[dheer4]

"Expect the unexpected!"

Let me introduce myself!

Hello, I'm Dheeraj!. This is my first thread on Team-BHP and I've been putting off from writing about my bike for way too long and figured that I'd procrastinated enough and sat down to write my journey. There have been a lot of Up's and Down's and still this had lead me to experience a lot of things which I wouldn't have if I had not taken the plunge!.

How it began!

Just after January of 2021, after the lockdown I had to find a way to commute to my college which was 25 Km one-way(50Km round trip) and also to meet with friends and go out afterwards. So I figured that the net distance that I would cover on an average would be close to 70-80Km in a day. Prior to this I had taken our secondary car (Swift Dzire 1.3 D) but due to increasing drivers and the fuel costs, I had found it difficult to justify the cost.

After this, I had come to the conclusion that we had to get another car/2 wheeler for the family!.

Next began the Herculean task of convincing my parents about getting another vehicle.At first it was a resounding "NO" from my mom, who told that another car at 4-5L would make more sense. But after calculating fuel and other expenses, I felt owning 3 cars made no financial sense as I would leave for masters in 2 Years (in 2021). After a month of shrewd negotiations with my parents, the decision to purchase a bike was finalised.

BACKGROUND

I used to ride my dad's CBZ. It was only used for minor errands and never taken for more than 3 Kms!. For anything in the city, I used a Ray Z which is still fulfilling duties in my house!.

So keeping this in mind, I looked around for these major criteria:

• Must be below 3 Lakhs ( On road)
• Must have Dual Channel ABS
• Must be easy to maintain as I intended to keep the bike in the family

And I found these bikes that satisfied my criteria then:

• Dominar 400
• Dominar 250
• Gixxer SF 250/ Gixxer 250
• Jawa Perak
• Royal Enfield Interceptor 650
• Honda CB350

Next steps:

Took the list and start began calling various showrooms in and around Hyderabad to find out if any test rides were available for the above vehicles.

Due to the pandemic, a lot of companies had no stock of TD vehicles or were quoting absurd wait times for test rides.

Bajaj ,Honda and Suzuki had test ride vehicles ready and we went to the showrooms to check the vehicles out!.

Dominar 400 and 250 were ruled out instantly (400 due to the weight and 250 felt as a compromise when compared to the 400 at that time).

Honda CB350 had a characteristic of its own and had that beautiful thump which I fell in love with. But as it was being sold under BigWing dealerships, I was worried about the service and the spares aspect and it being a relatively new product offering in the market.

Suzuki dealership had only the SF250 for test ride. I rode it and instantly fell in love with the bike. Something connected and I felt it had to be the one. We ended up booking the bike on the spot and took delivery a few hours later.

Delivery day and the following weeks

The delivery was smooth. I was allowed into the stockyard to complete PDI and was able to choose between 3 bikes of different colours. I choose the Moto GP blue as I was not sure about maintaining Matte black/Silver easily.

The following week

The following week, I had completed 1000 kms (90% Highway) and loved the way the bike performed. I was really impressed as I never faced any heating issues in peak traffic or on sustained highway driving.(My friend still has complaints about his Duke 250 heating up like crazy in traffic!).

In 2 weeks I had done around 1500 Kms on the bike and it was time for first servicing!.

[dheer4]

The Verdict After driving for 16,000 Kms!

Let me jump into the verdict as a lot of you guys are mainly looking for this!, Ill attach a lot of amazing experiences I've experienced below!.

The bike so far has visited 6 States.(TS,AP,MH,TN,KA,GA). Never has the bike broken down leaving me stranded or has made me bang my head!.The experience so far has been amazing barring the after sales which is terrible.I have covered 16,000 Km's in 14 Months in which almost 5 months were spent either in the garage or the ASS for repairs(1 Month for accidental repair, 1 Month for cylinder head replacement, 15 days for parts not being available etc and 2 months due to lockdown.)

What I like about the bike!:

• Sheer space on offer on the rider's seat!
• Amazing Engine!
• Excellent bike in city as well as on the highway!
• Excellent Handler!
• VFM offering for 2L on road
• Brakes are decent. Stops whenever i want to!.
• The power is more than enough to overtake and cruise comfortably around 90-110 Km/H. The top speed is 155Km/h which I've hit a lot of times!.
• Can keep up with almost any bike/car on the highway!

