This thread is going to be a real time blog style report of my R165. It will be updated as and when new modifications are done.

Without much ado -

Day 0 (27th May '11, 11300kms on the odo) - Big Bore + Head Work (had previously installed the Simota air filter)

Finally the d-day dawns. After a grueling peak traffic ride, I arrive at Joel's new garage at KR Puram. Joel is busy making a set of fibre glass fairing for his full blown race R15. Right away, they seem a bit different. After a while Joel tells me the difference - the fairing has provision for ram air intake which he is planning to incorporate next. And, it looks beautiful in the matte black colour it's draped in. That way, we chat about this and that for some time and soon it's time to mod my R15. Joel's expert mechanic strips down my bike swiftly with precision. That he is experienced in doing this can be easily deciphered. The cylinder head is now under Joel's sharp eyes where it is undergoing some precise metal reduction around the intake and the exhaust ports with the goal of improve the air flow into and out of the valves. This is soon done and all the parts are assembled back along with the new 165cc bore. Joel's mechanic completes this quickly. Now is the time for me to ride my R165 for the first time.

I keep repeating to myself - no matter what, I will keep the rpms below 6k just as Joel has instructed. It seems a difficult task to do as the R15 really moves only after 6k rpm. And, hence my habit too is to ride between 5k to 7k rpm if I am cruising and to take above 7k rpm if I am riding spiritedly. With all these thought, I gingerly release the clutch and start the ride home. That the engine is tight is really evident. After getting used to the 'tightness' of the new bore, I ride slowly at 4k-5k rpm for the first few kilometers. My speedo reads around 45kmph. Nothing feels that different except that the engine seems to have gained a whole lot of engine braking. Also, the vibes at 3k-4k range are noticeable now. Those vibes are actually present in stock too but were not as noticeable as I hardly used to ride in that band owing to the absolute lack of pulling power. Above 5k rpm, the vibes tidy up and all I feel is the engine putting down pulses of power authoritatively. It feels different from stock, yes, but no vibe can be felt as such. Now, I feel a bit bored and to increase the speed a bit, decide to shift up to 6th gear. Whoa! The engine is still pulling strongly in 6th from 4k to 6k rpm. My speed increases from 45kmph to 75kmph at a much faster pace compared to stock. And the vibes decrease even more. I somehow keep myself from revving the bike further. But I have a feeling it will smoothen out further at higher revs. In this way, I keep riding, taking care to vary the rpms slightly all the time.

After a while, I notice one thing - I am braking much harder than I used too. Finally I realize what is happening - the lower rpms are lulling me into believing that I am riding slowly. That the chassis of the R15 is excellent in masking speed does not help me either. Ok, so a recalibration of the senses is called for. And, I try to adjust myself to this suddenly unfamiliar characteristic of the bike.

At the signals, I notice that the bike now pulls cleanly from much lower rpms than before, and I can ride it a gear higher than before under almost all conditions. The increase in torque is evident.

On this note, I complete around 30kms and reach home. To be seen is how the bike behaves under higher rpms after a bit of running in. Also to be seen is what happens of the newly found engine braking. (Also, will my FE really increase?)

PS - Thanks to KwokFist and Abhimanyu31 for giving us such nice and elaborate ride reports and for inspiring me to pen down these thoughts. Of course, thanks to Joel for bringing such wonderful mods to the market.

Mehgan: I don't want to say it but still: I TOLD you Joel will be working on a pressurised airbox!!! . Man, I can't wait till he introduces a street version

I think this would be the right thread to share my experience with Joel's parts, as it would also corroborate KwokFist's review.

After spending close to a year with the stock R15 and with 20,000km on the ODO, I was beginning to look for bigger thrills. the Ninja seemed very enticing except for the hefty price tag. Was browsing my options on the net when I happened to read KwokFist's and Abhimanyu's reviews again. Suddenly convinced myself that spending on the parts would work out much better than investing in a new bike itself. Immediately bombarded poor Joel with SMS's askin him when I could come over and buy the parts. He responded promptly and I headed there first thing in the morning.

Joel's got this first-rate mech who dis-assembled the bore in no time at all! Was quite impressed.. He told me he's done these mods to 1000s of bikes. Does anyone need any more reassurance? lots of bikes running on Joe's mods with no complaints! So, got the big-bore kit fitted, while I had a good chat with Mr. Fieroid about the mod scene in India and how he became a tuner. Is an interesting person to talk to!

