[Vasuki]

Hope this does not obstruct the line of sight of the brake lights. Because from first picture, it looks so. BTW excellent neat fitting. How much the entire setup hurt you financially? Can you please provide the breakup?

[unk9ja]

Very nicely fabricated and fitted. Fab work by the guys. You can either Loctite the bolts or use a nylon ring lock nut. This way, it does not get loosened due to rattles and vibrations.

Looking forward for your ride reviews once you are back.

[Urban_Nomad]

Another point - Looking at the bolts, I think one could simply unscrew the 4 bolts and simply walk away with the case in hand if they so desired; correct?

The nut IMO should be facing upwards at least so that its not easy to reach

[v12]

Avi - this really looks neat. The quality of the work is outstanding - good to have a DIY guy who is part of the service center. The case does not look out of place on the Versys and matches the lines. The only thing that stands out like a sore thumb are the long screws jutting out at the bottom. Would it be advisable to shave them by 2cms?

URBAN nomad - You echoed my thoughts about prying eyes. But I don't think Avi will be leaving Dark Knight out of his sights. So I don't think it should be a problem as long as it has a secure and safe.

[mobike008]

Originally Posted by Urban_Nomad

Any idea what the payload capacity of the rack is? And how much does the rack weigh by itself?

I don't know what you mean by payload capacity for the rack? Rack was made specific for Coocase and using a 3mm bracket.

We mulled over 2mm and 3mm and decided on 3mm

The rack weight is not much as it's not a full sized one but, made exactly the size of the plastic base plate (which you can see on top provided by Coocase) to provide it strength from bottom-end. Should be around 1kg not more

While on the subject :

Maximum luggage to be loaded in top-case is 6.5kg (Almost as much as cabin luggage capacity)

Originally Posted by Vasuki

Hope this does not obstruct the line of sight of the brake lights. Because from first picture, it looks so. BTW excellent neat fitting. How much the entire setup hurt you financially? Can you please provide the breakup?

That was also my first concern. No; it does not obstruct the brake lights. In any event, the lights on Coocase is a traffic stopper (When they delivered the bike they mentioned people were gaping at traffic lights at this tall monster that looked like it came out of some alien world with those lights)

In any case, the base plate can be adjusted towards outside and up and down incase I need it to be

Total Damages : INR 3.5K (It might sound more but, I think it's worth for the neat work they did and service they provided)

Originally Posted by unk9ja

Very nicely fabricated and fitted. Fab work by the guys. You can either Loctite the bolts or use a nylon ring lock nut. This way, it does not get loosened due to rattles and vibrations.

Thanks. Yes, I plan to do that whenever I get time which is not anytime soon..LOL

Originally Posted by unk9ja

Looking forward for your ride reviews once you are back.

Will be back in town on Thursday. Oh yeah! Will share a detailed observation report for sure

By way of coincidental happening, met 4-5 V gang on their bikes in Mumbai day before yesterday and we gorged on some lovely Kebabs at Ayub in Khala Ghoda

Will be meeting the Bangalore V guys on Monday/Tuesday. Not sure if Chetan will be in town then

Originally Posted by Urban_Nomad

Another point - Looking at the bolts, I think one could simply unscrew the 4 bolts and simply walk away with the case in hand if they so desired; correct?

The nut IMO should be facing upwards at least so that its not easy to reach

Karan : Salute to you! You guys think too deep.

Firstly, Coocase would be only for long distance riding

Secondly, when reaching the long distance riding, I would carry the Coocase inside the hotel

So the above concern does not apply !!!

Originally Posted by v12

Avi - this really looks neat. The quality of the work is outstanding - good to have a DIY guy who is part of the service center. The case does not look out of place on the Versys and matches the lines. The only thing that stands out like a sore thumb are the long screws jutting out at the bottom. Would it be advisable to shave them by 2cms?

Thanks Allen. Those long screws will be replaced soon. As mentioned, due to my travel schedule, I wanted the bike back without fail that night and they didn't have a smaller screws

They are in process of making a "Bash" plate and Center Stand for my bike.

Next immediate installations are the mandatory ones :

1. Twin Horn

2. Aux Lights

Both of which hopefully will be done in a week or two

Originally Posted by v12

But I don't think Avi will be leaving Dark Knight out of his sights. So I don't think it should be a problem as long as it has a secure and safe.

