[man_of_steel]

Originally Posted by Urban_Nomad

I am a bit confused here. On braking the weight moves to the front tyre. Harder the braking; harder the load. But harder the braking; harder the tendancy for you to slide into the tank. To stop that; you exert force on handlebards that transmit the same down to the tyres. Would this not be the recipe for a grand wipeout?

Note that when the weight is transferred to the front tyre the contact patch increases and so the grip. Those are the Metzelers, it will hold the road with no problems whatsoever. But I think I missed one point in my previous post. The stiff elbow and transferring weight is advisable only on clear dry tarmac and when the bike is straight. Even I was afraid of a wipeout before. But it was on one of the track sessions that the instructor taught us that the front brake alone can stop the bike. Believe me. It did work. I was just amazed at the stopping potential of the front brake.. But for street its still the 70:30 rule that holds best.

[VedderTheFixer]

Originally Posted by sridhu

@vedderTheFixer: Check the belly pan - fits the description.

After quite some reading up, i think what i have is tappet noise. This started after about 700 km and is prominent when the engine heats up. Apparently, there are several other 390 owners with the same issue and some are actually fine with it as there is no perceptible loss in performance.

How does such a thing happen really? My bike was run in well, stuck to the 5000 rpm limit and pushed it a bit harder on a couple of occasions. Will this have a long term implication on the engine's life & performance?

Tbh the bike is as fun as it ever was and now Motul 300V runs through it's veins, im loving it but this damn 'tik tik tik tik' takes off a bit of sheen.

Any ideas you may have are most welcome. Thank you Sridhu, for all the good advice you have given me.

Have a good weekend

[sridhu]

@urban_nomad: what I understand/ practice is this (YMMV):

- Complete all the braking BEFORE the corner

- I use the front brake primarily (80/20). (have picked up an annoying tendency to ride the clutch on the 390. Dont know why. Fighting hard to get rid of this bad habit)

- Arms absolutely loose. You are right that you tend to slide forward but that is why you grip the tank with the knees. (Tank grip pads are a great help here)

- In my opinion, at my speeds & on the road, I can comfortably lean over without loosening the tank grip. The sticking-the-legs-out thing seems to be more suited for the track.

- Similarly, you to at least cover the rear brakes.

In all cases, given conditions in India, I find it very difficult to take curves at very high speeds unless I can see through the corner. (Who knows what dog is lurking where?). So, I tend to be at around 60-70% of my abilities on the road and a bit lower in the corners.

Better to get there later than not get there at all!

[The Pain]

Hi. My feb 2014 manufactured 320 odd km run bike has a very noisy engine. This is especially evident after the bike has been run for a bit. On a cold start in the morning in idle , the sound is not so bad. The sound i hear is tic.tic/clakity clack. Very similar to a bullets tappets sound

Will be taking it to the svc to check it out on the weekend. Have any of u experienced this. What could be the cause ?

Thanks

[man_of_steel]

Guys a small query,

Yesterday I noticed an almost sudden drop in the bite of the front brake. It is the brake's character that the brake lacks the initial punch but is super progressive and the bite while you progressively squeeze the brake is crazy. Now I am lacking that mid-range bite of the front brake and from the muscle memory I am feeling that I am squeezing the front brake more to get the desired braking. I am almost sure that its not a placebo effect. Anybody experienced something similar. Bike has done 7k Kms and is'nt it too early for a brakes bleeding?

[lark63]

Originally Posted by man_of_steel

Guys a small query,

Yesterday I noticed an almost sudden drop in the bite of the front brake. It is the brake's character that the brake lacks the initial punch but is super progressive and the bite while you progressively squeeze the brake is crazy. Now I am lacking that mid-range bite of the front brake and from the muscle memory I am feeling that I am squeezing the front brake more to get the desired braking. I am almost sure that its not a placebo effect. Anybody experienced something similar. Bike has done 7k Kms and is'nt it too early for a brakes bleeding?

After about 1K kms itself one day I had this issue of brakes not biting. I had to pull the lever much more for the braking action. I took it to SVC and the bleeding was done and little bit of brake oil topping was done to compensate.
I don't know whether it is normal or not but one thing I can say I have never experinced this kind of thing on my Pulsar.

[man_of_steel]

Originally Posted by lark63

After about 1K kms itself one day I had this issue of brakes not biting. I had to pull the lever much more for the braking action. I took it to SVC and the bleeding was done and little bit of brake oil topping was done to compensate.
I don't know whether it is normal or not but one thing I can say I have never experinced this kind of thing on my Pulsar.

Thanks lark63. So did the bleeding and fluid top up restore the bite of your brake?

[lark63]

Yes. The braking was back to normal after that.

[man_of_steel]

Originally Posted by lark63

Yes. The braking was back to normal after that.

Allright. Thanks mate. I will bleed the lines and try. But still, I think its a bit early for the bleeding to be done.