Poured in mineral oil that i'd brought along and I was off. Could immediately feel the difference in low-end power! Joel had instructed me to keep it under 6k rpm for abt 500km, and frankly I didn't feel the need to rev beyond.. The bike pulled so EFFORTLESSLY! yes thats the word to describe it. the engine note had turned a little gruntier, which I was enjoying, plus riding in Bangalore's hellish traffic was much much more enjoyable. The bike did feel a lil vibey in the beginning, but that was only because of the tight new engine. Now it is really smooth and rev-happy!

I rode about 250km in the first two days of owning the bore, and then decided to ride to Hyderabad to meet a buddy. So on a Friday evening I changed the oil to a mineral one again, tightened and lubed the chain, fuelled-up and set off for Hyd. Yes, on a 250km old bore. I rode at moderate speeds of 70 - 80kmph as I didnt want to stress the new parts. Kept modulating engine rpms to run-in the engine properly. After riding for 300km, I took a break for 15 mins, and then slowly began increasing speeds. I must mention here that highway riding is a breeze as you dont need to get lower than 6th gear, even if you slow down to 35 - 40 kmph. The bike will pull smoothly and effortlessly. Again I didnt do very high speeds coz of the new bore, so touched a max speed of 110 kmph on one stretch, and got back to cruising between 80-90kmph (Bike felt smoothest at this speed too). reached Hyderabad in 8 hours and was surprised to find that I still had some gas in the tank! Hyd is about 576km one way! Rode another 10km in the city and filled fuel again as I didnt want the bike to die out on me. So that translates into almost49kmpl!!! Was thrilled to bits!

Rode back to Bangalore with my friend as pillion on Sunday night. With rider+pillion+2 HUGE bags and speeds of 100+ almost constantly we still got a very acceptable 35kmpl! With this ride to Hyd and back, my run-in was done and I immediately changed my oil filter and oil (Agip fully Synth). Continued enjoying the bike for my daily commute to work and also on my weekend tours. Now comes the interesting part..

Met two friends of mine for chai late at night. We were riding alongside each other and chatting, my two buddies on a Pulsar 220S and me on my R165. We reached one of our favourite stretches of tarmac and my friend winked at me and took off, being fully used to the P220's power I accelerated too, but not WOT since I knew my bike wouldn't keep up, but surprise of surprises!! My bike felt equally fast and I found I was closing the distance on him really fast! I pulled alongside my friend, he gave me a surprised look, downshifted and pulled away only to have me catch up and fly past! Boy, was he surprised! He vented his surprise during our chai session and wanted to drag, saying that him riding wit a pillion was why I outstripped his 220. I agreed, we headed to a desolate stretch and let loose all the horses under our seats.. Did one.. the two.. then three 1/4 mile runs, and I was beating him by almost 3-4 bike lengths! My friend went home VERY disappointed that night never expecting a R15, or rather a R165 to beat his P220 so easily.

After this, I was very thrilled with my bike and wanted to test it's limits. Did a top speed run on the N.I.C.E road. In stock form, my bike used to do a top whack of 145kmph. This time found I was able to touch 148kmph! May not sound like much of a difference, that's because the difference lies in how quickly and easily the bike reaches there. In stock form, the bike wouldn't pull past 125kmph without me crouching. On the big-bore I managed upto 138kmph before the wind became too much to bear and I crouched to hit the highest speed my bike ever clocked - 148km/hr! I wanted a touring setup, and this was awesome coz I could now cruise at 120-130kmph without having to 'sleep on the tank'..!

Now I had the big-bore and the Simota filter that I'd bought a few months ago, realised that I needed the exhaust, cam and ECU to make this a full Stage-I R165. Hardly a month of running this setup and I'm itching to get the rest of these parts. This is a statutory warning Joel MUST put on his parts "These parts contained herein are evil, and will provoke you to push the speed envelope on a constant and thrilling basis"

I heard from Joel that he will be setting up a proper workshop soon, to make it easier for people buy and enjoy. Was thrilled to know that the site of the proposed workshop was quite close to my house! He also said he might have a fully kitted-up R165 for people to demo and get a taste of the monster that can be unleashed on their stock babies.

Great things are happening within the biking world in India. As more companies are looking at India as a market for their big bikes, and with world-class tuners such as Joel, the situation will only get better and better. Kudos to you man, and keep the parts comin!

I think this would be the right thread to share my experience with Joel's parts, as it would also corroborate KwokFist's review.

After spending close to a year with the stock R15 and with 20,000km on the ODO, I was beginning to look for bigger thrills. the Ninja seemed very enticing except for the hefty price tag. Was browsing my options on the net when I happened to read KwokFist's and Abhimanyu's reviews again. Suddenly convinced myself that spending on the parts would work out much better than investing in a new bike itself. Immediately bombarded poor Joel with SMS's askin him when I could come over and buy the parts. He responded promptly and I headed there first thing in the morning.

