[arunabh002]

Long post alert: This is the story of my motorcycling journey, and a travelogue which captures my experience of switching to a 2023 RC390 GP from a 2019 Dominar 400.


Prologue

I discovered riding in 2017 when I went to Wayanad on rented Avengers. There were 10 of us on 5 bikes. Me and my friend got an Avenger 150, on which we would switch as riders and pillions. There was no riding gear other than a cheap 500 rupee helmet (that too just for the rider!) and no matter how hard we tried, the bike never crossed 90kmph. Despite all that, I had the time of my life. The feeling of having the entirety of my existence reduced to a handlebar, an instrument cluster and the highway, traversing through this beautiful planet - changed something in me and I knew deep in my heart that I want to keep doing this.

For the next 1 year, I did everything I could - Getting my own place instead of crashing in the hall of my friends' apartments (to get an address proof), getting a regular paying job (to be able to take a loan) - to get my dream machine home, which was Dominar 400 at that time. I was just about to pull the trigger and found out that the facelift is coming in 2019. So I 'held back' (contrary to the tagline with which the facelift launched ) and waited for 7 whole months before I took the delivery of the matte black UG.


Delivery day!

I grew on that bike as a serious rider. I toured to my heart's content for 40000km and loved every second of it.

Meanwhile my younger brother also got into riding. After living with a pre owned NS200 which was shared among his college roommates, he was looking to get his own ride in 2023. Based on my love for the Dominar, he was considering buying one for himself. But thankfully we decided to go crazy and get something totally different - the new gen RC390.
In hindsight, I am incredibly happy we chose that bike.

Now in late 2024, I am missing novelty (polite words for being bored) on my 5 year old Dominar and he was tired of pampering his "smoking hot girlfriend who has a lot of nakhre (tantrums)", that is literally how he described his bike.
So we had a wild idea that we should exchange our bikes!

After months of planning we finally executed the exchange ride. My initial plan was to get to Dhule, exchange the bikes and ride back to Bangalore. But due to some unforeseen circumstances, the ride would become much longer as I had to ride to Bhopal and then to Jabalpur before riding back to Bangalore.


Bangalore to Solapur (20 Dec 2024)

I started from Bangalore on my Dominar at 7 AM. I find that the ride till Tumkur is really engaging, there is just the right amount of traffic that cutting through it is a constant flow state while never feeling that I am going too slowly, its so much fun to ride aggressively (while being safe, obviously) in such conditions.

But riding aggressively is not how you do a 600km day. So after 1.5 hours of traffic cutting, I took a small break at Tumkur with some chips and water. Chips are my go-to snacks for touring, they are space efficient (in Pringles form), pack loads of carbs for fast energy. After that I changed my riding style to smooth cruising at 90-95 kmph with occasional full throttle overtakes.

I have a installed a jugad cruise control, which saves a lot of energy in such long rides.


The cruise control jugad

That wire has become loose and as a result, cruise was not engaging properly. I always keep pliers in my luggage but that day my system failed me.. I checked everywhere in the top box and there were no pliers, I probably took it out for some task at home and forgot to put it back.
That lead to a hunt for pliers. I took a detour to a nearby town 50-60km before Hampi and after half an hour of exploration, I finally found a hardware shop that sold me pliers. It was a sweet achievement!
That ordeal ended at around 2 PM and consumed a lot of energy, I was feeling tired and sleepy and there was still ~400 km left to go. So I decided to take a long break. Long breaks mean taking out riding the jacket and being in shade for 10-15 minutes. I also drank half a bottle of Sting to quash the drowsiness and fixed the cruise control.

Caffiene did its job and finally after a long time (3 hours) I am consistently putting on kilometers without distractions.
I reached the hotel in Solapur at around 7 PM and was tired much more than I expected, it was hard to imagine how I will get on the road ever again. I guess that's what happens when you go on a long ride after 2 years . Still, I took a shower, ordered a small cheese burst pizza with Taco Mexicana from Dominos and went to sleep without setting any alarm.

Trip stats - Bangalore to Solapur
Start time: 6:46
End time: 19:31
Ride time: 9h22m
Break time: 3h23m
Total time: 12h45m
Distance: 652.9 km
Avg Speed: 67 kmph
Avg consumption (indicated): 32 kmpl


Solapur to Dhule (21 Dec 2024)

I woke up in no hurry at around 8 AM and when I looked at a 4 lane main road from my room window, I was excited again about being on the road! I ate the leftover pizza with chai and the bike was loaded for the ride minutes later.
In my experience, first days of the rides are always the hardest and I could feel how 'easy' the trip felt on the second day. I was in the flow, I found the optimal mental state, the optimal sequence of seating positions to toggle through for maximum efficiency. It was effortless!


