[kozhissery]

I did not realise that this thread was not updated in the past 8 months.

Beaky has covered more than 26000 kilometres. The previous service was done in Delhi during my trip to Uttarakhand (Beaky flies to Rajasthan via Uttarakhand - A Travelogue on my Suzuki V-Strom 650 XT) at 21,996.

Just a quick check-up with oil/filter change. I was happy when they said that the chain is still not loose and valve clearance is not needed for another 10000 kilometres. As per them you have to adjust the valve clearance only if there is any sound change, the sad part is I don't know what is the sound change so have to rely on the mechanic.

Bit too early for service


The new service centre


Inspection going on


Inspection going on


Hit to the pocket


The next service is due and had called my service engineer, even he says it is not needed at 27/28K, but I'm scared. Once this COVID weekend lockdown is lifted, I'm planning to take it for service.

Recently my low beam headlight conked off. This is the second time it is happening, first at about 15K and now at 26+K. Had to do DIY for that. Except for this the bike is running smoothly and I'm quite happy with it. Event the new tyres are better than stock tyres when venturing out of smooth tarmac.

Due to this COVID it has not seen outside world, during weekdays I cannot take her out and on weekends, government does not allow me (weekend lockdown)

[kozhissery]

I just noticed that I'd not posted my previous service log.

Beaky had covered 27K+ kilometres and it was time for her next service. This was long pending after the long trip to North India (Beaky flies to Rajasthan via Uttarakhand - A Travelogue on my Suzuki V-Strom 650 XT). Due to complete lock down in Kerala and particularly in Kozhikode which was a containment zone for a very long period of time, which meant that the service stations do open only on alternate days. Government of Kerala temporarily stopped weekend lockdown for Independence day/Onam and booked for service for Aug 14th weekend.
As usual reached Kozhikode by 9AM and was out of the service station by Noon. Nothing much was done, except the usual oil/filter change, nuts/bolts checking/tightening, chain tightening and a thorough clean up.

Being Serviced


Rate


Nothing much to write. After the lockdown, it is raining like anything during weekends and Beaky is waiting for the sky to be clear to stretch its wings.

[kozhissery]

Lately I'd been very busy even on weekends, so beaky did not get any chance to fly. Last week I had to go to my hometown alone and decided to ride. So on Thursday started the bike and had to crank twice to start the couple of lights started blinking with "FI" error code. Put the bike in dealer mode and got the error code "C12". When asked the service engineer, he said that the battery might be weak. Still took the chance and started the ride to hometown (Palakkad). After covering about 200 kilometers, stopped the bike at a signal and it failed to start (the battery was showing 11v only). Being quite early in the morning no help was available. Tried to push start which was unsuccessful. So decided to have my breakfast and put a SOS message in one of the bikers group and Good Samaritan (Mr. Vijith) called me and gave me the contact of a person. At the same time the call with the service engineer confirmed that battery is down and if the bike could be jump started and I could reach Kochi (another 20 odd kilometers) so waited till a local battery shop was open. So in all had to wait for another 30 minutes for the local shop to open and jump started the bike. After reaching my cousins house at Kochi called up the number and bought the "BTX12-BS" battery. Had to wait about 4 hours at cousin's house as the battery needed 3 hours charge before usage. The battery was bought by Mr. Sanju, nice guy who works on bike bikes on weekends (out of passion). After the battery was connected all the errors were gone from the dashboard. All in all by about 4PM, started my onward journey. To add to the misery it started to rain and had to cover couple of puddles and a new sound started to emanate from wheel that too while accelerating hard. After reaching hometown called Mr. Sanju and got the appointment for Sunday. Found that the chain has reached its last stages.
Time for next investment.

Cost of Battery: Rs.7800/

[rb2399]

Your bike is around fifth or sixth one to face this issue. In my case even after changing the battery, the problem occurs randomly. So, I guess this has got nothing to do with the battery but something that's related to the electrical setup (maybe the stator).
Somehow, I get the feeling that this is related to a batch of motorcycles that were sold in India.
We need to collectively present our case to Suzuki India in my opinion. Whether anything meaningful will be done or not is a different matter though !

[kozhissery]

Originally Posted by rb2399

We need to collectively present our case to Suzuki India in my opinion. Whether anything meaningful will be done or not is a different matter though !

Thanks, let us do that. We can connect via dm.

[alphadog]

Originally Posted by kozhissery

After covering about 200 kilometers, stopped the bike at a signal and it failed to start (the battery was showing 11v only). Being quite early in the morning no help was available. /

Hey good to know that ultimately, you managed to get sorted.
I had the same problem a few weeks ago when I had started the bike after around 10 days of not riding. The bike took a couple of attempts to start and then the F1 error was showing up. I called up Sanju, as the bike was due for a service anyways and he managed to fix the problem and recharge the battery. It has not happened since, so I am assuming that it was something to do with low battery charge.
I am hoping it won't happen again. I guess I just need to ride the bike more often and maintain the charge on the battery.

Cheerio!

[Sayan15]

Mine too was visited by the C12 bug about a month back. Turned out the battery was dying. Few minutes of riding after battery replacement cleared the error. My noob thinking goes like this, after going through the diagnostic process with my trusted FNG guy (happens to be trained by Suzuki, then had a fallout with the dealer): after running the fuel pump with low power, there is not enough power left in the battery to fire the spark plugs, which 'confuses' the electronics maintaining the firing order. The firing order is connected to the CKPS sensor, which is probably the first sensor to send an anomaly signal. Hence the C12 error pops up.

It ultimately boils down to what Alphadog mentioned. We need to ride the bike more and maintain the charge.


Cheers,
Sayan

[kozhissery]

Originally Posted by rb2399

Your bike is around fifth or sixth one to face this issue. In my case even after changing the battery, the problem occurs randomly. So, I guess this has got nothing to do with the battery but something that's related to the electrical setup (maybe the stator).

For the past 2 weeks I did not ride the vehicle as I was down with Covid for the first time. When I tried to start it failed to start on the first go - just some click sound and the dreaded "FI" on the dashboard, which was confirmed to have "C12" error code. After a couple of tries it did start. I did take out for a spin for about 25 kilometers, but was not at all confident for a longer ride (if the bike won't start after stopping somewhere).

In short, I too have started to suspect that it is the stator issue as reported by rb2399. I did call my engineer and he has asked me to bring the vehicle. Now need to find time and strength (need to regain after Covid - may be 2 to 3 weeks of rest will do).

[Vasuki]

Originally Posted by kozhissery

For the past 2 weeks I did not ride the vehicle as I was down with Covid for the first time. When I tried to start it failed to start on the first go - just some click sound and the dreaded "FI" on the dashboard, which was confirmed to have "C12" error code. After a couple of tries it did start. I did take out for a spin for about 25 kilometers, but was not at all confident for a longer ride (if the bike won't start after stopping somewhere).

In short, I too have started to suspect that it is the stator issue as reported by rb2399. I did call my engineer and he has asked me to bring the vehicle. Now need to find time and strength (need to regain after Covid - may be 2 to 3 weeks of rest will do).

Why don't you contact PMG at Karunagapally. The service engineer there also gave me the above mentioned reason. They will inspect the vehicle at your place and thus you can avoid the travel.

Just was googling common stator issue and the result thrown up were "The most obvious symptoms of a bad motorcycle stator include no spark, weak spark, or intermittent spark (also known as misfiring). Hard starts and a poorly running engine can also be clues that your stator needs to be rebuilt or replaced."

[rb2399]

Originally Posted by kozhissery

When I tried to start it failed to start on the first go - just some click sound and the dreaded "FI" on the dashboard, which was confirmed to have "C12" error code. After a couple of tries it did start.

I don't know how much time it's going to take to get a meaningful fix for this issue and hence I went ahead and bought FI Cleaner Tool from healtech (https://www.healtech-electronics.com/products/fic/) and I can assure you that it does work as I was able to fix the c12 error code during one of my outstation rides using this tool. I suggest you get one for yourself !

Their India dealer (Retrorides) is in Delhi. You can connect with them using this page: https://www.healtech-electronics.com/wheretobuy/

[kozhissery]

This independence day I decided to go for a breakfast ride and selected "Chitharal Jain Monuments and Bhagavati Temple" which is about 60 odd kilometres from home. Two of my office colleagues who stay near the location also joined me. Started by 6:45am and reached the common meeting point at about 7:45 (3 kilometres from the actual location), after a short coffee break started to the temple by 8:00. By 8:15 or so reached the destination. Parked the bike and changed the boot to shoes and kept the helmet/boot/jacket in a shop (free of cost, just had some biscuits/toffees/lime juice) who is also entrusted to collect parking fees.
The trek is about 1 kilometre having a total elevation of 100 odd meters and the pathway is well maintained. The view from the hill quite good and the wind is quite cool and enjoyable. Spent about 2 hours and was back home by 1:30Pm.

Route Taken


Nice/Neat Pathway


Panorama shot taken at midway to temple complex


Random Picture


The Gopuram - Reconstructed after it was destroyed by lightning (that is what the local guy said)


How it looked before destruction


Stone carvings


Random Photos


Random Photos


The temple - It is always closed - Did not enquire about its opening, looks like opens very rarely


Another Panoramic view


Another Panoramic view


Couple of trees on the top where we can rest. We rested there for about 1 hour enjoying the cool breeze lying on the shade of tree on the rock



Place: Chitharal Jain Monuments and Bhagavati Temple - From the look it seems that the whole temple was carved out of the rock mountain
Location Address: Chitharal, Kanyakumari district. About 6 kilometres from Marthandam
Longitude: 77.242410
Latitude: 8.329243
Rating: Good for half a day trip. Carry an umbrella/hat. Recommended time is as early as possible (opens at 8:00AM and closes at 5:00PM – ticket time is between 8:00AM to 4:00PM)

Beaky was happy to be able to stretch the wings. For that last 2 weeks I'm not seeing the dreaded "FI"/"C12" on the dashboard (keeping my fingers crossed).

[Vasuki]

Originally Posted by kozhissery

This independence day I decided to go for a breakfast ride and selected "Chitharal Jain Monuments and Bhagavati Temple" which is about 60 odd kilometres from home.

Beaky was happy to be able to stretch the wings.

Excellent. I'm annoyed with you. You could've given me a call. I would have definetely joined you. Anyway nice snaps.

[Hells Bells]

A question for the owners of Strom650 - I test rode a BS4 version here at a Bangalore dealer and the gear box was really notchy. To a point that my ankle joint hurt for a day post the test ride! I was riding a bike after a decade so for a moment, I assumed it was me rather than the bike. However, the muscle memory kicked in after few mins of riding so I dont think it was me.

When I asked why was it so notchy, I got a random answer from the dealer that how they intentionally keep it for test ride bikes. Huh. I wanted to confirm from the owners that in reality, I assume the gear box is noticeably smoother?

Plus, if I would look to use the bike for mountain rides, does this have good low end torque to avoid frequent downshifting? Curious around the rideability for such a use case.

[kozhissery]

Originally Posted by Hells Bells

the gear box was really notchy. To a point that my ankle joint hurt for a day post the test ride!

I think there is some issue with the bike that you rode. Compared to my previous bike (TB500) the noise (clickty clack) was bit higher (when ECSTAR oil is not used) but not heavy and the slotting is very assuring. I've driven continuously for more than three weeks and never felt pain in the legs.

Originally Posted by Hells Bells

Plus, if I would look to use the bike for mountain rides, does this have good low end torque to avoid frequent downshifting? Curious around the rideability for such a use case.

If you mean proper off-roading, then this is not the bike for that (XPulse would be better - lighter and more shock absorber travel). If it is the case of visiting Leh/Spiti, that can be easily done. I'd been to mountains in TB350/TB500 and VStrom and felt more relaxed in VStrom. First trip on this bike was to Spiti (Beaky flies north – Spiti on a Suzuki V-Strom 650 XT) and was very happy with the performance.

[Hells Bells]

Originally Posted by kozhissery

If you mean proper off-roading, then this is not the bike for that (XPulse would be better - lighter and more shock absorber travel).

Thanks for the confirmations. As for mountain riding, I meant mountain tar roads than true off-roading. Your inputs validate that this bike is fit for the use case!