well said...some similar "character" from a Bajaj product would have been labelled "low-quality, bad engineering, reliability issue..."
This my dear friend can also be called "Brand Affinity" or "Owner Affinity"

Before any of you hit the quick reply button, take time to think...anyway, whatever you may write in response to this, please do not expect me to react

I don't care if it's tvs, bajaj, yamaha or ducati. put out a bad product and you WILL get flak for it. the company(ies) have a reponsibility to the customers who are investing their trust and hard earned money in their product. but then again, as a friend said to me just yesterday, indians don't seem to have much value for money these days.

the 'chalta hain attitude' has to go before we can truly go world class and achieve standards the rest of the world has.

While you are great so far at mixing stuff, I would still say most of this is OT.

What was said in the thread was plain and simple, every bike has a character... be it any company you mentioned...
for example even in bigger bikes Yamaha, Suzuki are seen as more aggressive than Honda... Honda, though makes world class bikes is tagged as 'uncles' bike by many... the reason.. simple, its the way these companies have evolved... I buy your point about products being top notch and what not but that has got nothing to go with what the earlier post mentioned as the "character" of the bike...

To put it very simply...

Think hard on this one...

Imagine a Splendour... what do you see?

Imagine a RX100... what do you see?

Are they different?

Are they more or less similar to what you would think when I said think of Hero honda and Yamaha? That my friend is the character of the bike getting synonym with the brand...

Oh and btw both of these products are\were pretty world class in their category, thats what they meant by 'character' my friend...

Hey guys,

Ive been following this thread ever since my younger brother picked up a lovely yellow RTR (love those tank extensions!) . I get to ride it on my occassional trips home. Have a couple of queries which I hope you RTR owners can answer

1. Last week I was doing around 60 kmph when an auto started pulling out of a lane. Uncharacteristically I used the rear brake to slow down and then realised that the auto was pulling out of lane rapidly. Continued to use the rear brake and the tail fishtailed like hell with a quite movie-esque tyre screech. This on a totally dry freshly tarred road with no loose sand or anything else on it. Do you guys also face this problem ? How bad is it going to get in the rain ?

2. Now that the first couple of servicings have been done I thought I would check the performace. Did a max of 105 kmmph but I had no confidence in the bike at that speed. I guess the lightness and flickability of the bike that makes it a marvel in the city contributes to this lack of confidence at high speeds. Not to mention the vibes are quite evident at that speed. I am way more confident at speeds upwards of 100 kmph on my P150 classic, can anything be done to increase stability at high speeds ? Will fitting a wider rear help ? Or is it just me ?

3. Finding nuetral is a pain in the .... Everytime I have to shift to nuetral I have to take my eyes down to the clocks and kep looking for the elusive green 'N' It was never like this earlier. Any suggestions on what needs to be done ?

Just a suggestion, had seen a yellow Apache some time back in Blore which retained the headlight but was without the bikini fairing and retained its clocks. My opinion - Wow !

dude .dont mind but ..the things you have have mentioned seem to be you dont know how to ride a bike

1.we should never and i mean NEVER use only our rear brake for slowing down
the ratio which i use is 7[front]:3[rear]

2.its one of the most stable bikes i have rode ..
after the p220 , zma , p200 the RTR is much stable on high speeds ,,
i have locked 140kmph on speedo and i was feeling that ..if i could do something more the speed would have increased ! but no stability issues

3. well you have to see if its on nutral or not ..no one can just guess and take a risk to make a fool out of him

Dude no offence taken. Been riding since 2002 so Im pretty sure of my abilities or lack of them. Personally I mostly use my front disc on my P150 (80:20 ratio I guess), I always do a test of the brakes separately on the RTR (since it isnt my bike) within a minute of starting but this happened right around the corner of my house. Which explains the "uncharacteristically" word on my post.

With regards to the neutral, what I meant to say is that earlier I could move down to 1st and then into neutral without having to look down at the clock. Now it just doesnt snick into nuetral. Takes a couple of attempts. Wanted to know if its a RTR characteristic or is it something that crops up with time and can be rectified by the service centre guys ?

well if the bike is new then it would take time ..
my gearbox had problem earlier .. but its got smooth with time ..

RTR Stability is really gud, try crouching at higher speeds..

Nyway, finding neutral is sometimes a pain for me too, n my bike is 16 months old..

+1
good point ,, i forgot to mention

to be honest........i never found RTR's to be planted on the tarmac ala pulsar's..........may be better tyres would help a lot in this regard..!

yup.. Specially when partially wet, i feel the rear sliding a lot..

Actually, we noticed something while riding with Gravity Warriors to Lavassa. Both of them were on RTR and the new one (Fi) had a tendency to lock the rear on te slightest of pretext. Not that only the rear brake was being used but on fast corner transitions and mid coner speed adjustments, when the rear brake was applied, the rear was locking out.
It may be a case of bad rubber but I have heard that most RTRs are capable of sliding if road conditions are anything less than perfect.
I do not ride an RTR so I dont know...maybe you RTR guys can throw some light on it.

Hi chicane1879

Just wanted to know... Does the headlight and the Display Backlight, start only after the bike engine has been started?? The Pass switch and the turn signals work without the engine being started. Is this normal?

@Satish, neil, vighnesh:You guys know the culprit, thats the tyres, its has nothing to do with actual handling characteristics of the bike. Earlier the stock TVS tyre would fishtail,lock or screech in any road condition, plain tarmac, semi, concrete, gravel, sand, light drizzle, heavy showers. Any condition and the bike will go its own ways thanks to pathetic tyres.

Switch to better tyres and see the difference, I have used Geo-Cruiser, Vee Rubber and now using IRC tyre on my bike, and never ever had skid or crash due to locked up rear even in light drizzle(which is more dangerous) or heavy rain. Yeah I did skid as I was in thinking something else and used disc on gravel, thats a different story altogether.

Those with N shift issue, I would recommend the following things:-

1)Check Cluth play and set it accordingly(Hit and trial method, but generally very effective)
2)If the shift is too hard, get the "Star" changed under warranty.
3)Change to better oil, trust me it helps a lot.