[Added_flavor]

With the restrictions on travel at least within the state taken off, weekend rides are slowly coming back to fit in to the new normal. The beautiful monsoon weather around Bangalore entices one to get outdoors at least once a week. So most of the recent weekend rides have been limited to half-day rides spanning ~300-400 km within the borders of KA and in small known groups of 2-3 bikes.

A quick spin in the company of a brand new 2020 Manual ATAS.


Morning ride towards BR Hills. Beautiful landscape and weather.


One of the many small picturesque water bodies around Nagamangla Countryside.

Meanwhile, it was also time for the 42k scheduled service. Apart from the regular oil service, I had a few things lined up for this service.

1. Front Brake pads were due for replacement. The previous replacement of all pads were done around 20k.. This set lasted about 22k which is great life. Also all the 4 pads had even wear which is a good sign.

2. Fork oil replacement. Surprisingly, in spite of riding a lot of distance with a pillion and on all kinds of roads across the Country, I have never had issues with the Fork seal leaking. As a result, I had never changed the Fork oil till now. The manual does not provide any interval for this either. The bike felt absolutely normal too and never at any point have I felt the front suspension going too soft indicating loss of viscosity of the fork oil. However, in hindsight, I probably should have changed the fork oil at the 2 year mark of ownership when I changed brake fluids. Question for all of you who have clocked high miles, at what intervals have you changed the fork oil?

The fork oil was dark. However, upon a layman check, it did not feel too watery and seemed to retain its viscosity fairly decently. As per the Honda service manual, the grade used is 10W and it is filled with "Honda Cushion 10W" from the factory. The replacement is Maxima 10W and the quantity was 505ml on each fork leg.

After this rather expensive service - Brake pads, fork oil + replacement labour, stock air filter replacement (replaced after 12k although the manual mandates it every 18k) and addition of a comfort accessory "Grip Puppies" - the bike feels smoother than ever and is an absolute delight to ride!

In terms of mods coming up,

1. I am looking to add aux lights before we are in a position to do bigger multi-day rides. Need to finalize on the lights and also mount points.
2. A Puig Touring screen which I have been putting off for a long time now has been ordered and is in transit.

For now, just hoping things get better quick and I can clock more and more miles on this beauty.

[akshayhonda]

Hi guys,

Can we use 8AH Amaron or Exide battery for the CBR 650F? This costs 1/3rd of the cost of batteries like Varta/Yuasa. Crank1 available at 7K.

But I was considering Amaron and Exide as an option. Anyone using these on their big bikes? Kindly let know.

Thanks

[Added_flavor]

Originally Posted by akshayhonda

Hi guys,

Can we use 8AH Amaron or Exide battery for the CBR 650F? This costs 1/3rd of the cost of batteries like Varta/Yuasa. Crank1 available at 7K.

But I was considering Amaron and Exide as an option. Anyone using these on their big bikes? Kindly let know.

Thanks

The stock battery is a Super MF 9.1 Ah battery. I'm more inclined towards Crank1 SM10s since it's a 10.5Ah and also has higher CCA (150 iirc) with similar dimensions and fits in the battery cage.

[akshayhonda]

Originally Posted by Added_flavor

The stock battery is a Super MF 9.1 Ah battery. I'm more inclined towards Crank1 SM10s since it's a 10.5Ah and also has higher CCA (150 iirc) with similar dimensions and fits in the battery cage.

I happen to do some research and Exide XLTZ9 fits the bill just right at 2K. Its rated higher at 10Hr than stock and has CCA of 120 which really wont matter to us Indians (most of us) as our climate is quite warm IMO

[shan_ned]

Originally Posted by Added_flavor

The stock battery is a Super MF 9.1 Ah battery. I'm more inclined towards Crank1 SM10s since it's a 10.5Ah and also has higher CCA (150 iirc) with similar dimensions and fits in the battery cage.

The OEM battery is YTZ10S (I guess you are referring the same) from Yuasa and it has 190 CCA. So it has higher CCA than Crank1 SM10s. I personally prefer higher CCA (my subjective opinion). The other school of thought is that you don’t require high CCA for tropical climate.

