re: My Honda CBR650F. EDIT: Track Day at BIC on PG-53

Thank you very much brother..

Congratulations man!!

Rachit

re: My Honda CBR650F. EDIT: Track Day at BIC on PG-53

First Highway run for the CBR:
So I was supposed to travel for a couple of weeks on business. I had already dropped my wife and daughter at in laws place in Chandigarh. I was conspiring to go on the bike to meet them before leaving the country. Also my best friends are in chandigarh and they had not seen the bike. Another biggest reason was that I wanted to take her to the hills.


So I started speaking to my dad and surprisingly he didn't ridicule the idea completely. But as luck would have it, the day I was about to start, it started raining the previous night and literally rained the whole night. Plus I had not received the registration documents and that made me a bit apprehensive, hence postponed the idea. The following week I got the Tax slip plus the weather forecast was clear and I started planning again. I was to leave for US on Saturday night so the plan was to leave for chandigarh Thursday morning and start back Saturday morning to reach in time for the night flight. Friday I planned to take it to Solan or so for the hill run.


On Thursday morning, I started around 6 AM from my home. Met a friend at Mahipalpur and borrowed his Cross Bungee as I had only one bungee cord. He is quite an established tourer and he helped me tie the luggage securely on the bike so that it stays put even on speeds. I think I started around 6.20 from Mahipalpur and made decent progress and was out of Delhi and on the highway in about 35 mins. There was not a lot of traffic still and I wanted to cover some ground while I was still fresh. I was rusted as had not gone for a long ride in 2-3 years plus I was not sure how comfortable I would feel on this bike after a couple of hours, so I upped my pace. This is a very good highway bike as I found out. Wind blast is not an issue till 120-130 Kph and you can comfortably maintain these speeds with the bike hovering around 6K RPM. I was crouching time to time to avoid the wind and then the cruising speeds would become higher. I got comfortable with the bike very soon. Took the first break after Karnal. I was getting tired around 10 KMs before Karnal. From Karnal I straightaway went to Chandigarh and didn't stop anywhere in between. Here also, just before chandigarh I started feeling a bit tired. If it would have been somebody who is more used to long distances than me, I would say he would feel much more comfortable and can easily ride 150-200 Kms in a stretch on this bike. I reached Chd in about 4 hours 15 mins with a 20-25 mins break in it.


Next morning woke up early and headed towards Parwanoo. One of my best friends live in Parwanoo and I met him outside the Timber Trail. Had a small discussion and then headed upwards. The bike behaved really well. I was trying to experiment with body positions, hanging out and what not and that was kind of making me slightly ragged. Please note that these roads are not very wide plus since its Shimla highway its quite crowded and the road surface although good but is not completely smooth. Nevertheless I kept trying various things to see where I can be faster, safer and smoother. Discovered a few things like foot position on the pegs and stuff but honestly didn't find one setup that I really felt in tune with. I think I would need more Kms on the hills to find the right way. By the way I belong to Himachal and started riding on the hills only. So I am very comfortable on the hills but this is a different kind of bike. If I were to ride at a pace of normal bike it felt right at home and I was very comfortable and confident. My expectation of going faster made me experiment a few things. The bike went like a gem on the other hand. I was not very fast but the bike felt very manageable, eager to turn and very stable holding the lines through the corners. I didn't go till Solan as I had to reach back on time. I went till about 10 Kms ahead of Dharampur and then started back. I took a couple of photo breaks and was really liking the attention I was getting on the road.


Generally I am somebody who loves going uphill rather going downhill but I just completely loved coming downhill on this bike. This time I was not experimenting and just maintained a relaxed pace and boy the bike literally took my breath away. The engine braking which I generally find to be higher worked wonders downhill. The smooth engine and stable chassis really helped in just gliding through the corners. It was special so much so that I really wanted to turn back and do it all over again. This is when I really felt in tune with bike and loved every second of it.


Next day started for Gurgaon again started around 6 in the morning and this time I think my average speed was slightly higher and I got tired also less. A couple of cars trying to keep up also helped the matters in the sense as you stop thinking about the time and start focussing on riding. I was in Gurgaon in about 3.5 hours with a 15 min break.


