February 19th, just another Sunday morning with generously empty early morning roads, i was going on my regular weekend tution to Park Street from Barrackpore, a 25km commute... Speedo around 55-60ish, was cruising on the 18km straight stretch of B.T road ( Kolkata-bhpians will know ), not very far from home ( about 1-2 kms ) suddenly a aged man with a bicycle waiting in the road-divider region begins to cross, just about 100metres from me... Then he realises the situation and freezes, much more to my agony...

Riding a dual-disc Apache for 1 year, i had already thoroughly trained my sinews that whatever happens, dont "panic-brake-lock" out the discs cuz i would have swept him out in the slip and slide as well .... I swerve in the little gap between him and the divider, then to avoid slamming in it, pull with my might and fall on my left... Hands and knees automatically fly out, and i get a generous amount of cuts, infection on my hands, elbows, even shoulder and a shattered patella on my knee...

But my bike suffers such minor scratches on the saree guard, knee guard, and a bent gear shift lever that my friends could not believe comparing between my condition and the clean and sparkling bike ...


Life as i knew slips out, and 2 months go by going to-and-fro Apollo Gleneagles hospital. Now 19th February to 19th May has crawled by and i am about to regain my normal life with a almost-normal ( yet painful ) knee . But my favourite beast has also gone into hibernation as i see...

Yesterday was my first look at the bike after the accident ( it was locked away by my dad ), there seems to be some oil on the front mudguard. [ Probably a blown oil seal of the shocks ?? ] and also a little around the smaller circular disc on the right side of gearbox. The battery is totally dead, even speedo wont turn on. After 30 minutes of generous kicking , finally it breathed some life with the choke-on and a open throttle. Revved it for around 15 minutes, engine was warmed up to burning temps, all electricals were performing okay. But whenever i let down the throttle, it shuts off, and just absolutely remains dead kick starting it without the choke. With the choke however, it starts up with 2-3 kicks. Today also i repeated the same exercise with a similar result ... [ A noob tension, the carb jets would not get clogged due to staying idle , can it ]

Now i need to give it for immediate servicing, so what checklist would u guys suggest i adhere to in order to get back the former zippy old Apache RTR 160 of mine ??

Also i was going with the stock tyres, and although they were not to blame for this incident, having read about their slippery nature and having experienced some " on-the-ice" like skidding during the rainy seasons, i would like to go for a change ( and a upsize too )...

{ Just a notifier, reading around posts in Knee-Geeks forum for the past 2 months, it feels so happy just to be back here , a thanks in advance }

Also , Kolkata Xbhpians, would be very glad if anybody could provide any reference to a good mechanic in and around city since i am already out of warranty and would like to shift bases of operation to a more reliable and knowledgeable place