righto.................

handling wont take a beat. I was talking abt the accelration!

this was long pending bro....i stopped bothering abt these things...i just leave my bike for service they check everything and do the needful

Most of us have this habit of using only rear brakes and not the front ones. That is wrong. We have to use the front brakes more and then use the rear ones to aid the front brakes. 70% of stopping power comes from the front brakes. With disc brakes it should be even more (I guess!).

The rear brake pads are made with a different material that gives progressive braking and doesn't lock up the disc. Hence the material wears out quickly.

I hope you've got what I mean. Use the front brakes. Not the rear. One example, on the R15, my front brake pads needed replacement at 12K KMs and the rear needed a replacement at 15K KMs. But again, there were a handful of people who needed to replace rear brake pads below 5000 KMs.

that's ok thn...
i dont think tht 10mm will kill the timings by 1 sec or so, thn i think is superbly fine.....

Guys, am using a 80/90 R15 front that has brought the front down and a 100/90 rear which has brought the rear up. I SIMPLY dont find a huge difference in handling et al!! Anyways to each man his own...

HydBiker is right. All tires for bikes in India are cross-ply only. The only radial is the FZ rear!

@Julian: Ur true about the RTR mate! Once I switch from R15 to RTR I feel the same thing. I kinda dont like the ergo of th RTR so much. Its neither sporty nor commuterish. Feels like a mix and match of both!!!

@Renny: Welcome ur power missing with open arms......

handling wont take much beating as i told.....i am talking abt the pick up!

U obviously make the gearing taller, but not a great difference IMHO. Maybe urs is a 110/80 and so its got that extra weight and bigger contact patch affecting it. For tires of same weight and contact patch I feel it will not make a huge difference.

yes anna thats true.....bike feels comfy enoguh for crusing....am getting 69-70kmph @ 5k rpm.

The speedo error has increased by 1-2kmph when compared to other RTR's. Its coz of the r15 front tyre!

have'nt taken it out on the highway to feel higher speeds!

{epic post warning]

Thanks for your detailed comments man, appreciate it.

Ok, first, while i too agree that the rtr is a little rear heavy, I've never felt it uncomfortably so. In fact, as i've mentioned elsewhere, i've actually felt it needed a more front biased riding position. You probably feel this way coming from the r-15 as Apar too mentioned.
My fears are pretty much the opposite actually. Using a 17" would drop the rear, thus increasing the rear bias, which i absolutely would not want.
I have no idea where you've seen 100/80 in the Q. I've been checking the MRF site regularly, and the last 5 mins ago. No cigar. This is the URL i've checked: Two Wheelers. Plus the pdf in the exports page.
The product brochure just gave me an idea though. People insisting on the Q could go for the 90/90-18". It has a profile of 81mm, which is close to stock and while it may look skinnier, it would also create less drag than a 100 section.
An even better, but even skinnier option would be the C 3.00. While it would look like a friggin HH econommuter, the acceleration would be much improved!

I forgot to mention this earlier, but i changed the fuel filter the other day. When i was poking around the bike with the tank removed, i see that my injector is actually silver with a black rubber cap. So i actually had a silver injector all along, which is probably why i've never faced the missing issue. Funny, since my bike is a Sep '08 model. And i thought i had a magic black injector. Also probably why i never had the pull you mentioned of till 12k.

I was so friggin sure that both the R15 and the FZ were radial'd. Damn!

How would a higher profile tyre cause a loss in acceleration da? It's only a wider or heavier tyre that would do so. Everything is friggin confusing now. Damn TVS for doing the whole 18" crap.

Again, the 10mm is in height or profile. It's probably the weight. See my earlier entry about maintaining pickup.

Edit: Waitaminute, the 10mm profile increase would actually mean a 20mm total increase. Bottom+top profile. Think about it.

I have a slightly different issue with my bike. I never use the rear to slow the bike, only slight pressure while cornering to keep it in line. Still, while my pads have a decent amount of tread left in them at 11k+ kms, the disc has worn quite a bit. I know this because the outer circumference of the disc is much thicker than the inner, biting surface. And the front, which i use very heavily, has negligible wear on the disc. I'm guessing there's a prob in static pressure in the caliper, which is causing excessive wear on the disc.

Exactly what i feel!

A higher profile makes the gearing taller.

And the reason I mentioned in the ZMR thread about 18-inch tubeless is this: The 200/220 started off with 17-inch tubeless and almost all manufacturers jumped the wagon and now it has a plethora of options from 100/80 all the way to 140/60! And even the 120/80 has a lot of options from various manufacturers.

So even though the 18-inch OEM on ZMR is MRF,am sure CEAT/DUNLOP will not sleep. Also I have hunch that MRF will come up with more tread patterns. The ZMR I feel has just started the trend. More manufacturers will adopt this(CBZ Extreme, Unicorn etc) soon. So put this issue to sleep for some more time and let it be for another 6 months and watch the market. Then go tire hunting and am sure a lot more options will be available by then!!

P.S: The above is my 2 cents or idea or gut feeling. Dont come hunting for me after 6 months if my above statement does not work!!!

Aah, gearing. Forgot about that one.

While i completely accept your above explanation, I have a slightly different theory about the future. My gut feeling is that the few manufacturers sticking to 18" will soon switch to 17". HH is in another league altogether. For them it's maximising profits by sharing components. I still remember munjal when asked about why the cbz, with it's stupid fold-footrest-kick, didn't have a starter, he actually said that there was no market demand for it. not even when people were spending 8-10k fitting starters on their cbz. However, when other, newer bikes in the HH stable came with starters, magically, the market demand for a starter in the cbz appeared, and the star was born. i will never forgive munjal for that

p.s. please see my edit in the epic post about the 20mm overall height increase and comment. i'm not sure if i'm right.

Well then, u can do the switch after a 3 months atleast then, cant u?

P.S: Am pathetic w.r.t calculations and so dont even ask me about it!

RTR Vibes

A lot of potential buyers are apprehensive about the vibes being excessive in the rtr so i'll share my experience.

I have an FI and many people have mentioned that the vibes are greatly reduced, if noticeable, in the 180 so keep that in mind. Below is my FI experience.

At around 5k rpm, the handlebar vibes are so bad that my palms get all red and tingly and absolutely unbearable. So cruising at that rpm is out of the question. Above and below that rpm it's pretty acceptable.

From about 5.75k rpm to 6.5k the pillion footrest vibrate, again unbearably, so you will have to avoid that rpm range if riding with a pillion. Simplest solution is to just cruise faster than 7k rpm. During normal city riding, while you may pass through the 'problem' rpm ranges, it's usually over before it can be an irritant.

From what i've heard of the 180, these issues are negligble, so while it still may not be as smooth as a H or HH or Y bike, it's still probably better than a Bull i guess. So if you want a reasonably priced, screamer of a bike, then go for the rtr.

absolutely man. we poor boys can wait for very long

It's been a year on the stock tyre, and while i'm not happy with not being able to really push the bike around corners, i've learned to take it easy and stay upright!
Initially the plan was to change the tyres before the rains, that didn't happen. Then it was after the rains, looks like that isn't happening either. So i guess before the 2010 monsoon is a good target! besides, i'll make full use of the stock tyre, i wont feel like i've wasted a new tyre. (i'm a friggin miser ain't i?)

Anyone tried fitting Pulsar200/220 Oil-Cooler in Apache?Retrofit?I think this bike will definitely benefit with oil-cooler.