[n_aditya]

Congratulations Varun and wishing you many happy and safe miles on this one.

I enjoyed reading your review and must say it was straight from the heart and full of passion. I totally agree with you, on a head vs. heart battle, when it's a bike, we all know who wins

Nice of Kawasaki to price the bike so competitively considering the R1 costs a few lakhs more, this is definitely a great buy. Personally, I'm bored out of my skull looking at R1's. They're way too common on our roads. And somehow, the R1 does not appeal to me like a Kawasaki does. No offense to R1 fans.

Been ages since we've met. Hope to catch you somewhere sometime.

Ride safe.

[pratap.pratu]

Hearing some bad news on kawasaki dealerships.. I'm saving up to pick up z800 in blore. Did you face any issue with kawasaki dealerships ? I know there is separate thread running, just wanted to check how the situation is in blore.

[narula123]

Originally Posted by n_aditya

Congratulations Varun and wishing you many happy and safe miles on this one.
Been ages since we've met. Hope to catch you somewhere sometime.

Thanks aditya. We should ride soon. Need to see that pretty Bonnie of yours

The R1 and 10R are as different as chalk and cheese despite being from the same segment. Honestly after all these years I have come to realise that each of the litres have their own distinct characters. The R1s are raw and temperamental (heating much?). The Gixxers and the 10Rs were always the wild child and the CBRs have always been the good-mannered, well-behaved ones. I honestly found the CBR to be too nice to catch my attention. I am not very fond of the Italians personally despite them being the tour-de-force on the tech front.

Originally Posted by pratap.pratu

Hearing some bad news on kawasaki dealerships.. I'm saving up to pick up z800 in blore. Did you face any issue with kawasaki dealerships ? I know there is separate thread running, just wanted to check how the situation is in blore.

So far no issues with the dealership in Bangalore. Either in sales or spares. Infact my entire purchase and first service experience with the dealership was pleasant throughout. Khivraj is quite an old name in the industry and I doubt they will go bellyup like SNK.

[redrage]

Congrats Varun , heard a lot about your bike from Ashish and Harsha (KNOGs) , i picked up a CBR 650F recently. Wishing you miles of safe and adrenaline pumping rides.
Whats the service intervals like?
What oil is being used (Engine & Gearbox)

[narula123]

Some accessories went onto Shredder this week:

1. Motografix tank pad to replace the drab looking plasticy tankpad which comes as OEM. Installed a layer of 3M PPF on the tank to keep the black paint from looking ugly with swirl marks and minor scratches. The good chaps at Auto Service, bangalore did the 3M work with finesse.
The stock tankpad turned out to be a PIA to remove. It is basically a plastic pad with a THICK layer of adhesive and foam underneath it which took 3 people and a lot of time to remove with a truckload of patience to avoid scratching the tank.

2. MRA Racing Screen replaced the OEM screen. The OEM Screen was becoming insufficient to protect my 6 feet frame from wind buffeting at high speeds on the highways. The OEM screen works perfectly at the track when one is in a race crouch but for highway use it was a tad too small unless you are in full tuck with the helmet nicely on the tank. Got the good stuff from MRA in a smoke tint to replace it and it looks fab. Aesthetically it is a notch below the double-bubble stuff from PUIG but reviews all over the net recommended the MRA to be functionally superior to the Puig one. Very good build and optical quality to the screen. Will test it out on the roads on the next ride.

A shout-out to the awesome chaps at JV Promoto, Mumbai for providing both the MRA and the Motografix with a quick & impressive customer service. It is always a pleasure shopping with Vikas and team at JV.

Pardon me for the sub-par pictures. Will put up better ones soon.

Originally Posted by redrage

Congrats Varun , heard a lot about your bike from Ashish and Harsha (KNOGs) , i picked up a CBR 650F recently. Wishing you miles of safe and adrenaline pumping rides.
Whats the service intervals like?
What oil is being used (Engine & Gearbox)

Thank you redrage and congrats to you for the CBR. The service intervals for the ZX are standard japanese fare of 5k kms. No clue about gearbox oil but engine is running Motul full synthetic.

[danlalan]

Congrats on the monster. Many happy miles on it. Lucky for you track is almost a stones throw away.
So there's no difference from this to the winter edition is it?

A friend of mine got the winter edition and man does it look menacing. Phew!!
Makes my blade look historic. Just love the lines, design, color.

[narula123]

Originally Posted by danlalan

Congrats on the monster.
So there's no difference from this to the winter edition is it?

Thank you. There is no difference between the KRT and the winter editions except the color scheme. The winter edition is now discontinued and would be replaced by the 2017 color schemes soon (possibly a white paint scheme).

