[CoNrOd]

I couldn't find any threads on ownership reviews of the RTR FI, so here goes..

Having ridden my mama's yamaha gladiator for the past 7 months (6400kms clocked on the ODO), the time came for me to had the keys over, and this gave me the chance to upgrade to the category that had so far been elusive to me for ownership.

So finally, my dream of owning one of the few purpose built machines in the country comes true. Though I am sure many may ask why the FI over the carburetted, I feel it the FI is worth it.

I set a new record this time and my vehicle underwent its first service in just 4 days! this has not been at the cost of ripping the bike though, I am very particular about my bikes and ensure the running-in is done properly.

The total cost came to 65,800 OTR (after a company discount of around 10k) and i spent an additional 400 on teflon coating. The vehicle is now exactly 10 days old and the ODO reads 720km

Why the FI over the 160 & 180?

1. The bottom end torque is simply fantastic! much much better than either carburetted option. I can get the vehicle moving in 1st gear on just the clutch! no need to throttle at all!

2. The sound of the air-filter box and the exhaust is absolutely erotic! it is by far the best sound I have heard on any current Indian 2 wheeler. (let me re-stress on the word current). beautifully bassy.

3. The engine note is also fantastic, smooth and balanced...(only the note)

4. power distribution is uniform (although i have still not taken her to the upper ranges of the tacho), and you never feel the lack of it at any stage.

5. fantastic mileage-as of now 60+!!! (although mileage is not something i really look at). and that too with mostly city riding.

the good side

1. fit and finish is pretty decent, although personally i feel the instrumentation finish on the pulsar is better.

2. the cool blue LCD and red tacho needle make me feel 8 years old every time i see them!

3. the seat cushion is (surprisingly) comfortable.

4. headlamps are brilliant, and one of the best once again.

5. rear disc is spot on, and makes the riding experience complete. (it goes without saying that the front disc is phenomenal)

6. the vehicle has an EMS (emgine management system) with diagnostic capability, so everytime there is problem, the MIL (malfunction indicator lamp) glows on. so you know if there is any problem.

7. the handling is fantastic! it is so easy to throw her into corners and keep her there with confidence. I already fear the worst for my centre stand and foot-pegs.

the bad side

1. VIBRATIONs! vibrations from 4500 to 6000 rpm ( i took it up there just once!) are pretty bad, and can get pretty intolerable for the pilion.

2. The tacho has started acting up, and sometimes just stops working without warning. (It comes back to life equally quickly though)

3. seating position is going to take some time to get completely used to, although i am pretty comfortable with it already.

The downright ugly!

1. Vibrations! I honestly expected a better balanced crank from TVS. I had to take some drastic steps and on the third day after taking delivery, i had opened her up and have temporarily fitted pieces of tyre tubes as washers on the engine mounting bolts.

2. The clip-ons are misaligned on one position, and nothing can be done about it.the holes for adjusting the position of the clip-ons have not been drilled correctly, but anyway, i have changed the position to the wide out position and this suits my height and seating position much better.

3. I can service the vehicle only at one service centre in pune, century TVS on pune satara road, and he is a good 20+kms from where I stay (aundh). :-(. and the worst part is that the service incharge there is another self-important self-proclaimed know-it-all. somehow, i just don't seem to have much luck with service centres. (or maybe my expectations are just too high)

My experience with yamaha service is on the following thread
http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/motorb...r-service.html

4. I just know that all the clever electronics is going to be the bike's undoing, even the idling cannot be adjusted without the help of a scan tool! Some of my friends in chennai also have the FI and knowing the problems they have faced, i need to be extra careful; for example- I fill only at shell and that too only full tanks, coz if the fuel is of bad quality or the fuel level gets too low, the fuel pump gets damaged

anyway, I plan to get around this problem by eventually servicing the vehicle myself, am in the process of getting a diagnostic tool kit. and already have the service manuals.