Joel's got this first-rate mech who dis-assembled the bore in no time at all! Was quite impressed.. He told me he's done these mods to 1000s of bikes. Does anyone need any more reassurance? lots of bikes running on Joe's mods with no complaints! So, got the big-bore kit fitted, while I had a good chat with Mr. Fieroid about the mod scene in India and how he became a tuner. Is an interesting person to talk to!

Poured in mineral oil that i'd brought along and I was off. Could immediately feel the difference in low-end power! Joel had instructed me to keep it under 6k rpm for abt 500km, and frankly I didn't feel the need to rev beyond.. The bike pulled so EFFORTLESSLY! yes thats the word to describe it. the engine note had turned a little gruntier, which I was enjoying, plus riding in Bangalore's hellish traffic was much much more enjoyable. The bike did feel a lil vibey in the beginning, but that was only because of the tight new engine. Now it is really smooth and rev-happy!

I rode about 250km in the first two days of owning the bore, and then decided to ride to Hyderabad to meet a buddy. So on a Friday evening I changed the oil to a mineral one again, tightened and lubed the chain, fuelled-up and set off for Hyd. Yes, on a 250km old bore. I rode at moderate speeds of 70 - 80kmph as I didnt want to stress the new parts. Kept modulating engine rpms to run-in the engine properly. After riding for 300km, I took a break for 15 mins, and then slowly began increasing speeds. I must mention here that highway riding is a breeze as you dont need to get lower than 6th gear, even if you slow down to 35 - 40 kmph. The bike will pull smoothly and effortlessly. Again I didnt do very high speeds coz of the new bore, so touched a max speed of 110 kmph on one stretch, and got back to cruising between 80-90kmph (Bike felt smoothest at this speed too). reached Hyderabad in 8 hours and was surprised to find that I still had some gas in the tank! Hyd is about 576km one way! Rode another 10km in the city and filled fuel again as I didnt want the bike to die out on me. So that translates into almost49kmpl!!! Was thrilled to bits!

Rode back to Bangalore with my friend as pillion on Sunday night. With rider+pillion+2 HUGE bags and speeds of 100+ almost constantly we still got a very acceptable 35kmpl! With this ride to Hyd and back, my run-in was done and I immediately changed my oil filter and oil (Agip fully Synth). Continued enjoying the bike for my daily commute to work and also on my weekend tours. Now comes the interesting part..

Met two friends of mine for chai late at night. We were riding alongside each other and chatting, my two buddies on a Pulsar 220S and me on my R165. We reached one of our favourite stretches of tarmac and my friend winked at me and took off, being fully used to the P220's power I accelerated too, but not WOT since I knew my bike wouldn't keep up, but surprise of surprises!! My bike felt equally fast and I found I was closing the distance on him really fast! I pulled alongside my friend, he gave me a surprised look, downshifted and pulled away only to have me catch up and fly past! Boy, was he surprised! He vented his surprise during our chai session and wanted to drag, saying that him riding wit a pillion was why I outstripped his 220. I agreed, we headed to a desolate stretch and let loose all the horses under our seats.. Did one.. the two.. then three 1/4 mile runs, and I was beating him by almost 3-4 bike lengths! My friend went home VERY disappointed that night never expecting a R15, or rather a R165 to beat his P220 so easily.

After this, I was very thrilled with my bike and wanted to test it's limits. Did a top speed run on the N.I.C.E road. In stock form, my bike used to do a top whack of 145kmph. This time found I was able to touch 148kmph! May not sound like much of a difference, that's because the difference lies in how quickly and easily the bike reaches there. In stock form, the bike wouldn't pull past 125kmph without me crouching. On the big-bore I managed upto 138kmph before the wind became too much to bear and I crouched to hit the highest speed my bike ever clocked - 148km/hr! I wanted a touring setup, and this was awesome coz I could now cruise at 120-130kmph without having to 'sleep on the tank'..!

Now I had the big-bore and the Simota filter that I'd bought a few months ago, realised that I needed the exhaust, cam and ECU to make this a full Stage-I R165. Hardly a month of running this setup and I'm itching to get the rest of these parts. This is a statutory warning Joel MUST put on his parts "These parts contained herein are evil, and will provoke you to push the speed envelope on a constant and thrilling basis"

I heard from Joel that he will be setting up a proper workshop soon, to make it easier for people buy and enjoy. Was thrilled to know that the site of the proposed workshop was quite close to my house! He also said he might have a fully kitted-up R165 for people to demo and get a taste of the monster that can be unleashed on their stock babies.

