My bike is gonna take a loooooooong time coming. I have resigned myself to that possibility, decided to take a chill pill and feel happy for others in life . Will probably spam the HMSI mailboxes for a while if I manage to get hold of any mail ids. And those will be polite too. No rage. Complete anger management But for now, putting my feet up, sitting back and waiting.

u r saying! i hate you,but then i love you!

And finally I had the Test Ride... a small one though!
I could only ride for 1-2 kms as it was too late. Also I was riding in the Bangalore traffic + peak hours.

Some of the things I experienced:

When you're riding, you'll definitely feel that a big bike is there between your legs. But the bike feels very light. Not heavy at all. It was very easy to take U-turn also. I felt that I'll have to take a big circle to take the turn. But to my surprise, I didn't have to do much.
Bike does exceptionally well between 3k-7k rpm... And I touched 80-90 effortlessly in the third gear. Couldn't test the top end. I loved the handling. I could ride in the traffic effortlessly. I was riding zig zag between the cars and auto-rickshaws and it was fun. I was riding the Non-ABS version. Brakes were Ok. Nothing great that I experienced.
The instrument cluster doesn't feel small as it felt when it was kept for display. All the things are easily readable.

One small difficulty I faced was for reaching out the horn. As mentioned by someone before, I was literally searching for the horn.
At idling, the exhaust sound is not that audible. But while revving, it feels soo good.

I totally loved the bike and happy for the decision I took. And friends, let me tell you, Honda has got a winner here. The wait is really worth.

^where did u get the test drive?

Since its 160+ kgs the main feel of the weight should come riding slow and trying to balance without keeping foot down. It gives a little strain in back to me when I ride my 150 kg pulsar . was it good at say 10 - 15 kmph in traffic and balancing while driving slow ?

Good that you were able to ride it. I am not able to get it here in Baroda.

-Ankur

This is not expected from honda...

You had TD from Saphire???

@ arjun: where did you book the bike from? you too got the bike from bhiwandi?? I see many guys getting bikes from there?? were there a lot of bikes??

well said.

Sudeep and I gave up on Saphire Honda. Headed to Dream Honda, Whitefield and after a bit of cajoling, got the test ride even though they were almost closing. Contrary to what we've come to expect from HMSI dealers and staff, Dream Honda was spot on. Courteous and a little adjusting

Sudeep has already described what the test ride felt like and so have a few others here, so no point in saying the same thing over and over again.

I'm cancelling my booking at Saphire's and heading over to Dream. Atleast my waitlist number will jump from 81 to 30s something

From Dream Honda, Whitefield.
Sapphire might start giving from Monday only.

Well I wont name the person but that guy reported my post and I got a sweet infraction

I never insulted anyone still I got an infraction stating I insulted other members!!

Probably there is no one from Jaipur here except me n that's why i am not getting any news about deliveries or test rides for jaipur

I am probably the only one bugging honda dealers all the time here Well i am done with my test ride, on top of the list for delivery ... but... day before yesterday after test drive, manager committed me that he will call me in eve or next day to confirm delivery time. I didn't get any call yesterday and when i called them up, he said, there is a lot rush , i will call you in eve in peace ..
n no call yet...

What d hack..!!! totally confused...

Atleast they said they are going to call you. My dealer said no deliveries for 2 months coz the ABS unit is from Japan. I said I booked the Non ABS one so he quickly said ECU is from Japan too :P

I know he is cooking up stories but lets wait. I dont want to regret later that I got a faulty bike as I couldnt wait

Oh probably this saved me. I have non ABS one booked, so i may get it without help from japan , although if they would not have side stand or something else, and they want it to get imported from japan...than nobody can real help..

Wait is worth for you than faulty things standing at home...