[krishnaprasadgg]

What's the next best thing if you cannot go for a long ride? For me it's hanging out with like-minded enthusiasts and good food somewhere in the city and that is exactly what I managed to do the past weekend.

After hearing a lot about the Maverick & Farmer cafe operating in JSP Motorrad in Koramangala a few of us decided to catch up over some good food and even better some epic sexy motorcycles to give full company.

And it did not disappoint, something about having great conversations with friends while your bikes are parked right in front of you and a ton of Beemers coming in and out was just the perfect setting.

Here are a few pics from the meetup.

The Bayliss edition Panigale v2 is just a looker! Photos don't do it justice, and it still looks awesome in photos.

The very next day caught up with a friend who recently picked up a mint condition CBR1000RR Fireblade SP edition. We already know what a legendary bike it is in its own right but this garnished with the brembo calipers and front and back ohlins setup was cherry on the cake.

Also randomly attaching the photo of a gorgeous 848 Evo I spotted at highlander when I dropped off the R1 to get the chain sprockets changed.

Oh yeah that reminded me, the R1 has got new chain sprockets installed.

New drive chain installed

That's it for now.

Cheers
Krishna

[krishnaprasadgg]

Garage Update

This is a bit of a bittersweet post to make. After almost 3 years of ownership and only 17,000 km of rides, the Tiger 800 has left the garage.
As cliche as it may sound, it was a very tough decision to make, in fact, it was something we kept jumping both sides of the fence for almost 7-8 months before finally listing it for sale in the classifieds section.

The reason for finally putting it up for sale was that my brother who owns the bike has mostly moved over to 4 wheels and the chances of long-distance touring on 2 wheels were not going to happen and for me, the R1 still remains as the choice for long-distance hauls, as mental as it should sound I just love it.

So it felt borderline cruel to let the Tiger just sit unused in the garage and with a complete set of fresh consumables from tyres, battery, brake pads, and fresh service it felt like the right time to put it up for sale so that someone else could enjoy the bike for a long time worry-free and do justice to the capable go anywhere bike the tiger is.

And as luck would have it the new owner is an avid reader of the thread and a fellow member here so the bike is not far away. Hopefully, he can share his ownership journey on a dedicated thread soon.

Here are some shots I took of the bike during the final wash before handover which happened a couple of days back.

As for what next, there are plans brewing, hopefully, something solid will materialize in a couple of months.

Will be missed for sure

Cheers
Krishna

[krishnaprasadgg]

Rode to Chennai to MMRT the other day along with fellow bhpian Wolfy, me on the R1 and him on his 10R. Wolfy and deepfreak15 had enrolled themselves for the TWO trackday open sessions and I was tricked (didn't take much convincing tbh) into riding and giving them company for the track day.

Here are a few pics from the ride to MMRT

Kicking off the ride from Silk Board








Breakfast stop at Murugans Idli at Krishnagiri




Short pitstop at some toll plaza along the way










The day grew hot very fast, another quick hydration break


Finally when we landed at Pleasent Stays resort just a stone throws away from MMRT

While they piled on tracktime I became their pitlane help and Waterboy also managed to hurt my foot walking in the pitlane(don't ask) while attending a track session in which I was not even riding (Ha! Beat that!). In the end, had to employ the services of my best buddy Xaos636 to rescue the R1 by riding it back to Bangalore because of the nature of the injury I could not shift gears as I hurt my left toe right at the spot where you made contact to shift gears, and given my original plan was to ride to my hometown in Palakkad from MMRT which was a 600kms ride, it wasn't worth the risk, I hitched a shotgun ride with deepfreak15 in his Octi as he had done the sane thing and shipped his bike with the TWO folks, me and Wolfy not as smart, shouldn't come as a surprise I guess. Anyway, apart from the irony and all the jokes, it was a crazy 3 days for me, and whatever little doubt I had in my mind after the RACR L1&L2 training I attended back in Feb of this year now I know for a fact that I want to track the R1, a simple track walk early in the morning on day 2 confirmed this for me.

Thats bhpian deepfreak15 on his RC390 trackbike and yup that's the Ultraviolette EV at MMRT, the owner came to put it through its paces at the Track.












