[Odeen12]

Absolutely true. It's just about getting used to it. And with so many options coming on.. It's just a natural progression towards all the goodness of adventure tourers.

[nasirkaka]

some new developments with regards to delivery in Bangalore. Not sure how to take it.

I had made the payment last saturday and was tentatively promised of delivery tomorrow (Friday). Called up the showroom just now and was told there is some issue with the transport. Their old logistics partner had bigger size container trucks, and the new partner has smaller size trucks cos of which the bikes are not fitting as desired.
It seems the IKM had now written to the dealers that costomers who want to pickup their bikes can fly to pune, take delivery and ride back to their respective cities, wither as group or as individuals. The onward trip and stay would be supported by them. We will have to take care of the return leg.

What do you guys think of this proposition? i dont actually mind, barring the fact that i am loaded with work these days and taking a few days off will be difficult. Also, we will have to ride under the RPM limit under run-in. This is still not so bad, as we could do 80-90 on the highway. on the positive side, i have mostly broken-in my bikes on highway and feel that is better as we are in control of the RPM, rather the traffic enforced speed.
Bangalore folks who have booked and are waiting: what do you say? maybe we can make a small group and plan it.

[Red Liner]

Kaka, just go for it man! What a way to take delivery! And they are supporting your onward trip as well. Can't get any better than this.

Looking forward to your highway break in pictures!

[//M]

Exactly Nasir ji, just go for it !

A wonderful way to take delivery, reminds me of the saying - "I took delivery of my motorcycle on a Friday, reached home on Monday after clocking a 1000 miles".

Let me know when you are in Pune, I would love to drop by while you take the delivery of your Versys 650. And on the way back, you can ride through the picturesque Konkan coast (Powerdrift did their Versys 650 review along the Konkan coast), attend the India Bike Week in Goa if time permits and then ride back home to Bangalore through the lovely NH-4.

Whatta way to take delivery of a tourer !

[Red Liner]

Lol! Those are some nice ideas on escapades off the beaten track back to bangalore...the versys might just be the Cynosure of all eyes at the IBW. And ofcourse the sweet Canyon carving on the way back.... Mmmmm mm!

[wolfy]

Wah! I wish they did this for all their models.. Why wait? make payment, fly to pune, ride back!! Awesome! Just do it! Kawasaki could include a factory tour too as a customer experience!

[Dust_Harl]

Originally Posted by nasirkaka

some new developments with regards to delivery in Bangalore. Not sure how to take it.

I had made the payment last saturday and was tentatively promised of delivery tomorrow (Friday). Called up the showroom just now and was told there is some issue with the transport. Their old logistics partner had bigger size container trucks, and the new partner has smaller size trucks cos of which the bikes are not fitting as desired.

Spoke to my dealer and this issue seems to be true. They are sitting on this issue for more than a month and trying to solve for weeks now. Apparently the cost of transporting individual bike is more and each city seems to have more than 25+ bikes bookings confirmed and the mass transportation option is delaying things here. Both the bike and the box in which it comes is pretty huge and seems like it is not fitting in the containers they use to transport KTM and other bikes.

I guess sponsoring the one way ticket is much cheaper than paying for transporting one bike. But if you plan to do than then ensure your insurance and TR is in place and the dealer actually gives you an insurance copy and TR number before you go there to pick up the bike.

While it is an amazing option, ensure you are covered from all legal tussles while you get your bike from there.

And for all those who have already taken the bike delivery or at least have the bikes identified and waiting for registration, should say we are a lucky lot for now and got to enjoy the bike a little earlier than going through this experience.

[Odeen12]

Umm. Depending on the bookings and confirmed deliveries, is there an option to actually pitch in and hire a truck? Probably some one from Kawasaki could accompany them.
As mentioned above, I assume you would get a TC number. Does insurance cover you for the same without registration? That's for a worst case scenario. Plus the cops. Might get annoying after a point in time.
Also later You'd have to follow up with Kawasaki for your registration etc.

Break in a very touchy subject. With my experience stagnant speeds on a highway could turn out to be pretty bad for an engine.

