[AtheK]

Good Changes Krishna, the bike looks as beautiful as always. On personal front unfortunately we could not meet up thanks to the courier service goofup, so hoping you will be back soon and we can all catch up!!

[krishnaprasadgg]

A long lime dream has been realized.

The TL;RD version of it is:

After years of searching high and low and drooling over it in photos, I have finally managed to get myself a brand new Akrapovic Carbon Slip-on! And I cannot wait to get it fitted on!

A thing of beauty

Here it is, in all its glory. and for those who want a glimpse into the technical specs side of things. Here you go

Tech Specs

Now for those who are interested in the big story behind it, here's how it goes.

Those who know me know how big a fanboy I am of the Akrapovic exhaust system and also how much I have been yapping nonstop for over 2 years about getting an Akra system for the R1 because it's just not right not having an R1 without an Akrapovic exhaust.

Well, along with all that yapping I have also been complaining about how no shops are interested in getting one, and usually, all of them quote an arm and a leg when I pester them enough.

Just look at those clean welds

Tried sourcing through a few good friends(a few of them were Tbhp'ians) who were super resourceful and helpful but unfortunately either too high for me to afford or it was just not available.

Just look at those clean welds

Regardless, I did not lose hope. Kept scouring the market for used sets as well, but unfortunately what I wanted was a hot commodity and in very high demand, and while there were a number of bikes for sale which had the Akra fitted on them none wanted to sell the exhaust separately, which I kind of understand but I was deeply disappointed about it from a more selfish point of view .

DB-killer

So, after almost 2 years of looking for used sets or finding a shop here in India that could help me in arranging a set for a decent price, I finally made up my mind to go for a new set

Anyways, it was a few months back that I got talking to a shop in Dubai, they are official importers/distributors of quite a few big-name brands and Akrapovic was one of them, initially, they would not respond to my inquiries or messages but then one fine day they did (I guess they were bored that day) and we got talking, as usual, part is not in stock and they weren't much interested in taking it forward, but I consistently kept pinging them asking if pre-order was possible and how much advance payment was required and all that jazz. Finally, the ice broke, I guess they could say that I was serious about it. After a few days of back and forth, they were finally able to confirm with the Akrapovic factory that the model number I wanted is out of stock currently but still in production.

So finally a token amount was sent to them and the pre-order was set in. They promised me a turnaround of about 1 month from the date of the pre-order being placed and they delivered. And they kept their word and 1 month later the exhaust reached their shop. They were kind enough to deliver it to my friend's house and then finally my months of torture started yet again in waiting for the part to get to my hands, finally after 2-3 months of waiting I received it yesterday!

Touchdown

I just can't stop admiring the quality/craftsmanship of the products that they put out. It lives up to everything you hear about them from others and more!! Every single weld on the exhaust is just so clean and beautiful in the carbon finish is just exquisite, to say the least.

CF everything!

The attention to detail for every single part is noteworthy and each and every piece of hardware comes well packaged and with the relevant part no(things like this just nerd me out!) and also comes with a proper instruction booklet and documentation(TUV certificates and such) required too.

Instruction booklet

Anyways, that concludes my rant. The OEM+ project dream that I have for this bike just took a giant leap toward the finish line! I can't wait to get the exhaust installed and hear how she sounds.

Cheers
Krishna

[Cyborg]

Originally Posted by krishnaprasadgg

After years of searching high and low and drooling over it in photos, I have finally managed to get myself a brand new Akrapovic Carbon Slip-on! And I cannot wait to get it fitted on

Extremely happy for you Krishna. Kudos to your persistence and patience, it always pays off!

Treat us to photographs and videos of the sound soonest. Look forward to your next update.

Cheers and all the best!

[krishnaprasadgg]

Originally Posted by Cyborg

Extremely happy for you Krishna. Kudos to your persistence and patience, it always pays off!

Treat us to photographs and videos of the sound soonest. Look forward to your next update.

Cheers and all the best!

Thanks, mate.

Yes yes. Will be fitting it soon and rest assured videos of the comparison with and without DB killer will also be there.

