[himalyan_ice]

It's a beautiful and amazing bike no doubt. Chipping in with me and mine.
I've some stories to tell about it as well. Is acceptable etiquette to post an ownership experience within the thread of another person's story?

[deerhunter]

Originally Posted by bhardwhu

Wonderful machine, pictures and it is engaging to read your journeys. Wondering how do you manage to keep the speeds in check especially the ridiculously low speed limits on our highways ( excluding expressways which may have 120 limit but bikes are not allowed)?

Thanks a lot bhardwhu. I usually keep it under the speed limit, except when the speed limit is unethically low. I try to maintain a consistent cruising speed though, which is much easier to do with a bigger bike. Most of my riding is in Kerala, Tamilnadu and Pondicherry. No speed limit enforcement in Tamilnadu and Pondicherry (or very rare enforcement). Kerala has speed cameras everywhere though. In crowded two lane Kerala roads, maintaining cruising speed is more about quick overtakes, rather than riding above the speed limit. With the Ninja, a flick of the throttle and you've already overtaken the vehicle in front of you, and thus can maintain a crusing speed very close to the speed limit. Thankfully, the district where I stay has the best roads in Kerala as of now, and pretty enjoyable with a fast bike.

Originally Posted by vinay5795

I have the same exact bike. Very fast and comfortable tourer. Was a blissful experience of 16000km in under 2 years.Bike now slips in 4th gear and not in any other gear. Worn or missing teeth of the 4th gear seem to be the issue. Have given it to kawasaki for warranty claim. Hope it gets resolved soon.

Thanks a lot Vinay. Kawasaki mechanicals are usually bulletproof. Highly unusual to have a gear issue in a 2 year old bike. Do keep us posted regarding the issue and the solution for it.

Originally Posted by dkaile

Congratulations deerhunter on the fantastic bike. It will serve you well for years. And even though I have now moved on to a 1250GSA, I do miss the acceleration of this super smooth inline 4 at times. Would have loved to keep it in the stable but just didn't have space or wife's permission for 3 superbikes...lolz

Thanks a ton dkaile. All your bike threads are great resources for current and prospective owners, and for bikers in general.

Originally Posted by n_aditya

Enjoyed reading your thread. The refinement in these Japanese machines is something to admire. Any plans to replace that exhaust which you don't fancy and get an aftermarket one?

Thank you. I like the stock exhaust note. It's in line with the bike's stealth character. Anyway, changing even the rear view mirrors is an invitation for penalty by the motor vehicles department here in Kerala. An after market exhaust is an invitation for bike seizure.

As you said, those saree guards are hideous but may work well for weekend BBQ parties

Probably the most ridiculous looking saree guard in the market right now.

Originally Posted by Saurabh Lahiri

Congratulations Deerhunter! It's a wonderful bike and is amazing in all aspects. Mine is the 2019 version with the older console and exhausts. This one is a keeper

Thanks a lot Saurabh Lahiri. I wish mine had those twin exhausts, love the way it looks.

Originally Posted by loki

Congrats and Ride safe! I've got a friend picking up the SX next week and am hoping to do some rides with him.

Thank you Loki. Congrats to your friend for the new bike.

Originally Posted by ads295

Great write-up.
The N1000 is such a versatile bike.
Quick question, though - how good or bad is the engine heat in heavy traffic?
It's my impression that inline 4s heat up a lot more than say twins.

I actively avoid traffic and city riding. Even then, there were occasions were I got stuck in heavy traffic. The worst was in September last year due to some political rally on the national highway, and I was in crawling speeds for around 3 hours. There was a lot of heat, and it did make me a bit sweaty and uncomfortable, but it never reached a point where I thought about turning off the engine and getting off of the bike. So, as long as you are fully kitted up, with legs and feet fully covered, heat is manageable even in the worst of traffic.

Originally Posted by Sachin_Nair

Congratulations @deerhunter on owning one of the best sport tourer's money can buy. Great pics and equally good write up. Keep the updates flowing.
I own a 2017 Ninja 1000 and Ninja 1000SX is a great step up from the previous generation. The only major issue I faced in last 5 years so far is I had to replace one of my front fork's inner tube as it developed few scratches which damaged the fork seals.

Thanks a lot Sachin Nair. Do you know how you got those scratches? Do you think fork seal covers would've prevented those?

Originally Posted by gitartha

Lo behold my Ninja 1000sx - The Green Hornet. Definately the thinking man's Ninja. My earlier bike was a HD Street 750. The bike is DEFINITELY a keeper. Highly recommended for anyone who wishes to upgrade to a litre class. And did I mention, it's also excellent value for money
Excellent writeup by deerhunter. Wish I had the time and patience to create a similar thread for my Green Hornet. Someday<sigh>

Thank you gitartha. Please pen down you ownership experience for posterity. Will be a great resource.

