Riding my Yamaha R1 after a month: Closes in on 29,000 km odo

Bought a Skoda Octavia vRS and have already clocked about 5,000 km in a month.

BHPian krishnaprasadgg recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

First of All, Happy New Year folks!

Took the R1 out after a little over a full month of no riding. Well, I mainly attribute that gap to a new member being added to the garage, this time it was not a 2-wheeler, but a 4-wheeler instead.

We had been on the lookout for the VRS for quite a while and finally found the perfect one, well, I'll keep that story for another thread soon, but nonetheless, we put on about 5k km on the car within the gap of 1 month, I'm pretty sure that's a valid excuse for the lack of updates on the R1.

Anyways, back to the topic, took the R1 out for a 100-130 km round trip. This was the first time I was riding the R1 with the Arai too, as expected with the committed position I did feel the extra weight of the helmet as opposed to my Nexx which is 300 grams lighter with it being a full CF shell.

Can't take my eye off of both of them.

But boy is the ARAI on a league of its own once you get used to the weight, even on the R1 it felt so comfortable and solid!

Anyways, owing to low traffic today I was able to enjoy the ride a lot, the only factor that played spoilsport was the wind, had to face some really heavy crosswinds which were powerful enough to sweep me across lanes in the highway, it did catch me by surprise when that did happen, luckily since the roads were mostly empty had no issues there.

The bike is also inching towards the 29k mark. Hopefully, in a week's time, it'll be there.

Anyways, that is all about today's ride.

Now for updates beyond the ride.

One major change this time was that I did not take any backpack with me for this ride, this is something I never do, even for small rides I always carry a puncture repair kit, the portable air compressor and water, and some basic first aid stuff with me, no matter which bike I ride, but while on the R1 I always had this bad backpain that'll set it quite early(open highways are not an issue, just the inner Kerala roads are where I feel the burden most) and this time I was totally free from that.

I think it's time for me to invest in the Kriega US-10 Drypack. The R1 pillion seat has 4 straps pre-fitted under it which can be used to mount this bag comfortably onto it, I think this is the best solution for me right now.

I do have 2 more updates. As part of the riding gear update for future track prep, finally, I purchased and received my successor to my trusty A* SMX6 riding boot.

And the successor is the A* SMX6 V2. I know, if there was a prize for "Lack of imagination" I might surely be a contestant for it. But my defence for it is that the SMX6 lasted me through 6 years of relentless use with minimal maintenance, rest assured it has not had an easy life but still did not fail on me even once. The proof was in the pudding so to speak, here's me hoping that the V2 will hold up in the same way. Now a single-piece riding suit is all that remains.

The other update was that as if my miracle 1 of the part that I ordered(duplicate order at another Yamaha store) had finally arrived and as luck would have it, it's the Radiator Reservoir tank that came through, that too a Nov 2021 packed item from Japan. I am yet to receive any of the other parts that I had ordered. As always it's a waiting game.

As for why I am playing the waiting game let me put forward some perspective, the very same radiator reservoir that I ordered from Babbit's cost me exactly Rs.5234/- ( Breakdown is Rs.3686/- unit price + Rs.1548/- Customs Duty) but the same part from Yamaha India costs only Rs.1021/-.

That's over 5 times the cost of buying it from India(if it was ever available or delivered). So now you see why playing the waiting game if you can is very important for the health of your pocket albeit at the cost of your sanity for waiting over 9 months for a single piece of a plastic can. This is the ground reality of owning a Yamaha/Honda superbike in India right now, though Honda has much better parts support than Yamaha which is virtually non-existent.

Anyways, that's it for now.

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