Cheers
Krishna

[vignesh.cv]

Originally Posted by krishnaprasadgg

After years of searching high and low and drooling over it in photos, I have finally managed to get myself a brand new Akrapovic Carbon Slip-on! And I cannot wait to get it fitted on!

Hearty congrats Krishna !! Lovely choice of modifications, especially the heat reflecting tape for the airbox. Does this slip-on eliminate the cat completely or is this like a cat back?

[krishnaprasadgg]

Originally Posted by vignesh.cv

Hearty congrats Krishna !! Lovely choice of modifications, especially the heat reflecting tape for the airbox. Does this slip-on eliminate the cat completely or is this like a cat back?

Thanks, Vignesh. No, the cats are not eliminated, this replaces just the end cans. Although sometimes I do think of getting the rest of the full system exhaust with the headers and y-pipe(Cat is part of the Y pipe for this gen R1) too and put on a tune on it. I'm pretty sure I am not going to do it, but hey one can dream.

Cheers
Krishna

[VijayAnand1]

Sweet! I guess the LVs, they're sold? This black Akra should accentuate the bike even well and bring the menace out even further. Good luck Krish. Do share a sound check when the bike is fully warmed up with those new slip ons. Can't wait to hear the menacing rumble.

Cheers!
VJ

[Rachit.K.Dogra]

Originally Posted by krishnaprasadgg

A long lime dream has been realized.

Cheers
Krishna

Oh!! Ho Ho Ho!! Wow!! Krishna, Hearty Congratulations!!
I personally felt bad a couple of times for not being able to find it for you in NCR. But man I am so glad you went for it. Really happy for you. I am also a self proclaimed Akra fan boy per se and Akra on the Big Bang R1 is just a beauty. The sharpness of each combustion cycle, the bass is just to die for. The best part, it is not loud at all. It is quieter than the one on my CBR.

Next should be quick shifter. The exhaust bark during a shift at certain RPMs is a tantalizing lets just say.

Cant wait for you to put it on!!

CHEERS!!
Rachit

[krishnaprasadgg]

Originally Posted by VijayAnand1

Sweet! I guess the LVs, they're sold? This black Akra should accentuate the bike even well and bring the menace out even further. Good luck Krish. Do share a sound check when the bike is fully warmed up with those new slip ons. Can't wait to hear the menacing rumble.

Cheers!
VJ

Yes, Vijay, LV was sold a few months back. Yup, I am hoping it'll look much better than the LV.
Will share the sound clips once the installation is done.

Originally Posted by Rachit.K.Dogra

Oh!! Ho Ho Ho!! Wow!! Krishna, Hearty Congratulations!!
I personally felt bad a couple of times for not being able to find it for you in NCR. But man I am so glad you went for it.

Thanks, man! I am really excited to put it on.
Ah.. can't do much about it man. It was always a tough task to find one used. Most people who have the bike with the Akra wouldn't want to sell it off, to begin with. And those who want to sell the bike won't be interested to sell it separately as the bike has more "eyeball" value because of that. So it was never going to be an easy task.

Originally Posted by Rachit.K.Dogra

The best part, it is not loud at all. It is quieter than the one on my CBR.

That's another thing why I love the Akras, they are more or less similar sound levels on lower rpms and they sing insanely awesome when in the higher revs. So it's kind of a safe bet too.

Originally Posted by Rachit.K.Dogra

Next should be quick shifter. The exhaust bark during a shift at certain RPMs is a tantalizing lets just say.
Cant wait for you to put it on!!
CHEERS!!
Rachit

Ah! Yes...the QS is indeed something I'm looking at. But I think I have to prioritize a few other stuff before that. But hey.. let's see how things turn out.

Cheers
Krishna

[vignesh.cv]

Originally Posted by krishnaprasadgg

Thanks, Vignesh. No, the cats are not eliminated, this replaces just the end cans. Although sometimes I do think of getting the rest of the full system exhaust with the headers and y-pipe(Cat is part of the Y pipe for this gen R1) too and put on a tune on it. I'm pretty sure I am not going to do it, but hey one can dream.

Cool. I would strongly recommend getting the link pipe and a tune sometime down the line. Makes a big difference in terms of the crispness of throttle response as well as driveability.

[krishnaprasadgg]

Originally Posted by vignesh.cv

Cool. I would strongly recommend getting the link pipe and a tune sometime down the line. Makes a big difference in terms of the crispness of throttle response as well as driveability.

Yes. This mod has been in the playbook for some time now. Not reached there yet. But for sure I'll get there slowly. I have also clubbed the Translogic QS and AB unit that they offer along with the link pipe and tune. It's a wild dream combo I have, still haven't done enough research on if it's logical or even worth the price it'll cost. For now, I'm saying to myself that I'll cross that bridge when I come to it.

Cheers
Krishna

[krishnaprasadgg]

And just like that, the Akrapovic install is done. It only took me about 2 weeks to finally get on with it.

Well, I am not going to focus on the uninstallation/installation of the exhausts, it's already been covered here and the process is no different with the Akrapovic exhausts so did not document any of that. However, something I'd like to bring to light w.r.t the LV system I had vs the Akrapovic system is the quality of the hardware used, and what a difference it is. Everything fits exactly the way you'd expect it to and everything lines up just right and there are little to no adjustments required to fit things in place.

Installation took all of the 15mins and everything was finger-tightened and ready for a startup to check for any leaks or any other issues. I made sure to take the help of my brother to measure the DB levels of the exhaust b/w 3 different tests. First, one being OEM with a (cold), Akra with the DB killer on(Cold), and then finally without the DB killer (on a relatively cold engine).

So here are the DB levels recorded with all 3 setups and video clips of the same. I'd suggest using a pair of earphones/headphones and crank the video quality to 4k to get the best quality output closest to IRL.

Of course, it won't be. post of mine without some goof-up happening even for a pretty straightforward install. So for hearing how the bike sounds without the DB killer I was using the size 4 Allen to get the bolt undone and assuming once the bolt was off it would stick on the Allen head I simply just pulled the Allen T out and the bolt fell off the head and got lost inside the end can cover. Tried my best to fish it out but it just did not work. In the end, I ended up having the remove the full left side slip on again in order to shake the bolt and the washer out of the end can. Lesson learned, invest in some magnetic tip Allen heads or a magnetic fishing rod thingy while removing the DB killers for the Akrapovic.

Rubber plugs that go onto cover the access cutout for the db killer bolt

Let me also take this chance to say the only thing that I did not like about the endcans. The cutout access hole for the DB killer bolt. The finish around the edges of the cutout is very rough and flimsy. I mean I get it, it's just a sheet of carbon fiber and it will be as such but you have very little room for error if you are not careful you'll end up cracking the end can cover and you definitely don't want to be doing that.

OEM

https://youtu.be/jvA7y1dO0t8

Akrapovic with DB killer

https://youtu.be/U1QgUxM0aHo

Akrapovic without DB killer

https://youtu.be/eM16DJ_2M28

I hope this covers in a good way the change the slip-on has brought out. With this mod done a huge part of how I want the bike to be has been sorted out.

I haven't taken the bike out for a ride yet. With the ongoing heatwave, I am not in the mood to ride under the scorching sun anyways. But I am not sure how long I can wait with the exhaust now installed. I will try to get a sound clip while riding both with and without the DB killer and see if the quality is good enough to post here. That's it for now, lots more work coming up on the bike, hopefully in the next few weeks.

Cheers
Krishna

[Rachit.K.Dogra]

Originally Posted by krishnaprasadgg

I haven't taken the bike out for a ride yet. With the ongoing heatwave, I am not in the mood to ride under the scorching sun anyways. But I am not sure how long I can wait with the exhaust now installed. I will try to get a sound clip while riding both with and without the DB killer and see if the quality is good enough to post here. That's it for now, lots more work coming up on the bike, hopefully in the next few weeks.

Cheers
Krishna

Awesome update Krishna!! I was thinking of messaging you to check on the install!! This carbon fiber goes so well with your bikes color scheme.

You really need to take her out brother!!

CHEERS!!
Rachit

[krishnaprasadgg]

Multiple Long Post alert!!

Bags packed and ready to roll!

Finally, after 2-3 weeks of no riding, I'm back to riding the R1 and this time it was special because it was the first time I was taking the bike out, post the installation of the Akrapovic exhaust and let me just tell you what an epic experience it is riding the bike now, don't get me wrong riding the R1 is always an epic adventure but throw in the sound from the Akra and it is just something else altogether.

The bike really isn't that loud at all from a 3rd person's perspective. But for the rider, you really do feel quite a bit of difference in the sound you get to hear and feel. I was a bit apprehensive about running the bike without the DB killer installed but post some 600 plus covered in total with the Akra I have changed my mind. Rode through numerous police checkpoints and routine checks and passed through without being stopped once, even when the cops did notice me approaching, now apart from the non-obnoxious sound that the Akra produces under 6k rpm it also helps if you are riding decently without creating a ruckus/ doing any sort of attention-grabbing stunts in general. I mean for sure this goes without saying but still thought I'd mention it.

Now above 6k rpm it's a different story, that's when the actual audio experience starts, the bike just screams and oh what a beautiful symphony it is to take in. Words are not enough, I'll try to include an audio clip soon to try and communicate what I get to experience with the current exhaust setup. The next best part is the burbles or as I like to call it "the growls and grumble" the bike creates when decelerating, this is not something new that has started post the Akra addition, it has always been there in the bike, it is part of the AIS system that's there in most modern bikes and it's mainly present to control emissions, simply put what it does is that it injects air into the exhaust system to help burn unburnt fuel vapors in the exhaust pipe and this causes burbles or cracks which is also referred to as backfiring. It happens on the stock system too when the bike gets to temp and is more pronounced with an aftermarket exhaust system. A lot of people get Block off plates that delete the AIS system which usually makes the burbles go away. For me I like it, adds some extra drama to the experience of riding the bike.

Ok, so now that we have that out of the way let's get into the meaty part of the update. about 2 weeks back I received a bunch of parts that I had ordered over a year back. It has been a long wait but finally, the day is here. After the Exhaust system, this is probably the biggest mod I have been looking forward to which is upgrading the braking system of the R1. The Brembo RCS19 Corsa Corta has finally reached my hands and in this post, we are going to cover the installation and initial review after about approximately 500kms of riding post the mod. Along with this I also got the Lightech chain adjusters and the ASV clutch lever installed and also got did some suspension tuning and an oil change done too which I shall cover in the next post and there are a ton of pics and I am limited to 30 per post.

The goodies waiting to go in!

Brembo RCS 19 Corsa Corta upgrade

Well, it's no secret that I feel the stock braking prowess of the R1 is something I am not happy about. The bike does on most occasions and as inevitable as it is on our roads there have been plenty of occasions where I have been left wanting with more bite and at many times more stability from the braking system. In short, I wanted to change the behavior of the bike's braking to something that's more communicative of what the system is doing while being stable and stopping at a dime with a more aggressive bite!
Obviously, the first step anyone would think of will be steel braided brake lines, alas the bike already comes with a very good quality Spiegler steel braided brake lines, so yeah, I wanted more, the next step would be better brake fluids, I tried a variety of fluid from Liqui Moly Dot 5.1 to Maxima race fluids and with progressive and positive results but nothing that was a change I would say substantial.

So what next, logic dictates, get better brake pads, yes, so I go and get the EBC double sintered pads for the bike, I made the purchase and have been sitting on these for over a year, why haven't I changed it yet you may ask, well, the OEM brake pads still have a ton of life to it, I did not want to waste the OEM pads by just swapping it out for the EBC right away.

The next step in the braking system upgrade would be better master cylinders and I did that too, did a lot of research, and decided to pull the plug on the best Brembo had to offer, the RCS 19 Corsa Corta, last year on my birthday I was feeling generous and decided to splurge and gift myself the Corsa Corta and I had also ordered the EBC pads on the same day thinking it would be a good mod to combine in one go.

Anyways, here we are over a year later, I finally got the MC in my hand but I decided not to go for the EBC pad swap just yet, there are 2 reasons for this, firstly, again the OEM pads still have plenty of life in them. Secondly and more importantly I want to be able to experience what just an MC upgrade would do for the brake upgrade plan and then later see how much of a difference a better set of pads can add to the system, you know, step by step upgrade and experimentation.