Originally Posted by himalyan_ice

It's a beautiful and amazing bike no doubt. Chipping in with me and mine.

That's a great shot himalayan_ice.

I've some stories to tell about it as well. Is acceptable etiquette to post an ownership experience within the thread of another person's story?

Please do share your Ninja stories, here or wherever you choose.

[Slash]

Nicely put down. Congrats and thanks. The high seat heavy bike static slide and drop scenario is not new to riders. It's a give and take between this and the confidence of the low seat which could turn out to be more cramped. How has your experience between the stock and low seat been in terms of comfort and performance?

[Kashief]

Congratulations and happy mile munching! Would like to share that even though the Speedo console is shared from Ninja 650 to H2, Kawasaki has limited the features like lean angle etc to expensive models. Twin USB Sockets looks durable, could you pls share the link or brand you purchased. I’m almost 6 feet and 790mm seat height in Ninja 650 causing back pain. Is there options available to increase seat height and if I increase to few mm, does it affect rider triangle?
Thanks!

[Ani0404]

Congratulations Deerhunter on the fantastic bike.! Hope you have many more amazing miles ahead.!

Please check your DMs.! I am currently based out of Kochi and ride a Ninja 1000. We can catch up sometimes.!

[deerhunter]

Originally Posted by Slash

Nicely put down. Congrats and thanks. The high seat heavy bike static slide and drop scenario is not new to riders. It's a give and take between this and the confidence of the low seat which could turn out to be more cramped. How has your experience between the stock and low seat been in terms of comfort and performance?

Thanks Slash. There is no noticeable difference in comfort between the stock and low seat. The rear half of the low seat has almost as much padding as the stock seat.

Originally Posted by Kashief

Congratulations and happy mile munching! Would like to share that even though the Speedo console is shared from Ninja 650 to H2, Kawasaki has limited the features like lean angle etc to expensive models.

Thank you Kashief. Didn't know about the differences in features. Thanks for the info.

Twin USB Sockets looks durable, could you pls share the link or brand you purchased.

The one I bought is not listed anymore, but found a similar one. Link. Make sure that the diameter of the hole is the same. Also, I am not sure if Ninja 650 also uses HM090 connectors. If that is the case, you will have to strip the connectors to install the above one, and risk losing the warranty. The OEM socket for 1000SX comes with HM090, but 10 times as expensive as the above one.

Is there options available to increase seat height and if I increase to few mm, does it affect rider triangle? Thanks!

There is an OEM comfort seat for Ninja 650 which increases the height by 30mm. 999941062 is the part number. Ask the service center for a quote and compare it with the price in cmsnl.com, and decide accordingly.

Originally Posted by Ani0404

Congratulations Deerhunter on the fantastic bike.! Hope you have many more amazing miles ahead.!
Please check your DMs.! I am currently based out of Kochi and ride a Ninja 1000. We can catch up sometimes.!

Thanks Anirudh. PMed you.

[vinay5795]

Originally Posted by vinay5795

I have the same exact bike. Very fast and comfortable tourer. Was a blissful experience of 16000km in under 2 years.Bike now slips in 4th gear and not in any other gear. Worn or missing teeth of the 4th gear seem to be the issue. Have given it to kawasaki for warranty claim. Hope it gets resolved soon.

Little update.Kawasaki HQ has asked the dealer to open the bike after sending them a video of the issue. May take a little time but I guess they will fix the issue under warranty. Fingers crossed

[Aditya]

Exceptional, unbiased & detailed ownership reviews of bikes have started going to our homepage reviews box. It's the ultimate stamp of trust from Team-BHP (as a platform) because lakhs of visitors every month check out reviews from there & make purchase decisions.

Your review has also been included here. Thank you so much for sharing .

[KarthikK]

Firstly, hearty congratulations on picking up one of the best sport touring machines in the market! It was amazing to go through your detailed journey leading to this purchase and the fantastic pictures from breathtaking locations that you have already taken this beast to . Wishing you many more smiles and miles on this lovely machine! Do keep this thread updated with your ownership experience over time!

Originally Posted by deerhunter

Seat height - 835mm for the 1000SX vs 815mm for the 1000.

I was unaware of the seat height being different for this model. Thanks for letting us know.

Issues faced
Stalling issue - A month after the first service (1000 kms service), the bike started having a stalling issue. The issue occured when the throttle is released on the move. The engine rpm falls and the engine dies. Contacted the service center and they mentioned some issue with the throttle body, and said a recall was forthcoming. Got a call from them the next week and took it for the recall. Post that, the issue never occurred.