A serene break

At the time of sunset, I encountered a ghat section and got excited that I will be able to enjoy some lean angles but the road condition did not allow any such fun. I did get to witness a HUGE solar farm! I didn't know we have anything like this in our country!


JBM Solar Plant Chalisgaon

I pulled into the hotel at around 7 and had tons of energy left. I would roam around a bit and relax at the hotel while I waited for my brother to land with the RC at 1 AM.

Trip stats - Solapur to Dhule
Start time: 10:00
End time: 18:58
Ride time: 6h18m
Break time: 2h40m
Total time: 8h58m
Distance: 378 km
Avg speed: 72 kmph
Avg consumption (indicated) : 30 kmpl

[arunabh002]

The first look and the exchange

When the new RC390 launched in 2022, I toyed with the idea of buying one as a second bike, thinking it would expand my garage - a naked tourer and a hardcore Supersport. Although, thankfully, my wife (girlfriend at that time) kept me grounded and I didn't do any such financial stunt.
In early 2023, my brother got one for himself and its hard to believe that 23 December 2024 was going to be the first time I will be seeing that bike in person!
I distinctly remember the scene where I was tracking my brother's location and was just outside the hotel entrance to receive him at 1 AM. I somehow recognized the headlights and the moment the left indicator (which was integrated with the windshield) came on, I had this uncontrollable grin on my face when I first saw that orange beauty, glowing in the dark, pull into the hotel parking.


Life update: Orange is the new Black

This was also the first time we met like riders, there was luggage and gear all over the room, we were thinking about bikes, talking about bikes, exchanging stuff related to bikes - RCs (the document kind), top boxes, tank bags and finally, the keys.


Him getting to know the Dominar's instrument cluster - bit of a downgrade for him :P

In the afternoon, he left for Indore with the Dominar.
When I was planning for this exchange ride, I expected that I would feel a sense of loss when I would be letting the Dominar go, but surprisingly I did not feel such any such thing when I saw it disappear into traffic. Probably because I knew its not going away forever, probably because there was something very exciting and very orange waiting for me.


A twist in the story

Due to some urgent, unforeseen circumstances I had to drop my plan to ride back to Bangalore and head to Bhopal instead, for a family event.


Dhule to Bhopal (23 Dec 2024) - First ride with the RC!

The world (YouTube) keeps saying that touring on a sports bike is hard. But I have always had a feeling that I would manage and will probably love it, given my extreme love for riding. The most comfortable posture for me on Dominar is when I put my butt all the way back and lean over a bit on the handlebars, maybe I will feel 'comfortable' on the RC too.

Loading a tail bag on the RC is a bit more challenging. Dominar had all kinds of places where I could tie the straps of the tail bag and have it stay solid in a place with no effort. On the RC, I needed planning, strategy, trial and error, the experience my brother gathered while touring on it and a lot of bungee cords. The configuration in which you have put your things inside the tail bag also matters, as I would learn!


Touring on a Supersport!

The highway was just 5 minutes from the hotel and the first thing that I noticed was how comfortable 100kmph felt. In the Dominar, I would hesitate going above 95 because of the vibrations or the wind or some other reason I am not aware of.

In terms of agility, I did not feel that the RC (with H rated Metzelers) as much more agile than my Dominar (with W rated Apollo H1s) as I expected. This could also be because the tyres at their end of life now at ~10k km. However changing lanes felt much more natural and at home on the RC.

I haven't scratched the surface of what the RC is capable of and I was already having loads of fun - just because it was a different bike, different riding posture, different screen, different speeds, different feelings. So much novelty!

After 3 hours of riding with short breaks in between, I still did not feel any kind of discomfort, could be because I was so excited and engaged in riding. I then decide to install the cruise control jugad on it, which I had already gathered the equipment for the day before. This unlocked a new level of comfort now, I could sit straight without leaning over when the roads are empty. Although when I take both hands off the handle bar, the bike slightly goes to the right, so I had to keep pushing the left handle to go straight using two of my fingers while sitting upright in cruise control.