Ok, that was a lot of ranting, now let's get to the brass tacks, all the stuff had been laid out and we were ready to get started with the MC upgrade and we hit an unexpected roadblock!

The problematic Banjo

The current kit came with the banjo bolt that accepts 2 banjo bolts directly to the MC, but the current brake lines have only 1 banjo bolt that comes and feeds into the MC. The reason is that the Spiegler lines are a bit different as opposed to the independent lines that you find with many other brand solutions where there are independent brake lines that run from the mc directly to each caliper. For the Spiegler, it's a single unit that has 1 line that feeds the fluid from the MC, and about halfway it splits into 2 lines via a T junction and makes its way into the 2 calipers.

The T junction that is the root cause of the issue

So immediately we had a red flag, I guess my research wasn't as thorough as I thought. But then I thought not to worry, I'll just use the banjo bolt off of the current system and that should be fine, right? But no, If history shows us anything it's that in my case it can't be something that simple, the current Spiegler banjo bolt does not fit into the Corsa Corta because the pitch of the thread on the Banjo bolts is different. The Brembo MC accepts a 1mm pitch while the OE MC (which is also made by Brembo back in 2013) accepts only a 1.25mm pitch. So yet again we had to find a solution to this problem, so I set about looking at RevZilla and sportbiketrackgear, and many other websites to see how fast I can ship out a banjo bolt that would solve my problem. But then suddenly we realized that maybe just maybe there are some bikes sold here that might be using a 1mm pitch Banjo bolt in their braking systems, most of the bike here run on bybre systems which is a sister company of Brembo anyways and a banjo bolt at the end of the day is, well, a banjo bolt. It serves the same purpose no matter what MC it goes into.

The solution

The saviour

And that's how we find out that the Bajaj 200NS MC uses a 1mm pitch Banjo bolt for its front brake MC, and as you'd imagine we immediately jumped on the bike and went to the nearest Bajaj dealership and bought the Banjo bolt in question.

Quick Drop in at Bajaj

We made sure to carry the MC along with us to do a test fit and make sure that the bolt fits correctly and as expected fits like a glove.

Notice the difference in pitch in the Banjos. The red bolt being the Spiegler Banjo

And the best part, how much did it cost us to solve this problem? A huge sum of Rs.21/- including taxes and there I was trying to buy a Banjo bolt from the US for 15 dollars . Sometimes buying local is the best solution.

While we were out we also went ahead and bought 4L of Motul 7100 10W40 and also HiFlo filter that I usually use for the oil change I also decided to try out the Brembo Brake fluid to go along with the MC upgrade.

Once all the required items for the change were collected we got cracking, we were tackling the MC change and the Oil change together as the oil change is pretty much a low maintenance job that just takes time and our attention from time to time.

Anyways, we began by making sure we did have all the parts that were required to complete the installation of the new MC and did a test fit, the reservoir and the feed line were plumbed onto the MC and were made ready so that we can attach it as a single unit onto the handlebars which makes it so much easy to work with. Then we started by disconnecting the banjo from underneath the OE MC and freeing the brake line from it and then we removed the cover off of the old fluid reservoir and drained as much fluid as we could before removing the whole unit as one piece from the handlebars.

And we then immediately mounted the new kit onto the handlebars and connected the brake line onto the new MC using the new Banjobolt we purchased from Bajaj and voila we were ready to bleed the system. Yeah, it's as simple as that if you do the prep work just right. Because of the way we removed the line from the OE MC we did not introduce a lot of air into the system from the brake lines to the calipers. So the bleeding process we did was only required to drain any air out of the system that's in the new MC, which was not a lot and we were done within 15 mins, but we went ahead and bled the braking system at all 3 spots, first at the MC bleeder, then at the left and right calipers also. All in all the most time-consuming part of this exercise was the bleeding and that took about 30 minutes in itself(we wanted to be thorough).

Now the next step was to figure out how to mount the reservoir, as the OE mounting points are now unusable.

