[GoBlue]

Originally Posted by nitrogary

Nice small ride today up to shell for refueling. The Yoshimura sounds lovely in the tunnel!
The RS is gorgeous indeed.

Thanks for sharing the pics. Let's address the beauty that the R1200GS is!

The sight of that suspension working it's magic from a 3rd person PoV is marvelous. I was riding behind you on one stretch of the route and while I was getting tossed around in the seat due to undulations on the road, I could clearly see the GS's rear suspension doing it's job and you were literally at a fixed point in space, unaffected by the undulations! If only this package of comfort AND power wasn't so unattainable for the wallets of mere mortals.

BHPian Crankpin's Street Triple RS sounds lovely in the higher RPMs. Arrow has designed a wonderful after-market exhaust for the RS which has a bassy burble at Idle/Low RPMs and a growl up-high.

Originally Posted by Added_flavor

Slightly late to the party as I read your review today. While you kept saying you're a car guy, the detailed review doesn't seem like it and the language used is pretty much biker-speak.

Great mods on the bike too, looks and sounds beautiful! Wishing you many more happy and safe miles!

Haha! Thanks for the compliments. I've read your thread too and was left feeling awestruck that you've covered more than 40k km of tarmac on a super-bike! If that isn't a superpower, I don't know what is.

When I began the search for the bike, the aim was to merely indulge in the experience of riding/owning one. Serious riding activities like long distance touring, track days or super-bike school sessions weren't on the radar, which is the benchmark that I've found expressed often in posts on the forum, that separates bike owners from bike riders. This remains true even today after a year of owning the machine, which is why I still do not consider myself to be in the illustrious league of "bikers".

However, the experience of riding such a powerful machine is extremely addictive and the feeling of being on the road, throttle cracked open, exhaust singing and the brain working overtime to navigate the road ahead is thrilling to say the least, and I feel as excited to ride the bike every time I take it out even today, as I was when I used to dream about having one. The desire hasn't diminished one bit.

Still enjoy driving the car, but have to admit that I don't find myself driving as aggressively as I used to before the bike entered my life. The sense of acceleration and thrust is so massive on the bike that driving fast in the humble Polo seems like a lost cause in itself. Where earlier I used to drive the car in the fastest lane on the highway, revv the car up in "Sport" mode to try to stay ahead of other fast moving vehicles, now, I drive sedately in the middle lane and watch the world zoom past. Even the sight of BMWs and Jags going by doesn't get me that excited knowing that the bike offers a far superior adrenaline rush. Who knew that super-bikes could have such a calming effect on people's minds?

[GoBlue]

It has been a long time since the last update on the thread, so here goes a post meant to share random pics of rides that were done BEFORE the lockdown began.
The bike has been doing absolutely fine. The ODO reads around 3.9k. It has been 14+ months of blissfully reliable ownership so far.

Got the bike detailed/ceramic coated in the beginning of Jan '20. The detailing brought out the beauty of the alloys and the header pipes. Cleaning the alloys is really a tough job as accessing certain portions is difficult, especially on the rear wheel. Got it done at Detailing Devils, Pune. They did a wonderful job. Thanks to BHPian Happysmiles for the recommendation. Some pics of the result.







Had been on a lovely ride to Kaas Plateau with BHPian TheCelestial. Some pics of the natural beauty to be found in MH.

Windmills. Always a lovely sight.



Authentic Maharashtrian food. Please guess the items..



Lovely trails.



Crystal clear still-water. Absolute silence. This was a lovely spot.



Another view of the place.



The green beast.



And the white predator.



The road was being relaid, navigating the gravelly surface proved to be interesting.



The Sahyadris, always a sight to behold.



And during these strange days of the apocalypse that has gripped our country (and the planet), the bike continues to rest, hoping and dreaming of newer adventures.

[GoBlue]

Bike's Log | 4,250 km on ODO:

A short summary of the ownership experience:

1. 4-cylinder engine vibrations:
The engine vibrations that were noticeable between 6k-8k RPMs when the bike was new, have disappeared completely! There used to be distinct vibrations felt on the foot-pegs and handlebar between 6k to 8k RPM.
The credit for this goes mostly to Suzuki for making beautiful 4-cylinder engines that open up as they run-in and become creamier. Some credit could also be due to Amsoil for the 10W40 full-synthetic oil that was used after the first service. The Suzuki SVC used Motul 300V 15W50 during the first service which wasn't as per the recommended oil grade as specified in the user manual. I wonder to this day if the incorrect grade of oil used by the SVC could've resulted in said vibration being observed in the first place.

2. Stiff suspension:
The ride quality of the machine on perfect tarmac was observed to be brilliant. However the moment rough/broken patches showed up it used to feel like one was sitting on a bed of nails. And when it comes to Pune roads, such patches are to be found aplenty. To describe the feeling accurately, it felt exactly similar to sitting in an auto-rickshaw when traveling through bad patches - being jolted around and sharp thuds reverberating throughout the body.