The road between Indore and Bhopal and the amount of traffic on is also quite engaging for spirited riding and I really got to play with the Quickshifter. I have heard in reviews that it is not that great - its true. It doesn't shift perfectly most of the time, but I was learning the patterns - which RPM and which throttle positions result in smoothest upshifts. Although the downshifts are surprisingly perfect every time at every RPM and every gear.

I reached Bhopal in the evening without any feeling of fatigue but after winding down after a shower, I noticed a very mild pain in the right upper back muscles. Overall I was surprised how easy, fun and comfortable it was to tour ~500 km on the RC without any prior experience on it. But this was my first ride of it so its possible that I may have been too exited to be tired at all. We'll see. There was still a lot of riding left.

Trip stats - Dhule to Bhopal
Start time: 8:45
End time: 17:38
Ride time: 6h34m
Break time: 2h19m
Total time: 8h53m
Distance: 458 km
Avg speed: 70 kmph
Avg consumption (indicated) : 32 kmpl


Another twist

Original plan:
I'll go to Jabalpur with the RC
Wife will go by train.
We would stay there for a few days.
I will leave for Bangalore with the RC and wife will take the flight.

The twist:
Wife got sick before leaving for Jabalpur, and she had to show up at work in two days.

New plan:
Jabalpur gets cancelled.
We fly to Bangalore directly from Bhopal.
The bike got left at Bhopal.


Living without a bike for 3 months

In the last 5 years, this was the first time I was in Bangalore but I had nothing to ride. When I took the decision of leaving the bike, I was prepared to be sad and anxious and impatient but what I really felt was totally unexpected - peace. There was just no pressure of planning my next ride. I realized that this itch in the background takes up a lot of mental resources. When I was a bachelor, planning and going on rides was quite easy, I would just put on my riding gear and head to Kolar CCD on a whim any time of the day or night. Its not so simple when I am married. There is a whole other person who gets affected by every decision that I make, which means I have to make decisions responsibly and not on whims.

Taking a break from riding helped me connect better with other aspects of my life and made me cherish the fact that I have that privilege of being able to enjoy riding. Its hard for me to digest the fact that most people don't enjoy riding.

After 2 months, the peace faded away and I started to grow impatient. I started snorting motorcycle content on YouTube which did not make things any easier. Things were so bad that even if someone handed over me a Bullet, I would start loving riding it (Dug Dug REs are not my kind of motorcycles). Finally the day came in March when we will be flying to our hometowns for Holi celebration and I will be bringing the RC home.

[arunabh002]

Bhopal to Jabalpur (12 March 2025)

I started at 9 AM, since Bhopal (my in-laws' place) is still new to me, Maps took me to the highway through some narrow, bumpy, dusty in-roads where I felt as irritated as the RC must have felt, and I reached highway in a not so good mood.

A day before, I went ahead and replaced the stock Metzelers, which were almost done at 10k km, with Apollo Alpha H1s. Here on the highway, I could feel a little bit better than I felt with the old tyres. Fast lane changes between vehicles was effortless.

NH45 between Bhopal and Jabalpur is really sweet in terms of traffic (almost no traffic) but not so great in terms of road quality - mostly uneven cement roads. The sporty suspension made sure that I felt every undulation on the road.

I am not sure how did this thing emerged, probably in my childhood, but I LOVE sun-lit afternoons where I am outside all by myself. And this ride gave me a lot of such lovely moments - Bright sun, sun visor in my helmet that helped me see things clearly, empty roads, wide green farm lands all around me, the 5 inch TFT in my field of view, cruising at 95-100.. pure bliss..

Let's talk about that 5 inch TFT. When I am touring, I reset Trip 1 at the start of the trip and Trip 2 when I get back to riding after a break. This gives me data like what was my average speed in the last section, how long I have been riding since the break, how many kilometers did I do in one stretch etc. Sifting through these values was very cumbersome in the Dominar with the hard to press buttons on the tank display. With the RC I had these values right there on the home screen:
Trip 1 distance
Trip 2 distance
Trip 2 time
Trip 2 avg speed
Fuel range


Who else loves too much stats?

This was such a boon, I do not have to press any button to see these values.

Did I mention what an attention magnet this motorcycle is? Everywhere I stopped for a break, young men and kids would gather around like flies getting excited and curious and asking a lot of questions. I am not a fan of attention, my matte black Dominar helped me with it a bit, but their excitement left me no choice but to answer all of their questions.