I had also purchased a reservoir with the mounting kit along with the MC as I knew that using the OE Resevouir was not an option, and the kit came in handy, it had a bracket that attaches the reservoir to the top bolt of the MC mounting clamp to the handlebars, the clamp is flexible enough to allow you micro-adjustment as needed for different bikes and we spent barely 2 minutes before we got a position which was good enough to clear the fairings from coming in contact with the reservoir in full handle lock left to right.

Now since that was done let's talk about the difference now shall we, if I have to use 1 word to describe it it would be "Stability". Oh boy what a difference this change has made, I am not exaggerating or messing around when I say this has made a night and day difference in the way the bike stops. The lever feel has 0 sponginess to it, it's very very direct and precise! There are 3 different modes in which you can set the feedback and that's labeled as S, N, and R. I am currently in N which I think stands for Neutral (Not sure need to check) with S being the most aggressive I am yet to try. The pedal feel is just something else, it's very direct and communicative, you get to feel exactly how much pressure is being applied onto the pistons in the calipers and all it takes is 1 finger to bring the bike to a halt no matter what speeds you are doing and it does this with no drama at all, you don't need to guess at what point the wheels are going to lock up(No ABS on this bike!) because they feel from the levers is just enough you know where the limit is! In the 500 plus km I rode with this I have covered it in multiple scenarios, I rode it in the dry, in the wet, during an active heavy rainfall, and tried it at different speeds varying from city crawling speed to highway cruising and WOT to standstill drills as well and I am just blown away from what the product has to offer.

I cannot express how happy I am for what I have got out of this one single upgrade. Worth every single penny I spent on it and worth every single day I waited for it too. No regrets whatsoever. I will be covering the range of adjustability the Corsa Corta has to offer (which is huge) in another post once I have put a few thousand km of riding behind with all the different settings and will post my finding here, until then what I have already typed up should serve as an initial experience/review.

Current Setup

Final look post install

Ok, so now that is done let's move on to the rest of the upgrades done. I shall continue that in the upcoming posts as I am limited by the number of pictures I can upload to a single post.

Cheers
Krishna

[krishnaprasadgg]

Picking up from the previous post let's get started with the rest of the upgrades.

ASV Standard C5 Length Clutch Lever

Before

I had purchased the ASV standard length levers to swap out with the CRG shorty levers that I am currently running. Actually, there is a bit of a story to this also, originally I had purchased the ASV shorty levers for the swap and it was purchased along with the MC purchase, the idea was to swap out the clutch side lever with the ASV as from reviews I had heard that ASV levels are best in terms of quality and lever feel and my first impulse was to go for the shorty levers itself.

After

That is when fellow a good friend and fellow bhpian man_of_steel pinged me and asked me why I went with the shorty when the standard length levers are much more comfortable, that question planted a seed in my head that had enough time to grow and I ended up placing in an order for the Std length ASV levers instead and decided to post the shorty levers from ASV I had initially for sale. But coincidently fellow bhpian xaos636 was interested in the ASV shorty and it was a direct fit for his blade and things worked out just fine, I rode the blade post the installation of the levers and while the lever feel was good, the length of the level was a bit too short for my comfort, I have smaller hands and this causes a bit of a problem with shorty levers, but it fits the requirement perfectly for xaos636. So it turned out to be a perfect win-win situation for us.

Post install Fitment

Now as far as installation goes it's pretty straightforward, the ASV levers come with all the necessary hardware for the installation, which includes the dowel pin and the replacement clutch switch. You just swap those out and it's a direct fit. All in all, takes about 15 mins to complete the installation.

Lightech Chain Adjusters

Now, this was a spur-of-the-moment purchase I did a little over last year. While I am super happy to have this piece of machined aluminum goodness on my bike, if I were to go back in time and do it again, I'd probably not buy this.

You see for the price it retails it's just not worth it, that's money spent better somewhere else. I can think of at least quite a few other parts I would have bought instead of this. But as it goes, no use of crying over split milk, I decided to own it and just get the chain adjusters fitted.

