[Xaos636]

Originally Posted by Sman999

oh.. Backpacks take a heavy toll on the shoulders and back, especially on sports tourers/super sports. So i prefer a tank bag or tail bag but i make sure nothing scratches the paint work. Its doable you should try it sometimes

Absolutely. This time it was worse. I usually do the trip without any issues, but this time it took a toll on my lower back. Had to take a few injections on the back to get rid of it

As you suggested, will look for alternatives in the next long run. Thank you for the suggestion

[black_rider]

Hi Xaos. You've got a nice blade. What model year is it? Know someone with a 2012 20th anniversary model in Bangalore. Do you plan to ride here? The two of you can meet up. The two bikes would look nice together

[Xaos636]

Originally Posted by black_rider

Hi Xaos. You've got a nice blade. What model year is it? Know someone with a 2012 20th anniversary model in Bangalore. Do you plan to ride here? The two of you can meet up. The two bikes would look nice together

Apologies for missing this comment totally. Its a 2013 march model. As of now, I do not have any Bangalore plans in mind. Usually a quick office meet would be done like a one day ride and that makes it an even tougher one for meetups. Anyway lets plan something and see how it works out

Coneset re-greased, front wheel bearing and Chain replaced.

Re-greased the coneset(All Balls Racing, installed 15,000kms ago) and changed the front wheel bearing at F Motor's, Cochin. @Krishnaprasadgg joined me on his mighty R1. As usual, a very early morning ride to beat the traffic and the highway road works.







Its advised to remove the fairings to gain easy access to various nuts and bolts to remove the front forks and gain access to the coneset. We tried without removing the fairings and its a tougher task.

Re-greased and mounted back. The All Balls Racing coneset looks to be doing a great job.

The wheel bearings. I had noticed a weird movement up front and that was the primary reason to check the coneset. However it turns out that the wheel bearings were the culprit.

Completely shot, well almost!

Old and new ones together.




The overstretched chain. It was becoming increasingly noisy as well as tight on one side and loose on the other side. Replaced just the chain now and the issue has been resolved. The JT chain ran 15,000kms.

The old overstretched chain

The brand new JT Chain. Got them at a great deal, hence continued with the same. Next change has to be RK or DID.

Some parting shots. The blade has been with all the bad guys out there

[Xaos636]

Been a while since the last update. Laziness and work commitments made me a tad bit busier than expected.

25,000kms up. That is around 15,000kms clocked in the last one year.


Some parting shots.

Next post: Busted fork seal replacement along with new tires. The Road 5 front is shaped out and hit the Tire replacement indicator. Rear would go on for another 3-4k kms. 20k kms from Road 5 is brilliant if you ask me, compared to other tires in the market. It offers best of both worlds, life + grip.

[BoltThrower]

@Xaos636 sweet thread, sweet ride \m/ where'd you get the rear seat cowl from? I'm looking for one as well

[Xaos636]

Originally Posted by BoltThrower

@Xaos636 sweet thread, sweet ride \m/ where'd you get the rear seat cowl from? I'm looking for one as well

Thanks brother. The seat cowl is from Ali express. Tried my best to get the OEM from Honda. But they don’t manufacture accessories for the bike anymore. Ali express ones are pretty decent, but get ready to respray it as 90% of the time there will be a slight difference in color.

[Xaos636]

25,000kms service update.

25K service included engine oil+ oil filter change, fork oil seal+ dust seal change, air filter cleaning, tyre replacement.

Tyres were changed from Bikers Lounge, Calicut and they have a brand new wheel balancer which makes things much easier. They gave me an appointment and was in and out in 30 minutes. Brilliant service.

The front which was shaping out.


Rear still had juice left.


The new tires. Harder rear, softer front.


Balancing the wheels.


Mounted.




Busted left side fork seal leaking oil.


This oil seal along with dust seal was replaced at Honda BigWing Topline, Cochin. Immaculate service as always, Service head Mr. Adhil Salim and Mechanic Mr. Mirsa Kasim went out of the way and quickly replaced these despite very short notice. These are the guys responsible for arranging spares for me as well, where 99% of the time, the spares for the Blade has reached me inside 2 weeks from all parts of the world. I know people who are still waiting for spares from Yamaha since an year after paying advance. *cough @krishnaprasadgg cough*.

Engine Oil and oil filter was replaced at my favorite place F Motors, Cochin along with rest of the service.

Return ride to Calicut was a pain in heavy rain along with the road widening. Too much road diversions and muddy patch made it a pain to ride back. I don't thinks I will go to Cochin anytime soon @krsihnaprasadgg saw the rain in advance and took his Fortuner for the trip.







I never give my vehicles outside for washing, this time was an exception as I was not feeling too well. It took a lot of effort for them to clean the machine.

Before


After

[krishnaprasadgg]

Originally Posted by Xaos636

Return ride to Calicut was a pain in heavy rain along with the road widening. Too much road diversions and muddy patch made it a pain to ride back. I don't thinks I will go to Cochin anytime soon

No no, you are just old now. It happens.

Originally Posted by Xaos636

@krsihnaprasadgg saw the rain in advance and took his Fortuner for the trip.

I can vaguely remember you asking me to take the car so that your bag won’t get drenched. But I won’t shame you publicly by confirming that because thats not what friends do.

Originally Posted by Xaos636

I never give my vehicles outside for washing, this time was an exception as I was not feeling too well. It took a lot of effort for them to clean the machine.

Like I said its called getting old. You spelled it wrong again. Tsk tsk.