I remember this was for the very first few batches of the BS6 inline4 engines being a bit susceptible to lower octane fuel (even 91 octane fuel). When I used to visit the service centre for service back then, I had seen a few BS6 Versys 1000s coming in for this throttle body cleaning and they did some software update to fix the fueling issue. I remember all the BS6 guys are all happy now and do not face any issues even with regular fuel. Just curious - do you use regular fuel on the N1000SX or higher octane fuel like the XP95 / XP100?

OEM Low seat - After the lever broke off, I became paranoid about scenarios where I won’t be able to flat foot on both sides. This led me to look for low seat options. Modifying the stock seat by removing the padding was considered, but dropped the idea due to concerns about loss of comfort. Checked the showroom about the OEM low seat option and they quoted a price of Rs. 35000. Googled a bit and found out about cmsnl.com. Ordered from them to Dubai for about Rs.19000 and a friend carried it here. The low seat lowered the seat height by 28mm, from 835mm to 807mm

... snip snip...

OEM low seat has a different contour than the stock seat. The front part of the low seat has much lesser cushion than the stock seat. The rear part has similar cushioning.

Is this OE low seat option only applicable to the 2020+ SX models? I hadn't heard of anything like this earlier, learnt something new . I don't need it myself (I am almost 6'2") but I think some shorter folks on the N1k riders' groups might be interested in getting something like this if it helps to flat foot easily for them. Thanks for sharing!

Horn upgrade to Bosch symphony.

There were some reports on international forums that due to very less space on the horn cavity, adding dual horns or even larger horns would end up in the forks making contact on full lock-to-lock turns of the handlebar. Does it make contact in case of your 2020 SX model?

The Vredesteins. Only covered around 500kms in this. Grip feels good as of now.

On some groups, I haven't been hearing very good feedback on the Vredesteins especially about how the grip deteriorates quickly as they age. It would be interesting to know your feedback on the same since you are using the bike in varied conditions. Do keep us updated on how they age and how they behave in different weather (rain), etc.

[Kashief]

The one I bought is not listed anymore, but found a similar one. Link. Make sure that the diameter of the hole is the same. Also, I am not sure if Ninja 650 also uses HM090 connectors. If that is the case, you will have to strip the connectors to install the above one, and risk losing the warranty. The OEM socket for 1000SX comes with HM090, but 10 times as expensive as the above one.

There is an OEM comfort seat for Ninja 650 which increases the height by 30mm. 999941062 is the part number. Ask the service center for a quote and compare it with the price in cmsnl.com, and decide accordingly.

Thanks for the info I believe the size is same, however I need to check connectors before ordering.

[deerhunter]

Originally Posted by KarthikK

Firstly, hearty congratulations on picking up one of the best sport touring machines in the market!

Thanks a lot Karthik.

I remember this was for the very first few batches of the BS6 inline4 engines being a bit susceptible to lower octane fuel (even 91 octane fuel). When I used to visit the service centre for service back then, I had seen a few BS6 Versys 1000s coming in for this throttle body cleaning and they did some software update to fix the fueling issue.

I have heard two theories about it. One, like you mentioned, the low octane fuel use. The second, Kawasaki not tuning the fueling system to handle the relatively impure fuel we get in India. The second seems more plausible as the same issue was also faced by a few who exclusively used speed97 and xp100 (xp95 was not available then).

Also, the stalling issue started and progressed gradually. Initially there were some rpm drops, but the engine never died. It became so severe over the next few months that engaging the clutch immediately killed the engine. Everything became normal after the throttle body cleaning, and again progressive rpm drop over the next couple of months. This may probably be due to more and more soot and dirt getting accumulated in the throttle body as more and more 'impure' fuel got burned.

Just curious - do you use regular fuel on the N1000SX or higher octane fuel like the XP95 / XP100?

I use xp95 exclusively.

Is this OE low seat option only applicable to the 2020+ SX models? I think some shorter folks on the N1k riders' groups might be interested in getting something like this if it helps to flat foot easily for them. Thanks for sharing!

This same low seat is an exact fit on the 2017-19 models too. But since they are already 20mm lower, low seat can lower it by only 8mm more.

There were some reports on international forums that due to very less space on the horn cavity, adding dual horns or even larger horns would end up in the forks making contact on full lock-to-lock turns of the handlebar. Does it make contact in case of your 2020 SX model?

The bigger horn will not fit in the stock horn cavity. I installed it on the fork lower bracket, like shown here in bhpian dkaile's this post (2018 Kawasaki Ninja 1000 - The Comprehensive Review). It moves with the fork now, and has enough clearance on all sides.

On some groups, I haven't been hearing very good feedback on the Vredesteins especially about how the grip deteriorates quickly as they age. It would be interesting to know your feedback on the same since you are using the bike in varied conditions. Do keep us updated on how they age and how they behave in different weather (rain), etc.