Great things are happening within the biking world in India. As more companies are looking at India as a market for their big bikes, and with world-class tuners such as Joel, the situation will only get better and better. Kudos to you man, and keep the parts comin!

First of all; a big and hearty congratulations ! Welcome to a very select clan of hotroders... by the way; I think now you will understand what I mean by the bike being under geared.... I bet you are searching for another gear when you are in 6th gear...

@ abhijeet080808

I still remember your innocent face at Joel's workshop. With loads of questions to Joel and was still afraid to go for his Air Filter alone.

See you caught the disease and now you have gone for 165CC Block and Head work, I swear you will endup with all FFE and ECU as soon as possible.

But man you are totally lucky to get a 20P R15 @ 80K that to just 5K done.

Great keep posting your updates.

Man o man! this is getting Hotter day by day. This cake is too good for any R15 owner. Congrats on the new riding Experience. And good write-up; keep it coming, as you enjoy your machine. Always a pleasure to read through such experiences, they are very RARE, atleast in India.

abhi----hmmm so you are walking the path. good to know.at lest will get a full blown report from you.'
ride safe and congratulations

Congratulations! Welcome to the club! You'll have a lot of fun with the bike in the long run for sure! Glad to be of some help through my thread and review of the setup on my bike. Enjoy riding! Ride safe!

Actually I'm yet to pen down a long term report. 6 months and 9000+kms don't justify it as long term enough for me so will wait a while longer as I haven't been riding this year as much I wanted to and I may be off saddle for a month or two from mid-June. Will probably write it towards the end of the year if i go for the next set of upgrades. I feel too lazy to write as more and more people are getting their R15s souped up I feel I don't need to say anything more. Abhimanyu disagrees and has been 'shouting' at me to do it But I rather sit back and enjoy his writing instead

I tried to keep the technicality on the lesser side in my thread and concentrated more on ride-ability so that people can understand the 'need for the upgrade'. For most people its difficult to accept that a 165 Kit is simply necessary. For a few who believed in it are actually enjoying riding their upgraded R15s and now fully understand the potential of a mod such as the 165 kit apart from the rest of the upgrades. And a few who have ridden my bike have always appreciated it and in some cases criticized their own bikes for under-performing



I had checked with Joel about it after our conversation when I had met up with him. Waiting for it to be launched-so to speak and plonk it on my bike along with some additional hardware.

Cheers!

Congratulations and welcome to the club mate! Good to see more people opening up their minds and doing more interesting things with their bikes.

Thank you for posting your review on my thread. Appreciate it. I feel glad to have posted my review now that more people are finding it useful in their decision making process and they can now compare for themselves and see that performance upgrades really do work as claimed by Joel and some of us who have been using it for months.

People still find it hard to believe but for a few of us who are doing what we love to do we are having a great time. Hope you have a great time riding your bike!

Cheers!

Day 4 (31st May, '11, 50+ kms on the odo) -


As I get stuck in traffic, I notice a peculiar behavior. When I am in the first 2 gears, feathering the throttle a bit from the closed position will quickly raise the rpm from 2k to 3k approx. and hence the bike pulls forward with a jerk. It is just like, as if I have deliberately twisted open the throttle with some aggression. The reverse too happens when I close the throttle at those rpms. So, in effect, it is not very easy to ride the bike in that rpm band, or rather around that throttle position. (Otherwise there is sufficient torque available to potter around easily even at those rpms!) This effect is felt in all gears, but is prominent in the lower gears only due to the immense torque available. And yes, this issue is present on the stock bike too. Only that it is not prominent because the stock bike does not make any torque at those rpms to give a jerk. It seems that there is some sort of fuelling issue when the throttle is like 5% open.
(I believe this is the same issue that was described earlier by Abhimanyu)

[B]

....Wow, I am impressed. All that remains is to see how the engine will behave at 7k and up. Will it still pull like a maniac? As I think over this, suddenly my commute is over, as I reach the office gates. Damn! I have to finish the run-in soon.

The same thing I feel on my 220FI. I think this is normal behavior of all "Fuel Injected" bikes. On opening and closing the throttle the jerks are felt as if we accelerated or deaccelerated suddenly. And yes, keep it coming, seems it is one heck of a enjoyable ride.

Yes it will, it will go berserk... and keep pulling and pulling...... let it run in properly, let the rings set and the vibrations will be gone....

Maybe it is something inherent to the way FI is built, but it was not that noticable earlier on the stock R15.



Happy to hear that.

Tell me one thing, how does Joel's ECU behave with repect to the jerk thing?