What I dislike about the bike!

• Suzuki's Aftersales is really sad. It is the worst i've experienced till date.
• Sourcing spares is difficult and ordering a part takes a minimum of 15-20 days if the part isn't available.
• Mechanics aren't trained. I had to search for 8 months to find a decent ASS.
• Stock tyres are not great.(I upgraded to Michelin Road 5 at 10k mark).
• Front view is not as good as the side view!.

The bike in its stock form, is more than adequate and I felt no modifications had to be done except adding a plug and play hazard controller. I had thought to get LED indicators, but decided against it as the stock indicators are bright enough in the night even on the highway!

This bike wow'ed my close cousin who has an Interceptor!. He was shocked that the bike was such a good handler! The decision to sell the RE Interceptor was made on the spot and we bid the RE goodbye. The Interceptor had done around 6k Km's and was sold to a family member. We welcomed a Kawasaki Z900 the next week!.(That's an amazing story for next time!).

My first ride with a super bike! :

My brother and I were super stoked and went on a breakfast ride to Kondapochamma Reservoir which is a popular destination to visit. This was the first time I ever rode a super bike and I had already started making calculations for the next 3 years about finances and how I could upgrade to one ASAP!.(I had done around 3,000 Km's by now!).

Blue hawk and the Z900 together!

First ride ever on ghats! :

In the following weeks, we were hooked!. My cousin and I planned to ride to Srisailam, which is a religious destination just shy of 300Km's one way and had an amazing ghat section for almost 100Km's. The other 200Km's are amazing straight roads which are almost empty all the time.

A small break near the dam!


Srisailam Dam!

How the bike performed!

The bike performed brilliantly. The stock tyres are hard and do not inspire confidence to lean as the grip offered while cornering is not at all adequate.
The stock tyres would have easily lasted over 20,000Km but I decided I had enough and got them changed to Michelin Road 5 around 10,000Km mark.

Overall, we had a really great time. I was never tired even after riding for 300 kms straight! with a single break!. I experienced a lot of new things in this ride and had promised myself to comeback once I had stickier tyres!

[dheer4]

Detailing the Hawk!:

I had planned on getting the bike ceramic coated from a long time and finally got it done!. I got it done from Wrap n Shine in Hyderabad who did a fantastic job on the ceramic coat and the paint correction! I opted for the 2 Year package which includes a top up coat every 8 months!.

So far even after 14 months, the coat has held up exceptionally and I am more than satisfied.

See how the bike still shines after a wash!

Suzuki's horrible after sales!:

This deserves a section of its own!. So far, the only thing hindering me from recommending this bike to anyone I know is the terrible after sales even in a big city like Hyderabad.

Parts availability is a big question mark and half the time basic things such as clutch cable were not available. Forget fairings and stickers, sometimes even brake pads were not available.

GEM SUZUKI KONDAPUR is the worst of the lot. Having bought my bike from Gem motors, which had a Suzuki Big bike service centre(Only one in Hyderabad), I had expected them to at least know the oil to be filled in the bike. They filled 1400 ml for an engine that has a capacity for 1200 ml. I noticed the sluggishness in the engine and immediately got the oil drained and found out that this had been done. This was after I had faced a minor accident where a lady who was learning how to ride a scooty on the main road lost control and hit me head on. The bike was with them for almost 1 month due to their incompetence. I had to escalate matters to Suzuki and the Spares Head of South India got in touch. He helped me source the parts and got the repair moving. The mechanics and the technicians work in such a way that I started appreciating government offices. There is no communication whatsoever regarding the bike, spares or even calling me to collect the bike. I had to follow up almost every other day to know the basic status of the bike.

Basically, every service centre has a different oil filling level for the SF250. One of them filled 1250ml, the other service centre insists on filling 1400 ml where as another showed me the service manual and confirmed that only 1200ml has to go in.(4 different service centres have 4 different quantity.)

Also, the Mechanics at Gem had mounted my front tyre with rotation counter to the bike. So, I had really a hard time until I took it to an independent FNG who pointed out that the bike's tyres were mounted counter to the rotation. (Gem did not let me take any pictures at any point.)