Spot on ! I will not be leaving the top-case on rack when spending a night at any hotel. It's but obvious anybody would take it inside with them

They delivered my bike in style on a ZX-10R !!!!!!!





Replaced the oil-caps with Ali-express merchandise (first time ordered and decent quality)



I didn't like this color as it's not Kawasaki Green--Most probably will get rid of it soon

Attachment 1509292

[Haroon]

Been away from the forum for many days for reasons you know Avi

Just got in now and saw the brilliant work your service center guys have done on the base plate fabrication and mounting stuff. The finish also looks as good as OE.

Great going

[Mpower]

Originally Posted by mobike008

However, my short ride was satisfactory.

They mentioned their might be a very light rattle (which I could hear since I was not wearing a helmet) and that will go away when the box is "Loaded".

Couple of questions

Does it affect the handling of the bike when you throw it on a corner (when case is loaded with stuff?)

What do you plan on putting in there? Wont the stuff bounce around when you hit a bump or pothole?

[mobike008]

Originally Posted by Haroon

Been away from the forum for many days for reasons you know Avi

That was a breathtaking trip. You are living life "king-size"

Originally Posted by Haroon

Just got in now and saw the brilliant work your service center guys have done on the base plate fabrication and mounting stuff. The finish also looks as good as OE.Great going

Thanks Haroon! Details they were discussing with me and amount of attention they paid when we first met sealed it for me that these folks will do a good job. I wasn't wrong !

Time to get a lot of other stuff done from 'em in near future...

Originally Posted by Mpower

Couple of questions

Does it affect the handling of the bike when you throw it on a corner (when case is loaded with stuff?)

What do you plan on putting in there? Wont the stuff bounce around when you hit a bump or pothole?

Deep : Why don't you find out for yourself when you are in Hyd next akin to Classic 500 TD???

To answer your queries :

1. With top-cases you are not supposed to exceed 120kmph with some + - of this max speed limit recommended by top-case manufacturer. Therefore at these speeds taking corners is pretty easy especially the sweeping long turns. Might have to be careful for sharper turns. In short, I understand there is absolutely no effect to the handling of the bike as also confirmed by Haroon several posts ago

2. People normally would like to store helmets (abroad) as it's safe. But, in India you cannot take the risk of leaving the top-case outside a hotel with your stuff still inside. Like UN and V12 pointed out a few posts before there is a risk of people stealing the top-case itself. I plan to use it to store my clothes, slippers, travel bag/shaving/bathroom kit etc

I plan to do a load testing as soon as I'm back in town!

P.S: That night I was riding without helmet. I could hear light screeching sound from the brakes ( otherwise with helmet cannot make out any sound) is this normal?

[mobike008]

After a few weeks finally got sometime to ride over the weekend and I decided to do a 200kms solo run on the brilliant Nagpur highway

I was keen to take the Dark Knight out on the highway was also to primarily test the "Coocase" as I wanted to put it through its max speed limits and also make sure I put it through some other rigorous tests like going through pot-holes and speed bumps

Firstly, I left at 7:30am on Sunday and was back home by 10:00am with just a quick stop for a nice hot filter coffee by the roadside somewhere on highway

I loaded the Coocase with some clothes and additional gloves to just fill her up and topcase was fixed like a glue to the rack no rattle, no movement at all.

I took a detour in city via. some bad roads (Necklace road is going through some roadwork and went through that bad patch and case performed flawlessly). Best part is that top case did not affect handling at all. I can still squeeze through some tight spaces which you cannot if bike is loaded with Panniers

So my fear that top-case might fall down if it goes through bad patches is unfounded

All below functionalities are working like a charm :

1. Alarm
2. LED's
3. Remote Control

[mobike008]

Dark Knight last weekend had one hell of a impromptu trip of covering 1300kms through some of the most grueling terrain in just 41 hours

Total trip distance



Me and my partner in crime



Full story coming up soon......

[mobike008]

DAY 1 ( SATURDAY; JUNE 4TH, 2016)

This ride idea was formed over a quick breakfast ride of 150kms on a Thursday (June 2) which was a holiday in Hyderabad due to Telangana formation day.

Me and my friend (Haseeb Khan) who owns a SPEED Tripple (ST) mulled over the idea of a slightly long ride while munching on a sumptuous south indian breakfast. He proposed Bangalore and Suryalanka both of which were beautiful 4-lane highways and I'm not really a big fan of empty long stretches as I enjoy riding more on winding 2-lane roads with good road surface

And, I proposed to him why not ride to Mahabaleshwar on Saturday morning and return by Sunday night. He is a guy who lives to ride a motorcycle and always ready to ride almost anywhere. He just told me; make plans and I will be there. Oh boy! he had no clue what he was getting into

So we decided to head out of town at 5:00am on the following Saturday. His parents were returning from UK and he mentioned he will not be getting much sleep that night as he had to receive them at the airport so he will be ready at 5:00am

Unfortunately, later that day (Thursday) I got to know that I have to make a quick day trip to Bangalore next day for a customer meeting which was unexpected and put second thoughts into my mind about Saturday ride plan.

But, after thinking more, I decided to keep our ride plan remained intact and decided to deal with hectic travel day. I returned from Bangalore on Friday night around midnight and got just enough sleep for next day's long ride

Some of my friends suggested couple of options and emphasized on 2nd option as 1st option is horrendous

Option 1

Hyd-Solapur-Mohol-Pandharpur-Satara-Wai-Panchgani-Mahabaleshwar (580kms)

Option 2

Hyd-Pargi-Sedam-Gulbarga-Bijapur-Satara-Wai-Panchgani-Mahabaleshwar (700kms)

Next morning got up at 4:00am and peered out of my bedroom window to note in dismay that it was raining heavily. We exchanged a few calls and decided to delay our start-time and thankfully rain stopped around 6:00am and we were on our way after fuelling up at around 7:00am and due to late start we foolishly chose to take the 1st option purely because of it's shorter distance. And, this is where our nightmare started

I was on this highway NH9 (Hyderabad to Solapur) after a real long time and was amazed to see a total transformation. Entire 300kms stretch is under-going a major 4-lane road widening and work is happening in full force with all construction vehicles and equipment splayed across the road with diversions almost every 2-3kms. Road condition was broken patches, gravel, slush (due to rains) and temporary speed breakers to slow vehicles down due to construction work

Without exaggerating, It felt like we entered into hell. For me personally I had absolutely no issues (except the irritation of riding through such conditions) with the Dark Knight and infact was grinning to myself and enjoyed putting the Versys through conditions that it loves. Whereas the ST was struggling to keep up with me for reasons listed above.

It took us literally 5+ hours to cover those 300kms so you can imagine the road conditions. We breathed a sigh of relief as soon as Solapur came and there on we enjoyed roughly 30kms of 4-lane highway before stopping for sumptuous vegetarian maharastrian lunch. We embarked on our journey again and a new type of hell began for my friend; the road conditions from thereon until we reach Wai which is hardly 40kms away from Mahabaleshwar was equally terrible-broken roads, some stretches full of small craters and believe you me; Speed Tripple had some amazing lights from Rigid Industries (LED Bar in front; 2 Aux lights) But, sadly his LED bar broke a few kilometers ahead. Also, his engine nuts got unscrewed...LOL....Not laughing at his predicament but, just makes me laugh now thinking of the punishment we put our bikes through

This trip is where the Versys shone. I was doing a constant 100kmph on this roads whereas the ST was struggling to do even 60kmph and I was opening the throttle the moment I see some bad stretch ahead and it was literally gliding over bad roads. There was a sense of feeling that I'm sitting on some soft rubber sofa and when bike dips into a pothole/crater absolutely no feeling. Front wheels dips in and comes out without any harsh feedback to the rider. Imagine the beating the suspension took on our behalf to keep us comfortable.

After this trip, I have developed an even greater respect for Versy's suspension as it literally dispatches the worst of the roads

Me and my friend riding style and preferences differed a lot

Haseeb : He is a speed guru and likes to ride very fast and loves only 4-lane and his control over the bike is unimaginable to extent that he rides like a professional rider. Doing wheelies at speeds that I don't want to mention on forum.

So imagine, he was grumbling all the time through this trip..Haha! And, he likes to take a break more often than me almost every 1.5 hours

Me : I too like to ride fast but, keep a constant pace and I can ride continuously for a couple of hours at the minimum

After multiple breaks due to several reasons we finally reached our hotel around 7:00pm (which is 12 hours from our starting time-period) in the evening after covering some 580kms

Just before heading out from home in the morning



Fuel Stop before heading out towards the highway





Breakfast stop around 9:00am



An exhaustion stop after going through the grueling road-widening stretch between Hyderabad-Solapur



An outstanding Maharastrian Thali in "Mohol"



Some pics from the stretch in "Satara"











Kms covered during the day



Our hotel in Mahabaleshwar



We checked out around 8:00am and ready to tour Mahabaleshwar points







Posing by Lake Vienna





Lake Vienna, Mahabaleshwar





To be Contd....

[navin_v8]

Originally Posted by mobike008

Due to late start we foolishly chose to take the 1st option purely because of it's shorter distance. And, this is where our nightmare started.

Without exaggerating, It felt like we entered into hell. For me personally I had absolutely no issues (except the irritation of riding through such conditions) with the Dark Knight and infact was grinning to myself and enjoyed putting the Versys through conditions that it loves.

Now that's what I am talking about. Avi mate the calling of the off road trails through these shortcuts is like the nature challenging man and his machine to bring it on. I have been through this while crossing over to Pune from Lonavala. Wherein we took one such "short cut" and ended up getting lost in the woods near Mulshi Dam/Lake. We were in the midst of mist covered mountains and dark rainy clouds over our heads, the GPS didn't work and we just followed the road with no soul in sight. It was well worth it with us taking close to 3 hours to cover a stretch of 50 kms of rain washed dirt trails coupled with water streams as deep as 2-3 feet. The broken roads had ditches, stones, clay and all that nature threw at us. This is the time when one feels the need for an ADV tourer to soldier through those trails that are putting you, your motorcycle and its suspension to the limit. Good to see the Dark Knight in its territory.

Mahabaleshwar was equally terrible-broken roads, some stretches full of small craters and believe you me. This trip is where the Versys shone. I was doing a constant 100kmph on this roads whereas the ST was struggling to do even 60kmph and I was opening the throttle the moment I see some bad stretch ahead and it was literally gliding over bad roads. There was a sense of feeling that I'm sitting on some soft rubber sofa and when bike dips into a pothole/crater absolutely no feeling. Front wheels dips in and comes out without any harsh feedback to the rider. Imagine the beating the suspension is taking on your behalf and keeping you comfortable.

After this trip, I have developed an even greater respect for Versy's suspension as it literally dispatches the worst of the roads

Whoa! 100 KMPH on broken roads speaks volumes about Versys's pedigree WRT suspension, handling and engine dynamics. Mate what braking ratio did you follow on those broken stretches while doing 100 KMPH also how is Versys's engine braking? How does the motorcycle behave in terms of balance while riding through broken roads for long distances? Did you stand on the foot pegs while riding akin to Dakar riders while doing 100 KMPH on the broken roads? What was the average fuel economy you got while riding through those broken roads?

Awaiting the next report.

[mobike008]

Originally Posted by navin_v8

Now that's what I am talking about. Avi mate Whoa! 100 KMPH on broken roads speaks volumes about Versys' s pedigree WRT suspension, handling and engine dynamics. Mate what braking ratio did you follow on those broken stretches while doing 100 KMPH also how is Versys's engine braking? How does the motorcycle behave in terms of balance while riding through broken roads for long distances? Did you stand on the foot pegs while riding akin to Dakar riders while doing 100 KMPH on the broken roads? What was the average fuel economy you got while riding through those broken roads?.

Thanks Navin. Yup! I was doing that speed so comfortably that I felt bad for my friend and was slowing down every now and then so he could catch up with me.

He said a nice thing :

I cannot catch you on these roads
you cannot catch me on 4-lane highways

So true !!!

Riding on Foot-Pegs : Check! I was riding on foot-pegs at speeds >80kmph a few times as the bike has a lovely center of gravity and you don't feel any weight or off-balance when doing it. Also, it's a great way of relaxing your bums. I used to do that every 50kms for 1 min or so and I was good to ride another 50kms without stopping.

Fuel Efficiency : If you are riding sanely the Versys gives fantastic fuel efficiency. Guess what, it gave 30kmpl for one tank-full but, when you start caning it, the FE bars drop alarmingly and the worst I got was 22kmpl. Each and every tankful was measured with an auto-cut method

Broken Road Behavior : I can tell you this is the best motorcycle < 10 lakhs for riding on bad roads. Ride it to believe it !!!

Day 2 ( June 5th, 2016)

The day before we checked into the hotel and relaxed in their in-house restaurant that served excellent food and went over our entire day's trip pulling each other's leg and recalling the day's highlights until 11:00pm when we finally returned back to room and blasted the AC full-speed and moment we hit the bed we went out along with lights

Plan was to check-out at 7:00am and explore Mahabaleshwar and Panchgani. Since we got a decent 7 hours sleep we were on-time with respect to our check-out and left the hotel around 7:30pm and decided to check out a few places in and around Mahabaleshwar. Since our hotel was around 7kms before Mahabaleshwar we enjoyed the ghat section ride to the Lake Vienna and spent some time by the Lake eating strawberries and blueberries and then rode around to a couple of other near-by points and I told my friend that no visit to Mahabaleshwar is complete without a foodie break at "Mapro Garden"

It was around 11:00am and we headed straight to Mapro Garden which was crowded like always and decided to grab some breakfast/brunch before riding back towards Hyderabad. For folks who have been there, you know the food there is expensive but, excellent at the same time.

We enjoyed their special grilled sandwiches with me opting for a Kiwi Margarita and Haseeb opting for Strawberry shake. Enjoyed the meal and after many people gaping at our bikes at the parking with some wanting to sit and click pics and one small girl (around 5 years) wanted to sit on the Versys and get a picture clicked by her parents. I happily obliged

We started from Mapro Garden around 12:15 to be stuck on the ghats for almost 20-25 minutes as it was Sunday morning and I'm sure people from Bombay and Pune must have arrived for a day trip. It was choc-a-bloc and we decided to make a quick exit from that place and overtook everything that came in our sight.

Once on the plains we stopped for a tankful and decided to take the "Option 2" route and thank the lord for doing so.

Hyd-Pargi-Sedam-Gulbarga-Bijapur-Athani-Miraj-Satara-Wai-Panchgani-Mahabaleshwar (700kms)---Read in the opposite direction

We got off Wai and onto NH4 and enjoyed a thrilling ride of about 100kms on the beautiful 4-lane highway and it was a test for the COOCASE too as it endured some high speeds. We covered distance pretty quickly and got onto the Bijapur highway and most of the road was very good. Out of the 700+ kms I would say only about 150kms was not that great but, quite manageable and rest of the roads were all 2-lane but, excellent road surface

Athani to Bijapur had some fantastic WIDE turns that you can see for 4-5 kms ahead with barren land on both sides. It was a wonderful feeling to lean into those corners at good speeds on these roads

Stopped quite a few times to enjoy the beautiful scenery and the moment you enter into KA, the dreaded "Speed-breakers" started and we took some of them at >100kmph as they appeared without any notice and almost magically..LOL and I panicked that the COOCASE might fly off the bike but, thankfully nothing like that happened because of the excellent brackets made by Kawasaki folks.

Around 4:00pm, there was a beautiful stretch with trees on both sides and weather was cloudy with a light drizzle thrown in when we spotted some villagers selling "Bhutta" on the road-side and I signaled Haseeb to stop and we turned back and spent a good 45 mins-1 hour eating bhutta talking to a nice young villager who offered to do some "Feet Pounding/Massage" in the small hut behind where they were selling the Bhutta in exchange for a couple of Bhuttas. Those 10-15 mins of feet pounding was a big relief. Haha!

We continued our journey and stopped yet again for some tea at 7:00pm with Hyderabad still some 275-300 kms away. Wherever we stopped the naïve villagers practically smothered us and made it very difficult to stop for long period and threw a barrage of questions like

What's the price?
FE?
Does it run on Battery? ( This question took us by surprise that even villagers are becoming forward-thinking)
Does it run on Diesel?
Why spend so much? You can get 2-3 cars in that price etc....etc.


Some villagers wished us well and asked us to ride slow and be careful in night riding etc. Sweet of 'em!

