Team-BHP (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/)

-   Superbikes & Imports (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/superbikes-imports/)

-   -   My new ride - Kawasaki Versys 650 (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/superbikes-imports/186367-my-new-ride-kawasaki-versys-650-a.html)

This is in continuation to my earlier thread - PRE-Worshipped-Honda-CBR250R

By start of 2017, I think I had outlived the 250CC CBR that I owned. Now the upgrade bug had bitten me. I wanted to buy something more powerful and a mid-range bike. I started my hunt for the new Super Bike in January 2017. Since the pre-worshipped Honda was giving me lot of fun I wanted to look at pre-worshipped bike again. That's how I joined couple of buy and sell superbike groups in Facebook. Looked at many options available there and fixed a budget of 4 lakhs max. Could not find any good clean bike from anywhere. Neither did OLX or Quickr help.

In the meanwhile I started to make a list of bike's that I would love to own.

• Duke 390
• ER6N
• N650
• Benelli 600i
• CBR 650F
• Tiger XRX (Pre-Owned)

Duke 390 2017 Edition

Frankly I was very happy with the new release and this is what I wanted to upgrade to from my CBR 250. The latest version of the Duke with its TFT Display and Super Duke looks, I was bowled over completely. I was in love with the bike. Went to couple of showrooms for a dekho but none had them. Then heard that the Vikhroli Showroom has a display bike available and hence went there.

The bike was just good to see in person. I was again bowled over. Wanted to book the bike and hence had gone with the cheque. But things did not work out. Then I went to my friend's showroom at Saki Naka. He had the bike but again he said that the waiting periods were more than 90 days. I did not want to wait that long. Also was hearing issue with the new TFT display on youtube. Hence I moved on.

Picture of my friend checking out the Duke 390 with me.



ER6N

This was when I heard that Kawasaki is providing huge discounts on ER6N and on road price was about 4.25 Mumbai. This was very interesting preposition. But during this time, Bajaj and Kawasaki announced their divorce (read as going their separate ways) and hence I was really in two minds as now the Kawasaki service centres will be very few as compared to earlier. Still I went for a test ride at the new Jogeshwari showroom of Kawasaki. Unfortunately the showroom was not functional and they had no bikes with them. This was sometime in Feb. Spoke to Jason who is the head of sales and told him I was interested in the bike but would like a test ride before deciding. He took my number. By the end of Feb got a call from Joseph that the test ride bike was available for ER6N. Promptly went there to check the bike.

I was really surprised to see the bike in person. IT felt small, very small. In fact I thought my CBR looked bigger than the ER6N. Still went for the test ride. To my surprise the test ride was restricted to only within the compound of the building. I did not like this attitude of Kawasaki. Took the test ride and my doubts were confirmed that this is a very small bike in comparison to my cbr and I can't upgrade to this as other than engine, rest all including brakes is a downgrade. Brakes for ER6N are pathetic.

N650

This was another bike which is similar to the ER6N but with a fairing. I liked what I saw here and the bike in comparison was looking huge as compared to the ER6N and I was interested in it. The On road Price after discount at 4.9 lakhs was also mouth watering. Hence was interested. But one test ride and I was sure this is not that I want to buy.

Two reasons here - 1) honda has spoiled me with its ABS brakes and hence the brakes were little too basic for me and did not like the bite they had. 2) the low ground clearance of the bike did not help. With my size, the bike will surely brush against our hills on raod known as speed breakers. So this is how even this bike was out of contention.

Tiger XRX

Now right next to Kawasaki Showroom you have the Triumph showroom. And the courtesy of Triumph guys was just awesome. They make the customer feel like a king, even though I did not think of any bike that I would buy from them, went in to check what they have. Met with this guy called Sanjay.