Now if you are wondering what this does, it replaces the current chain slack adjuster system with this single unit with which you can use the end rotating know to adjust the chain slack on the bike. How it's different from the existing system is that you do not need to worry about playing with 2 spanners and doing the whole locking nut system, all you need to do is loosen up the axle bolt and rotate the end knobs with your finger and it adjusts the slack, it also has proper demarcations to the nearest 1 mm count that allows you to precisely set the alignment of the rear wheel on both sides. There is no way you can confuse the setting or there is no need to count the number of threads turned as you'd do in the conventional system.

So essentially what this does is reduce the effort and the amount of time you spend on adjusting chain slack and it's easy and clear enough to make sure you have both sides aligned to the exact spec so you will never have any rear wheel alignment issues as well. Is it worth the convenience for what it costs? No, it's not. So would I suggest this to someone who rides his/her bike on the street and does chain adjustment for road use intervals? Absolutely not. Maybe for some track riders who want to reduce time in the pits that occupy chain adjustment that's about it.

But I have to say the craftsmanship on this piece of aluminum is just next level. Everything fits like a dream and just looks really really nice.

Suspension Tuning and Rotor measurments

Rotor thickness check. Now, this is something I have been wanting to do for quite a while. While I was planning for the brake system upgrade I was also thinking about how the EBC Double sintered brake pads are known to eat through rotors and combine that with a much better MC I was also considering what would be the right time to plan for new rotors and at that point do I go for OEM rotors or Aftermarket options like EBC or Brembo (I don't like the way Galfer rotors look ). So before that I thought I would just have a look at where I am right nor after 32k kms with the rotor thickness and to my surprise I am still at the factory spec thickness of 5mm thickness.

As per the manual, the permissible thickness is up to 4.5mm so I am in the green for now.

Here is a screenshot from the manual showing this

Suspension Tuning

In a few posts back I had explained how I got the fork oil replaced and new seals put in. Something that was left out from that job was tuning the front forks. The forks were previously set to the previous owner's setup and I had been running on it regardless because the setup did not cause me any particular discomfort (or so I thought). But post the fork fluid change my mech had set the settings to the minimum spec the forks would allow as he did not have enough time to set it back to OEM specifications, and I had told him that I shall do the setup back to OEM spec and then mess around and find whats best for my weight. So the first line of business was to return it to the baseline setup.

Baseline Spec

This was my first attempt ever to tuning forks so as expected I relied on the manual.

Front Fork adjustment procedure 1/2

The R1 comes with separate function forks with the left fork controlling Compression and the right fork controlling the rebound. But with the important point is that the preload adjustment needs to be set evenly on both forks.

Front Fork adjustment procedure 2/2

So that's what we did first we made sure the settings are at the minimum permissible setting on the forks and we found that it was just as my mechanic had said he set. Then we dialed in both forks for preload as per the standard adjustment which is 2 clicks with a minimum being 0 and maximum being 5

Then we went about setting compression(left fork) to standard settings which are 20 clicks with 1 being minimum and 25 being maximum and then moved onto rebound(right fork) to standard setting of 12 clicks with 1 being minimum and 25 being maximum.

I did not record a proper video of doing the adjustment as it's a pretty simple procedure, I'll upload the screenshots from the manual as a reference, and should be enough.

I'll also post the before and after of the fork top where you can see the visual difference pre and post-adjustment.

Before

Afer

P.S: the difference you get to see here is the difference in preload of the springs.

The Ride back testing out the suspension and the brakes

Well, while I did a few test rides post the MC and suspension adjustments the ride back was the perfect setting to actually test it in the real world as I had a 140kms ride back home. The ride back was relatively dry but with dirty grimy and wet roads in many areas and a little bit of rainfall too. The suspension in the standard-setting was considerably more comfortable than what it was even before the fork oil change, the new fork oil does help quite a bit.

The bike feels a lot tighter and planted and this is definitely a step in the right direction. Now I need to continue tuning it until I find my perfect setup. I'll leave you with a few more pics from the ride back.

That's around 330kms of much sand and grime on the bike! Was a hell of a task to get it all cleaned up.

Customary ODO and Trip meter shot!

I have one more upcoming post of my ride to cochin again the next day but this time with the company of xaos636 and another friend with a 10r. It was an interesting day, to say the least. More on that in the next post.

Cheers
Krishna