Mate, those are not original AGVs. They are Indian made and IMHO worthless if and when you have a spill at the speeds Ninja can achieve.

My suggestion for you would be to look at helmets that doesn't compromise much on quality and does not bite your pocket hard. Have a look at SOL helmets - from what i have heard from people who have been using it, its pretty good bang for your buck.

I have been using a LS2 previously which were VFM too but a bit on the heavier side.

thanks bro,will check out ls2 and SOL soon....

@Vinbex: as our brother @zerotosixty, mentioned about replica AGVs, it's a possibility. LS2 on the other hand, is good...when you are upgrading from Vega/Studd, it's a good choice. How I wish to see a PlanetDSG shop in Chennai, man!!! we need to see and try out other good brands.

Back in Blr

Just back from a two day, 800km roundtrip to my hometown with samschenker and I'm here posting on xBhp instead of taking a bath and eating dinner like a normal person. I'm here because I have an incredible story to share and I have to share it now, lest I wake up tomorrow morning and think it was all a dream. No, it's not about the sort of roads that dreams are made of (Jalsoor-Mulleria, see pic below).

It about my Ninja's incredible fuel economy.

(Stop shouting at me, mom. Yes, I will take a bath. Yeah, I know I'm filthy. Gah. Just leave me alone.)

Filled 12.5l at Shell the evening before we left and I usually get a bit over 300 (24kmpl consistent) on a tank but, on our way out, I crossed the 350km mark with no yellow light to be seen. I started to worry a little in case the sensor/lamp was kaput and I'd be left on some lonely road with not a drop to burn. I toggled the key and the fuel lamp tested ok. I opened the tank and there was what looked like petrol sloshing about. Hmm. Strange. "Hope for the best and ride on", I thought, and that's what we did. The lamp came on solid finally at 400km. That gives us a highway* economy of 32kmpl. Nice.

Don't go away. My story is just beginning (stop groaning, that's very rude). Later on, I filled 3.09l+7.35l. We started back. We crossed the 300km mark. No light, no surprise. Crossed the 350km mark, no light, one eyebrow raised. Nearing the 400km mark, no light, both eyebrows raised. Around 390km, the light started to come on intermittently and finally at 409km it came on solid. That gives us a highway efficiency of... 39kmpl (!). Huh, really?

Now I'd like to understand how/why this happened. Here is an exhaustive list of the possibilities-

- The fuel in Kerala is cheaper than Bangalore *and* more potent (just like the toddy :P)
- The petrol pumps in Kerala reverse cheat people and slip Rs 50 extra fuel after a clever attention divert. Unlike Bangalore pump guys. Mallus are a generous people, so no surprise.
- Cooler weather allowed engine to run leaner and the engine runs optimally at 6k rpm, which is what I was doing on the straights.
- I'm utterly awesome.
- Everybody gets 39kmpl.

Now, a pic of our bikes on the Jalsoor-Mulleria road-



P.S. My numbers will be backed up by samschenker. I fib you not. Oh, and if you want to have an interesting conversation with samschenker, ask him about the cobra incident.

(*) In spite of having plenty of beautiful, throttle-twisting, clutch-wrenching, gear-shifting twisties on the way. Not ideal on the mileage front. Ideal on the fun front.

Also depends on where you buy the helmets from. I went to Orion Yamaha, in Bangalore, and they asked me 5k for an LS2 helmet. I decided to give Lalbagh a visit. I got the same helmet, in the color of my choice (matte black) at 2.9k. If you're planning you visit Bangalore in the near future, here's the shop:

Helmet Paradise
13/2, H. Siddaiah Road, Opp. Urvashi Theatre, Lalbagh, Bangalore - 2.
You can also call these guys: +91-80-41496841

Also, a question from my side:
Has anyone heard of good radiator guards for the Ninja? I recently came back from a ride to Nandi Hills and discovered that the radiator was beginning to get dirty with the muck and dust flying around. I'm going to clean it but it's better to avoid this. I wouldn't want to damage any radiator fins with debris flying off the front wheel (remember the short front mudguard?)