He asked me what I was looking for in my next bike, and I just blurted out, ABS, big seat for pillion support and good ground clearance. This made him tell me test ride our Tiger and I was like you sure, I should test ride the tiger. He said - "Yes, you need a tiger and nothing else" This is when I first did a test ride on an adventure bike. Though I had my share of adv bike in Impulse, but that was ultra underpowered bike and for me all adventure bikes meant that. http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/images...n%20stupid.gif

Test ride provided was big and I did good 15 kms on the Tiger and it was just fun. The power and presence of the Tiger was just awesome. It was like a tower bike. I was viewing the road from top of the other cars and for that matter my top of the head was above even the Sumo. This was just great. I knew now that my next bike should be an adventure bike. Reached showroom back and I am little sad to know that the OTR of the bike as 15 lakhs. There goes my adv dream.

Me test riding the Tiger XCX




Benelli 600i

Again right next to Kawasaki n Triumph is Benelli.

I thought of checking out the 600i. Inline 4 and cheap bike which was readily available I wanted to check it out. But the sales man attitude at showroom was enough for me to go away from 600i and its good I did not pursue it further.

CBR650F

Again with the discounts on the OTR price was around 7.60 lakhs and this was good buy at the moment. I was impressed with what I saw. Was ready to book the bike too. Inline 4 beautiful engine, I was aware of the Honda bike and was impressed by its bullet proof engines (CBR250) so I had no doubt about the bike. This was one that impressed me most after Duke 390. Took a test ride and left to do some more research on the bike. This was good bike. All that I heard was positive review. Only grouse that most had was the low ground clearance. I was ready to live with that. Spoke to Rachit on the bike and also read all the thread on Team BHP and XBHP on CBR 650. Was ready to book the bike. Spoke to one of my biker friend and he asked me couple of questions, which made me re-think my decision. The question that he asked me was "Do you want to restrict your ride to only well laid highways and only known roads?" This made me reconsider my decision to buy the CBR 650.

This is the CBR Test ride bike from Venetian Honda
Side profile

Front Profile


At this point I was utterly confused at what my ride will be. To be continued...

By now my confusion was at its max and I was eating the brains off couple of my friends.

• Bhojraj - Gave me good advice on not buying the n650
• Malik - Gave me the advice of not buying the CBR650 (remember the dialogue)

Now somewhere during all this, I had posted my bike for sale and got a customer who took away my bike on March 10th. Now I was without any bike and needed one asap. I was following Mobike008's Dark Knight for long and was impressed by his bike and his blog.

But also read the story of Pradosh and hence was little skeptical on Kawasaki with its divorce with Bajaj. Still spoke to Avinash (mobike008) and was very much surprised when he said its a fun bike and you will surely enjoy. He assured me that out of the many V sold in India only 1 had an issue and he also added me to the Versys India group on whatsapp so that I can discuss my concerns with everyone there. The assurance from him where in he was so sure of the bike, I thought let do it and book it. Went to Kawasaki on 21st March and booked the bike. The bike that I booked was Versys 650 2017 version

On the booking date, I was given another news by the Sales person dealing with me Abhishek - that there will be a change in the on road price as the new 2017 version is being loaded by some additional accessories and different colour scheme. I was like how much extra will that mean and he had no clue on that.

March 28

Mumbai Kawasaki was officially opened and there were all the new bikes available for display. Few of our friends from the Versys group went to have a dekho of the new bike and posted pictures of the bike in the whatsapp group. The bike in its new avataar just looked fab and green suits the bike.

Booking and Delivery experience.

Abhishek was my Sales person and I must say that my booking and delivery experience was good but could have been handled better. Booking was done on 21st March and I was promised that the bike will be made available by 9th April.

For what ever reason the bike could not be delivered by 9th as the loan amount was not transferred by HDFC bank on time. I think I mush have eaten the brains out of Abhishek in last few days for the delivery. I was on his back right from April 1st, kept messaging him on daily basis, asked him to provide the bike by 6th April, daily pestering him on the delivery along with my other friend who also had booked the bike wih me Trilok.