[alphadog]

What a gorgeous bike!. Congratulations on the bike.
Those track day pictures look too good. Some of them are wall poster material.
I ride a HD sportster myself, but my wet dream has always been a sports bike.. Planning on getting one, myself,to add to my garage, when the finances permit.
Btw, are there any riding schools in India where one can get some basic training on how to handle these superbikes and also some track- racing training?.
Best wishes.
Cheerio!

[dreamseller]

Originally Posted by alphadog

Btw, are there any riding schools in India where one can get some basic training on how to handle these superbikes and also some track- racing training?.

There are quite a few, like Apex Racing and Indimotard.

Then you also have an international school like CSS that has been coming to India since quite a few years now.

P.S. I'm not associated with any of them.

[narula123]

Originally Posted by alphadog

What a gorgeous bike!. Congratulations on the bike.
Those track day pictures look too good. Some of them are wall poster material.
Btw, are there any riding schools in India where one can get some basic training on how to handle these superbikes and also some track- racing training?.
Best wishes.
Cheerio!

Thank you. And credit for the pics to all their respective photographers.

+1 on dreamseller's comment on track schools. I have trained with Indimotard and ridden on numerous occasions with Apex Racing. CSS and RACR are the other options available for training incase budgets are not an issue.

http://www.apexracing.in/schedule/ - this may help

P.S - do check out the background image on the webpage above

[narula123]

I have always liked supersports with rear seat cowls on and after carrying a pillion on the 10R on a couple of occasions I realized that no sane human being will ever sit pillion on this bike no matter how slow I go or how many promises and assurances I dole out to them.

Time to get a seat cowl then !!

But wait, OEM Kawasaki rear seat cowl costs a very fine $220 only

Never mind, nothing that some Chinese cant solve. Off I go on ebay and see that the muppets in our neighborhood have already made replicas of the seat cowl and are happily selling it for $55 with free shipping. Read reviews on the global 10R forums about these and except the slight color mismatch mostly they seemed fine.
Realised there is no way in sweet heavens that I will dish out 200 dollars on a plastic part so took the plunge and ordered the ebay stuff.

Surprisingly, the part reached my doorstep today in a flat 5 days post shipping from HK. Superb experience with the seller as well.

Coming to the product, it fits 99% perfect (a tiny meeny gap here and there) and feels built well. It even has the Ninja logo embossed in the seat patch like the original one. BUT the color is very slightly off and unless you are really nitpicking I dont see that being a deal-breaker for something which costs only 1/4th of the original stuff.
Will live with it.

[v12]

First of all congratulations Narula on your 10R!

The rear cowl really looks good and fit is also almost perfect. Regarding the color, it's not too much of a mismatch - if you can live with it, it's fine - but it does show up very easily. Easy to ignore it on a smaller bike - but on a bike like yours, I would suggest a repaint to match with the KRG (Kawasaki Racing Green). It maybe a bit difficult to get the right shade - but can try out a wrap job or a carbon fibre wrap or hydrographic printing (Hydrographic Printing for Alloy Wheels & Parts : H2O Graphix (Mumbai)).

I faced the same problem when I had to order a cowl for my Z. Reason I did not order the green one was that it definitely would not have matched. So I ordered a black one and put on a green cover over the soft / foam part. It didn't match and although it was a small area - it stuck out like a sore thumb. So for it covered with a black cover. Looks better now

[narula123]

Originally Posted by v12

First of all congratulations Narula on your 10R!

The rear cowl really looks good and fit is also almost perfect. Regarding the color, it's not too much of a mismatch - if you can live with it, it's fine - but it does show up very easily. Easy to ignore it on a smaller bike - but on a bike like yours, I would suggest a repaint to match with the KRG (Kawasaki Racing Green). It maybe a bit difficult to get the right shade - but can try out a wrap job or a carbon fibre wrap

Thanks mate

I am kinda ok with the slight mismatch. If it acts too much of an eye sore will relegate the cowl for track duty only.

I had the option of buying a black shade or a CF finish from the seller on ebay but just dint like the way they were looking on the bike, so went ahead with the green despite the risk of the color mismatch. Worst case scenario will either get it wrapped/painted or covered with Race number stickers.

Cant complain much over something which costed me peanuts actually.

[narula123]

Originally Posted by v12

Regarding the color, it's not too much of a mismatch - if you can live with it, it's fine - but it does show up very easily

Took her out for a spin today and thankfully under the sun the color mismatch is invisible. Seriously. One has to really look closely at the part to figure out a 19-20 difference between the colors. Super happy now. $50 well spent and more importantly $170 well saved

[killjoy]

Did you change the exhaust?