You are spot-on about the rally seat. It improves the sit - stand transition so much more as it reduces the knee angle. The only downside being that it is not very touring friendly as it has very little support below the thighs.

I have a different approach to solving this. I have a rally seat for short city rides and a well padded 'touring seat' for when I undertake longer rides or do 2-up riding.

Here is how the 'touring seat' looks. Has been a brilliant companion for longer rides.