Thats Wolfy taking rest on the R1 in between sessions

But the biggest highlight of the 3 days was the amazing people I met and talked to. For someone who doesn't like riding/ hanging out in groups being with trackday folks is something I loved every single second of.

Anyways, during the trip to Chennai, The R1 managed to roll onto 38,000kms on the ODO.

That's it for now.

Cheers
Krishna

[pavanmadhini]

Nice pics Krishna! Missed meeting you there - had a chance to say hi to Wolfy. Had a few good laps riding with him on my Ninja 1000. You should definitely join for the open session next time.

On a side note - for anyone who loves riding, Indimotard’s track school is a must in my humble opinion. Have done their L1 and L2 - and the experience of learning new skills and immediately practising them on the track is invaluable. Plus you get to meet a ton of amazing folks trackside.

[krishnaprasadgg]

Originally Posted by pavanmadhini

Nice pics Krishna! Missed meeting you there - had a chance to say hi to Wolfy. Had a few good laps riding with him on my Ninja 1000. You should definitely join for the open session next time.

Hi Pavan, Thanks. Yup, missed the chance to have a conversation with you. And I remember watching Wolfy and You riding together during one of the sessions.

And yeah.. the next MMRT session I'll definitely join in.

Cheers
Krishna

[krishnaprasadgg]

The ODO rolls to 39,000kms.

39 bigones

Took the R1 out for a Bangalore-Kerala long haul after not being able to ride over the last 2 weeks while I was out of town the R1 was being pampered at the hands of a good friend.

Did not take any pics this time of the ride today.

Trip meter reading at the end of today's long haul

Customary ODO reading at the end of the ride.

Cheers
Krishna

[krishnaprasadgg]

Last Friday afternoon while some casual banter among a few friends about motorcycles and ride experiences from the past was being discussed the talk quickly took a turn to what's happening this Sunday shall we go for a ride type of talk. Talks quickly turned to a plan and everyone was in for a quick 150-ish km ride to a spot somewhere near the KIA plant in Andhra Pradesh. But there was one small problem, I had been in Kerala for the past week and it was Friday afternoon already and the rest of the boys were all in for the ride, obviously I was not going to miss this opportunity so I did what any sensible person would do, packed my Kreiga bag with a toolkit(Consider this foreshadowing, I'll have a detailed post on this later), Dark visor and fixed it on the R1 and rode to Bangalore early Saturday morning.

Again, just like the ride detail from the last post, did not make many stops just a couple of 2 min leg and shoulder stretch stops and a refueling stop at Salem and I was at Bangalore, no biggie just another Bangalore Palakkad shuttle ride like Ihv done many times.

This time I did click a few clicks while the rest break and one at Highlander, yeah, that's not usual post a ride, like I said in the paragraph above, there is a good reason for this too. All will be made clear in a couple of posts. For now, let's stick to the ride summary.

Anyway, post a brief stop at Highlander, I took the bike back around the evening, filled up some XP100 for the R1 and I was ready to roll for the ride the next day.

I am splitting this into 2 posts because of the 30-photos per-post limit.

Cheers
Krishna

[krishnaprasadgg]

The Ride started early around 3.30 for Xaos636 and me, we met up at Sony signal and headed to our rendezvous point in front of Esteem Mall at around 4.30 am.

The Ride Starts


Meetup with Xaos636 at Sony Signal

We were the first to arrive, in about 10 minutes bhpian @wolfy joined us and that marked the occasion where we had the Japanese big 3 meet each other for the first time. All in their reputed and signature colors. The KRT livery on the 10r, the Repsol livery on the blade, and the WGP Speedblock colors on the R1.

Reached the rendezvous point


Bhpian wolfy also joins the party. All the 3 big Japs are here

We had a brief chat about how we had been planning this meetup for a while and how awesome it was that it finally happened and the rest of the group arrived. Lost track in the subsequent short banter we had and I forgot to click pics of the rest of the group which comprised a Sexy Street Triple R, the BMW GS1200 with its own personal Sun attached to it (Clearwater aux lights), and the Yamaha Aerox (Believe it or not, the aerox was able to keep up and was never more than 5 mins behind us at any given stop, and on a couple of occasions in front of us).

