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5 years with my Kawasaki Versys 650 motorcycle

Overall, the service costs for five years has been decent. May be not exceptionally cheap like a Honda, but not heart-breaking like some of the Euros either.

BHPian CrAzY dRiVeR recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

Happy Birthday!

My Versys 650 completes 5 years with us today.

Five years is a good enough time to start the next fresh innings, so as these things go - thought to reviving some good old memories.

Top 5 things I like:

  • Brilliant mile muncher - SUV-like seating position, upright and comfortable, excellent suspension, good fuel range. Can cover journeys like Bangalore-Trivandrum with only 1 major break and almost zero fatigue.
  • Excellent suspension manners. Comfortable and yet - confidence inspiring. Fun into corners unlike what the stance suggests.
  • Torquey engine performance! Well suited for the Indian conditions, be it calm cruising on two lane highways or blasting on six lane expressways. Excellent heat management too.
  • Good local support for service, spares and accessories. Reasonable to maintain in comparison to this segment standards. Good ownership groups and many long term owners around to support with their knowledge too.
  • Looks. Five years down the line - still is a desirable motorcycle (subjective!) and IMHO - better than the new iterations (including the upcoming 2022 facelift!).

Top 5 things I don't:

  • You never get to forget the weight at parking speeds! It is one of the heaviest (in terms of feel!) motorcycles out there - with even many more expensive ADVs feeling lighter when you are on the saddle.
  • Gearshift is a bit clunky. Also has a slight nervousness at low rpms that urges you to get a move on, or shift. Clutch is average - neither light for city traffic, nor bothersome.
  • Not a hardcore adventure machine! Period. This one is a brilliant tourer - for the road - which can take on a bit of the broken stuff. Think Harrier, not Thar!
  • Feature list is outdated by modern standards - Halogen headlamps, old school instrument console and dials, no traction control, etc - Its a wonder how they still managed to sell it with sticker changes till end-2021.
  • Still wish it had a triple or an inline4, just for that extra doze of engine character! Reason to upgrade someday would be to pick up an i3/i4 before the world goes electric silent.

Some of my favourite moments with the Versys:

Spreading cheer:

Of the bike:

With the bike:

Versatile System - Come slush, rain, waterlogging, smooth roads, winding corners or no tarmac:

Rides with fellow bikers and BHPians:

Usage:

The Versys was used only for weekend rides, with only city commutes for service, etc. Things were going really smooth with around 8k -9k kms of usage per year till Covid struck, and the bike has not been used much afterwards, but that situation should change for the better in 2022. Two reasons why I'm expecting it to:

  • Fitness:

All the lockdowns and sitting lazily at home had really played spoilsport with my fitness! At the peak of my laziness - I weighed closed to 101.4kgs, and could barely manage to fit in my riding gear (PS: I had to remove the back protector from the jacket and the knee guard from the riding pants to actually fit in the gear, but let that remain a secret from my better-half!). Riding the Versys from Bangalore to Trivandrum back in Jan 2021 felt like a cumbersome affair and I was not looking forward to managing the Versys in the narrow lanes and highways of South Kerala.

Come April - Covid got me in a bad way and I spent a week in the hospital. Recovery was slow and it felt like a pointless exercise to even think of taking the bike out for the next couple of months.

However, from that situation came determination - to work on fitness and to get better. Long story short - I'm 84.xx kgs now, down from 101.xx kgs, regular at the gym, riding gear has room to breathe and the whole riding experience on the Versys has become so much more enjoyable. Surprisingly so in fact - I used to tell friends I am sure I wont enjoy riding the Versys in Kerala, but the last weekend ride was absolutely lovely! Looking forward to more of it now.

PS: Another reason the bike felt difficult to manage would be the cone-set issue. Mentioned later in service updates.

Back in Jan when I came to pick up the bike from KarthikK. Was ~101+ kgs and barely managed to squeeze myself into the riding gear! This picture was actually taken in response to question from friends if I could actually manage to fit in it (though I cheated by removing the spine armour and knee guards).

Last weekend with KarthikK during our Coonoor ride. Currently 84.xx kgs and in a much, much better state of health:

  • Job Change:

I had invested a lot of time over the past few months to make a directional shift in my career and that finally paid off! Although I expect the new company to start draining the blood out of me for the next couple of months - at least I'm done with all the studies and certifications and interviews for a while. Hoping for the better, with fingers crossed!

Anyways, below is the usage graph for the past five years, as shown by Drivvo, currently averaging 5850kms per year.

Glossary of all the rides so far:

Few of the most memorable rides:

Bangalore - Hassan - Sakleshpur - Bisle and back to Bangalore with rbp.

From rain to even more rain leading to thick fog, to navigating potholes, broken roads, no roads, cattle, leech bites and what not! Surely was one of the best rides with the Versys till date, with member 'rbp' on his Ninja 650 for company.

Kudremukh ride with KarthikK.

662kms of one of the rain-soaked and beautiful monsoon rides ever done by me.

Bangalore - Sakleshpura - Subramanya - Madikeri - Bangalore with KarthikK and ebmrajesh.

Supposed-to-be monsoon ride in one of the hottest and most humid days in the recent past. And some beautiful corners and roads too.

Rameshwaram & Dhanushkodi.

Service Costs and Maintenance:

Battery finally gave up, possibly due to sitting idle - even though I used to top it up almost every other weekend. Due to lockdowns and restrictions - I got the one which seemed to be easily available - the locally made Crank1 in the same spec as OE. Fingers crossed how long this would last.

Another major expense was the coneset. I hadn't realised that the steering manners had degraded over time, and could also be one of the reasons that the bike didn't feel as enjoyable back in Jan. I had visited Motonerdz for a coolant change (originally for catching up with BHPian neil.jericho, but ended up changing coolant as well - from Motul to Engine ICE) and they were prompt to detect the coneset issue after a quick test ride. Got the same replaced after the part arrived in about a month's time.

For the past three years - the Versys has not visited Kawasaki service even once, and hopefully won't need in the future either. Kawasaki does have a decent service reputation (especially in Bangalore now with a new service head), but most of the FNGs do a much better job for the same asking rate. Owners don't need to depend on the authorized center, except maybe in case of accidents.

Overall, the service costs for five years has been decent. May be not exceptionally cheap like a Honda, but not heart-breaking like some of the Euros either. I have not stuck to the service manual per-se, and been a little on the conservative side for repairs - and the major expenses have been engine oil change, tyres, labour costs, GST!!!, chain and battery - most of these parts bearing similar expenses across brands.

Other major expenses - Accessories and Insurance:

Insurance is a major dead expense for such bikes, and not very different for the Versys. Almost 60k INR has been spent on insurance. Can't help it though - as panels can be very expensive in case of an accident and insurance cover is certainly a necessity. That said, I'm into the last year of zero dep cover, I guess.

Accessories cost has been very reasonable for the Versys (as per big bike standards). Many parts were available locally, thanks to the bike doing decent numbers and the bike is functionally and aesthetically good in my eyes without spending 3X-4X this amount (and some owners have!). Wont be surprised if many owners have a single item (Lights, hard luggage, etc) with a bigger amount than the total listed below:

Making friends:

Most importantly - the past five years have given a chance to get many new friends, and have some nice memories with existing ones. The biking community sure is more closely knit that the car guys.

Some have moved on, but will always be remembered.

Check out BHPian comments for more insights and information.

 
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