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-   -   One bike to tame them all! | Part - II | My Triumph Tiger Sport 660. Edit: 25,000 kms up! (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/superbikes-imports/267773-one-bike-tame-them-all-part-ii-my-triumph-tiger-sport-660-edit-25-000-kms-up-7.html)

Bangalore - Trivandrum - Guruvayoor - Bangalore ~ 1600kms

The last of the old rides I'll be documenting here - this ride happened in early September 2023 and was the second ride to Trivandrum. Flights were very expensive due to the festival season of Onam and hence decided to ride down instead.

A month prior to this, I had done Bangalore -> Trivandrum on my Aerox 155 scooter without any issues and hence didn't cross check anything before starting this ride. Turned out to be a mistake as the average temperatures were much higher in TN as compared to a month earlier (I had assumed the reverse). Towards the end of the ride, it became quite a struggle to keep myself from getting dehydrated and finally required a couple of days rest after reaching home to get rid of the tiredness.

Post this struggle - I was looking for options to break up the return into two parts when my CB500X friend mentioned his intent to visit the temple at Guruvayoor. So on the return journey I agreed to join him at Guruvayoor and ride back together from there. However, he had to ditch the CB500X in favour the Fortuner last minute due to heavy rains in Bangalore and so we ended up alternating between the car and the bike on the way back.

Also met up with my cousin who was driving down to Bangalore with his Kia Sonet and we managed to catch up and drive together from Dharmapuri to Krishnagiri.

This was also the ride when the CB500X upgrade was finalized. My friend took over my bike from Coimbatore post breakfast, and I didn't see him till the lunch break at Krishnagiri. He says he had an absolute blast, one that would hurt his wallet eventually - for he went and booked the new Street Triple 765RS. He finally decided to retain the 500X for touring and have an additional bike for fun.

Onward:

Started from home by 5:15AM. Covered ~150kms and reached SaiSangeet near Thoppur by around 8AM for breakfast.



Panniers come in handy once again!



Had a good parallel run with this Super Meteor 650 for sometime and had a chat with him when starting from here. Lovely bike in his opinion, except for the stiff rear suspension.



Post breakfast was a good run covering almost 350kms in 4 hours. Skipped lunch as well. However, turned out to be a poor decision at the end - because when nearing Kovilpetti - I was already feeling stressed by the heat.



The Tiger Sport resting it out for 30 minutes while I try to cool down



Needed couple more breaks to cool down and drink water, but finally made it home by around 4:45pm after almost 11.5 hours of riding. The heat took a heavy toll on the body and required a couple of days rest after reaching home to get rid of the tiredness.



Our cat checking out who is the new entrant and if it's safe to come in :D



Dropped off the bike for detailing the very next day:

Onam

The main highlight for is the sadya on Tiruonam day. We usually go out for a short drive to see the lights and decorations post nightfall, but rain dampened the spirits quite a bit.

Post Detailing

Got PPF done on the bike finally, the panniers especially were starting to collect scratches from accidental boot kicks everytime i get on or off the bike. Went for UltrashieldX from The Detailing Mafia thanks to my previous good experiences with the center in Trivandrum.

Return

Started on Saturday morning from home by 5:45AM. Due to all the National highway expansion work happening in Kerala - I took the MC road via Kottayam instead. Stopped for breakfast at Kottarakkara by 7am. Spent an hour at my cousins place in Vaikom and finally reached Guruvayoor by around 2pm

How's that for road presence (or the lack of it :D)



Spent the evening visiting the temple.



Started the return on Sunday at 5:15AM. Stopped for breakfast after Coimbatore L&T bypass. Started again by around 8:30AM and my friend took over my bike, not to be seen again till the lunch break at Krishnagiri. He says he had an absolute blast, one that would hurt his wallet eventually - for he went and booked the new Street Triple 765RS. He finally decided to retain the 500X for touring and have an additional bike for fun.



Met up with my cousin who was driving down to Bangalore with his Kia Sonet and we managed to catch up and drive together from Dharmapuri to Krishnagiri.

The Fortuner towering over the younger crossover SUV:







Reached home by 4PM. Covering 1618 kms for the trip



Good FE overall

Postponed again! Keerthi Triumph continues to make things interesting :Frustrati

Apparently the renovation is still not complete and some floor tile work is going on this week, due to which they are not able to accept any bikes for service. So the upcoming week is not happening either!

Fingers crossed for next week instead. :


OT:

My friend who booked the Street Triple RS (as mentioned in the previous post) is almost on the brink of repenting his decision and tempted on cancelling the booking to go with Khivraj instead. He almost did it once earlier when Khivraj had a bike ready for delivery but then Keerthi promised they also have one on the way - which seems to have been a false promise.