Quick Photoo while the rest of the group fueled up

The ride soon started and after navigating quite a few speed breakers and trekking up and down a few humps we finally crossed the borders to AP and boy, was it a fun ride along the sexy AP highways, which had the right amount of straights and long winding corners which was a treat for all the bikes equally, also daylight broke just as we crossed the border so the roads were pretty much empty throughout our diversion point.

The big 3


Then the big 3 immediately became the tiny 3


The Complete group has assembled

There were a couple of hairpins to take as we navigated up a hill which gave a good vantage point, we chilled there for a couple of hours, talking bikes, taking pics, and a good amount of time appreciating what an awesome product the Aerox actually is! Then after a couple of hours of spending time there, we headed back to the highway to have breakfast.

Post breakfast time was around 8.30 am or so and we were starting to get back home, Xaos636 and I had some other plans so we left first while the rest of the group stayed back a while more to take a restup before making the trip back. On the return leg, I jumped on the Blade while Xaos636 rode the R1, I can't stress enough how much I love riding the Blade after long bouts on the R1 and vice-versa, the difference in character b/w these 2 bikes is just mesmerizing and makes you appreciate both bike a lot more, especially when its back to back riding. The return trip was quick, got stuck in very bad bouts of traffic along the ORR post Esteem mall and finally made it back home.

Anyway, here are a few more clicks of the ride for you guys to enjoy.

So was it worth riding around 500 km to Bangalore just to take part in a 300 km ride to some spot with your riding buddies and 500 km back home again the very next day? Hell yeah !!! The right company makes it all worth it!

Trip meter for the day


Customary ODO reading post the trip. 40k is just within reach

Cheers
Krishna

[krishnaprasadgg]

Long Post Alert!

The total ODO reading for the trip was around 342 km or so. Decided to take some rest as I had to ride back to Palakkad the very next day. The total ODO meter reading was around 39,920kms so I was beyond excited to start the ride back so the bike would have run 40,000kms by the time I hit Krishnagiri, but that's where things took a turn for the worse. Worse? Why did I say worse? What was wrong in the first place? Well, let me take you back to the ride I took the week before, the ride to Kerala. While the ride from Bangalore to Walayar took me 4 hours flat to cover 400 km, the last 40 km was pure traffic and bad roads, but this is not new, it's always been like that, but this time, when I finally rolled up to my house and switch the bike off, what do I see when I get off? Coolant is gushing out and spilling all over the engine cover and the origin of the leak from what I can only make out is behind the coolant overflow tank/reservoir, I quickly get my toolkit and open up the cover to get a better look and by that time the gushing has reduced to a slight drip and by the time I get enough clearance the leak/overflow has stopped.

This was weird, I have never had this happen before apart from once when I had a few drops of coolant drop through the overflow hose when the bike was just warmed up and switched off from a cold start, it never happened again though. Anyways, this was unusual and once the bike cooled down I realized the top rubber cap that seals the reservoir was not sealed and was loose, since I know that the last time coolant was topped up the cap was sealed on properly, so something was causing the rubber cap to unseal itself and it's pretty obvious it's because of the pressure. Had a chat with Kartick and I just topped up the coolant after deciding that it was probably a clogged overflow drain that caused a lot of built-up pressure in the overflow container and finally it popped. I had decided that I'll do a simple DIY fix at some point when I get time, but then Friday rolled over and plans were made for the ride, so I thought that I'd just ride back to Bangalore and take the bike to Kartick and we can just inspect to see if it's a clogged drain hose or something else is the matter.

Bottle of Engine Ice I keep at hoe

Topped up and ready to go

So this time I removed the overflow container plastic cover so that I could inspect the coolant level while riding in a safe manner rather than having to stop and check every time, the location of the container was very convenient for this being just above the shifter where your knee rests. So I start my ride to Bangalore early morning Saturday and have a quick break at Coimbatore bypass and the same thing happens, the rubber cap has been slightly raised and the container is physically full of coolant to the brim(this was such a big indicator of what was wrong, but I overlooked this that day, amateur hour).