We took off around 7:15pm and it was dark and this is when the lights of Coocase gave up. Those lovely LED's didn't come from hereon due to the bike going over the speed breakers at high-speed and I'm thinking some wire must have got disconnected (Yet to check what's wrong)

Last section (~300kms) of the ride was done mostly in pitch dark and my friend's super expensive RIGID lights weren't that effective (his LED bar was cut and put in the COOCASE as it was dangling on the wires due to bad roads) and those 2 auxiliary lights weren't satisfactory enough.

Those lights were just spreading wide and I was depending on him for night riding as stock lights of Versys are not good for long distance night riding. I wanted to ride behind him and use his lights to ride along-side. But, his lights proved to be pathetic and didn't inspire anymore confidence than mine

However, after getting used to lights we kept up a good pace of 100+ and some of the sections were really scary as it was pitch dark and no one around for nearly 40-50kms and I was worried if the bike stopped for any reason we will be stranded in middle of nowhere.

We stopped to stretch legs in pitch darkness a few times and kept telling ourselves "enough is enough" and eagerly waiting for journey to end and reach home as both were getting thirsty often and bums/under thighs were burning from continuous ride and only thing on mind during the last couple of hours of ride was to get home as soon as possible. One final tea-break at Pargi around 10:30pm and spent around 15 mins sitting with local villagers chit-chatting and were home by around 12:20am

Some Observations

Roads

Maharashtra roads in general are horrible and god knows why the government is not spending money to improve roads to important pilgrimage destinations like Pandarpur,Tuljapur etc.

Karnataka roads are slightly better than Maharashtra roads but, they bring a new problem for travelers. Speed breakers at every other corner. It just takes away the fun of road-travel

AP/TS : This is pure heaven. The moment you enter AP, you can see the marked difference. I would say AP has the best roads in entire South India

ABS

During this trip, there were many instances where we had a close call. Some of them outlined below:

1. Stray dog coming in between at high speed

2. Wide left or right hand turner and suddenly you see another vehicle coming from opposite direction and you are in their path and you need to change direction to move to your lane. Sometimes on such turns you will always find gravel and you need to be thinking really smart how/when to apply brakes so you don't get into a skid nor run off the road. In such instances, the ABS is such a boon

3. Encountered innumerable speed breakers at the last moment. Panic braking to slow down and take the breaker at slower speed. Same issues of gravel and loose sand near speed breakers

Plus a few more instances where we had a few close calls for some reason or other

Due to "ABS" the bike kept a perfectly straight line and never ever went even an inch away from it's intended direction. If this was my erstwhile Bonnie, I would have skidded a few times for sure. I never knew what was happening inside mechanically but, i felt safe despite being in some situations where I panic braked.

After riding nearly 4000kms with a motorcycle that has ABS, i feel it is a very important safety tool and can save you skin/bones and sometimes even your life.

Versys Suspension

I don't want to keep drumming how good it is. I reckon will just say that it's in a different league and zip my lips !!!

Seating

The Versys is definitely a great mile-muncher but, me being on heavier side, I had some issues of my under-thighs getting sore from long riding and I agree with Nasir now that you tend to slope forward towards the tank and your precious equipment gets jammed uncomfortably. It's not an issue but, certainly an irritant while doing these type of marathon rides as never observed these during shorter rides

Brakes

Finally, the most important aspect. As you know, I was not too happy right from beginning with it's braking but, after riding these many kms, the brakes have improved tremendously and I have to sheepishly admit I was riding with lever at 3 POSITION which was close to the grip bar. I changed the lever to 1 which is farthest and it practically changed how I was using the front brakes. It has tremendous bite and no need to grab the lever but, just a single finger is enough to make the front brake work. I use the universally accepted braking method of 70:30 or 80:20 (Front Brake vs. Rear Brake) at all times and it works wonders to control the motorcycle at all times.

Whew! Tired like hell; typed the above in 15 minutes so please excuse for missing titles of pictures and hope the above story gets mapped to the pictures below. You're welcome to ask queries and I will be happy to answer

[techfreak]

Lovely travelogue Avi. 👍👍
Just itching to get home n start riding my Blondelle.😁

[Red Liner]

Good tip on the brake lever adjustment. I haven't been too happy with the brakes either. Let me move the lever to a farther position and check. I ride on setting five at the moment.

Great ride trip by the way. Man I love the strawberries at mahabs.