Had warned him - so I'm safe! :D

Facing an issue with mParivahan where the PUCC shows outdated despite renewing it couple of weeks back only.

Unfortunately, I'm unable to check the details in the website too because the RTO has made a spelling error when updating the name on the RC card. Hence when I try to login and add the vehicle details to my portal - it shows name mismatch. Wonder if thats the reason for this warning.

Is this an issue so long as I carry the PUC certificate on the bike itself for police checks? Or should I try visiting the RTO to get this resolved?

PUCC shows out of date though renewed till mid 2024.



Error due to typo in RC and hence Aadhar mismatch:

Small value add accessory:

The heel plate on the Tiger Sport 660 picks up a ton a scratches and start to look bad too fast compared to most motorcycles. I had seen a motorcycle at Gear Gear with these heel plate stickers and quite liked them, so ordered from Amazon UK. As mentioned in an earlier post, customs charged Rs 773/- for a £14.28 item (with £6.50) for shipping - bringing the total value of this item to ~3k.

Did you get this PUC done in Karnataka? If yes, KA PUC is not linked to the parivahan database. Quoting myself from another thread:

In this case, just carrying the PUC document is enough.

Hey thanks! :thumbs up

This is the exact information I was looking for - since my other vehicle is KL registered with PUCC done there, never knew KA wasn't reflecting online with mParivahan.

So after getting tired of Keerthi Triumph making commitments after commitments and failing to meet them all - my friend has requested cancellation and moved on to Khivraj Triumph.

The only saving grace for Keerthi would probably have been the good interactions from the SA Renju - but feels like the management does not back them up properly. Anyways what's the use if bikes don't get delivered as promised.

The initial experience from Khivraj has been excellent so far. Khivraj earned this sale downright fair and square from Keerthi. I'm also hearing good things about their service center from the biking groups.

Today I too had a chance to experience the Khivraj hospitality - the only problem going to Khivraj instead of Keerthi is the location. It is quite literally on the outskirts at the opposite end of Bangalore for us! Which means a minimum 1.5 hour ride is required to just get to the showroom. A 120km ride done for me, just getting to this showroom and back. Lol!



After almost 1.5 hours of travel, parked outside Khivraj Triumph, Electronic City.



The Khivraj showroom is definitely not as spacious as the Keerthi one, spread over three floors in the latter - but none of that matters if the showroom (Keerthi) doesn't get it basics right.



The first thing to catch my eye was the updated Tiger Sport 660:



Now comes with a new Snowdonia White paint scheme with contrast dual tone Jet black:



The white is a Metallic Pearl white and has a nice shiny lustre to it:



The heel plate on my bike picks up a ton of scratches and it was a brushed effect finish to start with! Someone at Triumph thought that part needed more polish and bling now:



One last look:



Tiger 1200 looks so bulky and intimidating in its latest avatar - that I didn't even feel like sitting on it. Way too much bulk - good thing BMW has started this trend of drastically reducing the size of the flagship ADVs, with the 1300 GS



The Speed Twin 900 looks pretty vanilla in this new paint scheme IMHO:



Check out the big guns - the 2500cc Rockets



Finally, my friend's bike is in the showroom - kept under wrap and covers for now. Delivery to happen towards the weekend post registration formalities.



It's a red Street Triple 765 RS. He wanted yellow as the first choice, but missed the bus due to several unmet commitments from Keerthi Triumph. The next lot for yellow is likely to be only in 2024. Hence red!



Öhlins rear suspension to go with the Showa BPF upfront, one of the highlights of the RS:



RS also gets Brembo Stylema as against the Brembo M4s of the regular R. With the Street Triple R:



Standard bar end mirrors on the RS:



RS makes 10hp more than the R, with 130ps of power and 80Nm of torque.



Pirelli Supercorsa SP V3 tyres come standard:



Had a small check for quality and didn't find anything amiss. My friend had already done self-PDI at the yard just after the bikes were unloaded off the truck.



While the formalities for the TD are being taken care off, I quickly steal a very short TD of the Triumph Scrambler 400X:



Found it to be a very nice and comfortable city ride bike. However I wonder if it would have much relevance anymore after the Himalayan. May be it would still work as a Speed 400 for taller riders. My neighbour recently took delivery of the Scrambler and his use case was just this - the Speed being too small for his size.



Off from the showroom to NICE road for TD. My friend going casual on speedbreakers, standing tall on the CB500X and me giggling that all of this will soon be over, with a low GC naked as the primary bike. Lol!