Somewhere along Krishnagiri when I stopped to check for coolant overflow

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i0WT12fIvzk

I pressed the cap in place and carried on with my journey and had no other issues for the rest of the journey, then I reached E-city flyover toll and I am waiting in line and the guy beside me points out that I am leaking coolant, I look down and sure enough the coolant is just flowing out of the reservoir, by this I was sure that I had lost quite a bit of coolant from the radiator as well because the reservoir only holds only a limited amount and over the 2 times I stopped where it was leaking I have lost more than that. So I quickly called Karthick and told him to be ready and outside the shop in 15 minutes as I would be reaching there so that he could see what was exactly happening irl. And sure enough, I pull up to Highlander after a few minutes of riding in traffic, and this time we see it happen in front of us the rubber cap pops up and a coolant is flowing out in a few glugs.

How it played out when I reached Highlander

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p_KQ3KHXpDE

We discussed possible reasons and first and foremost is a clogged drain hose that was causing a build-up of pressure, other possibilities are huge air in the system or thermostat or radiator cap issue.

Left the bike there for a couple of hours for it to cool down and let Kartick do his magic while I went to rest up for a few hours before the early morning ride tomorrow around evening time I got a call from Karthick and sure enough, it was a clogged overflow hose and now whenever the bike reached higher temps the coolant is being let out through the drain hose as intended and also do note now its just a few drops of coolant.

Now fast forward to the next day I am enjoying the ride to the core, we had quite a few breaks along the way and no leaks no drips everything was going well and then we reached our destination which after a couple of hairpins which were all taken in 1st and 2nd gear and the temps were above 108 degrees when I stopped at the top, this time too I just glance over at the reservoir just to be sure what I saw had me stressed almost immediately, I can see again that the reservoir is filled up to the brim again but at the same time I can see the level dropping and this time the rubber cap is staying put and hasn't popped but there is a steady flow of coolant being dumped to the ground through the overflow hose.

Now that the clog was removed, the coolant was being dumped through the overflow hose

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dYujUYmrr9E

So clearly that means the issue has not been fixed, the clogged overflow hose was a separate issue that presented itself only because this other issue was happening, anyways I waited for the leak to die out and after about a minute it settled down and now the coolant level in the reservoir is well below the low level.

Coolant level after the overflow

And I did not keep some spare coolant with me even when I had it ready because I thought that the issue was sorted. Anyway, there was no need to panic yet, I had ridden with an even lesser amount of coolant and the engine temps were very well within operating temps the radiator fans worked perfectly fine and the samco hoses could withstand pressures well above what the stock rubber hoses can so now I just had to get the bike back home and I'd have time to check it out.

So we started the journey back and this time I was on the Blade, the ride to city limits went uneventful we stopped 2 times and noticed no coolant leak at all, but then while we were stuck in traffic moving at crawling speeds I could see that a few drops of coolant is falling out from the drain hose, this made me a bit worried because I did not want to lose anymore coolant and cause any damage to the engine, talked to Xaos636 as he was riding the R1, the temps were good and fans were working and no change in how the bike was behaving was noted so we pushed on.

But then towards the end of the ride is when I started to notice something new, I just made a quick stop to glance at the reservoir and I saw there were no leaks but the coolant was boiling over inside the container, this is a first, I have never seen this happen ever in my bike, all the previous episodes of coolant leaking was just simple plain overflow, there was no bubbling or boiling over happening, the only difference was this was when the ambient temp was also hot and coolant temp as showed in the guage was b/w 108-112 (fan was running so it kept dropping).

Coolant boiling over somewhere within city limits.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yZc71Dr7onM

I rode it straight to Highlander and we discussed options as I had to ride back to Kerala the next day no matter what. Karthick said not to worry just keep some spare coolant in hand and since my ride will be an early morning for the majority of the parts the ambient temps will be in check and at highway speeds the coolant temps will also be well within 70-80 degrees and only at the home stretch I'll face higher temps and for that, I have enough spare coolant with me, and I can diagnose the issue from Cochin with Sanju or bring it back to Karthick when both of us have free time and find the actual issue. By now we had narrowed it down to a faulty thermostat or the radiator cap not sealing right.