I really feel that these mechanics have not been trained and are very incompetent. I don't know how they would diagnose a major problem in the future.

I've found a really competent ASS and a FNG(Which is more costly than the ASS but is way better). Padmaja Suzuki Begumpet is amazing and is way better than the crooks at Gem.

Suzuki has assisted me all the way, but the attitude of service centres has to change at some point. This bike can be only serviced at Suzuki Premium dealers which are a handful in a city like Hyderabad.

Attaching few pictures below!(These pictures are of different service centres.)

Left Fairing replaced due to crack


Cracked Tank Cover

[dheer4]

What's been replaced?

So far, in the span of 16,000 Kms, these parts had to be replaced!:

1. Front Brake Pads ( 3 sets upto now, Each set lasts 4,000 KM roughly.)
2. Brake fluid
3. Coneset (10,000 Kms)
4. Chain Kit (10,000 Kms)
5. Clutch Wire
6. Cylinder Head (Under Warranty)
7. Headlights (Under Warranty)

The cost of spares is not that expensive. The Front brake pads cost 600 Rs, the Chain kit costed me around 1500 Rs including labour and the coneset was just under 800Rs.

I never expected the chain to give up so early even though I've lubed the chain every 350-400 Kms.

The amazing experiences so far!

I've had a lot of amazing trips on the bike which make it really memorable. If I forget the 90 days in a year for downtime, the other 270 days have been the best days of my life.I feel my mental health has improved and the bike has given me a reason to wake up early on the weekends and has given me an opportunity to get away from the concrete jungle!.

I never imagined that I would cross Telangana on the bike let alone 5 states!.I've met a lot of amazing people which I never would have got to meet and had multiple new experiences.

I've done a lot of rides on my Hawk!, but as to not bore you guys any further(I really feel 4 posts are a lot to read), I'll just post a few rides and how my cylinder head was changed. So please bear with me for the next 3 posts!.

Riding a Ducati Monster

[dheer4]

Ride To Chirala Beach

Due to a long weekend coming up and the desire to ride moderately long, I planned a trip with a close friend of mine who has a RE Continental GT 650!.I had recently changed the tyres to Michelin Road 5 and had to break in the tyres. The plan was made on the spot and we planned to ride all the way from Hyderabad upto Repalle, which is my friend's maternal home town. We originally planned for 3D/2N, but had to return due to urgent work in Hyderabad.

Our bikes near the beach

We planned to stay in a small village near Repalle where my friend's grandparents live. We started in the morning around 4 AM and reached Repalle around 1 PM including a 2 Hour break in between. The ambient temperatures were above 35 degrees and if we stopped even for 5 mins, we would be sucked out of water like in the rasna ad.

After reaching, we lubed our bikes and went out to explore their village. My friend introduced me to an off-road trail which had an amazing view and few more roads which I really enjoyed. It was the first time I had ever seen such amazing scenery. We ended up exploring the entire village till sunset.

The next day, we took our bikes and went to the beach near the village!. The beach was so clean and we were able to go moderately close to the beach with our bikes and took some beautiful pictures to commemorate the occasion. I had really thought this would be the last beach ride, but I never expected the next ride!.

Friend's Grandparent's Home


Beautiful Beach!


We stopped for a break here!

The curious tale of disappearing oil! :

Right after the trip, I had noticed that there was no oil visible in the watch glass. I was really shocked as I had gotten the oil changed just before 1000 Km and the service interval was 4500Km.
Contacted the technician at Padmaja Suzuki and he asked me to bring the bike to the Service Center. We got the oil drained and found only 900ml out of 1200ml.
Thinking, it was a one off case, they topped the oil up and asked me to ride for another 2000 kms. If the oil level dropped further, next steps would be to open the engine.

Drained oil

[dheer4]

Trip to Goa!:

Over a long weekend, I had made up a spontaneous plan with a friend who owns an RR310. The long weekend started from Thursday and the plan to ride to Goa or Kanyakumari was decided on Wednesday evening. We tried for a last minute booking in Pondicherry but could not find any rooms in our budget, so dropped the Kanyakumari plan and decided to ride to Goa!.

