[KarthikK]

Originally Posted by fusionbang

Congratulations and Happy 5th Birthday to the Ninja 1000. Hats off to your patience and interest to collate this data and put this into these amazing charts and also the way you track all the information of your rides is commendable.

Thanks a lot for your kind words fusionbang sir!

Wish you many more enjoyable rides with your Ninja 1000, Karthik. May be if you think of letting it go in future sometime, I can be a candidate to buy it from you, eyes closed

Haha, very tough for me to replace this Ninja 1000 so I won't be letting this one go for quite a few years.
Honest answer - No upgrade plans for the foreseeable future.

I don't want to replace it with a large adv-tourer bike (just not my type + I already have a capable 500X for go-anywhere touring and long trips). I love this N1000's sport touring genre and it enables me to have the best of both worlds (almost sportbike dynamics with some touring practicality) for weekend touring.

If I have to replace it with something similar, the mighty supercharged Ninja H2SX SE seems like the only upgrade option which I really admire, but with today's inflated prices and at 40 lacs on road it seems I will almost have to take a home loan to fund a H2SX purchase, lol!

It is another matter that for my limited riding skills and the fact that I may not be riding this Ninja 1000 to even 50-60% of its capabilities/output properly now, not sure what extra I will do with a 210hp hypersport tourer compared to what this one already does now . So for now, I will just invest more in travel and trips and some preventive maintenance, to elongate the lifespan of this bike and enjoy touring with it over some more years - so many unexplored places to tick off from our backlog still.

Originally Posted by krishsreedharan

Congratulations Sir, on this epic Journey. Hats off to the amount of meticulous record keeping that has enabled you to give us some awesome analytics of how this machine has served you. Wish you many many more rides and hope to do some long rides with you soon.

Thank you so much Kris sir!
Hope to catch up soon on some of our south meet rides!

[fusionbang]

Originally Posted by KarthikK

If I have to replace it with something similar, the mighty supercharged Ninja H2SX SE seems like the only upgrade option which I really admire, but with today's inflated prices and at 40 lacs on road it seems I will almost have to take a home loan to fund a H2SX purchase, lol!

Agree, difficult to find an upgrade to this beauty in the current market and I don't think no other bike comes closer to this. Honestly, I can't even think of a bike which can be compared to this when it comes to the balance between ergonomics & performance. Either the bikes are more powerful or more sporty, else a new category. So hard to find a replacement for this one. The way you are maintaining, I am sure it will run without any issues for another 10 years.

[100Kmphormore]

5th huttu habbada shubhashayagalu, Ninja 1000! This was one of the two threads that I read on TeamBHP apart from tilts hilarious thread on his Thars purchase that made me apply for a TeamBHP membership. The attention to detail in which you reviewed the bike, covered your transition from the Karizma to this, reporting and maintaining records of its upkeep is amazing.

Those graphs are on another level of nerdiness though, looks like a companys prediction presentation for a tourer! How did you do them? :P

Haha, very tough for me to replace this Ninja 1000 so I won't be letting this one go for quite a few years.

I don't want to replace it with a large adv-tourer bike (just not my type)

These 2 sentences alone + the lack of options for a more powerful sports tourer upgrade, probably the Multistrada V4 or the S1000XR, again both ADVs with sporty handling means this is a keeper. Apart from the low ground clearance, this is an all rounder and the way you have customized your luggage options to suit you is a long term investment. I see you keeping this for another 5 years atleast. Let the trip reports rip!

Again, the CB500X ownership review and your MH-GJ trip report please

[Rajeevraj]

Originally Posted by KarthikK

Ownership Update at 60 Months / 5 Years of Age
Signing off this post here. Thanks for reading, over the years!

Fantastic summary and beautifully written. Completes captures the essence of the 5 years of ownership. The charts are so well done and so useful to look at.

Hearty Congratulations on completing 5 years and wishes for many more to come.

[KarthikK]

Originally Posted by 100Kmphormore

5th huttu habbada shubhashayagalu, Ninja 1000! This was one of the two threads that I read on TeamBHP apart from tilts hilarious thread on his Thars purchase that made me apply for a TeamBHP membership. The attention to detail in which you reviewed the bike, covered your transition from the Karizma to this, reporting and maintaining records of its upkeep is amazing.

Thanks for the kind words 100Kmphormore!

Those graphs are on another level of nerdiness though, looks like a companys prediction presentation for a tourer! How did you do them? :P

Haha, just some tool-generated charts of selectively filtered data from my personal database.