Coolant boiling/bubbling again when I reached Highlander

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mK516yxjChk

So necessary preps were made and I fueled up the bike and was ready to make the trip back to Kerala, kept my spirits high as I was excited to hit the 40k milestone with the R1. And around 3.15 AM I started my ride back. There I am on the E-city flyover with ambient temps around 17 degrees and at cruising speeds in 6th gear I look at the console and I see something that just doesn't feel right, the coolant temp is at 98 degrees, I immediately realized that this is not good, because, from all the years of riding the R1 in all possible conditions, I know that the temp given the current condition should not be more than 75 degrees, so I thought let me just glace at the reservoir and sure enough the coolant is bubbling/boiling over inside. This was frustrating because the 2 times I took the bike to Highlander and we did bench testing by making the bike temps go up it never boiled over it only dripped a few drops of coolant, and only the last couple of times on the road this had happened, and that too once when the outside conditions were too hot, but right now in the current condition there was no way this should have happened, so as I approached the end of the e-city flyover and pay the toll the boiling is still going on, right then and there I took the decision to cancel my ride home and took a U-turn and headed back to my flat, during this short ride back I experimented to see the severity of the problem, I get it to cruising speed in 6th gear and let go of the throttle and shift down and the temp starts to rise till 104 and stays put then I speed up a bit and it drops below 100 but it's still high 90s when it should not be anything over 80. So I pulled back into my apartment parking and the coolant was still boiling over but no leaks.

I sent a voice note to Karthick about what happened and told him I am going to leave the bike with him and he can take his time and find the issue and sort it out because I am not willing to risk any internal damage to the engine, even though the bike never ran hot or had any power loss or even overheated once during all this, it was just the coolant pressure build up in the reservoir and then the bubbling over thing started, but I had enough and wanted to find and fix the issue.

Meanwhile, I had to be in Kerala the same day and Karthick was super busy as he was planning on taking a few days off and he had a huge number of bikes he had to finish so that his customers wouldn't be affected (I have huge respect for his work ethics, part of why he is so famous in the South Indian biking community), so I did not pressure him to look into my bike rather I just decided to leave it with him and let him check it at his convenience because I was not planning on riding the bike anyways until the issue is sorted and next couple of weeks I would be super busy anyways.

But wait the bad day had just started, so now that I had a plan in place for what needed to be done with the R1 I still had to be in Kerala the same day anyway, while I was weighing my options I had pinged a few friends abt what happened and one of my friend offered me his spare bike to made the ride home, for some added context, my car was in Kerala so I did not have that option with me. After pondering about it for a while I took him up on the offer and went to pick up the bike, but by then I was already late, its a weekday, Monday for that matter and I was stuck in traffic to go get the bike, I finally reach and get the bike and start my journey around 9 am and as expected traffic is at its peak, somehow took me over an hour and 30 mins to cover 20 kms and I reach Silk board, my left hand is killing me after operating the clutch so much and I get a call from home saying not to come because it's by the time I will reach it will be raining with heavy tunderstorms, I still wanted to go but realistically by the time I reach I would not be able to make it to the meeting that I had to have anyways, and I was already dead tired so considering eveything I called it quits, and had to reschedule my meeting to the next day which I really didn't want to do, but it had to be done. I reach back home and park the bike thinking I'll just relax for a while and that's when I realize I forgot to take my apartment keys while I stepped out to pick up my friend's bike so now I am locked out of my apartment too, perfect! Back I go into traffic to my brother's office to pick up his key and another hour and a half later I am finally inside my flat and just collapsed onto my bed and slept off for a good few hours.

But wait the silver lining is finally here, Fast forward 2 days and I get a call from Karthick that the issue has been found, and it was as we had discussed the radiator cap that caused all this drama, post the bubbling incident the radiator cap was so close to the brink of failure Karthick was able to replicate the issue easily on the bike lift itself which helped a lot in diagnosis. He managed to arrange a used spare radiator cap which is slightly off spec but in good condition and tested it on the bench and there was no coolant overflow or boiling over anymore. But we did not stop it at that time, Xaos636 came to the rescue again and he took on the task of doing actual road/traffic tests in both peak traffic hours and regular conditions and the bike passed with flying colors. There was no drop in coolant even after all the stress test and neither was there any boiling over of the coolant.

