[krishnaprasadgg]

It's been a while since I posted any updates here. But the 1 month or so has been pretty uneventful. Managed to get in a few rides in between and also managed to cram in 2 new bike deliveries in between all that for friends who are also fellow bhpians, people who follow this section of the forum already know who all I am talking about.

Anyways, this post is more of an update on the R1 and the tiger and initial impressions on a new set of tyres for the tiger and tail bags for the R1. So let me get started.

Kreiga US10 & US20 tail bags

I have been a constant complainer about how riding with a backpack makes my life very hard because of the added fatigue because of the weight, as I do not pack light when it comes to rides, I always have a set of puncture repair kit, air compressor, some basic tools and 1-2L of water bottle packed in. This really adds up and with someone who already has a bad back and an injured left shoulder the pain is nothing to joke about. With the under-seat exhaust on the R1, most of the conventional luggage solutions are thrown out right away.

Kreiga US 10 & US20

That is when fellow bhpian @Wolfy has pinged me back in Jan about the Kreiga US series bags and how he has been using the US10 & 20 on his 10r extensively while touring on it and how it worked wonders for him. Did some research on the product and found that it is a universal fit design and their lock-in mechanism makes it pretty easy to mount on and off the bike too. I had shortlisted it to buy from Revzilla but then coincidently @neil.jericho came in clutch by letting me know that a local store in Cochin has a ton of stock come in from Kreiga and they might have it in stock. And what do you know both the 10L and 20L bags were in stock. Got a super killer deal on them as they were old stock the shop had purchased from another shop that went out of business. Jumped on the opportunity and bought them right away.

Mounting is pretty easy, actually on the R1 its even easier, since the R1 pillion seat already comes with 4 loops pre-fitted from the factory, I can easily loop the mounting strap through them and secure the bags to the rear seat in less than 2 minutes. Then all I need to do is adjust the slackness of the strap to get a snug fit.

4 straps built in on the factory rear seat


US20 all mounted and ready to roll

As for my initial impression, I rode for over 300kms with the US20 mounted to the rear seat, the bag was a little over half full and the feedback/impression so far has been great, the bag fits perfectly well on the seat, mounting time is less than 2minutes, with additional 2 minutes to adjust slack on all 4 sides, so all in all 5 mins and you are sorted. Once set snug the bag does not move around at all, you do not feel the bag sliding or hitting you on your back when braking or anything. Since the bag was only half full I had no trouble getting on and off the bike in a traditional way, need to check that with a full bag to be sure.

The best part was the bike in no way felt off-balance at all which was a worry I had. And most importantly I was able to enjoy my ride without having to worry about early fatigue as I was riding free without the added burden of a backpack.

Maybe once I add a few thousand kms of usage I'll prepare a detailed review for the same.

The day the 2 Japanese Legends met

The 2 jap legends are finally side by side.

This was a highly anticipated day for me, this was a goosebumps moment for both of us we have been riding together for close to 12 years now and have always talked about owning the R1 and the blade someday and we really thought that it was never going to happen and years and years of hard work and search and toil later when we made it happen it was rather special, I can't find a simpler way of saying this even if I tried. But even then somehow I felt I was way more excited for this ride than Xaos636 himself .

This was the day both the R1 and the Fireblade met and rode together. As usual, as with any new bike purchase goes, a proper service was set in line and we rode to our friend Sanju at Cochin(Fmotors) so that we had the right tool to work on the bike. As years of tradition goes, we always work on the bike together, so it's always a fun time.

Met with Xaos636 at Valanchery just before Dawn broke and rode to Cochin, we swapped rides from Thrissur, that way we both got to experience the blade and the R1 back to back. and boy what a Night and Day difference it is.

The TLDR part of it can simply be put in the following words. the Fireblade feels like a scalpel and cuts along with so much precision and control, while the R1 feels more like a Machete in the hands of a madman!