Here are some conversations from such encounters, these folks were humble farmers from rural MP.
"Bhaiya kaunsi bike hai?" (Which bike is it?)
"KTM"
"Kitne ki hai?" (How much does it cost?)
"2 lakh" (Not sure why saying 4L didn't feel right)
"Kahan ja rahe ho?" (Where are you going?)
"Jabalpur"
"Bike se kyo ja rahe ho?" (Why are you going on a motorcycle?)
"Maja aata hai" (I enjoy it)
"Ye camera hai?" (Is this a camera?, pointing at the DJI Action 5 pro on my helmet)
"Haan" (Yes)
"Kitne ka hai?" (How much does it cost?)
"15k" (Again, I didn't want to make it seem that I have so much more money than they have)
"Kya baat kar rahe ho, bhaiya yar itne me to hamare saal bhar ka kharcha chal jaata hai.. zindagi to aap hi ji rahe ho" (What are you saying! Our yearly expense is that much, you are really living the life)
That last response really hit me. Made me think about the highly inequal wealth distribution in our society, about the privilege of making enough money to enjoy pleasures like riding an RC390 across half the country.

I resumed my ride and realized that my home is just 50km away now. I felt a little disappointment that the ride is going to end soon but also the excitement that rides of total of 1300km are still planned in near future.

Trip stats - Bhopal to Jabalpur
Start time: 9:00
End time: 13:52
Ride time: 3h58m
Break time: 54m
Total time: 4h52m
Distance: 303 km
Avg speed: 76 kmph
Avg consumption (indicated) : 32 kmpl


The urgent service blessings

My father loves machines, loves taking care of them and tinkering with them. He was checking out the engine when he opened the oil intake cover and exclaimed "where is that oil level stick?" I explained that the oil level can be seen through this round window in the engine casing. I straightened the bike but he could not see any oil - which didn't seem right because in my Dominar, I could always see oil even when the engine is cold. We decided to get it checked. Called the service center and luckily it was open on a Sunday (unlike Bangalore where Sunday is their holiday, turns out that Saturday is it for Jabalpur). We decided to get complete service done on the same day in which I had planned to leave for Nagpur! We dropped the bike at the service center at 11 AM, got it back at 1 PM and I left for Nagpur about an hour after.


Jabalpur to Nagpur (16 Mar 2024)

Jabalpur is where my joint family lives. Out of love and fear they really tried to make me send the bike through transport, but I would have very sound arguments like "life is to be enjoyed and there is no greater enjoyment for me than touring on a bike". So finally they would have no choice but to give their blessings when I was about to start my 3 day - 1300km journey to Bangalore.


Blessed

When I started at around 3 PM, I noticed that my intercom (BluArmor C30) is not turning on. I have faced this problem before, where it doesn't turn on using the button but turns on if connected to a charger. I stopped at the beginning of the highway to press random buttons in the hope of it turning on but it didn't. I did have a power bank but it was stuck very deep inside the tail bag and I did not have any will to open the tail bag under the 3 PM sun. So I thought screw it, I'll ride without music (lofi beats go really well with empty highway cruising, I have found) or the ability to receive phone call check ins from loved ones. Although thanks to this gadget of a bike, I will be able to see on the bike's display who is calling and will be able to reject using a button on the left handlebar it if it's an unknown number.

It was not as hot as I expected, some time at around 5 PM, I even rode through light rain!

I love riding through changing light - sunset and sunrise. When the light started dropping after the sunset, I was waiting for the bike's instrument console to turn dark, as I have always ridden this bike at daytime. When it did turn dark, I felt a surge of happiness and appreciation towards it! My Dominar would shine that big display of it in my eyes with the same intensity, no matter the time of the day/night. It did have an ambient light sensor but it stopped working years ago and I learned to live with it.

Just when it was about to get totally dark, I entered Nagpur. It took 13 min of fun city riding to reach the hotel. I took a shower and walked to nearby Dominos to have dinner - A small farmhouse cheese burst pizza (safe and reliable) and hot garlic chicken rice (experiment), the latter was hideous as expected. Dominos can't make anything well other than their pizzas, in my experience. I took home 2 slices of the pizza for breakfast and went to sleep.

Trip stats - Jabalpur to Nagpur
Start time: 14:12
End time: 19:03
Ride time: 3h51m
Break time: 1h0m
Total time: 4h51m
Distance: 293 km
Avg speed: 76 kmph
Avg consumption (indicated) : 31 kmpl

[arunabh002]

Nagpur to Hyderabad (17 Mar 2025)

The plan was to start before first light at around 5:40 AM. I woke up at around 4:30 but getting ready took more time than expected and I was able to leave at 6 when the sky had already started turning blue. I was about to get disappointed but balanced my emotions by logic that "its fine, it would have been more fun to see the first light on the highway, but this is also not that bad, lets enjoy what I have."

