[neil.jericho]

Originally Posted by Hells Bells

Thanks for the feedback, Axe77 and Krish. I am, as yet, an armchair enthusiast when it comes to bikes but have been thinking a lot along the direction of tourer bikes. I was under the impression that Tiger series too allows for touring capabilities with additional off-roading capabilities. At the end of the day, my requirements will be road-centric touring as my better half ends up with migraine every time she steps into either of our cars.

The Tiger series comes in different flavours. You have the base 850 Sport, the road based 900 GT series and the off road based 900 Rally Pro series. If you have to have a Tiger, pick one that best suits your requirements. Though I havent ridden the 850 Sport, I believe that from the 850 Sport is the best option for tourers in the Triumph lineup.

For mile munching all day, every day, the Versys is probably unbeatable.

Coming to the Tiger platform vs the Versys 1000, the two couldnt be more different from each other, even if they tried. Do test ride both and let us know your thoughts.

[Axe77]

Originally Posted by neil.jericho

I believe that from the 850 Sport is the best option for tourers in the Triumph lineup.
.

I’m not sure if you’re speaking in value terms or specs and capability terms but to compare it in 900 vs 800 Tiger terms:

850 Sport is nothing but erstwhile XR (except it is now a little lower in power to GT which wasn’t the case in XR). To clarify, it is not the equivalent of the erstwhile Tiger Sport which was like a sports tourer.
GT is the erstwhile XRX.

Both GT and 850 Sport have the same riding characteristics but the GT will essentially have more features etc, including perhaps more riding modes (unsure of the latter). The only reason to pick 850 Sport over the GT would be a hard budget constraint.

[Hamza123]

Lovely review and was eagerly looking forward to it since am strongly considering this to be my next bike !
It is pretty true that this is a very under rated bike and surprisingly selling in much smaller numbers than it should. On my short test ride I had last year on it I did not feel the wight nor the height to be a problem. Could be because of the other two bikes I owe (Thunderbird n Ninja 650 old gen) are not really lightweight themselves.
Another observation was that the bike really masks its speed well. Am not the one to go anywhere north of 100 but on the test ride I was at 120 and I never realized it . My wife who used to hate the ninjas pillion seat was instantly comfortable on the one. Looking forward to a longer test ride before I finally take a call.
Also from the sheer price point it's a lot of bike for the money. The tiger 850 sport is 40k more expensive on road in Pune than the versys 1000 which makes it a no brainer.
Congrats once again Krish and hoping you keep updating this thread regularly.

[KarthikK]

Congratulations, Great review and back story Kris sir, and a purchase that was in the works for a long time . The bike looks like a great fit for your requirements, especially from the comfort point of view.

The V1000 is often an overlooked bike compared to the European Adventure tourer brigade, but at this price it is a pretty underrated and stellar performer for road-biased mile munching in comfort. Wishing you many thousands of smiles and comfortable miles on your new machine

P.S - are you planning to retain that barbeque grill a.k.a saree guard to be able to actually barbeque some appetizers during your rides?

[krishsreedharan]

Originally Posted by KarthikK

Congratulations, Great review and back story Kris sir, and a purchase that was in the works for a long time . The bike looks like a great fit for your requirements, especially from the comfort point of view.

The V1000 is often an overlooked bike compared to the European Adventure tourer brigade, but at this price it is a pretty underrated and stellar performer for road-biased mile munching in comfort. Wishing you many thousands of smiles and comfortable miles on your new machine

P.S - are you planning to retain that barbeque grill a.k.a saree guard to be able to actually barbeque some appetizers during your rides?

Thanks Sir! Its is an extremely comfortable bike and this thread is due for an update with respect to Accessories and the few rides I have done so far.

The first thing to go after the RTO cleared the bike was the barbeque grill. I am just keeping it in store - but on a more serious note, I was advised to not try this stunt since somebody else who tried it got a case of lead poisoning

[krishsreedharan]

First and foremost, my apologies for the delay in posting this update. This deals with all the accessories that I had bought for the Versys 1000

The first one to go on were the Barkbusters.