Don't get me wrong both the bikes are insanely powerful but the major difference here is the throttle response, the blade is so fine-tuned and smooth with its power delivery and the R1 is just a wild animal in the way it delivers power.

Another aspect that was a bit funny was that the R1 has TC but no ABS, while the Blade was no TC but has ABS. Both Xaos636 and me made the mistake of giving a handful of throttle like we did on the R1 (which we have done a thousand times) and had the scare of our lives when the bike power wheelied like it was nothing, this was in second gear and while trying to get a decent start from the front of a signal with a clear road in front of us, and needless to say as soon as we felt the front lift we bailed on the throttle and all was back to normal. The thing is that we were so used to the TC of the R1 not allowing the front to lift that when we gave the same amount of throttle for the blade with no TC to cover our ass the front end went skyward.

The next important thing is the ride comfort, the Hondas come with raised clipons right from the factory and this makes it so so much more comfortable to ride than the R1, while the footpegs are a lot more raised on the blade than the R1 the clipons make a world of difference, I was immediately so much more comfortable riding on the blade. This now makes me want to look for aftermarket raised clipons for the R1.

Well, I'll stop my comparisons for nowhere and will wait till Xaos636 finally gets around to starting an ownership thread on the blade.

Now let me leave you with a sneak peek of what we did at cochin on the blade.

Sorry, that's all you get, if you want any more, make sure to spam Xaos636 to start a thread, rest assured I have documented every little piece of the work done, and trust me we gave the bike a very thorough once over.

And eventful ride with the R1 and the Blade


Fin


The Tiger and the Blade

The subsequent week of the R1 and the Blade going to Cochin, the next week it was the chance for the Tiger and the Blade. The blade still had a bit more work to be done to get it back to its full factory glory and the Tiger needed a tyre change so that's how the previous weekend was spent. The Metzeler Tourance Next on the Tiger had started to wear off square pretty badly on the rear tyre, it was so much of a problem that roads with slight undulation or uneven patchwork height the rear started to slide and the bike felt seriously off balance. The bike has only 14k kms on the odo with this tyre, it still has a lot of tread depth but the squarely worn-out situation makes it a risk to ride around with. So managed to source a set of the new Michelin karoo street tyres from a shop in Cochin a few weeks back and booked the tyres. Went and got them changed during this ride.

New shoes

The new karoo street is a bit more off-road set tyre than the Tourance next, apparently, it's more of a 70% road and 30% offroad focussed than the 80-20 split for the tourance next. Managed to run about 140kms post tyre change and the scrub in phase has been complete, the grip levels on the tyre are satisfactory so far in the dry, never tried it on soft/off-road so can't comment on it right away.

But what I can say is that these tyres are loud!! Once you reach highway cruising speeds the tyres get super loud and bothersome. So unless you are riding around with earplugs or music playing it's going to get on your nerves over long distances.

Well, that's about it for now. More updates to follow on soon hopefully.

Cheers
Krishna

[Cyborg]

Originally Posted by krishnaprasadgg

The TLDR part of it can simply be put in the following words. the Fireblade feels like a scalpel and cuts along with so much precision and control, while the R1 feels more like a Machete in the hands of a madman!

Superb description Krishna! It’s great that both of you now get to experience a different kind of insanity from time to time

Another aspect that was a bit funny was that the R1 has TC but no ABS, while the Blade was no TC but has ABS. Both Xaos636 and me made the mistake of giving a handful of throttle like we did on the R1 (which we have done a thousand times) and had the scare of our lives when the bike power wheelied like it was nothing, this was in second gear and while trying to get a decent start from the front of a signal with a clear road in front of us, and needless to say as soon as we felt the front lift we bailed on the throttle and all was back to normal. The thing is that we were so used to the TC of the R1 not allowing the front to lift that when we gave the same amount of throttle for the blade with no TC to cover our ass the front end went skyward.

Gosh, just goes to show how much of an important role electronics have begun to play in these power monsters. It really must be feeling so much secure knowing with a slip up here and there the bike’s got your back.

Agree with the backpack on the back too. Even with something very light in the backpack, within 30 minutes to an hour it suddenly seems to gain so much weight on the back, it’s not funny.

Always a pleasure reading your updates Krishna, keep them coming. Come on Xaos636, please do put up an ownership thread on the Blade so we may ride along.

Ride safe both of you and keep having fun!

Cheers

[Rachit.K.Dogra]

Originally Posted by krishnaprasadgg

The TLDR part of it can simply be put in the following words. the Fireblade feels like a scalpel and cuts along with so much precision and control, while the R1 feels more like a Machete in the hands of a madman!

Couldn't have put in better words. Exactly my feelings too. The Blade feels equally powerful, but yet manageable and less scary. You can always manage the aggression with revs, but the R1 on the other hand is like a big boosted engine, when its on, its on.

Awesome to see both the legends now getting acquainted.

CHEERS!!

Rachit

[VijayAnand1]

@krishnaprasadgg @Xaos636 sipping my lemon tea, reading this, just evokes so much wonderful emotions that a biker can feel. Very rarely, you have buds who tag along so frequently and exchange bikes like titbits. Can't wait to read Ivin's ownership of the Blade. Loved how you elaborated the TC and ABS conundrum, lol'd so badly I almost spewed my tea. Great going lads.

Cheers!
VJ

[HYPERTOURER]

Hello i hope you are doing great. I recently got some chain lube from Yamaha. Its made in japan and i have used it before in 2017. A dealer friend of mine got it from the Yamaha parts catalogue. He also informed me that any stock part of yamaha from anywhere in the world can be ordered. So if u need any stock parts either your local dealer can do it or ping me i can get you in touch with my friend. Also the chain lube is one of the best costs around 1500 but each spray will last around 1000kms easily. Its a wax spray white in color.

[krishnaprasadgg]

Originally Posted by HYPERTOURER

I recently got some chain lube from Yamaha. Its made in japan and i have used it before in 2017. A dealer friend of mine got it from the Yamaha parts catalogue. He also informed me that any stock part of yamaha from anywhere in the world can be ordered. So if u need any stock parts either your local dealer can do it or ping me i can get you in touch with my friend. Also the chain lube is one of the best costs around 1500 but each spray will last around 1000kms easily. Its a wax spray white in color.

That's awesome. Does he have ready stock for the Chain lube? Would love to try it out. Also, I have DM'd you about the parts, we can take it forward there.

Cheers
Krishna

[neil.jericho]

Originally Posted by krishnaprasadgg

Mounting is pretty easy, actually on the R1 its even easier, since the R1 pillion seat already comes with 4 loops pre-fitted from the factory, I can easily loop the mounting strap through them and secure the bags to the rear seat in less than 2 minutes. Then all I need to do is adjust the slackness of the strap to get a snug fit.

Thanks for sharing, krishnaprasadgg. Now that I have seen how useful these bags are, I am thinking of getting myself the Viaterra Pod to strap onto my bikes. Other Triumph Street Triple owners have given good feedback on the usability of it.

Originally Posted by krishnaprasadgg

Another aspect that was a bit funny was that the R1 has TC but no ABS, while the Blade was no TC but has ABS. Both Xaos636 and me made the mistake of giving a handful of throttle like we did on the R1 (which we have done a thousand times) and had the scare of our lives when the bike power wheelied like it was nothing, this was in second gear and while trying to get a decent start from the front of a signal with a clear road in front of us, and needless to say as soon as we felt the front lift we bailed on the throttle and all was back to normal. The thing is that we were so used to the TC of the R1 not allowing the front to lift that when we gave the same amount of throttle for the blade with no TC to cover our ass the front end went skyward.

We enthusiasts frequently read and hear ABS and TC and take them for granted but this perfectly illustrated what they mean in the real world! Lovely articulation.

Last Sunday, I narrowly missed seeing the Blade as it was about to go on its Trivandrum run. I spotted its wingman though.