[nasirkaka]

Umm. Depending on the bookings and confirmed deliveries, is there an option to actually pitch in and hire a truck? Probably some one from Kawasaki could accompany them.
As mentioned above, I assume you would get a TC number. Does insurance cover you for the same without registration? That's for a worst case scenario. Plus the cops. Might get annoying after a point in time.
Also later You'd have to follow up with Kawasaki for your registration etc.

Break in a very touchy subject. With my experience stagnant speeds on a highway could turn out to be pretty bad for an engine.

Details are still very sketchy with respect to collecting the bike from pune. called up dealer and spoke about issues such as TR, Insurance, Re-registering in bangalore, etc and they are atill trying to work things out. Said they will call back once they have some details. Bottom line is further delays.

As for the Run-in on the highway, it IS a bit tricky. One will have to constantly keep varying RPM with stops, which may be tricky in an inter-city ride of 850kms. Not same as take the bike out of Bangalore for a breakfast ride, varying rpm, breaking for chai etc and return after 150-200 kms, which is what i have mostly done with previous bikes.

[Odeen12]

Originally Posted by nasirkaka

As for the Run-in on the highway, it IS a bit tricky. One will have to constantly keep varying RPM with stops, which may be tricky in an inter-city ride of 850kms. Not same as take the bike out of Bangalore for a breakfast ride, varying rpm, breaking for chai etc and return after 150-200 kms, which is what i have mostly done with previous bikes.

I followed the hard break in way to open up my bike. But as you mentioned give the bike rest etc. Also once back, do change the oil. Irrespective of the fact what service states.

Cheers. Ride absolutely safely if you do go get the bike. On the bright side, it does gives you the opportunity for a photo journal.

[vprabu]

Originally Posted by nasirkaka

some new developments with regards to delivery in Bangalore. Not sure how to take it.

I had made the payment last saturday and was tentatively promised of delivery tomorrow (Friday). Called up the showroom just now and was told there is some issue with the transport. Their old logistics partner had bigger size container trucks, and the new partner has smaller size trucks cos of which the bikes are not fitting as desired.
It seems the IKM had now written to the dealers that costomers who want to pickup their bikes can fly to pune, take delivery and ride back to their respective cities, wither as group or as individuals. The onward trip and stay would be supported by them. We will have to take care of the return leg.

What an interesting thing by Kawasaki. On the lighter side, next they will invite us to the factory and ask us to assemble the bike ourselves.

[Dust_Harl]

Chanced upon a good vieo on riding adventure bikes. Although Versys is not an adventure tourer and is a sports tourer, the video might be of good help.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s07hML6bJOA

[techfreak]

Another small video which I had seen sometime back as to how to use a tall bike if a person is short.

https://youtu.be/G8iH0ChlNro

[vprabu]

Update from Chennai. Sorry for the long post.

