Re: Red Rose - my new Triumph Street Triple 675 RED!

Hey Kurush,

Thanks for the suggestion. I have anyways scheduled one appointment on 20th May for pre-monsoon free check that Pune dealer (B U Bhandari) is providing all local owners. They are also giving 15% discount on various things (though I expected more - in Delhi they were earlier giving 25% discounts in summer sale).

Curiously, the symptom that I mentioned is not appearing today. I am keeping a keen eye - I deliberately checked by suddenly reducing throttle and pressing clutch while doing that few times but no - it didn't stall yet. Idling RPM is once again settling slightly above 1000 RPM rather than what I saw yesterday where it surely kept idling at 1000 RPM and sounded slightly erratic. Today it was just around 1100 may be and it was not really erratic. Let us see.

Meanwhile, from WhatsApp Triumph Street Triple specific forum (all India) where I am member, various people have been called by their dealers across different cities and they are providing a minor tweak to the Engine ECU Map which possibly re-calibrates the idling stepper motor without any sort of power reduction in normal running.

Along with this they are going to make Air Filter replacement every 5000 km (supposedly free during warranty period and obviously paid after that).

Few people had upgraded to K&N or BMC Air Filters - Triumph has asked them to move back to STOCK filter (which they are giving free as of now).

Regards,
Jeevan

Re: Red Rose - my new Triumph Street Triple 675 RED!

Update: The symptom of idle RPM dropping seems to have gone away for now. Will keep people posted. Riding experience is good as always.

One more thing - I have created a new blog article - please do take a look

Re: Red Rose - my new Triumph Street Triple 675 RED!


Hi Jeevan,

Fantastic to see that you are keeping the thread going.... its good to see that stalling issue is not seen on your bike and hopefully we wont see it .... I have been busy and hardly get time to ride .. Here is my analysis:

1. Certainly the best handling bike ..... I have ridden duke 390 for close to 3 years now and I can say that Striple is much more balanced and steady around the corners. plus I feel i might crash on duke 390.
2. Bike seat is much more comfortable than say Duke 390.... but seating is little supersport where you do bend a little.
3. Just installed Arrows Slip-on and quickshifter after 1st service... and am still yet to gather my breath as its mind-boggling combo. The sound has more bass and it catches attention of everyone all time.
Power is increased a little bit but I am sure this 79 bhp where it might have become 86 or so is more than enough for anyone.
the upshiftes are such an amazing feature that lets you accelerate like a rocket
4. The only problem i got was that during humps when i have a pillion rider the bike bottoms out and also that ordinary horn connection keeps getting loose .


- Anoop

Re: Red Rose - my new Triumph Street Triple 675 RED!

Hey Anoop,
Thanks mate! I recently got my bike through pre-monsoon free check-up done by Triumph @ Pune on 20th May. During this, they gave free wash, chain adjustment and lube, replaced air filter for free, did some adaptation exercise for the throttle stepper motor as well. That made slight changes to bike behaviour - it is slightly smoother with just a bit higher idle (around 1600 RPM when cold started, which later settles just around 1100-1200 RPM after warm up). Engine braking reduced slightly due to higher idle but the change is small. I didn't notice drop in pick up but honestly have not gone for long ride after the free check was done.
Main thing is that my bike is still stock and I am yet to add performance upgrades. But there is no stalling and the symptom had anyway gone away even before the free check up and not appearing now.

But the big update is that recently I was in Germany and I have bought a lot of riding gear for myself from Louis Mega Shop near Pasing, Munich.

Helmet - XLITE (Black, Size L, Model X-603) EUR 200 (normal prices are above 300 for this but there was a deal on that day)
Jacket - VANUCCI (Red & Black, Size euro 56) EUR 400 (normal prices are about 425-450). This has ventilation for summer but has additional removable parts for winter and rainy seasons. The look, fit, finish and armour felt really good compared to lot of other jackets I tried there).
Pants - PRO BIKER (Red & Black, Size euro 56) EUR 180 (no deal on this one)
Gloves - HELD - Full Gauntlet (Red/Grey - Kangaroo Skin - Size L) EUR 120 (no deal on this one)
Balaclava - Black (Cotton) - Local German brand I don't remember which one - EUR 5

All above prices were inclusive of European Union VAT of 19%. Out of that I got a partial refund at the airport by filling up a form and submitting the information to customs officer. The refund came to about EUR 108. So final price of all the gear is 905-108 = 797 Euros = approx 59-60000 INR. Considering the quality of the gear, it feels like a good deal.

I already have boots which have shin protection - CORTECH Latigo Air RR (Black & White size EU 44 price Rs 16500 in India).

I felt after visiting the shop that I should have bought the boots from there as well. I wanted to buy a lot but sadly ran out of money so had to hold my heart....My situation in the shop was worse than a kid who never saw any major toy shops and suddenly gets into Toys-R-Us or Hamley's!

In Munich, the riding gear variety is amazing. I hardly had time so didn't visit multiple shops because there was a nice gentleman in Louis shop who had been to India (Pune, Mahabaleshwar, Panchgani etc!) and he gave lot of advice on what is good gear that will fit our weather etc. He spoke English well.

There are few other great shops in Munich but I could not visit them. Will post their info later on in this thread.

Re: Red Rose - my new Triumph Street Triple 675 RED!

Hi Jeevan,

Happy to hear your bike got its pre-monsoon checkup and the possibility of the stalling issue is taken care of completely.

Superb set of gear you have picked up mate!

Do you/are you going to use the bike regularly during the monsoons?

Ride safe.

Cheers
Kurush

Re: Red Rose - my new Triumph Street Triple 675 RED!

Hi Kurush,

In monsoon I plan to use bike in a very limited manner as and when there is no rain and not much muck on the roads as this time monsoon is expected to come strongly!

Since this is a naked bike, it really gives no protection from mud at all! At slowest possible speed too it will cause a shower of mud on rider, pillion as well as anyone following the bike. Once mud gets deeper into the frame of this bike, washing won't be easy also. So, just hoping for few dry days and some decent rides in next 3 months or so.

Note that my bike only showed symptom of stalling sometimes and it went away automatically before check-up. But after check-up there is minor change in idling behaviour of the bike. RPM is slightly up after it gets hot. So far no stalling.

Due to recent buying of all the gear, I am once again out of money and hence my wish for Arrow exhaust and related upgrades is remaining as it is! Will keep posted on further happenings.

There is some event next week @ Lavasa and will mostly go there on Saturday.

Regards,
Jeevan

Re: Red Rose - my new Triumph Street Triple 675 RED!

In case you do have a chance of going to any of the EU country or to the UK then you should wait till then and buy directly from there.
When buying the gear, you need to inform the shop that you will be taking the stuff out of that country. They will normally give you a form along with the bill that you need to fill up (it is not more than 5-10 min job at the most).

Once that is done, on the given international airport from where you travel to India, there will surely be a customs section. You need to take a sign/stamp from the customs officer.

Note that this step is BEFORE you go into immigration and get your passport stamped by the authorities of country that you are exiting.

For this you should keep at least 1 hour - as there is possibility of some very rich person having bought EUR 100K stuff being in line and getting stamps on 100 bills from that officer ahead of you!
It has happened to some of my friends though in my own case it was quite fast and smooth - but that was just luck on that day.

EU charges a VAT of 19.2 % on everything you buy - of this a large amount (about 15-16%) does come back within 5 working days for Master/VISA credit card accounts and 20 working days for AMEX cards.

After reaching Mumbai, there is nothing to do - just walk out through green channel - that is what I did. I think you can buy up to 1500 or even 2000 EURO without any issues when coming back from EU zone country.

Hope this helps!


Major Update about the riding gear:

1) Helmet - XLITE X603 - Matt Black Ventilated Helmet with Pinlock Visor - Size L
This is a pretty good fairly lightweight helmet which can be considered as a Mid-Range helmet around EUR 200-320 depending on what discount you get. There is some wind noise surprisingly present at lower speeds of about 40-60 kmph but at higher speeds it became relatively quiet (normally my experience with other helmets is opposite. This helmet fits rather tight but the consultant at the Louis Mega Shop told me that it is how the helmet should fit. Till now I was using XL size helmet so this felt a bit painful initially. After 2 hours of usage, it is better to take a short break so that your ears feel little relieved!! There is no shake or buffeting at higher speeds (I tried only up to 150 kmph as on the particular ride I didn't find enough empty roads).
Once on the run, helmet significantly insulates from road noise - but that means you will not hear horns that are not somewhat loud. Most things I could hear but my own phone in the pant pocket rang and I could not hear it.
Getting in and out of this helmet takes some time and takes some getting used to as it has D Ring rather than simple latch kind of lock. But in terms of safety, the helmet is superb. Vision distortion is also not there (I am using clear glass not the tinted one). I have not yet tested with the pinlock visor on but it should prevent fogging of the visor once that is done.

2) Vanucci RVX textile jacket - Size 54 (equivalent of L I think) - This can be considered as rather higher end jacket (EUR 400-425 which is a lot though there are many far more expensive jackets also!)
I used this jacket with its vent chains kept open and I removed the inner thermal liner as the conditions I rode in were quite hot and humid.
Jacket is very solid, neat looking and it has rather strong protection - it oozes style and quality for sure. Its colour scheme goes very well with my Red Rose.

The ventilation works only beyond 70 kmph to a reasonable extent. Anything below that makes you exceedingly hot and when it is humid, I was sweating a lot inside this jacket. It would be very good in winter I am sure and it is high on protection. But its ventilation is less than what I normally need (my older Hein Gericke jacket was a mesh jacket which has very high ventilation suitable for India - but it is worn out totally now).

3) HELD Leather Gloves Evo-Thrux 2221 - Size L - Red-Black-White-Grey colour scheme - These are mid-high range gloves of "Full Gauntlet" type.
Ventilation is decent though it is not as good as my older Teknik leather gloves. These gloves fit very snug, are extremely lightweight and give a very direct feel of the clutch/throttle compared to anything else I have used where gloves reduce the feel a lot. These gloves don't get too hot as long as you are constantly on the move above 40-50 kmph. Getting them on and off is a task that has to be done with some patience and care!
I hope with some usage that task will become a little easier. Again, these gloves are excellent at their price (120 EUR) and almost all of my friends who saw them went "wowwww".

4) Probiker PR-14 Textile pants - Size 54 (that's a Euro size - fits for 36 waist size) - These are somewhat modest pants compared to other stuff I came across at about 170 EUR but these were a surprisingly good buy.
They do seem to have strong protection on knees with leather trim and have protective padding on the bums as well. These are quite well fitting and very well ventilated pants that completely suited our weather. They keep one cool at anything beyond 30 kmph so very practically usable. Quality is pretty decent one and many people even in Germany are indeed using these pants.

5) Cortech Latigo Air RR boots - Size 44 - These ventilated leather boots with shin protection I already had from last 6 months and are well suited for our conditions. Their colour is a bit mismatch with rest of the stuff but otherwise they are really comfortable and good boots. They are somewhat expensive at Rs 16500 (had bought in India itself) but very usable. These fit very tight so I had to choose 1 size higher. Have written more about these earlier in my blog but just mentioned here for sake of completeness.

Re: Red Rose - my new Triumph Street Triple 675 RED!

Update about Moto Day event Lavasa (18-Jun-16):

Decent event for one time attendance. Not so great that you can call it "Do not ever miss" kind of thing. New Triumph Thruxton models were launched there. Mostly was a good time pass where lot of bikers attended that's all.

There were some interesting sessions from Power Drift and others. Got to know that Shell India is ready to support (exact content of that support needs to be checked out in detail though!) people who want to do saddle-sore or iron-butt type of long rides in India...


Update about ARROW Exhaust:

I have managed to procure a very less used almost new Arrow Exhaust at about Rs 24000 from one Triumph owner in Delhi who is upgrading to some different bike and it will be reaching me in 1st week of July. Eagerly looking forward to July now - hoping to get the EU spec upgrade done (Arrow + ECU Remap for Arrow + Air Intake of EU spec). Eager to hear the sweet sound from my own bike!! DB killer is also part of the package but I don't think I will fit that!

Red Rose - my new Triumph Street Triple 675 RED!

Hey Jeevan, congratulations on the Arrows. They sound really good.

You should get the remap only. I'd suggest not tinkering with the air intake. I guess as per new guidelines the guys at Triumph have also been informed not to finger around that part.

As its a slip on the right map should suffice.

Cheers and have fun. Ride safe!

Re: Red Rose - my new Triumph Street Triple 675 RED!


Great news on the Arrows Jeevan and pricing too. Is it around 50% of a new one?
Without the DB killers the sound will be insane. Happy waking up the neighbors man.
Thanks for the complete description of your new gear too.