Quick debrief on the vehicle controls and ride modes:



And we are off:



My friend trying out how the bike behaves for his usual riding style, me following him with the SA Kevin sitting pillion and the other SA Gaurav following us on the CB500X







All three reds at the NICE road end toll, my friend confirming his jump to the new bike with ~3x in power from the CB500X to the Street Triple RS:



The team from Khivraj Triumph was excellent - giving this long TD as my friend requested and being very prompt in all their responses. If anyone from Triumph stumbles upon this - you need more folks like Kevin and Gaurav of Khivraj Triumph, not more dealerships like Keerthi. Khivraj earned this sale downright fair and square from Keerthi.



Even though I had no plans to test ride today, I couldn't resist doing a short run after my friend was done with his. Time to try the more powerful flavour of the inline3 concoction



There is a sense of familiarity with the Street Triple, the engine on the Tiger Sport 660 is based on the 675 motor of the previous generation Street Triple afterall. Felt very natural to ride when shifting from my bike to the TD bike



Apart from the ergonomics which is obvious, the power difference is the second main thing I noticed immediately. The RS makes ~50hp more than my Tiger Sport 660 and that is immediately noticeable from the mid range upwards. Can't say much more from the short ride - but the other aspect I noticed is the quickshifter, which dealt with both up and downshifts way better than the unit on my bike



Posing with the beast. Can't wait for him to take delivery and complete the run- in period. clap:



Finally - what's a weekend without some food. We stopped for Chai and ended up eating some chats as well. I have never seen sweet items in chats before, and was very skeptical of this - but did taste nice nevertheless :coldsweat

Did you come across anyone named Sambhav Nahar at this showroom?

I got my Dominar from Khivraj Bajaj, and Sambhav seems to very involved in their operations. Seemed to me like a passionate, involved biker. Their Bajaj service centre is also decently well reputed as far as OEM service centers go. I've had mostly good experiences with them.

No, but will check when we go to take the delivery of the bike.

Nice. Triumph desperately needed a good dealer in Bangalore. Even other brand owners from other cities know how bad Keerthi Triumph is and not to deal with them! That's their reputation :coldsweat

Totally. My friends and sometimes myself have been there to take test drives. But the nail in the coffin has always been their reputation. I am myself very happy that there is another dealer now!

Picked up this Rynox Expedition Trail Bag from BHPian deepfreak15. Checked it out today morning in preparation for a weekend overnighter:











Looks good, but will secure it with a bungee just to be on the safe side.

Completed 10,000 kms of my ownership today- while returning from an overnighter with BHPians KarthikK, neil.jericho and shaikhmimran.

Also met BHPian krishsreedharan at the lunch stop - driving down to Bangalore with his M340i.

Number of days since purchase: 212 days (6 months, 28 days)
Average Usage: 47.16 kms/day

Absolutely wonderful machine that I just can't get enough of! This one is for the long-term unless reliability plays spoilsport.

Riding Gear Update - LS2 FF805 Thunder Plus Carbon

Better half picked up this stunning new carbon fiber helmet for herself - the LS2 FF805 Thunder Plus Carbon. clap:

Comes with claimed ECE 22.06 and ISI certifications, 100% carbon fiber shell, emergency release cheekpads, double D-ring, etc. Comes with a pin lock visor, an additional black visor, helmet support neck roll and an amazing carry bag.

I'm frankly blown away by the finishing and quality of this helmet- even in comparison to my new Shoei GT Air 2. The race helmets could be noisy I hear, but this is supposed to be the road version of the same. Fingers crossed! The FF805 also comes with an FIM approved race version which is supposed to be noisy.

Amazingly light weight at 1250 grams though!

Some pics:















Her current gear:

• LS2 FF805 carbon helmet
• Dainese Hydra Flux Lady jacket with Wave D1G1 spine protection
• Aspida Pheaton gloves
• Mototec Bulwark Bionic knee armour
• Forma Adventure Low boots.

Next up:
Riding pants mostly. Looking at options for water resistant ones.

Is that the Silverline retreat hotel in Kolli hills? Fabulous view

Good one. clap: You are spot on! :D

Didn't think anyone would identify the place from just that picture! Will have the log posted soon - hopefully in three different flavours in each of the respective threads. :)

Keerthi Triumph is such a sad act!

After my booking being postponed multiple times since November 5th and being assured they will let me know on priority soon as they open - they not only forgot but also have slots only after another full week. So the service is scheduled for December 15th now!

Meanwhile, Khivraj continues to be a much better experience. My friend took delivery of his Street Triple RS as promised and is very happy with the whole dealership experience. Will surely shift to them for any services other the basic services which are included in my prepaid package to Keerthi.

This one is going to be a common sight in this thread going forward: