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Help needed in choosing a touring bike for around 2lakhs

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  • #1

    Help needed in choosing a touring bike for around 2lakhs

    Hi xBhp members,

    Thank you for your suggestions in advance.

    I had made a post early last year for a commuter vehicle as I was returning to India after 9 years and eventually decided to drive an activa for daily commuting to work in Bangalore because of the comfort in traffic, practicality, and ease of use. It has been over 6 months now in India and I'm now feeling an itching to own a bike to satisfy my passion for touring. Therefore I'm now looking at different motorcycles for touring and I may end up using it for commuting to work once in a while. Currently, I have not fixed any budget but I'm thinking about 1.5 - 2 lakh should be good. I'm 5'11 and weight around 70kg.

    I have gone through many posts in the forum and confused with which motorcycle I need to go for. I'm not sure if I should get a cruiser or motorcycle with fairing or even a good naked bike such as FZ25. Some of the motorcycles currently in mind for my budget are:

    FZ25 - Good naked bike but not sure of its touring capabilities. Now comes with ABS. No fairing so wind blast will tire. Also heard a lot of about its poor headlights.
    RS 200 - Looks good. Has fairing but heard about some issues with it when driven at certain rpm. Have not test driven so not sure about its comfort.
    R15S - Yamaha engine. Has fairing. Looks decent. No ABS. No test drive at yamaha in bannergatta road. Comfort for touring I'm not sure.
    R15 v3 - Does not look comfortable for long distance but otherwise looks good.
    RTR200 - Is the cheapest of all. Comes with dual channel ABS. Heard its better for people shorter than 5'10. Vibrations at higher speeds. Also no fairing and not sure about touring capability.
    Duke 200 - Performance is good but upright position. Not sure for touring.
    RE 350 classic - Its an RE so maintenance can be an issue. Vibrations. Also does not comes with many features - no fuel gauge too. But will work for city ride as well.
    RE Thunderbird 350 - Again a RE. Vibrations. Better than classic. Good tourer
    MT15 - Similar to R15 without fairing and loses some features.

    Please let me know if there are any other bikes I missed.
    Last edited by xBhp; 03-25-2019, 12:56 PM.
    Tags: None
  • #2
    Re: Help needed in choosing a touring bike for around 2lakhs

    Thread approved.

    Comment

    • #3
      Re: Help needed in choosing a touring bike for around 2lakhs

      Bro, first of all upright position is ideal for long tours, so do consider Duke, apart from that you also have Dominar as a very good option, especially after the recent upgrades to the 2019 model.

      And then again, there's a very good bike for touring, the Honda CBR 250, please check for the availability, as I'm not so sure about it.

      Comment

      • #4
        Re: Help needed in choosing a touring bike for around 2lakhs

        Originally posted by hshankara View Post
        Hi xBhp members,

        Thank you for your suggestions in advance.

        I had made a post early last year for a commuter vehicle as I was returning to India after 9 years and eventually decided to drive an activa for daily commuting to work in Bangalore because of the comfort in traffic, practicality, and ease of use. It has been over 6 months now in India and I'm now feeling an itching to own a bike to satisfy my passion for touring. Therefore I'm now looking at different motorcycles for touring and I may end up using it for commuting to work once in a while. Currently, I have not fixed any budget but I'm thinking about 1.5 - 2 lakh should be good. I'm 5'11 and weight around 70kg.

        I have gone through many posts in the forum and confused with which motorcycle I need to go for. I'm not sure if I should get a cruiser or motorcycle with fairing or even a good naked bike such as FZ25. Some of the motorcycles currently in mind for my budget are:

        FZ25 - Good naked bike but not sure of its touring capabilities. Now comes with ABS. No fairing so wind blast will tire. Also heard a lot of about its poor headlights.
        RS 200 - Looks good. Has fairing but heard about some issues with it when driven at certain rpm. Have not test driven so not sure about its comfort.
        R15S - Yamaha engine. Has fairing. Looks decent. No ABS. No test drive at yamaha in bannergatta road. Comfort for touring I'm not sure.
        R15 v3 - Does not look comfortable for long distance but otherwise looks good.
        RTR200 - Is the cheapest of all. Comes with dual channel ABS. Heard its better for people shorter than 5'10. Vibrations at higher speeds. Also no fairing and not sure about touring capability.
        Duke 200 - Performance is good but upright position. Not sure for touring.
        RE 350 classic - Its an RE so maintenance can be an issue. Vibrations. Also does not comes with many features - no fuel gauge too. But will work for city ride as well.
        RE Thunderbird 350 - Again a RE. Vibrations. Better than classic. Good tourer
        MT15 - Similar to R15 without fairing and loses some features.