Also I personally suggest you stick with Yuasa for its quality (unless you are not able to source it).

[Added_flavor]

Originally Posted by shan_ned

The OEM battery is YTZ10S (I guess you are referring the same) from Yuasa and it has 190 CCA. So it has higher CCA than Crank1 SM10s. I personally prefer higher CCA (my subjective opinion). The other school of thought is that you don’t require high CCA for tropical climate.

Also I personally suggest you stick with Yuasa for its quality (unless you are not able to source it).

CBR doesn't come with Yuasa Ned. It came with Super MF as I mentioned above.

[Added_flavor]

Originally Posted by Added_flavor

CBR doesn't come with Yuasa Ned. It came with Super MF as I mentioned above.

My bad! I meant to say it came with a Siam Furukawa Super MF battery and not Yuasa.

@Mods: Apologies for back to back posts. Please merge.

[Added_flavor]

Been a while since I updated the thread. Since the last service @ 42k on the odo, there have been a couple of customizations, a few breakfast/day rides, and one relatively big annual ride that's happened. Talking about the customizations first,

1. Puig Touring screen

For a long time, I was contemplating whether it makes sense to put a touring screen as I am not really vertically gifted. I always felt the stock screen did a fair job of deflecting the wind blast away from my chest to my helmet region. However, one ride on a friend's bike with a Puig screen and I could instantly notice a difference in wind blast at regular highway speeds. Considering I enjoy doing >600 km ride days, I felt this will be a worthy investment as it definitely reduces fatigue over long periods.

The Puig touring screen is significantly taller compared to the stock screen.

The next obvious thing to do was to do a long-ish ride to understand if there's any buffeting or any other discomfort due to the new screen. And so we rode to Mavanur Malleshwara temple near Bangalore. It was a pleasant ride and the screen definitely helped.

2. Cyclops Ultra 10.0 H4 LED bulb:

Ever since the OPT7 LED went kaput, I was running a regular Philips halogen. With all the unwanted harassment by cops due to aux lights in Bangalore and also the fact that I do not ride much at night except for these annual rides, I decided to stick with the tried and tested option of a plug-n-play Cyclops LED bulb. It is definitely a 30% improvement over stock halogens.

Now coming to the annual ride -

Over the last decade or so, the month of December has been a month of a lot of travel & joy. We wanted to keep the tradition of exploring new places alive even when this year was quite determined to keep our spirits down & low! With Covid cases on the decline, we decided to take a calculated risk of doing at least a 4-5 day annual ride. While we initially thought of riding to Konkan coast, we decided to change it expecting too much crowds during the holiday season. The next option in our list for a long time was to cover Pench and Tadoba Tiger reserves.

We knew with exclusive vehicles and cottages, our interaction with other people will be minimal and we decided to go ahead with it. After a few days of research and understanding on the list of core and buffer zones and the possibilities of sightings, we made all the safari as well as stay bookings online at both Pench and Tadoba.

At Tadoba, we'd take one core zone safari and Moharli gate and one buffer at Agarzari. At Pench, it'd be one each at Turia (MP side of Pench) and Sillary (MH side of Pench).

We got really lucky at Tadoba with 2 sightings in 3 days. While we went with super high expectations to Pench, unfortunately, we didn't get to see any cats at Pench. I will let the pictures do the talking from here.

All the steeds lined up for a 4 AM start as usual!


At a breakfast stop near Anantpur, Telangana.


Beautiful landscape at Tadoba








A beautiful sighting at Tadoba from hardly a few feet - a truly exhilarating moment!

As I mentioned, Pench did not give us any sightings but gave us some beautiful views none-the-less.

Some more random pictures of the boys on their steeds -

Overall, it was a smooth and rewarding ride. The beautiful sightings at Tadoba - of Maya in the Moharli core zone and of Madhu and one of her cubs (18-month old male yet to be named) in the buffer zone were absolute paisa-vasool! Some stats and route details

Route and Itinerary:

And finally, yet another small milestone for my Ceeber - she performed flawlessly throughout the ride and runs as if she's just out of the showroom!