It took us 12 Hours including breaks to reach South Goa from Hyderabad. We were able to contact our AirBnb host from our previous stay in Goa a few months back and I was able to get a room at his place for 700Rs/Night (Excellent negotiations skills combined with us being repeat customers). We had a rough budget of 10,000 Rs/Person including fuel and expenses and we were able to complete the entire trip at 8000Rs/Person for 4 days 3 Nights.

The bike gave a full tank range of around 400 Km's including the ghat section. The bike performed shockingly on the ghats. I was scraping footpegs left and right and it even rained in while we were doing the ghat section. A Jawa 42 rider who was from TN was tailing us and unfortunately crashed due to the off-road tyres on his bike and the attempted aggressive cornering while raining.

We were able to maintain an average speed of 70Km/h on the ghat section and my friend who had come with me was amazed aswell. I feel I would not have enjoyed the ghats on the stock MRF tyres. I feel Michelin Road 5 are way better than the stock tyres. These tyres also break really effectively on the wet surfaces as well as on the road. We were maintaining decent speeds even while it was raining.

Just before it rained in the ghat section

We were drenched and still were not tired after riding for 12 hours! We checked into our room and went out to a shack and enjoyed the beach for a while!. It was a dream come true and even met few amazing riders on the way!.

The next day, we went out to explore South Goa and clicked few beautiful pictures!

We found this location on the way to Colva beach!

While coming back after having breakfast, we again clicked a few more pictures.

The amazing weather of Goa!

The next day, we got the bikes washed at West Coast Customs!. The guy is amazing and was our saviour. He had a paddock and allowed us to lube our chains and also filled our air and gave suggestions on petrol bunks which are good. The price for washing was 140Rs and it included diesel washing the wheels as well!.

The hawk before getting washed


After the wash

We returned the next day and reached Hyderabad in 11 Hours. This was the most demanding ride till date!

Stopped to sync our intercom before ghat section


Second stop after Hubli highway for coconut water

[dheer4]

The dreaded tale of Oil Consumption Returns!

After the Goa trip, I had again noticed that the oil was again not visible. I again took the bike to Padmaja Suzuki and they immediately acknowledged that something was indeed wrong.

The oil again drained close to 860 ml

They asked me to leave the bike and checked the bike for compression after the technical team of Suzuki got involved and then approved the replacement for Cylinder Head. This whole ordeal took 16 days.

The bike has done around 16,000 Km's and the head has already been replaced. On the contrary, my dad's CBZ has done around 80,000 Km's and still the engine has not been opened once.

I had purchased the extended warranty for 5 years/50,000Km. So, no need to worry I think. But I seriously think Suzuki has to improve QC as this is not at all acceptable.

Conclusion

Thanks a lot for reading my thread!, this being the first thread I've made makes this a really special thread for me!. To conclude, this bike provided that you can find a competent mechanic/ ASS is a really capable machine. It has no heating issues, the suspension is amazing, and the engine is stress free even while cruising on the highway. The ergonomics are sorted and the seating position is not too aggressive. I've done a few off-road trails on this as well. The power offered is more than adequate and the Tank to Tank mileage on the highways is easily above 30 Km/l and goes upto 42 km/l. The only disadvantage being the after sales support and the okayish brakes.

[Aditya]

Thread moved out from the Assembly Line. Thanks for sharing!

[ramnaresh_2000]

Congratulations on your bike. Great choice of wheels. Myself owner of Suzuki 150 Gixxer in Hyderabad can understand the ordeal you have gone through with the incompetent Suzuki service center. From day 1 I am facing issues with showroom and service center. On my delivery day, I had categorically told the SA to keep the vehicle ready by 10:30 AM, and to my surprise they have not even started cleaning the vehicle when I reached their showroom in ranigunj. The lady who cleans the floor was cleaning the vehicle with a banian cloth when I reached there. This experience made me furious. They even screwed up my insurance, I asked for 3 years zero dep they gave me 1ZD +2 TP, which they rectified later after multiple trips.

The 1st service center experience was even horrible. They left swirl marks all over the tank and water spots were not cleaned properly. I stopped giving my vehicle there. The other service center in Tadbund is even worse than Ranigunj one. I started using local mechanic for regular servicing as the authorized service centers made no sense. I know I lost my warranty (including extended warranty), but I am confident that my bike is in top shape from last 3 years and would not need it anymore. It only clocked 9k kms in last 3 years and lost the battery during lockdown period.

