Thanks a lot!

The i4 does sound heavenly and truely the cross-plane is an acquired taste.
I do hope it will be a fun and relatively bump free ride


In other updates, I had taken the bike to my trusty mechanic for him to test ride the bike and get his opinion on the bike's mechanical conditions and to see if I had missed anything. Apart from one issue which even I had felt he did not find anything else that needed immediate attention. The problem in question was that apart from the clutch lurching jitters in lower gears at lower rpm there was an extra vibration being felt from the bike this was more prominently felt when giving throttle from relatively lower RPMs and disappeared when higher RPMs were reached. I had suspected that it was possible front sprocket wear or uneven slack in the chain, after all, it was still running on the stock chain.
Now post the puncture repair wheel install the tech at Madhus had not adjusted the chain slack properly too, and the effect of this was felt while riding back home from the place. Now since the bike was unused since then and I wanted to take the bike for a ride this coming weekend I had taken the bike to my mech again to get the possible front sprocket issue looked at and also to tighten and clean & lube the chain.

So when the bike was loaded on the life and the front sprocket removed I was surprised to see the amount of gunk lodged into the front of the sprocket.

What you see here is after removing almost half of the gunk


It took a bit of poking out and chain cleaner to get rid of the gunk from the sprocket. Post which the chain and sprockets were given a healthy dose of chain cleaner and then the chain was lubed lavishly.
Meantime we did inspect the front sprocket and found it to be in relatively good shape, the wear on the teeth where similar to that on the rear sprocket no sharp edges on any tooth, all are flat as it should be.



While at it, I also got the GP shift changed to the conventional shift configuration. Now I would have stuck with GP shift if I was going to be riding only this bike or if the bike was going to be ridden only by me. But since my brother and I often swap bikes and we have had a few mistakes ourselves wherein we downshift unknowingly when we meant to upshift, we decided it is not worth risking anything.
Changing the shift patterns is very easy on the Yamahas all you need to do is to loosen the shift linkage where it joins the crankshaft and rotate the orientation by 180 degrees and you can cycle between GP shift and conventional shift. Takes about 2min if you have the right size spanner handy.

One another job I had done was to top up the coolant reservoir tank, the coolant level was just a smidge below the Low mark and we topped up the fluid to between the Low and High indicator.

Now the bike is all ready for the weekend ride. On the shakedown ride, the bike was cured of that extra vibration I had mentioned, a clean front sprocket goes a long way I guess.

Have fixed an appointment next week for a complete coolant flush and putting in Engine Ice and fitting the LeoVince Slipons replacing the stock exhaust. I will post here with photos once the bike is in for the change, though I might just get the slip-on done as a DIY, it's relatively easy but need to get over the fear of working on the big bikes.

Total damage to the wallet for the work done is Rs.391/-. I was charged only for the chain lubing and labor



I am tracking the ownership cost of the bike and hoping to do so properly in hopes of helping me stay in line with expenses and am sharing it here to potentially help anyone else in understanding costs to expect owning a big bike.



Cheers
Krishna

I remember, around 2012, I was talking to a friend of mine who owned a CBR1000RR Repsol edition at that time. I was telling him about how much i loved the stance of the R1 and that crazy sound it made. He asked me if I had ever ridden one and I said no. He said the R1 is a beast and is quite difficult to control. Even on the race track, he said, it made the best of the riders really nervous. Such is the reverence of this legend.

I have heard exactly the same. Apparently the riding stance on the R1 is much more aggressive than the competitors. Even for the newer models.
The ZX10R and the BMW S1000RR are much more comfortable to ride from a riding position standpoint as per people who have ridden both bikes.

Cheers
Krishna

Congratulations on the beast !

I love the cross-plane sound - gives it a character unlike the boring inline-4 drone. A friend has the 2011 R1 - sounds insane at full song.

Took the R1 out for a spin today, the agenda was to stretch her legs a little and to make myself more comfortable on the bike and understand it better. Fellow bhpian and close friend of mine @Xaos636 had also tagged along on his R3.





Had a ball of a time, roads were relatively free towards Salem side and as usual pretty annoying from Krishnagiri to Bangalore on the return.

We rode for around 224KMS round trip. Got to open her up a bit and the power it pushes out is still scary. Tried out the Mode A today, truth be told it was a bit anticlimactic, In hindsight, I don't know how much of a difference was I expecting, but the bike did not feel a whole lot different.




That's Xaos636 trying out the R1. He did get to enjoy some good seat time on the R1.


3 main take away from today's rides were

1. I desperately need a new helmet. The K1 just does not cut for this bike. On higher speeds and proper body position, the vision out of the helmet is just really bad and requires constant adjustment(pushing up) by me, which is not ideal. So a better helmet suited for supersport riding is of utmost importance.

2. A double bubble windscreen is in order, the windblast is something which is very very strong when you start putting the bike through its paces, riding in full tuck is almost not doable with constant speed adjustments we have to do on the highways which warrant sitting up and the windblast in this situation is just brutal and situations where you do not want to sit in full tuck as well, it gets rather uncomfortable.

3. She definitely has a drinking problem. I had refilled from Shoolagiri HP pump which is about 60kms from my place and rode around 160odd km more before reaching back home and when I refueled it back, the bike happily drank up to 10.53Ltrs of fuel.

So on a full tank to full tank basis, I got around 15.2KMPL

The Superbike bug has bitten him too after today's ride.











Have also placed an order for OEM Chain sprockets set, Oil filter. The chain sprocket set comes in around Rs.18K and Oil Filter at Rs.850. A bit surprised with the oil filter price, the high-performance Hi-Flow OEM replacement oil filter costs only 600Rs.

Todays Trip


Fuel Average


Total on the ODO



Cheers
Krishna

Beautiful you both, for a moment I thought Ivin was wearing white socks with sandals. And great to know you loads had fun. I hope the wheels are balanced with proper weights.

Cheers!
VJ

Haha..! That would have made for a fun photo for sure then.

Cheers
Krishna

Congratulations on getting to live whats arguably the dream of most of the riders in whole world.
I must admit, I found your first impressions of Crossplane a bit interesting. My experience of riding the limited edition bike is a bit different. Allow me to share my impression regarding same.

Inline fours usually wont get going right from idle speed. Launching them sans a little throttle would invariably make them stall. The crossplane has more than decent amount of torque from the lower rpms and is definitely easy to ride at slower speeds should you wish to. The reviewers may have found her brakes a bit weak but at the level we amateur riders operate, we 'd hardly be able to tell the difference. If at all the brakes being non-ABS are to be handled with care.

Engine heat is always an issue with big bikes although the maps that enrich the fuel mixture at lower rpms are reported to run the bike cooler by fair margin. The particular bike that I rode needed tire replacement yesterday and the grip levels left a lot to be desired. I was getting rear wheel locks at the slightest provocation but the fact the bike would still remain in straight line was a testimony to how sorted the chassis is.

I didn't face any clutch shudder at the launch as you mentioned. Regarding the flickability, as you spend more time with her you will be able to do it intuitively. The trick is to use countersteering. I am sure your own impression would change as you ride her more and more as well as get a chance to ride other big bikes to contrast them.
Happy riding.

Thanks a lot for your wishes.

So now about the roll-on throttle, now you can ride the clutch a bit to get to a slow rolling start, but if you were to release the clutch in normal fluidic speed the bike wants to immediately lung forward at a speed which I'd say most are not comfortable with, for example pulling out from the shoulder of the road or getting it out of a bit tight parking spaces, now one could easily move the bike with their feet if they are tall enough, for me that's just not happening, I can, but it's too much of huffing and puffing and I always run the risk of dropping the bike.

About the brakes, I don't know how to put this across but I am someone who always wants more and more bite from the brakes(I have never been satisfied with the brake bite from any of the vehicles I have owned.) and from what limited time I have ridden the bike I have always felt the brakes to be very inadequate when it comes to relatively sudden brakes(sudden lanes changes right in front of you, or villages suddenly deciding to cross the highway, so on ) this even with the steel braided lines. I strongly feel for the power and weight the bike is, the braking power is just not enough and I am definitely an amateur when it comes to riding big powerful bikes, and I am surely looking into getting better brake pads and MC kit for the future. I feel it's worth the price because I do intend to keep this bike for as long as I can.

Oh boy, I can't even think of riding the bike with low tread state, the way the tyre slips even with the slightest of wet patch on cement or any other surface with a new well-scrubbed in tyre is crazy.

Fully agree on the flickability part, slowly I am much better with riding the bike with more ease.

And yes, hopefully, I do get to ride more of these big bikes. I'd love to write up a comparison of what I have written now up against what I feel after putting at least 10k kms on the bike.

Cheers
Krishna

Just bumped on to this thread man! Loved reading it. She is a keeper. Have fun!