[sandeepmohan]

Originally Posted by ff1609

Then they managed to splash chain lube on my rear brakes and returned the bike with zero braking on the rear wheel - on complaining they took the brake pad - cleaned it with petrol and scrubbed it hard with metal emery paper to get rid of the lube. It took 50kms of riding before the brakes improved

Which service station is this? Though I was not present for servicing, I too got my bike back from 2nd service with zero rear brakes. I don't know what they did. This is the Domlur service station. Took around the same distance to get back braking. I had no time to go back and yell at them. I inspected the bike, paid and left. It was scary. Was fully dependent on the front anchors.

[sridhu]

As far as I know, the 'zero brakes' feeling is because they use diesel cleaning. In the Kastruba Rd service centre, Ravi does warn you that "There will be very little brakes for 4-6 kms. It will be fine after that".

I imagine that without the warning, it could get fairly disconcerting.

[Bluu]

Originally Posted by sridhu

As far as I know, the 'zero brakes' feeling is because they use diesel cleaning. In the Kastruba Rd service centre, Ravi does warn you that "There will be very little brakes for 4-6 kms. It will be fine after that".

I imagine that without the warning, it could get fairly disconcerting.

I was told the same for my Kizashi when it was serviced. I think I read somewhere that using diesel to clean brakes is not recommended. Can someone shed some light on this? I'm due to get my bike serviced in a month's time.

[ff1609]

What kind of chain lube do other users recommend for the 390? Owner's manual recommends any SAE90W oil for lubricating the chain.

I am not a big fan of sprays lubes and want to use an oil. Asked around at a few lubricant shops for an SAE90W oil and they recommended Shell Spirax S2 G90 - it does not say SAE90W on the pack (no other oil that I saw had the same sort of rating on the pack) but the sellers insisted that it is the same rating. Comments from experts - is this the right grade?

I still bought it and applied it but it doesn't seem thick enough compared to the sticky dark gray (grease like) lubricant which the service centers apply. There is just a thin colorless layer of it on the chain - is this normal?

Originally Posted by sandeepmohan

Which service station is this? Though I was not present for servicing, I too got my bike back from 2nd service with zero rear brakes. I don't know what they did. This is the Domlur service station. Took around the same distance to get back braking. I had no time to go back and yell at them. I inspected the bike, paid and left. It was scary. Was fully dependent on the front anchors.

It was Khivraj 100ft road Indiranagar.

Originally Posted by sridhu

As far as I know, the 'zero brakes' feeling is because they use diesel cleaning. In the Kastruba Rd service centre, Ravi does warn you that "There will be very little brakes for 4-6 kms. It will be fine after that".

I imagine that without the warning, it could get fairly disconcerting.

Originally Posted by Bluu

I was told the same for my Kizashi when it was serviced. I think I read somewhere that using diesel to clean brakes is not recommended. Can someone shed some light on this? I'm due to get my bike serviced in a month's time.

My problem was not due to brake cleaning because it never took place, I had gone for chain tightening and I watched whatever they did. They had sprayed a good bit of chain lube on the disc. Brakes did not improve even after repeated attempts to use them for 20kms. If brake cleaning causes it why does it affect only the rear brake?

Originally Posted by The Pain

Hi. My feb 2014 manufactured 320 odd km run bike has a very noisy engine. This is especially evident after the bike has been run for a bit. On a cold start in the morning in idle , the sound is not so bad. The sound i hear is tic.tic/clakity clack. Very similar to a bullets tappets sound

Will be taking it to the svc to check it out on the weekend. Have any of u experienced this. What could be the cause ?

Thanks

Is it more noisy than other new 390s? I am asking because brand new bikes tend to be more noisy than ones that have run for a few thousand kms. My 390 at 1500kms is louder than a friend's390 is at 5k kms.

[prajwalkashyap]

Originally Posted by ff1609

What kind of chain lube do other users recommend for the 390? Owner's manual recommends any SAE90W oil for lubricating the chain.

I am not a big fan of sprays lubes and want to use an oil. Asked around at a few lubricant shops for an SAE90W oil and they recommended Shell Spirax S2 G90 - it does not say SAE90W on the pack (no other oil that I saw had the same sort of rating on the pack) but the sellers insisted that it is the same rating. Comments from experts - is this the right grade?

I still bought it and applied it but it doesn't seem thick enough compared to the sticky dark gray (grease like) lubricant which the service centers apply. There is just a thin colorless layer of it on the chain - is this normal?

This is normal. The Lube oil is not a thick goo like the grease and it needs to lube the annards of the links. The thick goey grease that the service centres apply is not recommended at all.

If u r not satisfied with this, use Motul chain spray. Its really good and lasts a long time too.

Prajwal

[The Pain]

Originally Posted by ff1609

Is it more noisy than other new 390s? I am asking because brand new bikes tend to be more noisy than ones that have run for a few thousand kms. My 390 at 1500kms is louder than a friend's390 is at 5k kms.

Unfortunately i dont have access to any other bike to compare it to. Its only run 350kms.

Please let me know if you can tell anything from the video

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=dq4IqYbKMa4

Thanks.