I'm not surprised, the Kerala xBhp group calculated a mileage of 40kmpl for the Kerala Ninja (my ninja's pet name by KL xBhp) during our Tri-state G2G to Munnar last year.

Reasons we came up were also the same as you mentioned.

The fuel economy is because of a certain awesome dude who is half Japanese.
The incredible tailbag allows you to travel light, hence increasing the fuel efficiency!

Jokes apart, happy that you have kicked off your very first mega ride on your new bike!

Ninja's mileage makes me feel ashamed to share mine

No pic we have will do justice to what the roads were from Jalsoor to Mulleria 30Km of two lane twistes inside the forest and close to zero traffic, here is the map

The cobra encounter phew, a cobra standing less than a feet with its head high as you pass by my heart stopped for a min there. May be BV's ninja is attracted to snakes (dead or alive)

I've been thinking about the same thing. And some of that mud is too deep to wash off so you have a semi-permanent loss of air flow. I wonder if simple window-blinds could be adapted here. May not be pretty but I'll check it out next weekend and see if it's practical.

And there I was thinking it was all because of awesome me :P

Hehe, thanks bluevolt. I wouldn't call it "mega ride" though. Just a nice start.

That road is literally perfect. Trees. Pleasant temperatures. Very little traffic. No dirt. Neatly painted. No flaws or bumpiness. Great turns all the way. And on the way there from Bangalore, you go via Madikeri which itself has some excellent stretches around it. Anyone who's going thereabouts should definitely give this road a ride before the next monsoons.

Interestingly, the road till Jalsoor, which lies in Karnataka, is not so great. As soon as you cross the gate into Kerala you get this superb stretch. So not only do Mals pay less in taxes, they also have better roads. "God's own country", indeed.

my longest ride yet on my ninja

yesterday 29th jan 2012 went for a long solo drive on my ninja. started 5-00 am from thiruvananthapuram, back 8-00 am today (30th jan 2012)

total kms covered - 1727,

out of which kms covered within 24 hours - 1637 on the bike odo, on map 1615.

tired / sleepless to the extend on leave for today.

i am happy i could do it too. thanks to xbhp. my ninja without which i could not have pulled off the kms especially during last 3 hours and at night.

will put a write up in tour thread shortly.

@ harikeshpk..,. Awesome man! Right now am just dreaming of rides /trips like this.... There are some guys on the tourer thread plannin for a trip to Mt Abu in April sometime am eagerly awaiting an looking forward to this... Still need to find some guys from the Goa to Bombay part so that i don't have to ride from Goa alone... Hoping things crystallize in the next 2 months!

jeof this ride is almost one year old in my ride list. just waiting for the right time to execute.

things will work your way jeof. the interest you show explains it all.

Thanks for the moral support bro. I always miss home here in the UAE. Working here though is what paid for the bike and is paying for mods to come... The ride is a year old?? Now i know something's wrong... Just a few days back the blog showed over 1200 pages and now it shows i'm on page 851... It show posted yesterday.... So it's Jan 2011 then and somehow when i'm viewing pages here it's like you posted yesterday! Weird. Earlier this afternoon it seemed like the site was down and i just could not opened... It said server error and server is busy... So which page number has the blog actually reached then? How do i get to the current pages... Don't seem able to!

How the hell do you get 32 kmpl on a highway. Where you cruising under 6000 rpm all along?

Just got back from a trip to Kerala. Next time i will try that Mulleria road from Bangalore

Is it me or dont you guys just like to RIP this thing? During running-in i got the max like 36!! NOwadays am getting anywhere between 18 -25!!


Had the biggest ride on the NInja so far. 4000kms involving Pune to Chennai, 400 kms (100 + laps) on the chennai race track with California Superbike School, Chennai to Kottayam and finally Kottayam to Chennai.

The bike withstood the test of both the pace and endurance required for such a long ride. It also took the track abuse in its stead well. No probs, Nil Nada!!

@EverShine: I guess, BV's green beast likes you more ...I too noticed around 38 KMPL, within 1600 KMs break-in period...afterwards, I'm getting 34-35 KMPL on the highway...well, in a group ride I don't ride beyond 90 KMPH, for the pack to move together... occasional bursts up to 150, is included, in the count of 34-35KMPL...