Last Sunday took a 30 minute ride of the Tiger XRx (a friends bike). In one word WOW. The most amazing part was the ride quality, just could not feel the road. A very nice Sunday indeed.

Cheers mate, take care and ride safe.

Kurush

Re: Red Rose - my new Triumph Street Triple 675 RED!

Hey Kurush,

No, the price is not that cheap what I got. New one will cost around 40000/- in Pune but since this person used only 200-300 km, it is nearly new and hence can be considered as a cheap deal. Along with Arrow, the ECU remap and EU spec airbox are both needed together as that is the overall package. I don't think you can use any one of them separately. Using only Arrow will just change the sound but no real change will happen. The remap considers higher air flow and adjusts fuel accordingly as per my knowledge. So without EU spec intake, the fuel ration will become too rich probably and cause other issues...

So, believe it has to be done together.

Tiger is actually very suitable for our general road conditions - but the only thing is initial high price and also it is not possible to ride daily to office etc. No matter how many bikes I can try, overall package that is most suitable daily and yet giving plenty of fun on weekend (when not raining!) is Street Triple!

Cheers,
Jeevan

Re: Red Rose - my new Triumph Street Triple 675 RED!

Update:

I have got Cyclops LED Head Lights fitted onto my bike now. Will upload photos once I test these at night time when there is darkness.

Price Rs 12000 (for 2 lights @ Rs 6000 each)
Fitting Charges Rs 500

Bought from - Biking Superstore, Balewadi, Pune - Bangalore Highway.

Definitely these lights are way brighter than OEM Halogen headlights.

Update:

Finally - I have got Arrow Exhaust + EU spec Air Intake + ECU remap done.

Now the bike is roaring like an angry tigress! It is picking up much easier from stand still and accelerating effortlessly (part of this is also purely related to the sensation caused by its wonderful sound - it makes you FEEL faster even if you are not going too fast). But definitely anyone who used stock bikes in heavy traffic, would know that 1st gear is rather tall and hence you have to half clutch it a lot and stalls if you don't control accelerator properly (this stalling is not the infamous stalling associated with ST3 - this is purely because of tall gearing and a rider not being used to it). Surely after fitting Arrow, this tendency has reduced a lot and at idle, it is picking up quickly...

What I heard from other riders of this bike is that after few days, the idle related stepper motor will automatically adjust with this condition and idling RPM will come down a bit.

My bike as a stock has never ever stalled. Now it remains to be seen if it maintains the trouble free record!

Triumph has meanwhile changed strategy a bit to address stalling issues and giving free air filter changes through entire warranty period. For me it doesn't matter so far.

Re: Red Rose - my new Triumph Street Triple 675 RED!

Started riding my bike with Arrow exhausts and she sure has become a head turner with that amazing roaring sound!

In different words:

I can say that stock Street Triple is like Amitabh Bachchan with Saif Ali Khan's voice dubbed!
Street Triple with Arrow exhaust (minus DB killer of course!) is the real Shahenshah or real Vijay Dinanath Chauhan, aayeen!! Amitabh with Amitabh's voice - that is what we need

Re: Red Rose - my new Triumph Street Triple 675 RED!

Great choice of gear especially the helmet. Please do share further updates on the Xlite as you log on more kms. I had checked out XLites last year and loved their lack of weight, they will definitely be on my list when I shop for my next helmet. And yes, pictures please!

Re: Red Rose - my new Triumph Street Triple 675 RED!


Check out the details of all products I bought below:

Location - Louis Megashop, Pasing, Munich








I simply ran out of money on that day else I was simply going crazy in this particular shop due to plenty of variety available.

This is my best shopping experience ever in any country outside India. I highly recommend Louis Megashop, Pasing, Munich in Germany for below reasons.

a) Very friendly staff
b) In depth consulting about which gear to buy
c) Lots of variety that you can try in person
d) Honesty and clarity in terms of their approach of selling - they don't oversell or try to push higher priced items down your throat - at the same time they explain why lower priced items are that way - what is really different.
e) Great after sales service - They went out of the way and refunded some amount to me when I brought to their notice that I bought something at a bit higher price than what is shown in their own website - They clarified that price changed just a day after I bought but they still refunded the difference to me even though legally/technically they could have avoided that.

Hope this helps!