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2018 CBR650F Ownership
My first post here and I'm writing with the hope that some may find it useful. Please feel free to suggest corrections and edits, thank you. Especially if you feel there are too many words please let me know, I'll edit out the non-essential bits.
My biking history:
1996 RE STD 350. Bought used in 2008.
2011 Pulsar 220.
2013 KTM Duke 390.
2016 RE Himalayan (sold it in 9 months)
2018 CBR650F (5 days old as on date of writing -13/02/2018)
Intro - I'm not a very talented person. My days are spent juggling between work and deciding what to mix with my rum. And working 6 days a week doesn't really leave much room for singing in the rain. There are two things that have always given me a surge of life juice and that tingly feeling in my teeth: Riding, and the Woods. Now there are people in this world with that behemoth bohemian belief to do the new and impossible. I'm not worthy of standing in those ranks, and I've grown to be okay with it. But I have my own brand of eccentricity, however little, of travelling to places you couldn't get to without spending a few days hiking in mud, slush and thorny bush. I'm not in college anymore so those days of reckless abandon are now few and far between. However, I do prioritize and find myself indulging my substantial motorcycle habit far too often.
I learnt to ride motorcycles when I was 11 years old. That was back in 2001. The Hero Honda CBZ and the original round headlight Pulsar were all the rage then. There were, of course, the Fieros and the two stroke RDs, RXs, Samurais, and Shoguns too. All of these were bikes a boy would dream of owning some day. There were also Bullets, the real ones. You had to have mechanical leanings and a devoted motorcyclist lifestyle to own one of those. Very different from the stuff that RE sells these days. There were also the Yezdis and the Jawas, the truest-to-form heritage motorcycles available in the country.
And that was it. This was the thriving biking scene in India back then. I grew up with posters of Ducatis and Bimotas and R6's and CBRs (along with an assortment of helicopters and fixed wing aircraft) on my wall but dreamt only of owning a CBZ or a Pulsar or a Karizma some day. That was the limit of aspirations set by my middle class upbringing. Fast forward to 2017 and I'm sick of 20-30 Horsepower motorcycles. Alas, gone are the days of motorcycles revving up to 18000 RPM, making that demonic, frantic sound I grew up drooling over. Euro IV norms have killed the golden age of motorcycles, restricting everything that makes motorcycles fun. At least that's the case for the 600cc class motorcycles that I can now (somewhat) afford.
Choosing a bike: Being on the wrong side of 25 and dangerously close to 30, I decided to put down some money toward a real, actual motorcycle. First I looked at the Benelli 600i, for obvious reasons. It's the cheapest inline-4 in the market and sounds bloody good. I formed a rapport with the salesman at the Pune showroom and took 2 test rides, one of them 3 hours long. After having ridden it in traffic and on the highway I can say this about the test bike - It was unwieldy and its power unusable until you got to 9,000 rpm. And the brakes were shit. Service interval is every 4000 kms even though the engine is from a 2005 Yamaha R6. That's where Benelli recoup the money from you by the way. Your warranty is void if you don't stick to the service interval, each costing about 8000 - 10,000/- I've also heard rumours that DSK has filed for bankruptcy so reliability and parts availability therefore is an issue. At 6.84 Lakh on road Pune, not very a good deal in my opinion. Especially for someone who rides 2000 kms a month on average.
Second, I looked at the Versys 650. It was perfect in all respects. The ergonomics, the touring ability, even the feel and character of the engine. I do not like parallel twin engines, just something off about the way they feel. The Ninja 650 for example, feels vibe-y and shake-y to me, like a Pulsar on steroids and not much else. But the Versys, which has the same engine as the ninja is a different animal altogether. If I didn't know otherwise, I'd say they were two very, VERY different engines. I was blown away by the feel, character, punch, and refinement of the Versys 650. Only problem is I have that inline 3/ inline 4 itch that I must scratch. I feel like the Versys can be the bike I can keep for 20 years after I've got my fill of sporty inline 4s out of my system. At 7.76 Lakh on road Pune, I feel that it is the most bike you can buy for your money.
