[Red Liner]

Did a quick ride to pune. Started at 3am from bangalore on Thursday to beat the bandh, crossed hubli at 8.30 am, and there were just a few jeeps at the toll thankfully. Stopped by at sankeshwar at a friends farm for a 30 minute lunch and got to pune by 5 pm.

The next day was spent riding to mulshi and catching up with a good friend.

Started late on Saturday after a good home made breakfast at 10 am and reached sankeshwar again by about 14.00. The sun was already searing. Stayed the night at the farm and had some great conversations from marxism to motorcycles with a friend turned farmer.

The next day, left again at 10 am of sorts riding straight down to bangalore. Roads near hubli have melted both ways and are a terror for two wheelers. Two coffee day stops and somehow negotiated the tumkur and nelamangla tollways to get home without having myself killed.

25 kmpl average and covered about maybe a little less than 2000 kms.

[mobike008]

Nice ride Kat. Bangalore Pune (NH48) is a bliss to ride. 14 hours is a good time to cover the 850kms of 4-lane highway

Originally Posted by Red Liner

25 kmpl average and covered about maybe a little less than 2000 kms.

25kmpl is extraordinary for the Versys. I note that she is quite temperamental with the fuel average. The average goes up beyond 22kmpl if you keep the bike steady between 100kmph-120kmph. Anything above, the fuel average drops like a stone.

During the last weekend ride I got a phenomenal 24kmpl because we were riding on ghat sections for nearly 150kms (i.e 50% of tank capacity) and rest was in 2-lane roads

Otherwise, majority of times I average 18kmpl or below !!!

[Red Liner]

Originally Posted by mobike008

25kmpl is extraordinary for the Versys. I note that she is quite temperamental with the fuel average. The average goes up beyond 22kmpl if you keep the bike steady between 100kmph-120kmph. Anything above, the fuel average drops like a stone.

I was at a steady 110-130 almost 95% of the time so that i could enjoy the scenery. At 130, the fuel average is a steady 22-24 kmpl, and yes like you said goes up a little if you variate the throttle under 130.

Not accelerating hard in every gear or braking hard also helps manage a better fuel economy as well as better mechanical maintenance.

I think i am preaching to the devil. Forget about it!

[BoltThrower]

Originally Posted by Red Liner

9. Absolutely need a fog free visor for the early mornings. A damn replacement fog free visor set up for the K5 costs 6.5k.

Did you try the pinlock insert that comes in the box with the K5? I haven't tried mine yet but I imagine it should do its job through one season at least.

Also, yours is probably one of the best written ownership threads on this site I believe. What absolute fresh fun right from the start! Kudos and wish you many MANY happy miles ahead.

[Red Liner]

Originally Posted by BoltThrower

Did you try the pinlock insert that comes in the box with the K5? I haven't tried mine yet but I imagine it should do its job through one season at least.

You must have the new k5s. The prev gen k5 does not come pin lock ready. A new pin lock ready shield costs a whopping 6.5k locally. Then add pin lock insert. Doesnt make much sense. Instead, i shoved all that money for a new potential helmet. I mean, how can a man not have enough motorcycle helmets, right?

Originally Posted by BoltThrower

Also, yours is probably one of the best written ownership threads on this site I believe. What absolute fresh fun right from the start! Kudos and wish you many MANY happy miles ahead.

Too kind sir. There are many here including mobike008, crazy driver, and many others i look up to.

And thank you for waking me up. Lots of updates havent made it yet to the thread. Took apart the clutch cable, cleaned, lubed, cleaned the clutch lever, brake lever, removed the entire gear shift lever assy on the left and had it cleaned and greased, and also got the 32k service done,which is an oil change and air filter replacement.

All DIY

A lot of this cost me riding time. NOT complaining :-)

[BoltThrower]

Originally Posted by Red Liner

You must have the new k5s. The prev gen k5 does not come pin lock ready. A new pin lock ready shield costs a whopping 6.5k locally. Then add pin lock insert. Doesnt make much sense. Instead, i shoved all that money for a new potential helmet. I mean, how can a man not have enough motorcycle helmets, right?

- Too many helmets? What a strange concept


Too kind sir. There are many here including mobike008, crazy driver, and many others i look up to.

And thank you for waking me up. Lots of updates havent made it yet to the thread. Took apart the clutch cable, cleaned, lubed, cleaned the clutch lever, brake lever, removed the entire gear shift lever assy on the left and had it cleaned and greased, and also got the 32k service done,which is an oil change and air filter replacement.

All DIY

Way to go All DIY! Nothing fixes up a bike like its rider's own elbow grease.

I have a friend looking to get the Versys. If you don't mind, what are the service costs like after the Bajaj-Kawa divorce?

[Red Liner]

Originally Posted by BoltThrower

Way to go All DIY! Nothing fixes up a bike like its rider's own elbow grease.

I have a friend looking to get the Versys. If you don't mind, what are the service costs like after the Bajaj-Kawa divorce?

Hi Bolt,

Service costs are manageable and at par with triumph and suzuki. Not at par with Honda. Its about a 20-30% premium over the KTM days, but this was expected as the kawasaki center is completely stand alone and they cannot be as cheap as a mass market set up like Bajaj.

I do not think service costs are anymore a point to reckon over when buying a kawasaki. Unless ofcourse there is a competing honda in contention.

[Red Liner]

Nasir Kaka and me, yet again on another jaunt on "any given Sunday" to find naughty things to do to keep us going for the rest of the week.