These 2 sentences alone + the lack of options for a more powerful sports tourer upgrade, probably the Multistrada V4 or the S1000XR, again both ADVs with sporty handling means this is a keeper. Apart from the low ground clearance, this is an all rounder and the way you have customized your luggage options to suit you is a long term investment. I see you keeping this for another 5 years atleast. Let the trip reports rip!

Thanks again sir, hope to do more justice to this allrounder in the days to come!

Again, the CB500X ownership review and your MH-GJ trip report please

In due course of time, hopefully in a couple of months.

Originally Posted by Rajeevraj

Fantastic summary and beautifully written. Completes captures the essence of the 5 years of ownership. The charts are so well done and so useful to look at.

Hearty Congratulations on completing 5 years and wishes for many more to come.

Thank you so much Rajeevraj sir for your kind words, wishing you fantastic ownership with your KTM 390 adventure too! Loved going through your review thread and your insights into the purchase and ownership

[Cyborg]

Karthik, there are no words for your data keeping and presentation skills

Kudos and best regards to your better half for always sharing and caring for your motorcycle pursuits.

Condolences (late, but heartfelt) on your Dad’s passing. Our parents loss creates a void in our lives which can never be filled. We can just be thankful for their presence in our lives for as long as God blesses us with them.

Ride safe, keeping riding and sharing.

Warm regards

[Prashant1286]

Originally Posted by KarthikK

Ownership Update at 60 Months / 5 Years of Age

Hi KarthikK!

An amazing post once again. Hats off to you brother for sincerely logging so much data and presenting it in a easy format to all of us. Honestly, your thread is one of the reasons why I bought the N1K. Please do convey sincere gratitude to your better half as well. Lastly, heartfelt condolences. May your father rest in peace.

[KarthikK]

Insurance Renewal Completed for 6th year of ownership (5 years / 60 months)

When the bike completed 5 years of age, it was time for the renewal of the insurance policy for the sixth year of ownership. I have stuck to Oriental Insurance once again. On account of claim-free record in 5 years, they offered me a zero depreciation cover on the comprehensive policy for even the sixth year, something that very few insurance vendors offer for big bikes nowadays. Thanks to Oriental Insurance for that!

The zero depreciation cover itself was almost INR ~2000 more expensive for the sixth year compared to the fifth year, but this is hardly anything compared to being in a situation where some minor incident needs some body part replacements, all of which are atrociously priced for these bikes .

I was told that if there is no claim even in the sixth year, there will be one final chance to extend the zero depreciation cover even for the 7th year on a best-effort, goodwill basis next year, but after that there will be absolutely no more zero depreciation cover extension possible after 7 years of age get completed.

Anyway, with that information out of the way, the premium for the 6th year came to INR 11329, while last year's premium was just INR ~7006. What caused this hike this year?

• One of course was the increase in zero depreciation cover charges.

• Second reason was that the vehicle is now 5 years old, which means the mandatory 5-year third party cover bundled into the first year's policy has now expired. The 6th year policy now contains the mandatory third party cover which will be charged every year (now onwards) as a flat INR 2804 for bikes above 350cc.

This is how the Insurance premium story looks like over the past 5 years, with the 6th year premium added in along with year-wise IDV details.




If we have to take a look at the relative trend of the insurance premiums paid over the years, the 6th year has a substantial bump as explained above. This will again gradually flatten out when the IDV drops gradually and once the zero depreciation cover ends in another year or two.



That's all I had for now. Until my next trip report, Thanks for reading!

[KarthikK]

Originally Posted by Cyborg

Karthik, there are no words for your data keeping and presentation skills

Kudos and best regards to your better half for always sharing and caring for your motorcycle pursuits.

Condolences (late, but heartfelt) on your Dad’s passing. Our parents loss creates a void in our lives which can never be filled. We can just be thankful for their presence in our lives for as long as God blesses us with them.

Ride safe, keeping riding and sharing.
Warm regards

Thanks a lot for your kind words Cyborg sir!

Originally Posted by Prashant1286

Hi KarthikK!

An amazing post once again. Hats off to you brother for sincerely logging so much data and presenting it in a easy format to all of us. Honestly, your thread is one of the reasons why I bought the N1K. Please do convey sincere gratitude to your better half as well. Lastly, heartfelt condolences. May your father rest in peace.

Thanks a lot Prashant1286 sir! Glad to know the thread and the updates were useful in some way!
Please do write an ownership review thread and let us know your experiences too!