Advice I need

1. eventually (probably after the third service) i plan to upgrade to synthetic. now as far as i know, any synthetic oil that is JASO MA certified will suit bikes, and shouldn't cause any issues(clutch slippage for example).
Is this right? and can you suggest/recommend any particular oil?

2. where can I get good tank-bags?

3. apart from DSG, any place I can get good riding accessories?

[CoNrOd]

small correction,

anyway, I plan to get around this problem by eventually servicing the vehicle myself, am in the process of getting a diagnostic tool kit. and already have the service manuals.

this is to come below point 3

[JayPrashanth]

Motul 300v.

Cheers,

Jay

[abhayshanu]

Congratulations man, finally someone else who has done his first service in a very short period, i also gave my bike on the fourth day, cool, someday we should meet up.

[abhinav.s]

Congrats mate!

Good write up and pics.

I am hoping that the vibes will reduce as you pile up some kms.

My carb RTR is currently at 4500 kms and the vibes are reduced though they are definitely present.

Happy motoring!!

[SamtheLeo]

Congrats Dude!!!

720 kms in 10 days.. Thats some biking.

Vibrations are yes a big problem & my brother RTR (carb) also has this issue.

[CoNrOd]

Well, its been exactly 4 months (and 3 services) now since I got my Fi and boy has it been a blast! Some interesting recaps during this period:

1. The top whack logged on the speedo is 131kmph, and 0-60 in 4 secs (there is definitely scope for improvement on the latter).

2. Did a fantastic 1.9k km round trip to bglore. and back as a practice run for the ironbutt.

3. Managed to do a Pune-Mumbai trip in a surprising time of 1hr. 45mins. door-to-door. (best part is I never exceeded 90kmph during the trip, that's the beauty of early morn. riding)

4. Due to a very peculiar problem with the tacho (described below), of the 4 months, my bike has spent almost 3 weeks at the service centre

The bike so far:

Absolutely a dream! I have no regrets whatsoever (despite the tacho problem). The only minor niggles are

1. Vibrations! although used to it by now, they can still get on your nerves at times.

2. The gear shifter can be hard at times. this is something I am unable to figure out as it is not related to the temperature of the engine. Sometimes after riding for around 10kms the gear shift suddenly needs harder nudges to shift.

3. disc squeal. Again, nothing can really be done about it though i clean the pads with pressurized air from time to time.

I am now shifting to fully synthetic motul 300V as suggested by jay.

The story of the dancing tacho!

This problem has been there almost from the beginning, but gradually became worse with time. I must mention at this time the genuine efforts put in by the century TVS service team to try and rectify the problem.

The problem is that whenever i turn on the headlamps, the tacho goes crazy, it shows whatever it wants, and literally just dances around like its had too much coffee. I mean imagine you are cruising along at 50kmph in top gear, and glance at your tacho only to get shocked when your indicated engine rpm is 12.5k!

This problem is only there when the headlamp is turned on; not the passing lamp, not the parking lights. Infact, during one of my trips, my friend (who was the pilion) complained that i rev the bike too much when he saw the needle past 12k!! (it was actually closed to around 5k)

This effectively means that my tacho is rendered useless at night and TVS have replaced the magneto, the tacho dial, the hall sensor, the wiring harness and even tried a replacement ECU, but the problem was rectified only after they replaced a capacitor that is in place to protect the ECU from surges. After that, that tacho was perfect......for 48 hrs. The problm still persists and TVS have asked me to hold on for sometime till they can find a solution.

Has anyone else faced such an issue with their RTR?

[jingaboysr]

Originally Posted by CoNrOd

2. Did a fantastic 1.9k km round trip to bglore. and back as a practice run for the ironbutt.

IRONBUTT!! Fantastic man, all the best for you. How long did the ride take?

[CoNrOd]

didn't do the ironbutt this time, was just a dry run to see how good the roads actually were, how long it would take, etc...
Managed to do 1 way 930km in 14hrs comfortably. but for the actual butt, don't need to cover that dist. one way, 800 kms would do.