When the display turned to light theme, I again felt the happiness. It was like the bike is saying "Good morning!" to me!


Stopped to capture the orange beauty on the road and on the horizon.

Between 10 to 11 AM, Google Maps made me take a huge diversion from NH44 for some reason, which resulted in 1 hour of riding through 2 lane pothole ridden roads that went through some small towns. When I finally merged back with NH44 again, I took a long break to relax at around 10 AM.

The journey is going to be smooth after this, I thought (I thought wrong).

Around a 100km stretch from Adilabad towards Hyderabad is one of my favorite roads - black, smooth tarmac with almost no traffic and beautiful barren views all around. Somewhere at the end of it, I did an invention.

Remember how the bike goes slightly right when there is no steering input? On such long rides, small things like these add up and and can get tiring, and it did. While cruise control is engaged, not being able to sit completely upright, resting both my hands and back (for few seconds when roads are straight and empty) meant that I was getting tired easily and had to take more breaks than I would have preferred.

My clever solution to this - I tied a string at the end of the right handlebar and tied a fat knot on the other end. Now at the time of cruise control, I can leave both my hands, sit completely upright and have the knot between my fingers, using which I would give enough tension to the string to keep the bike in a straight line while sitting totally upright.
This was a gamechanger. It made cruising supremely comfortable.

I had just started leveraging my cruise control v2 to save energy and I could feel that Hyderabad is starting. Traffic suddenly became dense, it became a bit hotter and I started going through dusty under construction diversions.

When you add riding 500km since 6 AM with heat with humidity with city traffic with a Supersport which I started riding recently, you get a recipe for torture. I had to cross entire Hyderabad to reach my hotel on the other end of this huge city near the Airport. So, for the last 1.5 hours of riding, I was sweating profusely, my neck hurt badly due to the aggressive riding posture (this was not a problem on highways because of cruise control). In the middle of the city, I stopped to drink a glass of lemon soda, which was life-saving. Finally the torture ended and I reached the hotel.

Lesson learned - never put crossing big cities at the end of a long riding day.

Trip stats - Nagpur to Hyderabad
Start time: 06:05
End time: 16:16
Ride time: 7h23m
Break time: 2h48m
Total time: 10h11m
Distance: 532km
Avg speed: 72 kmph
Avg consumption (indicated) : 30 kmpl


Hyderabad to Bangalore (18 Mar 2025)

I decided that there will be no alarms, no take off times, no restrictions whatsoever. I will wake up when I want, I will take however long I want to get ready and I will leave whenever I want. That meant having breakfast in the balcony with an almost beautiful view. On the menu were McEgg and Amul Cool Cafe.


Lake view from Hotel Lake View

I took my own sweet time in packing. I paid two visits to the bike before getting geared up. First was to lube the chain and check tire pressures and second was to tie up the luggage. I left the hotel at around 9 AM.

As I said before, in multi-day rides, first day is the hardest and it gets easier day by day. By that equation, today was supposed to be the easiest part of the ride. And it was! Everything aligned perfectly to make it the fastest and the most comfortable Hyderabad to Bangalore ride I have ever done:
- The new cruise control v2 system
- The hotel was on the edge of Hyderabad and I was on NH44 to Bangalore in 30 seconds.
- The route was super familiar.
- I was going home to my wife in on a new Bike!


Me staring at the orange madness while filling up my hydration pack

The fuel gauge on this bike is weird. It feels like the first few bars disappear slowly and then the last 3 disappear rapidly, which makes it hard to predict when should I stop for fuel. This caused a scare when the two consecutive fuel stops that I stopped on were non operational and the instrument cluster was flashing all kinds for dangerous red lights at me, shouting at me to re-fuel. Finally the third fuel station was working and I got rid of all the red on the screen and the anxiety it was causing.

After that, the ride was a breeze. The traffic was minimal, cruise control v2 meant that I could relax on the bike itself and I would keep riding for up to two hours and wouldn't even notice it. But I follow a protocol of taking regular breaks to keep refreshing the mind to maintain the alertness.