Cheers
Krishna

[Xaos636]

A bit of lazy months later and I am back with a Blade update. To and fro movements from the southern states and continuous outstation stays meant I could not ride the Blade as much as I wanted. Nevertheless, we had a blast of a ride last weekend where Bhpians @wolfy and @krishnaprasadgg too joined along with some good friends to a sunrise ride to one of the destinations in AP, near the KIA India plant.

Let the pictures do the talking.

Fueling up on the way.


The Japanese big 3


Big 3 becomes the small 3 as soon as the BWM joins in, due to the sheer size of the monster.


The entire line up. The Striple R and a Yamaha Aerox were in!


@Wolfy taking a stride on the Blade


And me loving his machines auto blipper


At the top




@krishnaprasadgg too wants to taste the blade now. Why not, as I can have some crossplane music.

[Xaos636]

Finally the slip-on is ON! Its the Yoshimura R-77 slip-on which helps reduce a few kgs off the bike as well as add some horses. Beautiful note, especially on idle. It doesn't scream like a straight pipe and stock like note on idle thanks to the 'S' type mid pipe. Its a different story above 4k rpm and it screams above 7k rpm all the way to the redline. This has been long awaited and the Yoshi slip-on is one of the less louder, convenient exhaust that one can get for the blade.

After fitment pics. The plate next to belly pan is also provided by Yoshimura. Fitted at Highlander, HSR by Karthik.








Been out with some new machines the past weekend.

What is better than a Fireblade? Yes, 2 Fireblades. This one is a 2014 SP edition.






Some ride pics to close the post. The beautiful S1000RR and the current gen RSV4 Factory.

Fair to say, It has taken me almost two years to get the bike to the condition that it is in today(Brembo RCS 19, the accessories, Exhaust etc) and when you think that is it and it cannot be made any better, something or the other will strike your head.

Next on the list for a possible upgrade is the replacement of front Tokico brake calipers to Brembo M4's from the SP edition. This has been a priority from day 1, however the exorbitant price for the Brembo's has put me off so far. While a pair of Tokicos cost you 20-25k, the Brembo's are easily a Lakh and above. No wonder why the Yamaha R1's still don't get Brembo brakes, even in the 2024 R1M avatar.

Either way, the Brembo RCS19 Corsacorta is no match for the Tokicos. Tokico's cant play along with the race derived well engineered master cylinder unit from Brembo and this has been evident in my superbike experience so far with various machines and their different braking systems. Brembo is brembo, Period! I will keep updating here on how my hunt for the Brembo's go from now. It might take time, however good things does take time

[surajspai]

Originally Posted by Xaos636

This one is a 2014 SP edition.

That colour scheme is fabulous.

I've spent years searching for a pearl heron blue cbr250, in good condition, only to give up and settle for a Activa with some stickers

[Xaos636]

Originally Posted by surajspai

That colour scheme is fabulous.

I've spent years searching for a pearl heron blue cbr250, in good condition, only to give up and settle for a Activa with some stickers

True. This SP color is actually simply called the HRC colors or White-Red-blue in some cases. Actually the Pearl Heron Blue is a different color which was launched on the Blade in 2011 and we got the CBR250R in the same color in 2012. This 250R color was rare to find too, though I had one back in time. Below is the Pearl Heron Blue.

[CrAzY dRiVeR]

Originally Posted by Xaos636

What is better than a Fireblade? Yes, 2 Fireblades. This one is a 2014 SP edition.

Some ride pics to close the post. The beautiful S1000RR and the current gen RSV4 Factory.

After looking at these pics- can't help but feel bad for how ugly the modern superbikes have become. The 'blades look way more beautiful than either of those aero-wing moustache machines

The older bikes are the keepers

[SnS_12]

A Japanese exhaust on a Japanese bike is the way to go and it's good to see a Yoshi can for a change in a sea of those short and loud Austin Racing, SC Project etc.

We need a video clip too please

P.s - What is the feedback of the RSV4 owner? Happy with the bike and any known issues?

[Xaos636]

Originally Posted by CrAzY dRiVeR

After looking at these pics- can't help but feel bad for how ugly the modern superbikes have become. The 'blades look way more beautiful than either of those aero-wing moustache machines

The older bikes are the keepers

For sure. This was exactly my thoughts too since a long time now. Some owners even go beyond the manufacture’s R&D team and “fix” the bike themselves by adding hideous looking winglets(they say “downforce bro”) on some superbikes and I just cannot unsee them. Some from factory are integrated well though, like the current gen 10R. The current gen R1 still looks sweet though without these stuffs. Gone are the days where no electronics were a different ball game on these high capacity motorcycles. You needed to know exactly what you were going to do once it starts moving. Now some youtube vlogs can be seen where the motorcycle adjsuts itself from poor riding inputs from riders, with the number of electronics on offer. If the same guy was on a 2010 crossplane without ABS and TC or any electronic assist, we sure know where they would have ended up. No wonder these were once called the widow makers.

Originally Posted by SnS_12

A Japanese exhaust on a Japanese bike is the way to go and it's good to see a Yoshi can for a change in a sea of those short and loud Austin Racing, SC Project etc.

We need a video clip too please

P.s - What is the feedback of the RSV4 owner? Happy with the bike and any known issues?

Very true. Perhaps I am past that age where I enjoyed too much loud noise and destroying everyones ear’s for that matter. Had investigated so much, perhaps for months, hearing all the blades with all types of exhausts in real to come to the conclusion to get the Yoshi.
The RSV4 is running fine and the owner is indeed happy with it from my talks with him. Electrical issues are a bit common on these Aprilia’s from what I hear. The bike is a mental machine. A monster.

Maybe we should ride together to a common point soon
@krishnaprasadgg, Game for it? Lets hit Mumbai