Bike made it to Xaos636's place


Coolant level at the time of the start of the test ride. Bike switched off


Coolant level at the time of the end of the test ride spanning 40-50kms and all kinds of traffic. Bike switched off

Now all I need to do is place an order for a brand new radiator cap and I can be at peace, but above all else I am just thankful that Karthick made time to work on my bike in between all his busy schedule with pre-Diwali rush (lots of bikes in for health check and ride preparedness works) and that the bike did not give up on me in any of these rides, I strongly bielieve that changing the radiator hoses in time was also a huge factor as to why I was not stranded on the road with a busted hose/radiator cap because if you consider the amount of pressure that was in the coolant system that got dumped into the reservoir the 9 year old hoses would have ruptured for sure, the samco hoses are rated for much much higher pressure so it saved the bike so it speak. Anyway, I'll have another post in the future in detail on what the repair work done was and what the stop-gap arrangement is. Since I am in Kerala now and the R1 is still in Bangalore, I don't have enough photos or full info to give a proper explanation. Till then enjoy the next post where I show what my interim bike was for the ride back home.

Cheers
Krishna

[krishnaprasadgg]

But wait the bad day had just started, so now that I had a plan in place for what needed to be done with the R1 I still had to be in Kerala the same day anyway, while I was weighing my options I had pinged a few friends abt what happened and one of my friend offered me his spare bike to made the ride home, for some added context, my car was in Kerala so I did not have that option with me............

So continuing off this post, the bike that I had for the trip ahead was a bike I had ridden before and fallen head over heels for and no it is not a supersport-faired ballistic missile but rather a super naked gut-wrenching torque monster the 2014 Speed Triple 1050 with the Arrow slipons for some added aural pleasure!

The Speedy!


Just look at that beauty


One more

And yes, for many this bike might not be a stranger, this has been featured on this thread itself before and the bike belongs to fellow bhpian @wolfy. Who graciously donated his daily (yeah, you read that right! With over 36k km on the odo the Speedy is his daily bike, while his 10R is reserved for everything else from weekend rides, track days, and touring) for an open-ended trip to Kerala. Friendships made over motorcycles are strong let me tell you!

A filter coffee stop at Salem, Not sure if it's evident from the pic but the ride from Bangalore till Salem was a super wet one as it was raining heavily for the entire 200 km stretch, and I was drenched to the bones, so the coffee stop was worth it.




For coffee lovers, the Kaapi Stop filter coffee is really nice, pricey for sure but a good stop, considering they do have a clean rest room too. This is maybe 10-15 km post taking the diversion to Coimbatore from Salem

Well, there's not much more to say about the bike other than it's packed with some gut-wrenching torque, how fast it goes is irrelevant but it'll get you there quickly and with plenty of drama! The angry and deep snarl of the triple and decel pops is a treat to the ears! But yes, the wind blast is a downer, but it's the nature of the beast, it's a super naked after all.

I'll let the pics do the talking.

Filling the Speedy up on the good stuff yet again!


Finally home!


Trip meter post the day ride


Just couldn't help myself from clicking!

Anyway, after a few days in Kerala, I had to return the bike to @wolfy, even though he was gracious enough to tell me to keep it till I wanted, I couldn't stomach keeping the speedy away from him considering how much he loves it and also because it's his daily rider for commutes. Meanwhile, I also got word that a temp fix for the R1 was ready the details about which are already mentioned in the post above.

So I made the ride back to Bangalore, which made my time with the speedy for almost 2000kms of riding, 1k now and almost as much from previous rides and I can say my love for this bike has only increased.

2-liter class monsters in the same frame, yet worlds apart!

This time during my ride back @Xaos636 decided to ride down till Krishnagiri to give me company back to Bangalore for the last leg of my journey. The blade was fresh off a Yoshi slip-on install and boy does the bike now actually sound 10 times better. It's not obnoxiously loud either, which is different for Yoshi pipes which are usually super loud, but once it's in the mid-rpm and above boy does it sing!!

Finally landed at Bangalore and stopped for some more coffee


Chilled for me this time and some hot filter coffee for @Xaos636

Filling the Speedy up with the good stuff! Always remember, if you borrow a mate's bike/car always return it with a full tank of fuel! Some habits die hard.

I finally was back home and took a few hours rest before handing over the bike to @wolfy.