A chilled lemon soda in 38 degrees ambient temperature goes right into the soul

The new staellite ring road meant I could reach from Devanahalli to Hoskote like I was going through a wormhole, and then Whitefield from there just took around 30 minutes.
It was exciting and satisfying riding the RC on the familiar Bangalore roads. I have dreamt of it for months now and it was finally here!

Trip stats - Hyderabad to Bangalore
Start time: 09:14
End time: 17:57
Ride time: 6h58m
Break time: 1h45m
Total time: 8h43m
Distance: 553km
Avg speed: 79 kmph
Avg consumption (indicated) : 30 kmpl


Closing thoughts

When me and my brother asked each other how we are finding the new bikes, we both had the same feelings - "it feels like THIS is the right bike for me!" I am not sure if really Dominar suits him more and RC suits me more or its just the honeymoon period, but I am pretty sure my itch to upgrade (Street Triple RS was growing as a new obsession) is definitely not there anymore.

Here are some key insights I gathered from this trip:
- The brain wants change, and change doesn't necessarily come from an upgrade.
- You can tour on a Supersports if you love riding enough.
- 40000km on Dominar has given me the experience and skills to appreciate the beauty of a specialist machine like the RC390.

Motorcycling is something that tugs at my heartstrings and I want to keep doing it until I am on this planet. I am deeply grateful to my wife and family, that they support me in this journey.

Thanks for reading!

[Aditya]

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

[Mr.Bentley]

Thats a lovely log, thanks for sharing!

Originally Posted by arunabh002

- The brain wants change, and change doesn't necessarily come from an upgrade.

This got me thinking. I think my future car plans would be hit temporarily!

Originally Posted by arunabh002

I tied a string at the end of the right handlebar and tied a fat knot on the other end. Now at the time of cruise control, I can leave both my hands, sit completely upright and have the knot between my fingers, using which I would give enough tension to the string to keep the bike in a straight line while sitting totally upright.

While I loved the idea of cruise control (V1 & V2), I'm more concerned about it than being amazed. I respect your experience and capability, but I feel Indian roads are not that safe even for a fully focused driver/rider. Tales from F&F doesn't help it either.
A friendly request to stop using your invention.

I made up a riding rule for myself - Do not leave the handle until your feet touch the ground!

Motorcycling is something that tugs at my heartstrings and I want to keep doing it until I am on this planet. I am deeply grateful to my wife and family, that they support me in this journey.

Glad to see the love and support from your family. You're already blessed!

[mountain_roads7]

A very enjoyable story. Thank you for taking the effort to write it and share it with us.

Your nod to our wealth inequality and the relative privilege of riding bikes like the RC and touring on them is commendable!

[mountain_roads7]

Yes, it was concerning to hear about your juggad. What if you hit a pothole and your hand involuntarily jerks on the string!?

[hatlessgovi]

What a lovely write up! My first bike was an RC390, so I can relate to what you’re saying - if you love riding enough, you’ll be able to tour on anything. I’ve since upgraded to much more powerful machines but still have a huge soft spot for the RC. I rode 14 hours non stop on one road trip with minimal breaks, and even though I was tired and feeling extremely hot under the North Indian sun, I just kept going. Take care of the KTM and it’ll take care of you.

P.S. As others have said, I’d highly recommend not using your jugaad cruise control. It’s smart, but also a recipe for disaster no matter how cautious you are.

[arunabh002]

I appreciate your concern about the safety aspect of my cruise control system

Let me give you some more detail on how and when I use it:

When ALL of these conditions are fulfilled:
- It is daytime with good visibility
- The roads are empty and straight and are not going through civilization
- The roads are atleast 4 lane with a divider in between

I use it while keeping these points in mind:
- It will be used only to give a short rest to my upper body for around 10 seconds; it is not the default for cruising. 99% of the time, my hands ARE on the handlebar.
- The cruise control speed will lower than my non cruise control cruising speed to ensure I have enough leeway to safely take back control in case some random living or non living object suddenly appears in front of me.

That said, I understand that in those 10 seconds, the riskometer is hovering on a bit higher side. But it hovers even higher if we are sleep deprived or lost in thoughts or not paying enough attention to surroundings or not seeing far enough or riding too fast or if there is physical pain. I make sure to keep all of these factors in check too.

[arunabh002]

Originally Posted by Mr.Bentley

This got me thinking. I think my future car plans would be hit temporarily!

Haha, as I experienced, changing the format of your car (Ex. sedan to SUV or vice versa) will also change your experience quite significantly even if you are not changing the segment.