Next on the bike were the Hepco & Becker Engine guards. I did agonise quite a bit between these and the ones offered by SW Mototech - but then I decided to go with these since I felt they were a good balance between too much and too little. Moreover, they also worked well with the way in which I wanted the Baja Designs Squadron Pro Aux lights to be installed.



In today's traffic scenario, I believe that it is extremely important that every vehicle has a dash cam. From my perspective, its not so much to post videos of riding exploits on YouTube, but its more towards ensuring that there is footage that can come to your rescue in case of any unfortunate incident - even if that did not involve you or your vehicle, but purely due to being in the wrong place at the wrong time. I have a perfect scenario for this. Many times, when I am on my way to my work on the Z900, I have these kids on various KTM machines pull up and try to incite me into racing with them. Needless to say, my way of putting them off is to further reduce speed. But there have been a few cases where, after failing to get the expected response from me, they have just blindly opened their bike's throttle not expecting to find another vehicle in front of them, and thereby causing an accident. Even though one is riding a Superbike responsibly and is no way involved, our Indian psyche is to blame the bigger/more powerful vehicle. A dash cam, I believe, provides the evidence required to prove that your vehicle was in no way involved.

I had, for my Z900, used a lesser known brand in India called INNOVV. For the Versys though, I went with the Viofo M1 Motorcycle DashCam. This setup comes with a DVR which is mounted out of sight, a GPS module which provides speed data and also two 1080 HD Cameras for front and rear. Installation instructions as well as a whole lot of different accessories for mounting the cameras are provided and it takes about an hour with your FNG for Superbikes to have it up and running.

Below is front camera mount - this requires a minor re-positioning which I will get done real soon. It needs to be moved forward by a centimetre.



This is the rear camera placement.



The DVR goes under the seat. This DVR records both video and sound - so you have the engine note as well with a side track of gearbox whine



Another important accessory that is a must have, is the radiator guard. I recently changed this component on my Z900 and replaced it with a locally designed and manufactured one. I liked that a lot and therefore, I commissioned the same shop to design, manufacture and install one for the Versys 1000 as well. I am pretty happy with the job done.



At this point, I am done with about 70% of the accessories that I had planned. Some pictures of the bike at this point.





One issue that I had found even on the day on which I took delivery was that the lights were not aimed properly. In fact, if I rode two up, the lights illuminated the tree line rather than the road.

When I installed all the accessories, I took the opportunity to set up the lights in the way in which I wanted. The results are in the pics below.

The first picture is that of the low beams.



The next one is of the low beams and high beams.



The third, comprises of low beams, high beams and the Baja aux lights.



I am currently awaiting delivery of the side frames for Panniers from Hepco & Becker. Once that comes in, I will do the next post covering, hopefully, the installation of the SW Mototech bash plate, the panniers and the top box.

Until then, ta ta!

[no_fear]

Originally Posted by krishsreedharan

This is the rear camera placement.

The DVR goes under the seat. This DVR records both video and sound - so you have the engine note as well with a side track of gearbox whine

Yesterday night I saw a YT video of a biker in Japan who has rear view camera installed and he is streaming the feed on his mobile as he rides. A brilliant idea as he has complete 360 vision. Now I see your setup and you have given me food for thought. A very well done job.

Can I ask - the DVR box, how many hours can it record? I am guessing you can store more data with removable SD card

I totally agree with you on these bikers and stunters who come up and suddenly try to speed or pull stunts. I really cannot fathom what they think, that a 40 hp bike can compete with 100+hp. Happens often with me. If its street roads, I pull over and let them go.

[krishsreedharan]

Originally Posted by no_fear

Now I see your setup and you have given me food for thought. A very well done job.

Can I ask - the DVR box, how many hours can it record? I am guessing you can store more data with removable SD card

I totally agree with you on these bikers and stunters who come up and suddenly try to speed or pull stunts. I really cannot fathom what they think, that a 40 hp bike can compete with 100+hp. Happens often with me. If its street roads, I pull over and let them go.