Trip meter post the ride back to Bangalore


One final click from my place before I head out to return the Speedy

But not before getting the bike washed and looking sexy! This also adds to the statement mentioned above

Getting pampered, a brand new 10r was also getting some TLC

Post returning the bike, went over to collect my bike back. I have been super lucky to be able to ride quite a few of these beasts and that too over longer distances because of really awesome riding buddies I appreciate and love almost every bike I have ridden, but no matter how many km I ride and enjoy the other bikes, as soon as I swing my leg over the R1 and start riding it again, the feeling of pride and love I feel is just on another level. I just love my bike and that cross-plane engine that much!

Filling her up for the ride to start early the next day!


I hope I never get tired of this view!

Finally, the R1 was back home, and here is where the ODO meter stood, with that, I was all prepared for the 500 km ride back home and for the milestone I was about to hit with the R1.

Almost there!!

Will post that as a dedicated post.
Cheers
Krishna

[krishnaprasadgg]

And just like that the R1 hits 40,000km on the ODO.

40 big ones

I hit it almost immediately during my ride back home from Bangalore. Even though this should have rolled on a few weeks ago had the R1 not decided to turn into a drama queen for a couple of weeks.

It's been a wonderful few years, and the 40k feels special. Of this, almost half of it has been piled up by me over almost 4 years. Well, mostly, a few close friends have been able to enjoy the R1 as well. The first owner did manage to put on 20k in the first 6 years.

Hope to hit 50k within 2024 itself. Fingers crossed.


ODO standing at the end of the trip.

Cheers
Krishna

[CrAzY dRiVeR]

Originally Posted by krishnaprasadgg

And just like that the R1 hits 40,000km on the ODO.

Congratulations!

Wanted to ask since our ride together, but somehow forgot - now remembered after seeing the exhaust mod on the 'blade.

Doesn't the exhaust create queries from cops, especially in Kerala? Or is it manageable as long as you don't try to attract unwanted attention purposefully?

[krishnaprasadgg]

Originally Posted by CrAzY dRiVeR

Congratulations!

Wanted to ask since our ride together, but somehow forgot - now remembered after seeing the exhaust mod on the 'blade.

Doesn't the exhaust create queries from cops, especially in Kerala? Or is it manageable as long as you don't try to attract unwanted attention purposefully?

Thanks a lot!

And about the exhaust, I have been using the LV exhaust since 2020 and the Akra for over a year and a half that too without the DB killer, I have ridden through a ton of Police checkposts and mobile roadside checking in Kerala, Karnataka and TN and have 0 issues so far, not even a second glance at the exhaust actually.

While my exhaust is loud (realized this when I got to hear another R1 with an Akra fitted onto it) it is not obnoxiously loud, I'm guessing(hoping ) you felt the same when you hard it IRL, in rpms below 5-6k it sounds very manageable (It does turn into a monster above 6k rpm but cmon I don't think anyone of us is into that kind of riding in city limits). The proof is in the pudding, been never stopped or asked about the exhaust once. Usually at places when I am not familiar I do pull in the clutch and the bike mellows down by a huge margin but I have found that's not required most of the time.

But the biggest contributor I still maintain is what you said. "Or is it manageable as long as you don't try to attract unwanted attention purposefully?" This goes a really really long way. The very few times I have been stopped, I have been very respectful and non-confrontational with the cops about anything they ask and they always have reciprocated in the same way. Goes a long long way.

The only caveat is that one can say is I don't use the bike for daily commutes, but I have done plenty of in-city rides out of necessity both here and in Kerala and never had any issues.

I'd say @wolfy is the best person to comment for in-city experience as he commutes daily on his Speedy with Arrow pipes(no DB killer) and the speedy is almost as loud as my bike and IIRC he has yet to have any issues faced from cops.

Now go on and order that exhaust for the Tiger

Cheers
Krishna

[CrAzY dRiVeR]

Originally Posted by krishnaprasadgg

Now go on and order that exhaust for the Tiger

My intentions were that obvious eh?

I was looking at options and this feedback is very confidence inspiring - will take a decision around Feb as Jan and Feb budget plan has already overshot my earnings

[abhi_tjet]

Originally Posted by krishnaprasadgg

And just like that the R1 hits 40,000km on the ODO.

Congratulations Krishna for the 40K milestone. The iteration of R1 which you have is hands down awesome. Also, the way you have maintained the decade old beauty is just fabulous. Its always a pleasure to read your updates.

Happy and safe riding buddy