The day the Earth stood still! (Part I)

It's been 2 months I've been living with my green babe, but never got time to add a write up here about my experience.
Today I thought its never too late to write my ownership experience specially with an eventful 1st month and somewhat smooth second month.
Also I have been enjoying reading Ninja ownership thread and learning from others about their experience (Thank you n_aditya / ajaymanohar / sudeepnbr )

I have ridden bikes for long time and none of the desi bikes excited me anymore. The last bike I had (CBZ which was my 6th bike I guess), was sold 3+ years ago since I was busy during week days in office + life and go out in my scorpio with family mostly during weekends. It was unused and under utilized so I sold it off.

The Ninja part of the story started in my life when the initial rumours of Ninja 250R launch showed up on blogs and magazines. I was very excited and started reading and watching videos about it almost everyday. I knew anything above 250 (33bhp) would be unused power and money for my usage scenario.
(If I ever have excess money, will think about a bigger bike for weekend rides )

So the next requirement was to get an idea of when the launch would be and approx. price. That's where my wife's help came to use. She after going through several calls with different people in PBK and Pune managed to get the person in charge in Pune. It didn't solve the requirement of getting approx price or launch date/year. More than a year we followed up to learn about the launch timelines without much help. I wanted to change my scorpio and after waiting for more than 1yr of following up, I gave up waiting bored and changed my Scorpio. I invested about 2L which I had kept aside for the bike.

Then after some 6months or so came the "bad news" (bad for me), that Ninja 250R is launching in India.
I had no clue how to react to the news and life had taken several twists that I could not immediately afford the 3L price.
I went once to PBK to see the bike and never had the guts to go back and have a sinking heart. A lot changed in life including different priorities and bike dream slowly started fading.

Our Wedding anniversary was on May 2nd and unlike the usual discussion/questions about gifting, my wife was silent. This made me a little tensed but I tried not to show it off in our conversations. I also noticed her showing a sudden interest in bikes and asking me the difference between Ninja 250 & CBR 250 and which one I like etc.

Finally the day came and she broke the news few days before our Anniversary that she had gone ahead and booked a Ninja 250R and I will be getting it by end of April!
She blew-up all her earnings from her business for the pricy gift!!! The best gift I ever got!

Days became longer and longer till the day I got the delivery I don't remember I was ever excited like this before ... but it was time to Twist the Trottle and paint Bangalore Green!
Like everyone else I wanted to get to 1K km soon, so that I can get out of the rpm restrictions (run-in) and get the music of higher rpm for my ears!

to be continued....

Kudos to your wife *three cheers*
You must be proud of her.
Enjoy the bike and tell her that your buddies on the forum think she is every mans dream
Congratulations

@xyz : having your feet on the brake also seems to be a probable cause of what someone here experienced as that would result in brake fade. One of my friends out here in Pune used to do that every single time he rode my Ninja :s

Congrats sukeshak! Your wife is truly an epitome of love ! Wishing the three of you all the best, and good times ahead :-)

A real BHAINS KI ANNKH moment !!! (edit: BKA is not a slang. It's used by me to express UTTER SHOCK) !! WOW !! Envy your luck man. Have a wonderful time with your new babe & don't forget your wife on the pillion seat

A respectful bow to your wife from my side please!!

If something like that ever happened to me I'd die out of sheer shock and excitement and gratefulness and what not!!

Damn! Did I read that right? Seriously envy you buddy! I still haven't told my wife about the price of my bike

Congrats and thanks for ruining my day

Hi Sukesh,
Never knew this side of the story. You should be a very proud husband.
Lots of respect to your wife.
Waiting for Part II, III, IV, V.....
Cheers,
Sudeep

Congrats buddy... kudos to your wife..

PS: I wish when I get married . , she gifts me with the ZX-10R...

Guys,
Help needed!!!
I will be headed towards spiti this weedend and have come to know that 91 octane fuel wont be available. Bajaj PRB guys say that if i use normal fuel/ adultrated fuel, then engine knocking etc. is a possibility.

Does a tank full of such fuel is enough to damage the engine?
How to solve this problem? Additives, etc....

Pls advise......

Thanks for the reply tenhut, I think my description of the incident was improper. The front end of the bike actually lost weight while I was coming out of the hairpin bend. The factors that led to my fall can be summarised as folllows-
1. Acceleration coming out of the hairpin bend.
2. The upward incline
3. The road changing the camber angle.
4. My relaxed position on the saddle - Instead of leaning forward on the tank I was sitting in a more upright posture causing the C of G to shift backwards and hence even less weight on the front.

The reason i mention about the feedback being relatively lesser is that I have done this particular ghat section a number of times on my Pulsar 180, in a similar fashion but there was always ample feedback to me about how much grip the front end had. In the Ninja case some of that feedback seemed to be lacking. But there is no doubt that it was entirely my mistake and not the bikes' fault.

The purpose of posting this is just so that some newer riders don't make the same mistakes which I made.

Thanks
Akshay

I have been using normal fuel for nearly last 2 years without any kind of problem.

congratulations!such a lovely bike & loving wife!you are a lucky man!respect to your wife indeed.

+1.thats a real nice gesture by his wife.


cheers.

What are you saying mate

The booklet clearly states that we must use 91 Octane fuel. But your saying so gives me enough confidence to use normal fuel on this trip. Lets hope nothing happens. Why I am quite concerned in this matter is that I did met a guy who was facing "engine knocking". Mostly it is due to adultrated fuel, which (most likely), I will get on this trip. Lets hope for the best!
Thanks!

I pretty much always fill normal fuel when inside the city. I think the new BS4 standard mandates 93 octane fuel, which is sold by all pumps within the city limits (or atleast should be).

But yes, when going to small places, fuel quality maybe an issue and you may end up with a knocking engine at best and a damaged fueling system at worst.

I have had knocking using normal fuel from BPCL.. Filled it thrice... just for a recheck from different BPCL pumps.

But with HPCL normal.. the engine is just smooth and fine..
Even shell normal gives a bit of vibrations in handle bar...