        Please let me know if there are any other bikes I missed.
        Hi,

        Dominar is currently among the best value for money products out in the market. On the Japanese side you could go for CBR 250 R but that would push your budget way beyond 2 lakhs. I personally just got the RS200, it's comfortable from 45 kmph to 125 kmph, redline on the tacho starts at 9.7k rpm that's like 130kmph but the bike does that very comfortably, while the sitting position is cool, the seat is not meant for touring but you can always get an aftermarket for that one. I just got a foam layering with a seat cover.
        Yamaha is also said to be improving the current line up, I didn't buy the FZ25 due to exhaust rusting issues but they've worked on that now. Make sure you test drive the vehicles before you decide to buy one.
        R15 S would be a good deal, planning to buy one too. The engine will last very long as long as you take good care of it.

        Happy riding

        Comment

        • #5
          Re: Help needed in choosing a touring bike for around 2lakhs

          Thank you both for your response.

          Originally posted by Zapps View Post
          Bro, first of all upright position is ideal for long tours, so do consider Duke, apart from that you also have Dominar as a very good option, especially after the recent upgrades to the 2019 model.

          And then again, there's a very good bike for touring, the Honda CBR 250, please check for the availability, as I'm not so sure about it.
          I actually thought about Dominar but because I feel that once I buy a motorcycle I may start using it for daily commute as well although I want to continue to use my Activa and with Dominar it may be difficult to use it for city riding in this crazy Bangalore traffic. I will certainly give a thought to it.

          As far as Duke 200, I did a test drive over this weekend and liked its performance. The sales representative mentioned that it can be used for touring as well but somehow the riding position did not feel like I can keep for a long distance. Maybe its a matter of getting used to. Also the sales rep suggested to go for Duke 250 instead but that would go beyond my budget for the ABS version.

          I had been to Saphire Honda showroom in JP nagar last week where they had CBR250R displayed. When I asked for test drive they said they do not have one for test drive. I don't know how they can think a customer would spend 2.5lakh of their hard earned money without having a test drive even if that meant a small test drive they typically provide for other motorcycles behind their showroom. The non ABS version was 2.18lakh and ABS version was 2.47 lakh.

          Originally posted by Neo77k View Post
          Hi,

          Dominar is currently among the best value for money products out in the market. On the Japanese side you could go for CBR 250 R but that would push your budget way beyond 2 lakhs. I personally just got the RS200, it's comfortable from 45 kmph to 125 kmph, redline on the tacho starts at 9.7k rpm that's like 130kmph but the bike does that very comfortably, while the sitting position is cool, the seat is not meant for touring but you can always get an aftermarket for that one. I just got a foam layering with a seat cover.
          Yamaha is also said to be improving the current line up, I didn't buy the FZ25 due to exhaust rusting issues but they've worked on that now. Make sure you test drive the vehicles before you decide to buy one.
          R15 S would be a good deal, planning to buy one too. The engine will last very long as long as you take good care of it.

          Happy riding

          I have not checked RS200 yet but will test drive that in the coming days.

          I had visited Yamaha showroom in Bannerghatta road and they did not have either R15S or FZ25, even a display model. They said they are out of stock and need to order new ones. I will need to visit another Yamaha showroom to checkout R15S and take another test drive of FZ25. When I had driven FZ25 I had liked its performance and comfort but just that I was not sure for long drive.

          Are there any new motorcycles in the pipeline or any upgrades for the current ones that I need to wait for? I don't want to be like buying one now and then next few months an upgraded version of my motorcycle is released.

          Thanks
          Last edited by hshankara; 03-25-2019, 09:16 PM.

          Comment

          • #6
            Re: Help needed in choosing a touring bike for around 2lakhs

            Today I went to Perfect Riders in Bangalore for test driving FZ 25. They only had the non ABS version test vehicle that was returning from the service. I felt the FZ 25 was slightly grumpy giving me jerks whenever I tried to accelerate a bit more from 3000 to 4000 rpm and 4000 to 5000 rpm. I thought this was because the test vehicle was running low on fuel and should be an issue with that this test vehicle. The dealer told me that it happens when we accelerate a little, reduce and accelerate more and that it happens with all vehicles. There was another customer who test rode FZ25 with me and he too felt the same. He also told me he had test driven FZ25 at another Yamaha showroom and had noticed the same there as well. He was going to book MT 15. I also felt the engine was a little loud to my expectation. Is this type of jerky feeling on FZ 25 normal? I test drove the new FZ S v3.0 ABS and MT 15 as well and did not notice this jerks when I accelerated. Both the vehicles were pretty smooth. I was a little concerned with FZ 25 because the dealer said it just returned from service. I'm planning to check another Yamaha showroom next week.

            Comment

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