Signing off with a picture of my Ceeber after a post-ride thorough wash and polish at 3M! Thank you for reading!

[ku69rd]

Originally Posted by Added_flavor

Now coming to the annual ride -
:

Lovely ride it was, weather was really good plus fantastic company to top it all. Yes the sighting of the elusive cat was my first timer, 18 years of efforts finally successful.

Motorcycles performed really well no second thoughts including the Interceptor. Riding in sub ten temperatures was really good, only the roads were boringly long.

Thank you for going the extra mile and putting those efforts to book the rooms, Safari plus the route planning.

Looking forward for the next ride...

[r_nairtvm]

Originally Posted by Added_flavor

Now coming to the annual ride -

Originally Posted by ku69rd

Looking forward for the next ride...

Nice write up and pics. Your zest for long rides are really creditable. Keep it up.

Do you think a Senior Citizen with a 10 year old bike could have kept up with you on a similar ride

Best Regards & Ride Safe

[ku69rd]

Originally Posted by r_nairtvm

.

Do you think a Senior Citizen with a 10 year old bike could have kept up with you on a similar ride

Best Regards & Ride Safe

Thought there was one senior citizen amidst the riding troupe that went with Suhas. Have put in the photo to help you figure the senior citizen

[r_nairtvm]

Originally Posted by ku69rd

Thought there was one senior citizen amidst the riding troupe that went with Suhas. Have put in the photo to help you figure the senior citizen

Attachment 2100738

Long way off buddy. Have to celebrate few more New Year parties for "that person" to get there I am sure

Best Regards & Ride Safe

[Added_flavor]

Well, it's time to update this thread for one final time. After 3-4 months of extreme dilly-dallying, I finally decided to let go of the CBR. It has been an absolute pleasure owning this bike and riding it across the Country for ~48000 kms in the 4 years that she spent with me and making so many friends and memories in the process. Not one day did she leave me stranded on the road - not even due to a puncture. Still runs like she's just out of the showroom!

While I had decided on the successor of the CBR in the garage, with a heavy heart, I let go of her to her new abode! Ironically, things panned out in such a way that the arrival of the successor and the departure of the CBR happened on the same evening.. they spent about a couple of hours with each other!

I'll terribly miss the sweet tractable inline-4 and the associated aural pleasures, the versatility, and the practicality this bike brought along. While I always knew an Adv will be needed for the kind of riding I enjoy doing, the heart so badly wanted to keep both the bikes. However, the mind constantly reminded me that even if I scrape through with the finances of owning two big bikes, I'd not be able to do justice to one of them! And I truly believe that the worst abuse that can be meted out to a machine is not riding it!

The new owner is a rider buddy from my known circles and I am happy that the bike continues to be in good hands and will be taken care of.

One last picture of this beauty with her new owner!

[Axe77]

Originally Posted by Added_flavor

I finally decided to let go of the CBR.

.
.
.
the arrival of the successor and the departure of the CBR happened on the same evening.. they spent about a couple of hours with each other!

I enjoyed reading your ownership thread and will miss the updates. Congratulations on the new ride and I am sure you have a big bang introduction in mind BUT please don't leave us on a cliffhanger like this. What bike did you flip the 650 to? Can't wait to read the posts on the incoming.

Cheers.

[nitinkbhaskar]

Originally Posted by Added_flavor

Well, it's time to update this thread for one final time. After 3-4 months of extreme dilly-dallying, I finally decided to let go of the CBR. It has been an absolute pleasure owning this bike and riding it across the Country for ~48000 kms in the 4 years that she spent with me and making so many friends and memories in the process. Not one day did she leave me stranded on the road - not even due to a puncture. Still runs like she's just out of the showroom!

Many congratulations Added_flavour !!
I loved reading your updates and you have done complete justice to the bike - 48000 kms in 4 years on a superbike is just awesome. I wish the new owner lot of kms on this pragmatic beauty

Looking forward to your ownership posts on the next bike. I am guessing a Tiger. Let's see.