This discomfort got so annoying over time that I began to have 2nd thoughts about the choice of bike! The suspension was adjustable only for pre-load, rebound damping/compression settings weren't available. Began following Dave Moss's videos on the tube and also started searching for suspension upgrades.

As per the wisdom that Dave Moss has been kind enough to share freely with the world, it seemed that pre-load was responsible only for setting the static sag, the stiffness/firmness of the suspension was set using rebound damping/compression (both of which were non-adjustable). There seemed to be no solution until one day when I had a moment of clarity. Could it be that the pre-load setting that came from factory was not proportionate to the rider weight that was being loaded onto the suspension, thereby affecting the ability of the suspension to function properly?

Armed with the user manual, set the preload on just the rear shock to the lowest setting before the next ride and thought of observing if that had any effect. And voila, the ride became so soft and supple that it felt like gliding over a bed of soft mattresses! Relatively speaking of-course, the ride quality of this naked-bike didn't suddenly transform into that of an Africa Twin.

However, at the lowest setting although the ride quality was lovely, the handling suffered in corners or even when changing direction between lanes. With further tweaking, a setting has been found which offers a decent middle-ground between ride quality and handling. Safe to say that I'm very happy with this change and it has a positive impact on the ownership experience.

3. Grip Puppy handle-bar grips:
Installed Grip Puppies on the handlebar as the stock bar grips used to feel slippery even with leather gloves. Although I'm not a dog person (or a pet animal person in general) can attest to the 'grip-puppy-claim' that holding the bars feels like puppies licking the hand.

4. Yoshimura + Sound-insert (aka. db-killer):
During a ride to a spot which lies in the rural region of Pune district, while passing through the beautiful quiet countryside, had that distinct feeling that the loud sound from the Yoshi was polluting that serenity. It was so loud inside my helmet, I couldn't imagine what it'd be like for the villagers who stay there, a certain source of annoyance to say the least.

When riding on a national highway at higher speeds, it doesn't seem that loud as the wind washes out much of the "noise", leaving the sound to be heard.

Decided to try out how it feels with the sound-insert provided by Yoshimura and got it installed. The change is for the better. Below 6k RPM the sound is very similar to the stock exhaust. Only when the RPMs rise is there any audible sound. Seems like a good balance between low-speed rides in urban/rural environments (less sound) and fast highway rides (decent sound).


Sharing a few pics of the socially-distanced rides done during the past 6-7 months:

On a ride somewhere in rural Pune region. BHPian TheCelestial's ZX-10R..



Apex predator getting to know the prey..



On a ride to Lonavala with BHPian Ricci (Street Triple 765 RS) and BHPian Tushar9960 (Honda CBR650R)



This MI portable inflator has proved to be pretty convenient to ensure proper cold air pressure before rides (pic is with car tire)..



Beautiful Pune/MH during the rains! On the way to Thokarwadi dam..



BHPian Coriollis's Bonneville A3 AC. Picture courtesy: Africa Twin rider.



BHPian Nitrogary's R1200 GS. Picture courtesy: Africa Twin rider.



Although it looks good in pictures, I hate it when the bike gets dirty after a ride in the rain..
Picture courtesy: Africa Twin rider.



On a group ride with fellow Pune BHPian riders to Veer dam..

[GoBlue]

While the S750 had been sold off in Feb this year, was waiting for the RC transfer process to complete. That took longer than expected, partly due to the closure of Pune RTO given the lockdowns which occurred during April/May.

This got done recently and with that the sale process was concluded.

In many ways it wasn't that hard to let this bike go. Maharashtra/Pune roads are in terrible condition, lack of suspension comfort on this roadster type bike being the key motivator. Although I could sing praises of the 4-cylinder engine/handling all day long, couldn't ride this bike for more than 30 minutes without starting to feel annoyed slowing down for rough patches/potholes.

As they say, the only constant in life is change.

The Africa Twin is a compelling package for the price-point. Having ridden it for about 1k km now (too less to quantify the experience), feel that it's just effortless to ride fast on varying tarmac conditions. However there's no getting around the fact that the twin-cylinder engine cannot feel as creamy as the Suzuki I4 did. What is surprising is how the bike handles on tarmac, fairly nimble/stable in corners. Anyway, that is for another day when I shall write about the Honda experience.

For now, adieu to the GSX S750. A bike that won the heart, and served as a decent entry point/learning experience into this world of big bikes.

On another note, looking to let go of below mentioned accessories (at discounted prices):

Bike specific (GSX S750):
1. Lust Racing Lowering Links - 40 mm (sparingly used)
2. Suzuki JP OEM Throttle Cables (new)
3. Puig Frame Sliders (sparingly used)
4. R&G Header Pipe Guard (new)

General accessories:
1. Givi ST603B Tank Bag (can fit any TankLock flange)
2. Nelson Rigg Commuter Tail Bag - Sport

Please PM if interested. Thanks!