Xaos636, needless to say, we are all patiently waiting for your ownership thread...

[Cyborg]

Originally Posted by krishnaprasadgg

Kreiga US10 & US20 tail bags.

Originally Posted by neil.jericho

Thanks for sharing, krishnaprasadgg. Now that I have seen how useful these bags are, I am thinking of getting myself the Viaterra Pod to strap onto my bikes. Other Triumph Street Triple owners have given good feedback on the usability of it.

Question for both of you please and of course anyone else who would like to share their thoughts

While these Kreiga tail bags seem pretty ok, the mounting/removal still seems to require some work or adjustment every time. Any reason for not going with tank bags like SW Motech? They come in different capacities and are so simple to attach or remove. Tank bags seem a far simpler option to carry things around than tail bags.

Your thoughts are much appreciated.

Thank you.

Cheers

[krishnaprasadgg]

Originally Posted by Cyborg

Question for both of you please and of course anyone else who would like to share their thoughts
While these Kreiga tail bags seem pretty ok, the mounting/removal still seems to require some work or adjustment every time. Any reason for not going with tank bags like SW Motech? They come in different capacities and are so simple to attach or remove. Tank bags seem a far simpler option to carry things around than tail bags.
Your thoughts are much appreciated.

Thank you.

Cheers

Well, I did try out tank bags.

Just for some context, during my touring days with the CBR250, I almost always had a fully packed tank bag with me without fail. Even my office commutes I used to have only a tank bag and never used to carry a backpack. That's how much I was invested in them.

As for the R1, I did purchase and use an Ogio tank bag for some time back and what I found was that with the R1 having a very aggressive seating position, I was struggling even more to find a comfortable seating position as my back had to be a bit more hunched over as I am not able to rest my chest area comfortably because of the tank bag taking up the previously empty space and this was with a tiny tank bag such as the Ogio model.

When it comes to Supersports, riding triangle anything that takes up the space where your chest area usually is will make it an even more uncomfortable ride. That's why I went the tail bag route.

For the Kreiga bags mounting and removal is pretty easy, and as far as strap adjustment goes, what I usually do before any ride is doing a test fit and make sure everything is adjusted to spec the day before so that on ride day I don't need to spend time adjusting the straps. Just a habit I picked up from some veteran tourers I had the chance to learn from back when I started touring on bikes. Has worked like a charm every single time.


Cheers
Krishna

[SnS_12]

Originally Posted by HYPERTOURER

I recently got some chain lube from Yamaha.

I have this same can which I had purchased from the Yamaha factory showroom when it was operational in Mumbai. Back then I used to use it on my RX and noticed that the chain would get tighter on its own after a few kms. Have used it recently on the Busa and had no such issues thankfully.

[krishnaprasadgg]

It's been a while. Lots to share in this post. I finally got around to fixing a few problems on the bike which I had been too lazy about for the longest time.

But first, let's get started with the ODO shot! Yup, finally the ODO hit 30k km.

30 big ones!!

Now since that is out of the way let's get to the crux of the post. Finally decided to clear a few items from my To-Do list of jobs on the R1 that have been on the backburner for way too long. I had very limited time on hand and not all tools handy, so as usual rode to cochin to work along with my friend Sanjay to tag-team it and get the work done quickly as I had to return home the same day, so the list was again shortened and took care of some of the most delayed stuff.

Job done were as follows:

1. Fitting the radiator guard
2. Swapping the Gear position sensor
3. Changing out the frame sliders
4. Airbox and under tank application of heat reflective tape
5. Some general routine stuff like Airfilter clean & Chain slack adjustment

Now while getting started on my trip to cochin I noticed something, the hot idle issue that I had about 1 year back make a re-appearance. That meant only 1 thing, TB needs to be cleaned again. So added that onto the list too, the airbox was going to come off anyway so it was a no-brainer to get this also done and out of the way. So I just carried on and rode to Cochin without taking any breaks.