We were just riding around aimlessly and just happened to ride straight into this trail (looking for a large lake) after a small road through a village just ended abruptly.

























Beyond a point, it just didn't make any sense to take these big heavy motorcycles up ahead. The trail was steep, the ruts were deep, and we were on tyres meant for the street (hey it rhymes!). Even turning these bikes around in the trail was a herculean effort.

On the way back, I rode ahead and stopped at CCD across from the AOL ashram. Some how Nasir rode past me like a comet I never saw and then called me from near the NICE junction. I was left to sulk over coffee alone.

He's now gotten himself a comm system (I already have one).

[nasirkaka]

He's now gotten himself a comm system (I already have one).

we call it CHINA - (pronounced like poormans SENA)
Its a VIMOTO V8 Bluetooth headset for helmets, been using it for last two days and pretty happy with quality of sound and built. Thanks for the link. Hope not to miss and pass you on future rides.

Beyond a point, it just didn't make any sense to take these big heavy motorcycles up ahead. The trail was steep, the ruts were deep, and we were on tyres meant for the street (hey it rhymes!). Even turning these bikes around in the trail was a herculean effort.

recently we did another ride behind Bannerghatta national park where the trail was more treacherous, steep and full of cricket ball size stones and loose gravel. Versys with road tyre was rear-sliding all over and the weight difficult to control. Dual sport tyres are critical if one intends to take the versys off road confidently.

[Red Liner]

Originally Posted by nasirkaka

recently we did another ride behind Bannerghatta national park where the trail was more treacherous, steep and full of cricket ball size stones and loose gravel. Versys with road tyre was rear-sliding all over and the weight difficult to control. Dual sport tyres are critical if one intends to take the versys off road confidently.

Yeah, offroad is fun though. Pity, we just have the one versys to do everything.

Xpulse where art thou!

[Red Liner]

Quick plan on Saturday night terminated into 4 guys on a Versys 650 each riding to Yercaud and Sitteri and back in a day.

We rode via the back route up Yercaud, so there was quite a bit of bad roading and offroading involved. We wanted to see if we could catch some of the receding rains - no such luck.

One good call: I removed my topbox, and just strapped a bag to the rear seat. Total peace of mind and flew over the offroad sections.

The road up to Sitteri was almost like a Pike's peak run. Fantastic. Absolutely perfectly banked corners, and not a ripple on the tarmac.

We left @ 5am and were back by 5pm.

~Enjoy~

[nasirkaka]

Nice!! How did the versys with the top box fare on the off-road section? Any issues, rattles, or the box flying out?

[Red Liner]

Originally Posted by nasirkaka

Nice!! How did the versys with the top box fare on the off-road section? Any issues, rattles, or the box flying out?

Two of us who had the top boxes decided to just come with tail bags. Either the stuff inside my box rattles, or the box itself rattles - I don't know. When I try and move the box at standstill, it seems perfect.

The least amount of load on that luggage rack also helps keep the screws in place I guess.

The guy with the top box had absolutely no issues at all. So it really does seem box and fitment dependent. My box has never come off, but as you were with me during the Bannerghetta offroad and then we saw one screw off, and all the others loose - I am just not keen on any more drama.

I think, for end-to-end destinations, I will drop the top box off at home and just use a normal tail bag. In the city and for breakfast rides however, the box is totally invaluable.

[Red Liner]

Sometime last year, I got some new gear for myself.



Got these TCX shoes for the street, unfortunately a size too big for me. Had to let them go to a friend, for whom it just fit perfectly.



Goretex, waterproof, windproof gloves. Tested them recently when I had to ride to Pune at an ungodly hour of 3 am on the Bangalore-Pune Highway. Absolutely spot on with the wind proofing. Will try them further in the monsoon season this year.



Summer gloves with more protection than the dirt gloves I was rocking this long. Took some time to break in, pretty comfy now. Upwards of 1000 kms however, the bars begin ringing through my palms - a little more soft leather on the palms would have been nice.



At the Dec 2016 AGV/Dainese sale. Damn did we clear their stock out.











Got my folks from the US of A to steal me a goretex Klim Badlands Pro and Klim Overland pants. The jacket comes with chest protectors, shoulders, fore arms, and back D30 standard. Great venting scheme that really works in dry summers. Contrary to popular mesh opinions, a jacket like this is the best option for dry summers - ensuring that your preserved moisture doesn't dry off your skin and leave you dehydrated before you know it.

Washing these technical wear took me some time. There's a way to do it well (gentle, use glycerin soap flakes, use a dryer to re-energize the goretex) etc. I enjoy the whole study-research-DIY bit, so it was fun. I treat all these aspects as a part of my riding genealogy.

The jacket was just washed after a year of riding. Pulling the armour out took me an evening

Nice to be spanking clean gear though.





On a scorching Goa ride however, the humidity absolutely killed me. I think ANY riding in summer humid conditions ought to be avoided like plague. Maybe leave at 3.00 AM and get in by 8.00 AM. Rides end in that quadrant.

[mobike008]

Nice gear Kat

On a lighter note, I never saw anymore more enamored with riding gear than you. Looks like you want to give that pretty girl around the corner a run for her money (pretty girls love shopping, don't they?...and that expression on your face in one of the picture says it all)

Btw, I need to change my gear too as it's been 4+ years that I got myself anything new. A touring jacket is on top of my list and perhaps another pair of riding shoes that are only ankle length

Please do keep me posted of gear sales whenever it happens and I may just take a plunge...