HDFC bank is responsible for my sad delivery though as they did not function as expected. All documents provided to them on 28th itself the loan procedure did not get completed till 11th April and on 11th April is when after daily followup by me, did I get to know that the loan amount was transferred to Anzen's account. I did not wait and went to the showroom to take the bike away without registration on form 19. This was necessary as if I had not taken the delivery on 11th then I would have to wait till 27th April as I would not be in town till then.

I reached the showroom at 12:30 for the delivery. That's when I am told that there are no mechanic to complete the PDI on the bike as they were at the godown for unboxing of other bikes. I said its okay, I don't mind coming later for the PDI but I need the bike right away. After coaxing him for some time, he was ready to give me the bike.

Hence I took the delivery at 1:30 pm on 11th April 2017 with 16 kms on board already.

Took the bike and left the showroom in a hurry as I had to reach office by 3:00 pm. On way stopped at the petrol bunk to fill her up. That's when I noticed that the engine hazard light was always on and neither did the gear shift indicator work on the bike. Since I was little far away and was also getting late for work, I only called Abhishek and informed him about the same.

Now another issue looming large at me was the Registration. I was told that I will get my bike's CRTM (Temp registration) in 1 day and then final number in couple of days.

That 1 day never happened and instead, after daily followup with Abhishek for the CRTM which I never got (and I am not sure how my bike was registered with out CRTM) got my number by SMS from Vahaan directly.

Riding experience

In last few days, I have enjoyed the bike and have completed 300 kms on my bike already. Since the delivery on 11th April, I did not get the bike's registration number till 17th April. On 17th April, I got a SMS from Vahaan with my number. I was very excited with that but since I was in office, I could not get the number plate done. Reached home at 12:30 am but the itch to ride the bike was there. Hence I did the best jugaad I could think of at that time - i.e take a printout of the number and stick the paper on the number plate with cello tape. Asked in our Mumbai group if anyone was up for riding in the night and only person to respond was Trilok (he also got his number that same day so I know why he responded). We agreed to meet at Andheri metro station. On the way I realized how sad the headlights of bike are. At the L&T junction, the street lights were off and I was going at about 80kmph. One of the unmarked speed breaker was not visible and I jumped it. I heard a loud sound from front and thought about the worst. Stopped to check the front tyre, hoping that there is no alloy bent and luckily there were none.

Engine

The bike is butter smooth to ride. Due to running in period, I don't push the bike beyond 4000 RPM. But even at 4k rpm, bike is running at 90 KMPH, which is a decent speed for city. The vibe are not present at any speeds that I have driven till now. You can feel the torque of the engine in every gear. The 68 horses are all set to be let loose when the run-in period is over. The twin cylinder engine is completely vibe free and noise free too. The engine is so quiet that I had to actually strain my self to hear some noise from the engine. It does not have the growl of the inline 4.

Gear

The bike comes shod with 6 speed gear. The gear changes are smooth and change with a nice clunk that lets you know that its sorted correctly. The neutral is easy to find as the gear indicator on the console helps a lot. I am able to pull from as low as 40 kmph in the 6th gear which talks a lot about the bike's nature and torque it has.

One thing that I love the most of the V is its torque. The bike pulls in any gear and if you are not alert, it will pop a wheelie too in any gear. I had tried to race a little in 2nd Gear and the bike was eager to lift of the ground. To me it seemed like a jet plane ready to take off. I had to control my urge to ride hard and first need to learn how to control the beast.

Comfort

The comfort that this bike offers is phenomenal. You have to ride it to believe it. It soaks up small undulations in our roads easily. In fact, during one of the night ride, I came across a rumble strip (those with many small rubber speed breakers) and since I could not see it earlier due to sad lights, I was at a speed, and I must say bike just handled it well.

On friday night, I had the itch to ride the bike again went out for 125 kms ride in mumbai. This time for company I had few of my office colleagues. We left from my house at 1:00 am and reach back at 5:00 am. During this time I observed one thing that I miss from my CBR.

The seat of the CBR is just awesome, I did Mumbai Bangalore on the bike but had no issues what so ever on the CBR. No doubt the seat of the Versys is also good, but I had some numbness in my butts by the time we completed the ride. I am not sure what the issue is but I can say that the CBR 250R seats are well sorted and better than the V in comparison.

Though for pillion i think V is best as its seat is huge and soft. As informed by my wife, the pillion seat of the V is like a recliner sofa for her.

Brakes

Versys has dual disc in the front (300mm) and single disc in the rear (250 mm) with Nissin calipers and ABS. One of the primary reason to buy the V was that it had ABS as standard and that too Nissin (same as my CBR, so was sure how it can handle)

Brakes are good and progressive. I was surprised that even though the bike has the same calipers as the CBR, the ABS don't interfere as easily as they would in the Honda. Which mean the brakes are very progressive and will stop the bike without any fuss.

From my past experience, I have learned to use the front brakes more than the rear brakes and this is helping me. The brakes are just fabulous on the bike - but they lack the initial hard bite that I am accustomed from the CBR.

My bike's current ODO reading is at 325 kms and since I have only done these many Kms, I will want to refrain from commenting anything else on the bike at the moment. With more kms I clock, I will keep the thread updated and hope to give better prospective once I have done atleast 1000 kms.

What I like about the Versys

Things that I like about the bike till now (may change later with more use)

• Torgue - its a hooligan, can pop a wheelie in any gear (don't recommend it to anyone)
• Ride quality - beautiful and supple
• Huge presence - Bike is huge period
• Big Adv bike - Lots of ground clearance
• Pillion comfort - As said by my wife - its a recliner sofa set on two wheels.
• Commanding view - You are above most of the guys on the road and can view from top of the cars around you.
• adjustable windscreen - Love this
• Smoothness in every gear - no two way, its very smooth bike.
• Tyre grip - Such good grip even in stock is unbelievable.

And few things that could have been done better

• Headlights - They are just pathetic and need to be upgraded
• noise from the seat - there is strange noise from the seat if there is no one in pillion
• noise from the rear end - strange noise again from the place above the number plate at the rear.
• Very heavy bike - If the bike would have been less than 180 KGs it would have been more fun.
• Chick magnet - its dangerous to leave the bike anywhere

Now let the pics do some talking here.

My first teaser



my second teaser



Some additional pics





Me and my Pride




I have planned the following upgrades for my Pride

• Spools - got them and installed it too
• PackJack - got it
• Swingarm sliders - got them need to install
• Frame Sliders - got them and need to install
• Fork Sliders - got them and installed it too
• Saddle bag stay - next buy
• Base plate for tail bag - next buy
• Aux Lights - got them and need to install
• Bulb upgrades - looking to buy the Philips Xtreme Vision
• Radiator guards - next buy
• BarkBusters knuckle guards - next buy
• Riding pants - need to buy good riding pants which can be used both in rains and in summers

One more thing that I would like to mention here is that now for the sake of the Versys, I will have to start going to gym and excercise. After all, that's how I can make sure that I don't drop the 200 kg + monster while parking or pulling it out of parking. Need more strength, specially upper body. hehehe

Note from Mod : Thread moved from Assembly Line to Superbikes & Import Section. Thanks for sharing

Kailash : Let me be the first to congratulate you on your spanking new Kawasaki Versys 650 and also the first refreshed model on the forum

Green and Black combination carries the new 2017 model theme found in entire Kawasaki line-up quite nicely and looks beautiful and definitely makes it stand out-Chick Magnet as you rightly said:D

Glad to know my Versys thread helped you take the decision and hoping you too will enjoy the ownership of this lovely machine as I'm doing till now

Look forward to regular updates on this thread and keep sharing pictures of your rides, modifications etc

Congrats again !!!

P.S : Do you really feel the weight of the bike when on the move? Curious to know as I personally feel the bike is light and highly chuckable when in motion

Cheers
Mobike008

Thanks Avi for making the thread live. Weight of the bike is felt when you have parked it and need to get it out. Specially if its little slant road. Other place where i did feel the weight is in bumper to bumper traffic, its quite a task to cut in between the traffic during that time.