As soon as I reached we got started working on the bike.

Step 1: Lift the bike on the paddock

Dissembled the bike to the point where both of us could take ownership of a job and complete it fast without getting in each other's way. So the bike went onto the paddock and the tank was lifted, airbox opened, filters removed and airbox also removed, took off the fairings too and planned the work among us.

So let's get started.

1. Air filter maintenance, Airbox and under tank application of heat reflective tape

I was hoping that the air filter would be relatively clean since the filter was cleaned not too long ago. But to my horror the filter was pretty badly covered in dust, so was the pre-filter part of the airbox. Goes to show how dusty the roads in Kerala are getting, mind you this is with minimal city riding since the last clean.

The amount of dust in the pre-filter part of the airbox

That's one filthy Air Filter

Cleaning the airbox before the film goes on

I had carried the K&N recharger kit anyways so quickly took care of cleaning the filter and put it up to dry and carried on with removing the airbox. I have already covered the steps for it in an earlier post so not going through it again. The airbox was removed and I quickly got onto covering it up with the DEI Reflect-A-Gold heat reflective sheets I had procured a few months back. DEI claims that their gold tapes can handle continuous temperatures of up to 800 degrees F, and it is used in all sorts of automotive applications for both cars and bikes.

Can you tell I wasn't great at arts and crafts at school?

My aim to use this is not for performance upgrades or to extract more power out of the bike or anything, rather this is just an attempt of mine to try and reduce the ambient air temp within the air box, as it is the bike runs super hot and with it being a bike the airbox and tank are very susceptible to heat soaking as its located right above the engine anyways.

So all I am expecting to gain out of this was a bit smoother running engine as the airbox stays cooler than before and the tank also to an extent that I do not have vapor lock problems(had this happen during peak summer once before), I used the CV4 silver thermal film for the undertank area.

Now I have to say, the job took a good 1.5 hours as it was not easy to cover the full surface area of the airbox and I am not that great with scissors anyway, so there was a bit of overlap and some areas that were not covered the best way they could have been done. But it's a part that is not visible outside anyways so I did not pay much heed to that. But around 97-98% of the surface area was covered successfully. The sheet was pretty easy to work with and had great adhesion too. So it wasn't too bad.

Airbox before

Airbox after

Now I am not a fan of the gold color so it's kind of convenient that it's going to be hidden away under the tank.

The R1 undertank already comes with a bit of heat reflective patches from the factory, all I did was extend it a bit more than what was already there. Again, not a clean install by any means, but gets the job done and since it's out of sight, I'm ok with it.

Under tank Before

Under tank After

While we were at this point with the Airbox out and since I had the hot idle issue again, we quickly just sprayed a decent amount of injector & TB cleaner into the TB and wiped off the butterfly valves with a clean towel.

Not a thorough/detailed job by any means, but just a quick once over, enough to carry me forward for a few thousand km by when I will be doing a proper TB overhaul by deep cleaning it by removing it off the bike.

Observations: I got a bit more than what I bargained for. Oh boy, was this a relief, the bike actually felt a lot smoother as a result of this change. The R1 always felt that it complained a lot while in traffic and in the 1-5k rpm range(You stay in this range usually when puttering around town or riding in traffic) and the bike always felt like it ran rough, but post this change the bike actually ran considerably smoother, the bike now is much more tamer in these RPMs in the city limits and doesn't complain as much. Now I can't show how much the film reduces my airbox temp but have a look at this video, this might help give you a sense as to why I went ahead with this job.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=XjFzTJOuDQE

Just to make sure it was not placebo I asked my friend to also ride it as he wasn't really sold on the idea of applying the film at all. And he came back pretty surprised and felt the same I felt on the improvements. Now before you feel that we did the TB clean(we didn't do a super detailed job of it too as we were low on time) so that might be the reason for the change, hold your horses, the last time we cleaned the TB(Super through) and injectors(Both primary and secondary) and even did the TB sync and yet the bike never felt this smooth or complain free in the lower rpm range, so no, it was not the difference of the TB clean that we did.