Then started the long process of washing the bike and washing the riding gear. My red riding jacket was quite literally black. Even after soaking in warm soapy water for an hour, it didn't regain its colour. I literally spent an hour is washing it only. :Frustrati


Overall very happy with the bike. The bike has done 1990 something Kms till now. Average fuel consumption on the highway came out to be around 23-25 Kpl. On the hills it was around 21Kpl.


Now some pics:




















Rachit

re: My Honda CBR650F. EDIT: Track Day at BIC on PG-53

You enjoyed the ride to the core [emoji4]
Excellent pics

re: My Honda CBR650F. EDIT: Track Day at BIC on PG-53

Awesome bro..Its nice to know your are getting comfortable...My bad..I am not there nearby to take care of your CBR whilst you are abroad

re: My Honda CBR650F. EDIT: Track Day at BIC on PG-53

Thanks bro!!

Thanks bro. Next time will keep you posted of my travel plans.

Rachit

re: My Honda CBR650F. EDIT: Track Day at BIC on PG-53

Great ride and great pics. Looks like you had a great time getting to know her better.

Regarding body positioning and corner carving skill set, I would strongly suggest you to watch the twist of the wrist 2 video/movie that is there on YouTube. The book will be super helpful too. Experimenting is fun but also treacherous, especially at the kind of roads you were experimenting.

re: My Honda CBR650F. EDIT: Track Day at BIC on PG-53

Thanks bro. I have seen Twist the wrist 2 twice. Rather I was experimenting on these things after watching the video only.
Somehow at least I am not able to put everything the video says in practice on roads.

I would need hours on the track to get those things embedded in my riding. What I think is, a lot of those points I already know and do while riding.
Some of them I need to develop but doing that on roads seems difficult.

Rachit

re: My Honda CBR650F. EDIT: Track Day at BIC on PG-53

Can you post the pics of panigale 899 that you took for test ride? Am a big ducati fan..

re: My Honda CBR650F. EDIT: Track Day at BIC on PG-53

Brilliant bike and equally stunning pics Rachit.

re: My Honda CBR650F. EDIT: Track Day at BIC on PG-53

Here they are. It is gorgeous.





Thank you very much brother..

Rachit

re: My Honda CBR650F. EDIT: Track Day at BIC on PG-53

Rachit, what is the service interval for the 650F in India? I read through this thread now and somebody mentioned 6000kms when infact the world over, after the 1k service the next interval is 12000kms(basic oil/filter/adjustments) and a major service is at 24k kms. (parts replacement/overhaul/valvetrain adjustments etc). Did HMSI reduce the service interval?

re: My Honda CBR650F. EDIT: Track Day at BIC on PG-53

Yes, the service interval as is told to me as well, after the first 1000 Km service is every 6000 Kms.

Rachit

re: My Honda CBR650F. EDIT: Track Day at BIC on PG-53

If its not too much, can you post a pic from your owners manual of the service interval chart that probably shows what parts need replacing at what interval?
Here is a Thai one for example.

re: My Honda CBR650F. EDIT: Track Day at BIC on PG-53

I am travelling brother this week. Will be back this weekend.
Will try to post it next week.

Rachit

re: My Honda CBR650F. EDIT: Track Day at BIC on PG-53

Thanks Rachit, I did get possession of my Street Triple on 28th Sep 2015 and have posted few photos etc in xBHP. So far did 450 km on it and engine is freeing up and the bike is revving quicker day by day..Currently not exceeding 4500 as such - that is still good for almost 80-85 kmph.

As of now the real sound of the bike (with stock exhaust) hasn't come in picture as RPM is quite low. But there is a hint that it should be pleasing once past 6000-7000 RPM....For Honda CBR 650 F, there should be some approved exhaust (e.g. Yoshimura/Akrapovic etc) that should make it far sweeter sounding. As of now the problem is that it nearly has no sound at all.

I will go for Arrow exhaust in few months - Triumph folks said it is better to let running in complete and log few km before going for it.