Third was the CBR650f. I never looked at it as a real option before actually, seriously coming to the market for a middleweight motorcycle to buy. It checks all the right boxes - inline 4 engine, Honda reliability, excellent ownership reviews, alarmingly low maintenance costs, fully faired for highway touring, etc. Before I got into researching this bike I thought of it as over-priced, sedate, boring, and quiet. That prejudice was shattered as I kept on digging into it on the internet. Today, there isn't a youtube video or an article or a forum review on this motorcycle that I haven't watched/read at least once. I test rode it on 3 occasions from 3 dealers in 3 different cities. The stock exhaust leaves a little to be desired but that's a compromise I'm willing to make. In Delhi the difference between the on road price of the CBR650f and the Kawa Z900 is 50,000 or so. In Maharashtra, it is 2.5 Lakh thanks to the weird CBU tax structure here. If I lived in Delhi, I would have been hard pressed to make a decision between these two but Maharashtra state taxes made that decision for me. Also, from all the reviews it seems the CBR is an absolute delight to ride in corners. That part is super important to me.
Lastly, there was the Street Triple. Two of my closest riding buddies have Striples and I've ridden those bikes a lot. It's a brilliant motorcycle but a little too expensive for me and also a little small (I'm 6'4). It isn't the best at touring but not bad at it either. if it was priced within 9 Lakh on road I would've seriously considered it. But as it stands at close to 11 lakh on road Pune, I simply could not afford it.
Buying Experience: After considering all of the above I booked the CBR650F in Millennium Red in Nov 2017. The booking amount was 25000/- and the On road price quoted was Rs. 8.34 Lakh. I had it financed through HDFC at 10% rate of interest. The dealer is Pashankar Auto in Shivajinagar. My experience with them has been very good and the bike was delivered earlier than promised.
Initial Impressions: This is a seriously smooth motorcycle, with the power delivery up to 6000 rpm being extremely predictable and linear. I'm still running-in the engine and will add updates as and when they happen. Only gripe I have is how quiet the bike is but that is easily fixed with aftermarket options. The riding posture for me being 6 feet 4 inches tall is very comfortable. So far I've done one 4 hour long ride and didn't feel any discomfort whatsoever. City riding is no issue either. The seat also is wide and spacious. Fuel consumption as reported on the dashboard on the highway is 20.4 KMPL at 5000 rpm and in city is around 17 KMPL.
Will add more details in the coming days.
Some pictures:
More pictures to follow.
Happy Riding!
-Bolt
POST APPROVED AND MERGED
Kindly re-edit your post, remove all the HTML tags and make it presentable. Kudos on your new acquisition. Ride safe!
My first post here and I'm writing with the hope that some may find it useful. Please feel free to suggest corrections and edits, thank you. Especially if you feel there are too many words please let me know, I'll edit out the non-essential bits.
My biking history:
1996 RE STD 350. Bought used in 2008.
2011 Pulsar 220.
2013 KTM Duke 390.
2016 RE Himalayan (sold it in 9 months)
2018 CBR650F (5 days old as on date of writing -13/02/2018)
Intro - I'm not a very talented person. My days are spent juggling between work and deciding what to mix with my rum. And working 6 days a week doesn't really leave much room for singing in the rain. There are two things that have always given me a surge of life juice and that tingly feeling in my teeth: Riding, and the Woods. Now there are people in this world with that behemoth bohemian belief to do the new and impossible. I'm not worthy of standing in those ranks, and I've grown to be okay with it. But I have my own brand of eccentricity, however little, of travelling to places you couldn't get to without spending a few days hiking in mud, slush and thorny bush. I'm not in college anymore so those days of reckless abandon are now few and far between. However, I do prioritize and find myself indulging my substantial motorcycle habit far too often.
I learnt to ride motorcycles when I was 11 years old. That was back in 2001. The Hero Honda CBZ and the original round headlight Pulsar were all the rage then. There were, of course, the Fieros and the two stroke RDs, RXs, Samurais, and Shoguns too. All of these were bikes a boy would dream of owning some day. There were also Bullets, the real ones. You had to have mechanical leanings and a devoted motorcyclist lifestyle to own one of those. Very different from the stuff that RE sells these days. There were also the Yezdis and the Jawas, the truest-to-form heritage motorcycles available in the country.
And that was it. This was the thriving biking scene in India back then. I grew up with posters of Ducatis and Bimotas and R6's and CBRs (along with an assortment of helicopters and fixed wing aircraft) on my wall but dreamt only of owning a CBZ or a Pulsar or a Karizma some day. That was the limit of aspirations set by my middle class upbringing. Fast forward to 2017 and I'm sick of 20-30 Horsepower motorcycles. Alas, gone are the days of motorcycles revving up to 18000 RPM, making that demonic, frantic sound I grew up drooling over. Euro IV norms have killed the golden age of motorcycles, restricting everything that makes motorcycles fun. At least that's the case for the 600cc class motorcycles that I can now (somewhat) afford.
Choosing a bike: Being on the wrong side of 25 and dangerously close to 30, I decided to put down some money toward a real, actual motorcycle. First I looked at the Benelli 600i, for obvious reasons. It's the cheapest inline-4 in the market and sounds bloody good. I formed a rapport with the salesman at the Pune showroom and took 2 test rides, one of them 3 hours long. After having ridden it in traffic and on the highway I can say this about the test bike - It was unwieldy and its power unusable until you got to 9,000 rpm. And the brakes were shit. Service interval is every 4000 kms even though the engine is from a 2005 Yamaha R6. That's where Benelli recoup the money from you by the way. Your warranty is void if you don't stick to the service interval, each costing about 8000 - 10,000/- I've also heard rumours that DSK has filed for bankruptcy so reliability and parts availability therefore is an issue. At 6.84 Lakh on road Pune, not very a good deal in my opinion. Especially for someone who rides 2000 kms a month on average.
Second, I looked at the Versys 650. It was perfect in all respects. The ergonomics, the touring ability, even the feel and character of the engine. I do not like parallel twin engines, just something off about the way they feel. The Ninja 650 for example, feels vibe-y and shake-y to me, like a Pulsar on steroids and not much else. But the Versys, which has the same engine as the ninja is a different animal altogether. If I didn't know otherwise, I'd say they were two very, VERY different engines. I was blown away by the feel, character, punch, and refinement of the Versys 650. Only problem is I have that inline 3/ inline 4 itch that I must scratch. I feel like the Versys can be the bike I can keep for 20 years after I've got my fill of sporty inline 4s out of my system. At 7.76 Lakh on road Pune, I feel that it is the most bike you can buy for your money.
Third was the CBR650f. I never looked at it as a real option before actually, seriously coming to the market for a middleweight motorcycle to buy. It checks all the right boxes - inline 4 engine, Honda reliability, excellent ownership reviews, alarmingly low maintenance costs, fully faired for highway touring, etc. Before I got into researching this bike I thought of it as over-priced, sedate, boring, and quiet. That prejudice was shattered as I kept on digging into it on the internet. Today, there isn't a youtube video or an article or a forum review on this motorcycle that I haven't watched/read at least once. I test rode it on 3 occasions from 3 dealers in 3 different cities. The stock exhaust leaves a little to be desired but that's a compromise I'm willing to make. In Delhi the difference between the on road price of the CBR650f and the Kawa Z900 is 50,000 or so. In Maharashtra, it is 2.5 Lakh thanks to the weird CBU tax structure here. If I lived in Delhi, I would have been hard pressed to make a decision between these two but Maharashtra state taxes made that decision for me. Also, from all the reviews it seems the CBR is an absolute delight to ride in corners. That part is super important to me.
Lastly, there was the Street Triple. Two of my closest riding buddies have Striples and I've ridden those bikes a lot. It's a brilliant motorcycle but a little too expensive for me and also a little small (I'm 6'4). It isn't the best at touring but not bad at it either. if it was priced within 9 Lakh on road I would've seriously considered it. But as it stands at close to 11 lakh on road Pune, I simply could not afford it.
Buying Experience: After considering all of the above I booked the CBR650F in Millennium Red in Nov 2017. The booking amount was 25000/- and the On road price quoted was Rs. 8.34 Lakh. I had it financed through HDFC at 10% rate of interest. The dealer is Pashankar Auto in Shivajinagar. My experience with them has been very good and the bike was delivered earlier than promised.
Initial Impressions: This is a seriously smooth motorcycle, with the power delivery up to 6000 rpm being extremely predictable and linear. I'm still running-in the engine and will add updates as and when they happen. Only gripe I have is how quiet the bike is but that is easily fixed with aftermarket options. The riding posture for me being 6 feet 4 inches tall is very comfortable. So far I've done one 4 hour long ride and didn't feel any discomfort whatsoever. City riding is no issue either. The seat also is wide and spacious. Fuel consumption as reported on the dashboard on the highway is 20.4 KMPL at 5000 rpm and in city is around 17 KMPL.
Will add more details in the coming days.
Some pictures:
More pictures to follow.
Happy Riding!
-Bolt
POST APPROVED AND MERGED
Kindly re-edit your post, remove all the HTML tags and make it presentable. Kudos on your new acquisition. Ride safe!
saying so because I am right in the middle of my journey to 50 from 40 ( exactly 45 ) and I yes I have went out of my way ( across the continent actually!) to get this bike. 
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