2. Swapping out the Gear position sensor

Now, this has been an annoying kebab me haddi type issue since day 1. Whenever the bike got up to temp the Neutral indicator would not work and would start working again once the bike cools down, this in no way affects the rideability of the bike, has no bearing on how it runs but the only annoying part of this was that you cannot put the bike on the side stand without it tripping the engine kill switch because the ECU thinks that the bike is in gear and cuts off the engine immediately.

Location of the GPS

So stopping on the side of the road to quickly check your map or just to stretch your back or neck and the bike gets shut off, now this is a problem because with the R1 the temps instantly shoot up and cranking the bike immediately is very taxing on the starter motor and takes some effort, not to mention its annoying too, even to take a quick pic during a ride, it turns to be a wait of 5 mins because I let the temp falls a bit so that the starter motor is not getting overloaded.

Connectors that come from the GPS to the wiring loom

I had ordered the part from the US a long time back since Yamaha India had no intention of sourcing it for me anyways(waited on it for close to 6 months before I took matters into my own hands) and have been sitting on it for the longest time, and its literally just a 5 min job.

Out with the old

To get this job done, you need to remove the shifter rod and the front sprocket cover, take about 2 mins and you have access to the Gear position sensor(GPS), the sensor has 2 connectors that go up and connects to the wiring loom, the location of which is right under the fuel tank, takes about 20 secs to disconnect and fish out the sensor, another 20 seconds to replace it with the new one, luckily you don't need to wrestle with the cables or anything, routing is simple and easy and no fouling against any other part of the bike or clearance issues.

In with the new

Now we couldn't test the sensor right away, we waited till all the work was done and took the bike for a test ride in traffic and got the temperature up to 110 degrees and rode like that for a good 10-15 minutes and came back and slotted the bike to neutral and voila! The neutral light comes on.

Post the shake-down run. It works!

So initial tests were successful and later the same day I put it to test in a very excruciating 150kms ride back home in heavy bumper-to-bumper traffic for over 50% of the ride and the neutral light worked perfectly in all temperature ranges. So that one very long-standing irritating issue was taken care of for good.

Frame Sliders

Well, this was required as unfortunately the frame sliders on the bike were put to use already, twice actually, both instances on the right side of the bike. Once quite a few years ago when the bike was with the original owner and once by me about 2 years back, both were while the bike was standing still and was a simple seemingly harmless drop. So almost 9-10months back I had placed an order for LSL frame slider for the R1 via motousher and finally decided to get it changed this time.

Left side sliders

Right side sliders

The process is fairly easy and straight forward and LSL does a great job with proper instructions and pictures on what goes were and how to do it too. We got started with the side that needed changing, that's the right side of the bike, we started getting the engine mount bolt loose and we noticed something, the bolt while coming off is moving in a weird way, and that's when we realized that the frame slider while it did its thing, also bent the engine mounting bolt by a fair margin.

Bent engine mount bolt

I had a small panic attack moment that what if the threads on the engine block were also damaged and did I open a can of worms by removing the slider as the slider apart from some cosmetic damage was not a risk or didn't warrant a change at all.

But anyways we were past the point of no return and decided to try our luck with the new kit from LSL, they come with new extended bolts to fit their kit precisely anyways, and breathed a sigh of relief when the bolt went it with no bent or no drama when we did the dry fit, so we took everything apart again and fit it properly in place, this time we used Loctite just to make sure it doesn't come undone.