[abhinav.s]

Originally Posted by CoNrOd

2. Did a fantastic 1.9k km round trip to bglore. and back as a practice run for the ironbutt.

Good update Conrod. And hats off to you for covering so many kms on the RTR specially the above.

Was the bike feeling stable at high speeds in excess of 90kmph? And any aches or pains during the ride? Were you riding solo?

Should appreciate your strength to mentally prepare for such long ride.

[somspaple]

Originally Posted by CoNrOd

[/b]1. Vibrations! I honestly expected a better balanced crank from TVS. I had to take some drastic steps and on the third day after taking delivery, i had opened her up and have temporarily fitted pieces of tyre tubes as washers on the engine mounting bolts.

did that help? do you have any pics of this?

congratulations and all the best for the BUTT endeavour!

[CoNrOd]

Originally Posted by abhinav.s

Good update Conrod. And hats off to you for covering so many kms on the RTR specially the above.

Was the bike feeling stable at high speeds in excess of 90kmph? And any aches or pains during the ride? Were you riding solo?

Should appreciate your strength to mentally prepare for such long ride.

Thanks abhinav.

as far as the stability is concerned, it is excellent till about 105. It continues to remain stable beyond that as well, but not with as much confidence; you can feel that the bike is reaching its limits and anything beyond 115, you need to be extra extra cautious. even the slightest breeze can set you off at those speeds. I end up touching 95-100 almost everyday and have to look at the speedo to realize I am travelling so fast! The handling is just so beautifully balanced.

Originally Posted by somspaple

did that help? do you have any pics of this?

congratulations and all the best for the BUTT endeavour!

BUTT has been postponed to after the monsoons due to lack of time to do it so far.
The rubber tubes are of no use, i'll need to try out something better. The biggest problem is that they don't last too long, they just become powder after a while, esp. in the heat. and trust me, putting them in place can be a real headache.


Anyway, another update. I have switched to fully synthetic and boy oh boy, i never expected the results to be so overwhelming!
The gear shift is as smooth as silk, and no exaggerations. I mean for example, it downshifts so smoothly that twice i made the mistake of shifting all the way to first instead of second. I just need to suggest to the shifter that it needs to change and voila! its already in the next gear.
Even the engine is far more free revving. top gar, 35kmph, floor the throttle and there is no lag! it immediately picks up the revs and goes! incredibly good.
I only expected marginal improvement and refinement, and longer engine life, but the performance improvement is way to drastic. Either the synthetic oil has improved the performance, or the previous oil was just pulling down the engine from achieving its true potential (of which I strongly suspect the latter).

I have resolved never to use anything other than synthetic after this experience (This would be the second major resolution I would be making, the first being never to buy a non-FI bike!)

[CoNrOd]

mods: can the the title be chanced to "RTR EFI ownership review"?

[abhinav.s]

Originally Posted by CoNrOd

Thanks abhinav.
as far as the stability is concerned, it is excellent till about 105. It continues to remain stable beyond that as well, but not with as much confidence; you can feel that the bike is reaching its limits and anything beyond 115, you need to be extra extra cautious. even the slightest breeze can set you off at those speeds. I end up touching 95-100 almost everyday and have to look at the speedo to realize I am travelling so fast! The handling is just so beautifully balanced.

Thanks for the update mate. Our highways are not safe for speeds in excess of 100kmph anyways that too on 2 wheels. I will normally be in the 90-100kmph range and hence happy to know that the bike is well balanced & stable at high speeds as well.

How many kms once do u change the oil? And with the Motul 300v, what is the interval of oil change?

[CoNrOd]

Finally managed to get a video of the tacho problem I am facing. The video is not too clear, but make sure you have the volume turned on, coz once the vehicle is in 5th gear, the speed is kept more or less constant, but the tacho still dances about. Plus, to highlight the problem, i turn off the headlamp and on again when the engine is at a constant speed, and a spike is seen.

YouTube - RTE EFi tacho problem