Even I heard some mixed reviews, but given the significant price difference between the Vredesteins and the others, decided to take a chance. Hope it goes atleast half as much as the stock Bridgestones. Anyway, will keep you updated on that.

[Sachin_Nair]

Originally Posted by deerhunter

Thanks a lot Sachin Nair. Do you know how you got those scratches? Do you think fork seal covers would've prevented those?

Although I'm uncertain about how I acquired those scratches, they caused damage to the OEM fork seal, which I subsequently replaced. Unfortunately, after only 1,000 kilometers, my second fork seal was also damaged, leading me to recognize the need to replace the entire fork tube. The fork seal covers will help definitely and cleaning the forks regularly with a clean cloth gently shall be good. Sharing a pic of the fork tube for your reference

[vinay5795]

I had the stalling issue on normal fuel and xp95 on my bike too when new. Kawasaki fixed it by doing a small remap. It idles a bit higher now. It has completely resolved the issue.

[deerhunter]

Trip to Varkala - 24th and 25th of March, 2023

My last couple of rides were to the mountains of Western ghats. So it was time for a short trip to a beach destination, and Varkala was the first choice. Google maps was showing a riding distance of around 265 kms and a time of around 7 hrs to reach the destination. Decided to do a 1 night, 2 day trip and hotel booking was done accordingly.

Started from home at sharp 5AM. The stretch till Angamaly was a breeze, with very less traffic and only a few signal crossings. After crossing the usual chock points around Kochi, the first stop was Aryaas restaurant at Alleppey for breakfast. It was peak morning traffic from then on, and multiple refreshment breaks too. The road surface till Haripad was smooth, but there were a few bad stretches after that.

Taking a break at Kollam beach.


After Kollam, I took the coastal road to Varkala, one of the most scenic roads in the country. This route passes through places like Pozhikkara and Kappil, where there is a lake on one side and sea on the other side of the road. The roads are good for the most part, except a kilometre or so of very bad potholes.

Lake on the left and sea on the right.


At Pozhikkara, where the river meets the sea. Spot the guy fishing.


Reached Varkala around 12PM and had a quick lunch from Cafe Sarwaa, very near to the hotel I booked. This very rustic looking cafe is on the south cliff, and has a continental menu.
Lunch with a view.


Went to the hotel after lunch. The Nebo Hotel is a small property right on the the south cliff, Varkala. They do not have a restaurant, but Cafe Sarwaa is right next door and online food delivery is available. The rooms are clean, simple and functional. Their major selling point is the unmatched view of the sea from the room.

What a view!!!!


The room is right on edge of the cliff.


The sea and the pristine beach.


The afternoon was spent sitting by the window and watching the waves hit the shore. Went down to the beach once the sun started going down.

The stairs leading down to the beach.


The sun was behind the clouds, so no view of the sun setting.


The beach was empty. That far away strip of land extending into the sea is the north cliff, the main shopping/restaurant area of Varkala.


The same north cliff after sunset. The beach below the north cliff was much more crowded than the one I was in.


That's my room, shot from the bottom of the cliff. Coconut trees for scale.


Climbed back up the cliff after the sunset. The hotel had this cool looking fountain running at night.


Decided to have dinner from the north cliff. The place is the most crowded part of Varkala with 100s of shops and restaurants. The crowd was less as this is the tail end of the season.
Empty north cliff street.


There were many restaurants and you'll get spoilt for choice. I went to this place.


You can choose the fish you want to get cooked.


There was a variety of choices.


Roasted prawns, anyone?


And some fried rice and chicken.


Walked around the streets for some more time after dinner. Went back to the hotel around 12AM and called it a day.

Got up pretty late in the morning. After freshening up, went to the north cliff for breakfast. Shops were just opening up.


Breakfast with a view at Abba restaurant.


It was pretty hot by the time I finished breakfast. The crowd was also increasing since it was a Saturday.


Went back to the hotel and checked out around 1PM. I took the same coastal route while coming back too, with frequent stops and a leisurely pace.
Somewhere on the road from Kappil to Kollam


Loaded.


That's me.


Had a late lunch from KFC, Karunagappally. The traffic and the ongoing road construction on the stretch till Cherthala slowed the pace considerably. Crossed Kochi around 8PM and reached home before 10PM.

Covered a total distance of 536kms, pretty good considering the condition of Kerala roads.


The Ninja, as usual, performed admirably throughout the journey. Also, this was the first long trip on the Vredesteins, and no complaints. The grip was excellent, even under hard accelerations. Have to see how the tyre ages over the next few trips.

Thanks for reading.

[aargee]

By any chance, did you happen to take this stretch sir? It was totally mesmerizingly scary last time when we drove through where the houses were 25% flooded due to tide & people living there didn't batter an eyelid & it looked like an everyday routine for them with Arabian sea right at their backyard, which only resorts could afford