Shiny new Frame slider for the right side

That's the right side of the bike done and now we move to the left side, but wait, did you think the bent bolt was a scare, now comes the best part, we removed the left side slider and immediately found an issue,for the left side of the bike there is a spacer b/w the frame and the engine block. Now the slider kit that already was on the bike replaces the OEM spacer and has its own form of spacer + backing plate for it to fit flush and when we put up the LSL kit which was designed to go with the OEM spacer there was a 1-inch gap between the frame and the engine block onto which engine bolt bolts onto and I do not have the OEM spacer with me either, never knew I would need it as I didn't know the existence of such a spacer in the first place. We tried to jugaad it with using the older kits spacer and backing plate(reversed) and tried to mount the LSL sliders, it kind of worked but not really, the bolt goes in about 3/4 the way in but does not seat in fully properly. Now we were stuck, our options were to get the backing place to a lathe and cut out the protruding bits that were causing the clearance problem or find/make an OEM spacer.

Both of these options were not possible and I took the executive decision and used the "It's not a bug it's a feature" card from my IT work experience arsenal and fit back the slider kit that was already on the bike for the left side. It's not just BMW who can do asymmetry design, I can do it too. So now the bike has the LSL frame slider on the right and the older slider on the left. .

In all its assymetric glory

Jokes aside, I do not intend to leave it like that. I need to order an OEM spacer and once I have it I will replace the left side slider with the LSL kit. Till then I'll rock the bike like this and pretend I meant to do it like this all along. I know it should be illegal to have my level of smartness, but alas it's not so deal with it!

Lunch break and Beyond!

Once that was done took a short break for lunch and "accidentally" had too much, so was super sleepy and I had to get going back home in less than 1 hour so we had to rush through the rest of the job and fit in a shakedown run before I got started. So I could not take photos or document the rest of the jobs.
But in all fairness, there was nothing worth taking pics of even, it was just fitting the R&G radiator guard install, lubing the clutch and throttle cables, and adjusting chain slack.

Got all that done as quickly as we could, buttoned the bike back up (The guy who invented the quarter lock fasteners needs to be declared a legend, take notes Honda & Ducati) and did a 10-12 km shake down run, and everything as found to be up to spec.

Post which I started back home only to get stuck in heavy bumper-to-bumper Saturday afternoon traffic. The ride back home was hell but a more ridable lower rev range and a functional neutral light meant I could be a bit more relaxed than it would have been.

All in all, I would say it was a day well spent!


Trip meter reading at the end of the day

Fin!

Cheers
Krishna

[nd4$pd]

Is that an MV Agusta in the background?

[krishnaprasadgg]

Originally Posted by nd4$pd

Is that an MV Agusta in the background?

Daytona 675

Cheers
Krishna

[krishnaprasadgg]

Bangalore Trip (Post 1/2)

After long 2 years, I was finally able to do a proper road trip with the R1. Rode to Bangalore and back. The R1 hadn't been out of Kerala ever since March 2020 when I rode it down to Kerala before the lockdowns set in.

As usual, this wouldn't be a post of mine without some kind of work being done to the bike. So for this trip, I had also planned on getting some maintenance done on the bike. As mentioned in the previous post the Angle GTs on the bike had begone to wear off squarely and this was beginning to upset the stability of the bike on uneven roads and corners so even though it had enough tread depth left I decided to swap it out with the Michelin Road 5.

I did ponder quite a bit if I should go for maybe more Supersport friendly(stickier and softer compound), I am well aware the bike would transform to a different beast given the right road and climatic conditions and I do want to get a taste of that someday but unfortunately in the current situation with the way the tyre market is(a set of those tyres are retailing at above 50k ) and with the newcomers yet to prove themselves(I need to see how the tyre holds up when someone has done enough km on it and see how well the tyre wears out) and also the road conditions(Broken roads and highways) on which I will be using the bike sinking such a huge amount for tyres did not make sense. So I went with the next best thing, the Michelin Road5.

The tyre change was decided to be done at Madhus so started the trip from my home in Kerala and rode into Bangalore directly to Madhus. As usual, they cracked on with the job almost immediately. Thankfully they did have all the right tools(Rear and Front paddocks stands) to hold the bike while the tyre change was being done.