1. Booked my Versys 650 on Jan 1st, 2016
2. Waited and waited for STA approval and no one had a clue on when it was supposed to happen
3. No idea of the arrival date of the bike where I booked. The Adyar showroom receives the first bike (same dealership) by Jan 14th and it is getting scheduled for someone else (happens to be friend of the dealer) spoiling my mood completely
4. I told the Adyar showroom that I booked first and I should be given the first delivery. Sadly, this did not work. I am told that Adyar showroom gets the first bike for the models.
5. Cursing the destiny, I consoled myself and went and checked the bike on 20th Jan and posted pictures here in this forum
6. My wait for the bike in my showroom continued. Kept calling the people for updates and realized that Kawasaki is not shipping any more bikes to Chennai and this made me even more frustrated.
7. One a week or so one fine day, Adyar showroom says that this bike is getting allocated to me (no idea on how this happened)
8. With the happy news, I have started exploring the loan options and come to know that only HDFC and Bajaj are available. Since the HDFC experiences have been quite bad for me for the last 3 times, I am hesitating to go with them. But their rate of interest seems better
9. I call them up and told them to start the processing to avoid any last minute screw ups
10. Loan process initiated on 3rd Feb as there was hope of STA approval by 7th Feb
11. In the mean time,I have fixed up a delivery date of Feb 12th in my mind, being an auspicious day and updated the dealer on the same. Dealer agrees.
12. STA approval comes through on 7th and no news of my loan approval from HDFC. So called them. Then realized that their screw up is starting. The loan process did not finish and they are likely toby get the approval only 9th Feb. After that payment to the dealer would be done by the next 2 days. With this, it was clear that 12th delivery was not possible. I did not lose my hope yet and continued my follow ups
13. Till Tuesday evening no sign of approval letter from HDFC. After making a dozen calls to the HDFC person, I got a sms that he is out sick and he wants me to talk to his boss.
14. To my horror, when i dialed that number, it was already on my address book and he was none other than the person who screwed up my Harley delivery 3 years back. Somehow, I managed to talk to him nicely and he tells me to submit the documents and 4 cheques to the showroom. He says I need to make the down payment first and only then he can release the loan payment
15. I do it first thing in the morning on 10th Feb, and submitted the required documents and the cheques along with 4 photographs and starts my dreaming process of riding the bike this weekend. Assumed all is well (with HDFC, how can I)
16. Later, I am getting a call from HDFC saying they did not get the invoice and insurance and I followed up with the dealership and thought everything is done.
17. Today, the 11th of Feb around 1:30 HDFC guy calls up and tells me he has not received the insurance. Wondering what is going on, I again called up the dealership who said, HDFC is not ok with only the insurance covering note (seems they have changed the process and need the full insurance document) and wants the full insurance document
18. The dealer immediately contacts the insurance and gets the document and forwards the same to HDFC.
19. I had a very important client presentation (WebEx) from 3pm-5pm and around 2:50pm I got a call from HDFC saying if my account is a joint / E or S account and wants the first page of the cheque. ICICI cheques do not carry the 'typical' first page that has details of the account. So HDFC now wants an attestation from my bank on the ECS form. Time is 3pm and my meeting started
20. I lost my cool and yelled why the hell, they did not tell me this yesterday. We could have done this yesterday itself. He says since the dealership guy collected it, he did not check it (HDFC guy was out sick).
21. Since my talk is after 20mts, I called up my relationship manager (poor guy) and kept him on his toes to sort this out. He calls the HDFC guy and finds out the nearest ICICI branch, calls the manager to get it attested (Love ICICI )
22. My name is announced for the presentation and drama behind the scene still continues. Starts my presentation and got an sms saying attestation is done. With a sign of relief I finish my presentation and damn I getting a message saying no insurance yet
23. After a follow up, the dealer says that the insurance is already sent to HDFC by 2pm. The mail service was down as both the dealer and HDFC uses BSNL.
24. After a few follow ups, the HDFC person sends another person to collect the insurance from the dealer. It is almost 6pm and the RTGS closes by 6:30pm.
25. So, I knew it was not going to happen. After sometime, the HDFC calls up again and says he got the insurance but cannot proceed. The reason, the insurance guy made the insurance for Ninja 650 as Versys 650 was not in their system yet. By this time, my tension got over and I have started laughing the whole thing
26. Then, the smart insurance guy strikes Ninja and writes Versys and stamps it. Now HDFC sees and goes wild. They write to some senior folks and waiting for their approval.
27. Now, I need to submit my passport and sign on Form 21 for the registration. When I call them up, the guy at the dealership says, no payment, no form 21.
28. Then he tells he would collect it tomorrow. I said that is good and mentally making up that it would happen tomorrow.
29. After all these drama, HDFC now called up (7:40pm) and said they have disbursed the payment and requests me to follow up on the corrected insurance policy
30. While I started to smile, I got a note from the dealer saying the STA approval that happened last week is not yet on the RTO system it might happen by tonight. If it happens, it would be a miracle. Needless to say my smile disappeared for some time. But when I started writing this post, the smile comes back thinking about the sequence of events.

One thing is very clear on the whole thing. No has any clue on what they do. Everyone involved in the process here is equally incapable and as a result they now have a frustrated customer.

Interestingly, all my accessories might be landing first. What a coincidence. This post number is #404. Bike not found?

[v12]

Vprabu - Yes, that's quite a long post. And the longest booking experience I have read on the forum. I cant understand this - Dealers and Financial Institutions have been selling and financing vehicles for donkeys years. The process for booking, registering, insuring a car hasn't changed much in all these years. Logistics have improved drastically with everything being tracked online. Inspite of all this - why is it so difficult for dealers to ensure a smooth booking experience for the buyer. I mean ..... How hard can it be??