Too much of brake bite without corresponding tyre grip, bike balance and in R1's recase ABS is a recipe for disaster. Get used to the bike first before thinking of upgrades imho
. In this case, the tire was over 5 years old though it had lot of grooves remaining.
I see your R1 is shod with Pirelli Angel GTs. Although todays sport touring tires are much grippier than race rubbers from 25 30 years ago, I would be cautious when using them with a ~200bhp machine. ( Would like to point out an errata- R1 isnt 186 bhp at wheels but at crank. Should be around 155-160rwhp.)
Fuel consuption of 15 kmpl is decent for combined city+highway cycle. These bikes have a wide range of fuel consumption at any point in time depending on how its ridden. Sedate 100kmph-ish strictly highway ride with ocasional intersections thrown in would definitely see you north of 20kmpl. High rpm accelerations and needless rev-bombs would return you single digit figures too.

Oh for sure upgrades are for the future, at least after a year or so of usage. I did not fin grip to be a problem, with the braking it has the bike never steps out of the straight line while at it, it's just that the feedback I need is just not there, I don't know if I am explaining it right.

I'm confused, do you mean to say going for more sticky tyres is better? Like the Rosso Corsa or the Metzelers?
I prefer the sport-touring tyres for their longer life, spending ~30k for a set of tyres every 5-6k km of usage will be a huge expense for me, since I do not ride on the edge or track days(yet) or indulge in Street Rossi maneuvers . I think the GT or Michelin Pilot Roads series tyre is the best fir for my needs.

15kmpl was strictly highway usage. I don't even want to know what the city fuel consumption would be.

Thanks a lot!

Cheers
Krishna

I'll include this in my upcoming ownership thread, but i would like to bust this myth of sporty tires not lasting long enough.
Check my rosso corsas which reached 8200kms today. I do get chance to lean upto first arrow regularly in sedate city commutes. Beyond that happens on twisties that i frequent often but not nearly as much as i d like. The tires would turn 6 in 47th week of 2020. I guess even discounting the loss of softness over the years, the tires were 5000 kms by third year and around 7000 last year. Barring the dedicated racing slicks, these tires are good for track use ( most riders abroad use these stock tires on track. Even the exclusive canyon and track carvers). They are just a wee bit lower on dry grip compared to supercorsas. But they heat up to temperatures much quicker and offer much better grips than supercorsas in wet. They are much better than rosso 2 3 diablo rossos etc which are sport tourers. The way i used them, i am starting to believe the rears could've lasted me around 15k kms if not more.
Speaking from my experience, wheelspins, burnouts, wild accelerations and maybe very very high speeds which tend to heat and in turn soften them up scrubbing them faster might be the reason people eat'em up quicker. Plus, most riders abroad can use these machines the way they should be and maybe they change'em much sooner because they ride it at another level possible only on tracks and hence changing a perfecty good looking tire with lots of grooves. Still remaining. Thats probably the root of misconception. I cant believe that they could go bald at 3000 kms of decent usage.
Get the stickiest tires possible ( for both wet and dry). If you want long life off them, just dont do antics. Thank me later.
Ps: these stock rosso corsas are 180/60 and not the usual 180/55. Much steeper profile.

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Hey congratulations on this absolutely gorgeous motorcycle. I love it, love it, and more. That crossplane engine is gorgeous and i am sure you will enjoy that for days on end. Just beautiful.

Instead of the Corsa Corta which is stupid expensive, i'd suggest you look for what works best with your braking set up. I'd look at international forums for some more info. Braided lines and good pads should go a long way too.

I genuinely hope you enjoy this wonder machine. Keep putting stuff up...i am sure there are many who would love to see more.

Cheers
R

Oh boy, this is an eye-opener for me. I will definitely keep this in mind during the next tyre change. Thanks a lot for the pointers.
Ironically I have the Pirelli Rosso Corsa II on my CBR250R currently, I used to run the Michelin street radials and they lasted me a good 36k kms plus of usage, and when the time came I chose the Pirelli just because I wanted to have something with more grip and the bike just wasn't going to be used for commute or highway hauls anymore even though price and value wise I had no reason to move away from the Michelins.

Thanks a lot, Odeen.
The feeling on the bike is just awesome! I try not to miss any chances I get to ride her during the weekends, need to try out some different routes in the coming weekends rather than the same Salem route I have been doing for the past 3 weeks.
Also a bit OT but just waiting on getting my brother's bike from the triumph svc to go on longer rides, apparently a warranty claim on a battery for a brand new bike with Triumph is a 2 week plus long affair , well more on that later.

Yeah, now that I have been advised against jumping the gun and getting an MC kit by quite a riders who are much more experienced than me, I'd be foolish not to consider what's been told. So yes, next step would definitely be better brake pads, the EBC sintered pads have already been in my radar and when the time comes will be upgrading to it.

And I'll make sure that the thread keeps getting updated. Quite a few stuff are going to be posted soon. Looking into the idea of doing a few DIY posts on the bike as well.


Cheers
Krishna