Congrats Kailashnj on your new toy. Great decision after all the choices you have listed.

I think there are many options for the headlight upgrade so that should not be a problem.

Ride safe and wish you many many miles of happy riding!

Congrats Kailash! Love this color on the Versys! It was high time The Versys did need some good color options and I feel this one is the best.

Get the plastics off the seat first thing - they tend to get very slippery. Good to see all the sliders too in your list - they are much needed accessory especially on a tall and heavy bike like this where there are more chances of falling or dropping at slow speeds or standstill.

Congrats and keep munching miles and reporting them here with lots of pics. Will be keeping an eye on your thread since I have been looking to buy the Versys/Tiger since some time now. You being in Mumbai will be easy to get a good view on the A.S.S as well from Anzen.

Hearty Congratulations Kailash.

Wish you many enjoyable miles with her.
Versys is such a complete package for our conditions. Really good decision and glad to know that you got the new 2017 one.

CHEERS!!

Rachit

Many congratulations for your Versys 650.

Hope the gear indicator and the hazard light issues required minor fixes.

We in Bangalore haven't got the 2017 Versys in the showrooms yet. please:

Once again, wish you many happy safe miles on the V!

Thanks Rachit, I have mentioned that during my quest you were also one of the person who I bothered. Appreciate you listening to me and helping me in making the decision. I am glad too that I got the 2017 version. If Kawa had released the new version post my purchase, I would have been very sad.

Thanks a lot for your wishes. And yes I forgot to mention, your thread started it all. The Z800 monster. After reading your thread and Mobike's thread the bug bit me.

Thanks a lot. Yes the upgrade planned for the headlight bulbs to Philips Xtreme Vision and adding aux lights. Waiting to see what is my best options for the headlights and aux setup. Another thing bothering me is the cost of all the upgrades available.

I have seen aux lights as low as 1600 to as high as 45000 and am thinking or rather I must say confused which ones to go for.

Many congratulations Kailash!! Wish you many happy miles. It's no doubt a wonderful bike (mine being a one off case) but there is a lot of scope for improvement on the front of Kawasaki when it comes to customer handling, supply of spares and professionalism & technical knowledge of the technicians and service personnel. I hope these Japs realize that selling a good/great machine doesn't end with sale but needs to be backed by strong spares supply and service network with professionally trained technicians. Because now we Indians are buyers of superbikes to munch miles and not keep the bikes in showcases.

awesome choice. Am sure you will stay very happy with the Versys. Wishing you many miles on this beast.

Congrats for this beauty! You will be a happy rider for a very long time.
I liked the way you went through the ordeal of finalizing your ride. Specially the description you gave for the Tiger.
I see you have mentioned the stock tyres to be grippy, are they not the same used on the Ninja650? the Dunlops? My friend keeps complaining about the tyres on his 2011 N650.

Also, just curious, is the front brake on the Versys any different from that on the ER6N? I see you did not like the bite on the ER6N. 300mm Nissin upfront?

I feel you should wait for at least 2k Kms on the ODO before you know how actually your brakes feel.
cpics:

Congratulations, that's one awesome machine.
What are you planning to name her/him?
Do we get "Green goblin" after the "Dark Knight".:D

Thanks and hope to clock more miles on the beast before the upgrade bug bikes again clap:

That's a nice name - green goblin. :D

From what ever I have done on the bike, 300 odd kms, I am comparing the tyres with the stock that I had on my CBR and they are lot better than those Contigo tyres.

The front has Nissin but its with ABS. And again, I am comparing to my CBR which too has Nissin brakes but bites much faster, probably I need to clock few more kms to understand the reality.

Woooww... The green colour in 2017 Versys looks super cool. Congratulations sir for your new green monster. Versys is truly one versatile system that is designed to cross countries without breaking sweat. Munch more miles and explore entire country with ur green monster.