[argchoff]

Originally Posted by phamilyman

Congrats on an awesome purchase boss, pure drool maal your bike is! The bike looks awesome, and its great to have a supportive wife who herself rides the CL500! Wonder whether you'll buy a kid-sized bike too when you have children !

I do have one question that outraged me. Your first post said you spent 25k on among other things - a lockable fuel cap! What does that mean? The OEM cap does not have a lock? in India? If I read it right, it sounds stupid!

it does sound stupid. Cant see the point of selling a bike without a lockable fuel cap. But both these brands HD(i guess) and Triumph have these as add ons. Harleys are even worse - the rear foot pegs, pillion seat are extras. After all its business and as long as people are willing to shell out money (including me) these gimmicks will continue.

[mobike008]

Originally Posted by argchoff

it does sound stupid. Cant see the point of selling a bike without a lockable fuel cap.

Originally Posted by phamilyman

a lockable fuel cap! What does that mean? The OEM cap does not have a lock? in India? If I read it right, it sounds stupid

Since both HD and Triumph are international marquee brands have reproduced the bike in India as per the original specs without making much changes and not providing a lockable fuel cap is one among them.

Reason being petrol pilfering is not so common internationally and same point holds good even in India in most cities. Second point being these brands make deliberate avenues to increase their revenue stream so its not that suprising

Having said that, I personally didnt buy for my Bonnie and may never will buy one in future

[phamilyman]

Originally Posted by mobike008

Since both HD and Triumph are international marquee brands have reproduced the bike in India as per the original specs without making much changes and not providing a lockable fuel cap is one among them.

Reason being petrol pilfering is not so common internationally and same point holds good even in India in most cities. Second point being these brands make deliberate avenues to increase their revenue stream so its not that suprising

Sir jee,

That is not really a logic that holds much water. Surely they would have tested their bikes and tuned them for the quality of fuel in India, right? When they can adjust to the quality of fuel, why not to the reality of pilfering?

[argchoff]

Originally Posted by mobike008

Reason being petrol pilfering is not so common internationally and same point holds good even in India in most cities.

Its not the petrol pilfering i am worried about but i am concerned about someone actually running off with the fuel cap itself! In Pune one really has to watch out for such kind of mischief:(.

[gthang]

Originally Posted by phamilyman

When they can adjust to the quality of fuel, why not to the reality of pilfering?

Dunno for Triumph, but for Harley, just putting a lockable cap is not enough to prevent pilfering.

The fuel output is through a "quick-connect" below, and can be easily removed to drain fuel.

Would have to see how the Street is done to see how much they have considered fuel pilfering as an issue.

But like the OP said, fuel cap theft would be a bigger issue. Had a friend's Superlow lose one.

Cheers

Ride Safe.

[mobike008]

Originally Posted by phamilyman

When they can adjust to the quality of fuel, why not to the reality of pilfering?

Have these bikes adjusted to fuel quality? I thought these bikes are sold as its sold internationally and both HD and Triumph use the normal octane fuel

Well, Fuel pilfering is something i never heard from anybody. Atleast in Hyderabad, so iam personally not really concerned about it ( these are weekend bikes and are 99% in front of eyes of owners anyways, if someone leaves it in a mall or office parking lot then yes, then these possibilities definetly arise)

Originally Posted by argchoff

Its not the petrol pilfering i am worried about but i am concerned about someone actually running off with the fuel cap itself! In Pune one really has to watch out for such kind of mischief:(.

Oh! That thought never came across my mind. I think iam complacent with the fact that no theft has ever happened to any of vehicles that i ever owned so obviously i didnt give this much of a thought.

But, yes i do agree that these companies should provide basic stuff as part of stock accessory ( that goes for main stand too)

[abhinav.s]

Originally Posted by mobike008

Have these bikes adjusted to fuel quality? I thought these bikes are sold as its sold internationally and both HD and Triumph use the normal octane fuel

IIRC, Ram sir mentioned on his thread that there is a different map for India bikes and he had the map flashed to his ECU at Bangalore Triumph since his bike was from a lot headed to Sweden which was tuned for 94 Octane as against the 91 Octane for India. Guess, that does count for bikes being adjusted for fuel quality available?

[argchoff]

Completed 835km and 1st service today. total service cost including labour charges - INR 6182.
The only strange thing i have observed before and after the service is this 'pit pit pit' sound from the exhausts which is even more noticeable on deceleration. The service guys say it is the sound of the afterburn. I rode the test ride bonnie again and yes the same sound was prominent from this bike as well. The rear brakes seem to have become slightly vague after the service and do not have the same amount of 'bite' as before. Maybe after using them a bit they'll become better??? Here's hoping for the best.