Suzuki should really fix their service centers with regular audits and customer feedback calls after each visit. The sub-par showroom and service center experiences is a big let down. They have gem of an engine and vehicle portfolio, but this sarkari attitude of service centers is what killing their sales in my opinion.

Really surprised to see you made a trip to Goa from Hyderabad on your bike, it has been a distant dream since I purchased a car in 2017. Hopefully will make it soon, these days only impromptu plans work just like yours

Wishing you many happy miles ahead.

[Ritkon]

Thank you for this great, honest review. It is refreshing to see a bike review once in a while on Team-BHP. Hope you keep us posted with regular updates on your ownership experience.

While I was shopping for a bike (150cc though) about a year ago, I seriously considered the 150 Gixxer but backed off due to the thin and incompetent service network and stories of unreliability of the bike.

However, I couldn't help but notice how you didn't notice the low engine oil by engine heat, NVH, performance and gear shifting issues itself, but rather by visual inspection. Does this mean that these parameters were negligibly affected?

That level of engine oil burn should have resulted in a thick white smoke from the exhaust, especially after hard riding. Did that not happen either?

How did you ride the bike during the run-in period? Hard or smooth? Also, did you change the engine oil periodically at ASS only, or had it done outside also? Replacing a cylinder head so early is really concerning.

Please let us know and keep an eye out for any future issues.

[mad4nfs]

Congratulations for the Blue Hawk and thanks for this amazing write-up. I am also thinking of getting a bike under 3L and this review helped a lot.
I see RR310 in pictures and you must've ridden that at some point. Can you tell how much of difference is there between these 2 bikes? Mostly performance wise.
I also want to know that why you didn't go for Gixxer 250? Its the same bike except the fairing. You are not into naked bikes or because of some other reason you went for this one?
Thanks in advance for your answers.

[saikishor]

Gixxer SF250 was one strong contender when I was looking for a bike. The main reason I backed out was the lack of trust I had on the aftersales provided by these Japanese companies. Heck, an indicator lens wasn't available for our 2011 Activa even after placing an order for it and waiting for 6 months!

Suzuki Gixxer SF250 is a sales dud and a further argument is not required about it. The bike is realy good, but the sales numbers just don't show the same. I can only imagine the kind of havoc a service center will create for procuring parts after the bike is discontinued. I am happy with my Duke, and don't regret one bit of skipping the Gixxer SF250. I visited Gem Kondapur, those guys were desperate to make a sale. Other showroom I visited was in Ramachandrapuram- Shri Sai Suzuki.

I even had the RR310 on my list, but skipped it for similar reasons: sales dud, and the sheer incompetence of service centres.

I guess Suzuki and TVS are happy with selling Access and Jupiter scooters.

[IntoTheStorm]

I bought a Gixxer 250 few months back n I am very much satisfied with my “Ronin”s overall performance. Fortunately my regular suzuki service centre does a good job of taking care of my ride. I also own a Burgman 125, which had covered 21000 kms and is still going strong ( bought from same showroom 3 yrs back)

[tchsvy]

Congratulations on your SF, a wonderful bike, wish you a million happy miles. Absolutely loved reading your 'no filters' ownership. These quarter litre singles introduce us to the world of quality motorcycles. Being a CBR 250R owner myself, I feel the same itch to upgrade to something bigger and better ASAP.

On a side note, while I agree that we, bikers are essentially thrill seekers, it is always better to respect the conditions. Take it easy when its raining or when the conditions are harsh. Ride safe!

[Jaison]

Congratulation on your bike. I did own a 2018 Gixxer 150 SF FI ABS(the 1st 150 with ABS) if you remember. As I was not able to ride or maintain it properly, I sold it of last year. It was a great bike and I used to get 50km+/liter mileage and I never rode it above 90km/hr. I even did a Kerala, Kanyakumari, Chennai, Bangalore and Kerala round trip on it with luggage and pillion don't ask me how but it never had a problem.

The cylinder head replacement that you spoke is very unfortunate, can you share us some more info or changes that you noticed before the dip in level. The bike which I owned, I did the second service myself as I had already missed the service day by a big margin and I had all the info that I needed for service. During the first service and during my second service there were no change in oil color or very marginal color change. I believe it was a great engine.