I also got them to install the 90-degree valve stems onto both wheels while the tyres were being swapped, this was something that I really really wanted. Air pressure checks are so much easier now with this. I was in and out of Madhus within 1-1.5 hours and from there directly road to Highlander at HSR and checked my bike in at the trusted hands of Karthik.

People who own CBR250s or people who live in Bangalore don't need much introduction to this fella. He is a wizard when it comes to repairing bikes and a very ethical worker too. I have known him since 2013 when I moved to Bangalore when he worked for Honda and my bikes get worked only by him, if not him it's usually DIY. Anyways, gave the bike to him as I was really overdue in changing out the Fork oil on the bike and also getting the seals replaced when getting this done, I had already purchased the seals as part of preventative maintenance parts procurement(Just some weird thing I do ) quite a while back.

Also part of the list of work was adjusting the headlights angle to something that was actually usable, I never used to ride the bike at night or low light because the headlight throw was pathetic and the beam was not adjusted properly too. Got that sorted out

I had also asked him to check on the coneset as I was hearing the typical kat-kat sounds from the triple clamp area when navigating the sky-high speed breakers that we have here. And as expected the coneset was shot, this was 1 part that I had not kept with me in anticipation, and as luck would have it the part was not in ready stock in Bangalore. So placed an order from Motousher for the Allblls Racing replacement steering bearing kit and lost a few days of valuable time in waiting for the part. Anyways, that was also changed.

Karthik recently had stocked the Maxima Dot 4 Racing brake fluid. He wanted me to try it out and give him feedback on the same so we swapped the front and back brake fluids with this. So far it feels pretty good but nothing substantial too, rode with it for around 550kms or so, and the feel when braking has been progressively better than the Liqui Moly brake fluid I had been using. So if you have a brake fluid replacement coming up and don't mind experimenting I'd suggest giving the Maxima stuff a try.

That's about it for the work done on the bike. I don't have pictures of the repair work of the fork and the cone set as I was not in attendance when the job was being done. It's a rare thing but due to Karthik's and my schedules not matching and some amount of waiting for parts it just couldn't happen. I'll leave you with pics of the ride and whatever I could manage to click. I'll add the pics of the return ride in the next post as I cannot attach more than 30 pics in a single post.

Cheers
Krishna

[krishnaprasadgg]

Bangalore Trip (Post 2/2)

The return ride had a few highlights.

Firstly the adjustment of the headlight angle was a lifesaver. I started out the ride back home at 4am in the morning and had around 2 hours of ride in the dark I had to get done with. Whatever adjustment was done really did come in handy as I was having much better visibility than before, but even then the visibility is low and pathetic. Probably if I had enough time I can get it dialed in more but for now, I would say it just went from being super dangerous -> Acceptable.

Next, the tyres were scrubbed in properly and the sketchiness the Angle GT had started to showcase due to the tyres wearing out squarely has gone away. Riding on a new set of tyres once it's properly scrubbed in is just an amazing feeling.

The front forks need tuning. Post the fork fluid and seal change the front forks hadn't been adjusted to the best possible setting. The current setting was returned back to the factory OEM specification and that just does not work for me. The front end just feels way too jumpy or floaty during my return ride, at some instances, it felt a tad bit dangerous and I decided that I will have to sort this out asap.

I did not return to the setting it was before the job was done as the feedback I got from that would not be restored as the oil in the fork previously was pretty worn out so I do not think it would have given me the feeling that I was familiar with. Just to be clear, the bike wasn't behaving all out of shape all the time, but rather at some types of roads in a combination of cruising speeds + flowing corners the front felt a bit unstable and floaty which I do not like. I'll have a detailed post coming up on this while I take time to dial in the compression and rebound settings on the bike soon.

Missed the 31,000kms by a whisker

Next, the bike hit 31k on the odo. Hopefully this year the odo ticks much faster than the previous year.

Nothing much else to report. So I'll leave you with a few more pics, hopefully, you guys enjoy it.

ODO and Trip reading post the trip.

Fin!

Cheers
Krishna