[argchoff]

This wednesday decided to go for a long trip to the Konkan coast. Started at around 6.30am from Pune via Mulshi-Tamhini ghat-mangaon-Mhasla-Diveagar beach. It started to rain at Mulshi quite heavily and the roads after mulshi upto Tamhini ghat were horrendous.
Once in Tamhini ghat though the scenery was awesome. Really enjoyed the twisties on the Bonnie. Did feel sorry for my poor mrs. on the classic 500 trying to keep up. Clicked some amazing photos here before stopping over for breakfast at the Orchard resort. The ride after that was average and as we neared Konkan the road condition went from bad to worse.
At the town of Mhasla the bike completed 1000km. We were shocked to see the state of Diveagar beach, a supposedly a tourist spot, but was littered with trash!!!!. Some photos attached. This really put us off and using google maps we took the internal Konkan road travelling north via Mhasla upto Zanjira-Murud. The countryside was breath taking but the roads were aweful. This is where one experiences the stiff suspension of the Bonnie. However the seating posture was so good that there was hardly any fatigue or back ache after reaching Murud.
After a short lunch break headed for Alibaug via Kashid-Nagaon. This is when we got hit by torrential rain throughout and we rode the bikes through almost a foot of water on the almost non existent roads at times. The Bonneville took these with ease and i realised how rider friendly this bike is. After an overnight stopover at Alibaug headed back to Pune the next day.

Some observations about the bike:
1. Handles great on the worst surfaces
2. I am confident that this bike can take on the same road conditions as a Royal Enfield and is actually easier to manage.
3. Horn is substandard and of poor quality. As soon as it rained it stopped working again, whereas the CL500 had no such problems.
4. There was no engine stall or any kind of problems in that rain (and this was really bad heavy rain)
5. On returning home i did find traces of rust on the chain, however i am patrtly responsible for not checking the lubrication before starting the journey.
6. The brakes have got back their bite as i found out on the return journey, when i had to slow down from 80km/hr to a complete stop at an unmarked speed breaker!!!. This kind of instilled a kind of confidence which one would not have on a bullet.

Now for the photographs:-

[mobike008]

Fantastic pictures Argchoff. The place looks perfect for a ride for the Bonnie and Iam sure you enjoyed opening her up on the twisties

I think only that belt is enjoying some bit of rain while rest of India is sweltering in hot and humid weather

I spent 3 days this weekend at Amby Valley and road from Lonavala to Amby Valley which is a 35kms of beautiful stretch winding up and down with greenery surroundings with rain, fog made me badly want to ride my Bonnie on that stretch.

You guys are lucky since its hardly 100kms away from Pune

[schitre05]

Nice write-up Argchoff, The bonnie looks sooper in that colour combo. The twin pods look good too, with the tacho, the console looks somewhat complete.
Is there no way the number plate can be shifted below the headlight assembly? The setup looks neat as it the case in the classic (5th picture). The twin pods would look really nice if that number plate is shifted down.
If that doesn't work then wouldn't a number sticker on the front mudguard suffice? or is it something to do with the RTO requirement.
Cheers!
Sagar

[abhinav.s]

Originally Posted by schitre05

Is there no way the number plate can be shifted below the headlight assembly?

To move the number the plate below the headlight, the Rectifier has to be relocated first. There is a rectifier relocator plate available for the Bonnie abroad and is a simple mod of moving the rectifier to the place where the horn is and move the horn a wee bit down as there is a provision on the same plate to do it. Once this is done, the number plate can be moved down.

Argchoff - Awesome ride bro! The pics are awesome.

[Avior]

Beautiful pics with a great trip indeed!

[argchoff]

Jut been browsing through the Triumph India website on the bike configurator page. Looks like they have launched the Base Bonneville model in the blue and white colour but in the opposite configuration. I.e. Top half of the tank in Blue instead of white. The T100 also seems to have got two new colour additions - Blue/black and orange/black. Although the original two combos of white/gold and red/black look more appealing.

[argchoff]

Originally Posted by schitre05

Is there no way the number plate can be shifted below the headlight assembly? The setup looks neat as it the case in the classic (5th picture). The twin pods would look really nice if that number plate is shifted down.
If that doesn't work then wouldn't a number sticker on the front mudguard suffice? or is it something to do with the RTO requirement.
Cheers!
Sagar

You are right, the bike will look much better without that front number plate in front of the twin pods. There is hardly any space below the headlight assembly to shift the number plate. Though i am planning to put a sticker at the front of the mudguard once i am sure that it is allowed by the RTO.