[Prashant1286]

Originally Posted by KarthikK

Thanks a lot Prashant1286 sir! Glad to know the thread and the updates were useful in some way!
Please do write an ownership review thread and let us know your experiences too!

You are welcome brother.

Keep the updates coming. Your thread is a reference point and a go-to thing for many owners like me. Hopefully will pen down my review of the bike once I get it fixed to perfection.

Regards,
Prashant

[abhi_tjet]

Originally Posted by KarthikK

Ownership Update at 60 Months

Time flies......

Signing off this post here. Thanks for reading, over the years!

Kindly accept my heartfelt wishes(quite delayed though) Karthik on completion of 5 years with the gorgeous Ninja. What lovely logs and detailed graphs you have given to feast. The hard work in maintaining these really takes a lot of effort and putting it regularly here on forum is no straightforward feat. So, kudos for that.

I remember my Ninja 1000SX test ride. Its the only inline-4 I have ridden till date and man, I was speechless. The sheer refinement and grace with which it picked speed was truly marvelous and the plush suspension further strengthened its tourer cred.

I only rejected it since I too do 2 up rides and low GC was the primary criteria which I wanted to be taken care of in my next bike.

Happy and safe rides ahead buddy to you and your better half

[KarthikK]

Originally Posted by abhi_tjet

Kindly accept my heartfelt wishes(quite delayed though) Karthik on completion of 5 years with the gorgeous Ninja. What lovely logs and detailed graphs you have given to feast. The hard work in maintaining these really takes a lot of effort and putting it regularly here on forum is no straightforward feat. So, kudos for that.

Thanks for the kind words abhi_tjet sir!

I remember my Ninja 1000SX test ride. Its the only inline-4 I have ridden till date and man, I was speechless. The sheer refinement and grace with which it picked speed was truly marvelous and the plush suspension further strengthened its tourer cred.

I only rejected it since I too do 2 up rides and low GC was the primary criteria which I wanted to be taken care of in my next bike.

I completely agree with you, even after 5 years it never fails to excite the senses after every ride, without compromising much on practicality.
In your case it makes perfect sense to have gone for the Multistrada which can conquer bad terrain as well. It is difficult for the N1k be the only tourer in an Indian enthusiast's garage if one wants to go the extra mile and ride to remote locations with all kinds of unpredictable terrain surprises (in my case I tend to use the CB500X to bridge that use-case).

[KarthikK]

Ride to Kolli Hills with BHPian friends (December 2023)

This was a simple weekend ride done in the first week of December to Kolli hills, located amongst the Eastern Ghats near Namakkal and Salem, TN. While the name translates to “Mountain of Death”, nothing dramatic like that title happens here as such, barring the 70 hairpin bends which ascend a commendable altitude in just around 11-12km of total distance . This was a group ride with some BHPian friends - namely neil.jericho, CrAzY_dRiVeR, Shaikhmimran, all stags this time.

This trip has already been covered in detail in CrAzY_dRiVeR’s fantastic ride report on his Tiger 660’s ownership thread here: so I won’t need to post the same repetitive details all over again. I am just including a short trip report on this thread for completeness in logging trips done on this bike and hence here we are.

It wasn't a really early morning start since we just had to cover a short ~280 km distance to the destination, mostly through the Salem expressway. We left Bangalore by roughly 6.30AM after regrouping post-BETL exit toll on Hosur road. A leisurely breakfast followed at the famous Murugan Idli shop, Krishnagiri.



We resumed the journey towards Namakkal. Here is a picture from another brief regroup stop near Thoppur toll plaza



Once we broke off from the Salem - Namakkal expressway, we encountered a single lane countryside road to make our way to the foothills of Kolli hills. We stopped to take some pictures of the riders and their rides at this point.







The super-capable and blazing red Tiger Sport 660 of CrAzY_dRiVeR



Shaikhmimran's VStrom 650



neil.jericho's RE Continental GT 535



My Ninja 1000



Bikes arranged in descending order of number of cylinders





Soon we reached the foot of Kolli hills and began the ascent road along the 70 hairpins. This was at the start point checkpost





All of us had nice cornering fun while making our way through the never-ending hairpin array climbing up the mountain relentlessly. We did stop for some random snaps halfway up the hill









Customary picture of the bike with one of the hairpin marking boards



We reached the top fairly quickly and regrouped before we made our way to the resort which was located a few kilometres from the ascent road into Kolli.