The DVR box actually has a micro-SD card installed. So the quantum of video depends on the capacity of the card. Once the card gets full, the earliest videos get deleted in sequence.

Another feature, if you might, is that if the G forces exceed a preset level, the clips for that moment with a 30 second before and after get locked. That way, they will not be overwritten. Good feature if you get into a tricky situation and would like to review what happened after the ride.

[krishsreedharan]

Its been a while since I updated this thread and a fair bit has happened since my last post.

The Versys has, by and large, replaced my Endeavour as my ride of choice whenever I go up to my office in the Nilgiris alone. Since I normally travel on work, there is always the little bit of urgency to reach the office and get work done. So that explains the lack of pictures in scenic settings. But I did manage one some time ago and here it is.



The more interesting part though, is the last Sunday, I did my first real high-way run on the Versys. I did a day trip to Bangalore and back. As expected the Versys performed flawlessly and I would describe it as being “as comfortable as the Endeavour - except that the Airconditioning was natural”



As of writing this post, the Versys has crossed 4,900 kms out of which at least 60% has been on the hills. The last ride has been the first major ride on the plains - and on national highways.



Total distance covered during this ride (a round trip) was 773.2 kms. This ride taught me a lot about biking on the highways on a litre-bike. I will share them in this post.



This was the average mileage I got from the Versys - not bad for a 255kg liter bike with a top box and panniers and a fair bit of cross-wind for most part.

Now coming to my learnings (my perspective):

1. My ability to control the bike is way less than the bike’s ability to perform. So stay within my capability envelope
2. Understand your machine well - what it can do and what it won’t. Else and enjoyable ride can very quickly turn into a nightmare
3. The average Indian road user is not wired to comprehend the speeds capable of these bikes. They will always try to think that they can outrun the bike - especially the old people who cross the road all of a sudden
4. Stay hydrated at all times.
5. Stop every 2 hours and stretch for at least 5 minutes.
6. Last but not least, remember, its always about how safe and comfortably you reach your destination - not how fast.

Overall it was a great ride and I enjoyed every bit of it. Now looking forward to more such adventures.

[krishsreedharan]

Its been a while since I updated this thread. Post the last ride to Bangalore, I did a ride to Kolli Hills, a business run to Chennai and back and just over the last weekend, a ride to Bangalore to attend a wedding in the family as well as to catch up on some business meetings.

Unfortunately, while the plan is always to stop at a few places and take some photographs of the bike in scenic settings, the urge is reach the destination is always so strong that I end up not doing much.

However, for the statistically inclined, there are some pictures which tell the story.



This is the total trip ODO to Bangalore and back.



This is the ODO reading overall.



This is the indicated FE that I got during this trip.

Speaking of FE, it more or less tallies with the record that I have been maintaining. For the trip to Chennai, I was upshifting at 4k rpm until 6th and then letting cruise control do the acceleration upto the pre-set speed. This time, I upshifted at 3k rpm itself and the moment I got into 6th, I let the cruise control do its thing. The result was the figure you see above. For the previous trip, I managed 20.4kmpl.

[slackyboy]

A wonderful review of the Versys 1000. Do you use 95 Octane Petrol or the regular unleaded one? What are your thoughts on that?

[krishsreedharan]

Originally Posted by slackyboy

A wonderful review of the Versys 1000. Do you use 95 Octane Petrol or the regular unleaded one? What are your thoughts on that?

Thank you! I started off with Speed 95 and once XP95 became widespread, switched and have not looked back since. The few times I was on the highway with no XP95 in sight, I used Nayara. So far, bike's been running great.

[100Kmphormore]

Hello Krish
Hows the bike going? Interested to see your updates on service and rides - one great review. The V1000 probably completes the holy trinity of sport tourers - the 1250GSA, Multi 1260 and this. Barring its unholy top heavy nature, this is a great 1000 km a day bike.