[kailashnj]

Congrats on your Blondelle. Your review is just awesome and hope to see many more updates on your bike. I am also now kinda getting hooked to this bike but finances are killing me right now. Waiting for the right moment to pick this up.

[techfreak]

Hello all, I am back from my hiatus. Actually had taken a break from TBHP but have been riding and Blondelle has reached 6800 km with 2nd service and oil change completed. Its been a fantastic experience so far.

I have done a 3 day 2500 km ride from Odisa to Gwalior, been to Chakrata from Gwalior and back(1444 km round trip) and multiple weekend rides around Gwalior in all kind of road and weather condition and saying she has been fantastic would be an understatement.

Below are some snaps from the rides.


Tiger Fall, Chakrata


Pagara Dam, Morena


Pagara Dam, Morena


Pagara Dam, Morena


Pagara Dam, Morena


Chakrata


Chakrata


Chakrata

In all these time have kitted her up with following accessories:-
1. PUIG Touring Wind Screen
2. Auxiliary LED Lamp (Lamp from Ebay Wiring harness & Switch OE)
3. SW Motech Sump Guard
4. Custom made Saddle bag Support
5. A 12 volt power port and a Cingularity 5 volt, 3 Amp USB port
6. Radiator uard

Shall be reviewing all the above one by one soon, overall I am happy with all the accessories that have been fitted, all complement her touring nature well.

[techfreak]

It has been a long hiatus & missing in action since I last posted an update. In my organisation I would have been labelled as AWL aka ABSENT WITHOUT LEAVE.
Nevertheless am back and read to do a little update.

Last year has been a busy one so not much riding though bike is being ridden regularly albeit for short rides.

As on date Blondelle has completed 17000 kms and she is due for her 3rd service and in the last about 10k kms she has undergone a oil change (Motul 300V) , Oil filter & Air filter (OE) change. The best part being she has been absolutely trouble free in all these kms.

Also during the last oil change at 12000 km I wanted the service centre to check the condition of spark plugs and in the process of taking them off the mechanic fiddled with the THROTTLE BODY and it went out of adjustment hence the same was changed under warranty. Point to note here is that the THROTTLE BODY needs to be factory adjusted . So guys be careful about this whenever any work is being done around the Throttle Body Never touch the adjustment screws.

This year has seen Blondelle doing a Gwalior-Kolkata-Bhubaneswar and back trip of about 6000 km and a year end ride to the hills in Uttarakhand of 1400 kms. While the ride to Odisa was major highway work, the ride to UK saw some really bad & no road condition on river beds n trails. While the engine never skipped a beat the OE tyres were not that great especially at 16000 kms they just about managed to cope up.

ON RIDE TO ODISA & BACK










SOME SNAPS OF UTTARAKHAND RIDE














ADDITIONS IN THE MEANWHILE

My last long solo ride to Odisa I felt the need to have a secure luggage system so the options were to get panniers, either ABS or Aluminium. However I couldn't convince myself of the costs of either so got myself a set of side panniers and top case made of Aluminium.
A total DIY at home costed me about INR 27.5k in total. Saved me about a lakh rupees atleast and gave immense satisfaction. Tested the side panniers with about 15kg load each on some real bad roads and used them fully loaded during my last UK ride and am sure they will let me ride anywhere without a hitch, I would say battle hardened

PANNIERS IN MAKING


















BUSTED MY CHAIN SET AT 16K KMS ONLY

This caught me with surprise actually. I never anticipated for the Chain and sprocket to give up so soon as most of the fellow riders on the same bike have changed chain set only around 20k or so kms. On introspection later I realised on my return leg from Odisa trip, it was raining incessantly and after reaching home bike was unused for about 20 odd days. So may be the road dirt with water settled on chain did its black magic to kill my chain prematurely. Totally my fault to have not cleaned and lubed the chain immediately on return.
Never am I going to repeat this again.
And as always with spares chain set was not available with any Kawasaki dealer so had to get it from Amazon USA.

So far so good, she is doing great as my pleasure and happiness companion.
Soon going to do my 3rd service on my own as the day I landed up in Delhi for the service, due to some reason the service centre was closed. So am in no mood to go to delhi just for the service. As such I have decided to take my bike to a service centre only when I need a special tool else she is going to be HOME DOCTORED henceforth.

[mobike008]

Sambit : Happy New Year. Wonderful to see the update from you after a long time. Beautiful pictures from your New Year ride. I love the tent pictures. Camping is so much fun. I enjoy it also once in a while with some friends

Btw, those panniers look killer (especially after you paint them black and got it splashed with world map)

[techfreak]

Some city riding post my Uttarakhand ride noticed the rear tyre not holding pressure. It already had 3 punctures, which were repaired with standard gooey thread. So decided to give Blondelle a new pair of shoes.

The stock Dunlops were just about ok, I will not rate them good and they had given me fair share of scares in the 17k kms I used them for and changing to Pirelli Scorpion Trail II has been such a revelation.

Old tyres were stock OE DUNLOP and I replaced them with Pirelli Scorpion Trail II with 120/70,17 front n 150/70,17 at the rear. So rear is 10mm narrow from stock.

Initial impression of the new tyres have been good, though am yet to take them to a trail or any kind of Offroad condition as they are in the break in period. But most of the review of the tyre rate them as good only so hoping they are going to turn out as the reviews for me too.

Below are the snaps of the tread pattern & profile of the tyres

My impression immidiately after change of tyre has been of a light handle and smooth & easy turn into banks & corner. It may be because of the rounder profile of the tyres compared to little flattish one of the stock Dunlops.
But sure she feels much nimble n light before. People who have downsized on Versys can comment better whether it's just my feel or it's actually so.


Just an add on, spent just 300 bucks to change tyre at a local shop. Damn cheap compared to the super expensive Kawasaki service. Heard some people pay in thousands just for change of tyres. The tyres themselves costed me 28k for the pair when I got them about 6 months back for my planned Leh trip. (Which never happened :banghead
Now I suppose the prices of tyres have dropped and available for about 20-22k for a pair.