Kolli hills doesn't have too many options for decent stay. Silverline retreat hotels is one of the few options on the top, it is far from perfect and has its own share of quirks, but is definitely clean and sufficiently well equipped for a simple stag overnight ride. Here is a picture of the rooms at SLR hotel



Post-lunch we were strolling around the property, absorbing the views of the hillocks around the property since it was located on some kind of plateau of sorts.

[KarthikK]

Ride to Kolli Hills with BHPian friends (December 2023) continued ...

The property had a balcony from where we could enjoy the views of the mountains around



After some chit-chat sessions on various topics automobile-related and otherwise, we strolled around the property's nicely curated rock garden and its foliage









The resort had a nice tiled parking area overlooking the mountains of the Eastern ghats. We moved the bikes around to shoot some pictures against the mountains backdrop before the sun went down for the evening.









Watching the sun go down amidst the mountains and trees





After an early dinner and more chit-chat sessions we retired for the night. The next morning we took a stroll around the garden after some piping hot chai. Here are some blooming flowers from the garden in the early morning





The Ninja with the property and the backdrop of the Eastern ghats, one with the property for the memory books as is the case with most of my ride reports.





Post breakfast, we checked out and had an uneventful ride for most part of the return journey. A group picture before departing Silverline retreat, Kolli hills (courtesy CrAzY_dRiVeR)



Here is the line-up of bikes after descending the mountain and making our way back to the expressway through the picturesque TN countryside on a gloomy afternoon







On the way back there were a couple of bursts of thundershowers between Salem and Dharmapuri. Thankfully I had rain gear in the luggage and used it for those short spells, but others in the group just waited it out and that dried the gear anyway after we passed the rain zone back into sunny areas, so in hindsight I cannot say the rain gear was really needed on this ride .



After a quick lunch pitstop at Saisangeet Dharmapuri (Thoppur) we made our way back to Bangalore uneventfully. Here is a parting shot at Krishnagiri toll (courtesy CrAzY_dRiVeR)



That brought an end to a short and nice overnighter group ride to Kolli hills. The tripmeter clocked a simple ~550km for this ride



And that winds up December's quota and 2023's quota of rides for the Ninja. This year has been a great ride year for the Ninja with a nice variety of landscapes, geographies, properties, rich experiences and cultural immersions!

As I speak, a bunch of us just completed a year-end 6-day ride to Konkan and Goa's west coast regions to end the year on a (riding) high. The better half and I were on our other tourer though for this one - the CB500X. The full ride report for that should be out on CrAzY_dRiVeR's Tiger 660 ownership thread.



2024 promises to be another fantastic year for fun-packed sport-touring, and the better half has already curated a lovely season-wise riding calendar of destinations and properties for trips on the Ninja in 2024, beginning January and continuing frequently for the rest of the year. Plenty of ride reports to come! Until my next post, thanks for reading!

[KarthikK]

Replacement Battery Purchase (5 years and 2 months)

The bike has crossed into its 6th year of life. I am still running on the stock battery which has been performing flawlessly all these years. Fellow Ninja 1000 owner and friend ebmrajesh who also has a Ninja 1000 a few months older than mine finally had his original battery give up in the sixth year and got it replaced.

Since I keep touring every month to random places, I don't want to drag the battery life all the way until the end of life and risk some surprises in some faroff place, even though I usually carry the jump-starter power-bank on most rides. I decided to purchase a replacement battery in advance and stash it away until I do a preventive replacement some months later from now, more so because these imported AGM batteries are not always in stock if we suddenly need to purchase one. I ordered the replacement battery from Torque Block, who kindly shipped it to my home address.

The stock battery spec for the Ninja 1000 is a Yuasa YTX9BS 12v 8.4Ah. For some strange reason this exact (8.4Ah) spec is not available anywhere and what I could source as the replacement was a Yuasa YTX9BS 12v 8Ah. Upon cross-checking with Kawasaki service guru Unni, he confirmed it is not an issue to use this specification on the Ninja 1000. I am not a fan of trying to swap AGM batteries with non-AGM cheaper lead-acid batteries, and prefer to stick to OEM AGM spec for such things. The cost of this Yuasa battery was INR 9000.

This is the stock battery currently installed on the Ninja 1000



Replacement battery ordered and received





The battery cells and acid are packaged separately, so the actual lifetime clock starts ticking only once the acid is filled into the cells and sealed as a one-time procedure during installation.



Unless any symptoms of a weakening battery show up anytime soon, I will probably complete the 3-4 rides planned for the first quarter of this year and then preventively replace the battery sometime in March. I'll update the maintenance sheet and other logs later when I actually replace the battery.

Until my next ride report, thanks for reading!