[neil.jericho]

Originally Posted by derek

Thanks Neil. After all the reading and taking a conscious decision, I’ve decided to go for the Puig. I gave a lot of thought to the CR one but ultimately if the fit and finish isn’t so good, doesn’t matter where it’s made! By the way, how tall are you? I’m 6 feet tall and ride the INT. I’m not really optimist ANY windscreen is going to protect me against wind blast on ECR on the way to Pondicherry!

Im almost 6 feet tall so, its around the same as you. The Carbon Racing one will give you much better wind protection for sure. Ive done thousands of kilometers of highway riding with my Continental GT 535 and the windscreen has been quite a blessing. The Carbon Racing option would have helped even more.

[derek]

Thanks so much, but I’ll wait for the Puig I think. Plus I think the CR one is a little too tall for my liking. May or may not suit my bike. I’d also prefer something that’s aesthetically pleasing as well as easy to install. Appreciated!

[nasirkaka]

I am using a carbon racing windscreen, the clear one. Fit and finish is not that great. View through the shield is not clear but wavey and distorted. Its not like how a good helmet visor has a clear vision through it. A feqw things like plastic injection point right in the center of the windscreen and the loud "proudly made in india" could have been more subtle. But all said and done, i cant complain much as it costs only 2k. Its functional and strong. But still not tal enough to send the air draft over the helmet. all the wind is no channeled towards the chin of helmet which increases the wind noise. Put another add-on visor from the likes of PRO-SPEC and one is mostly sorted for wind protection.
Another point to be noted is at night, the visor catches some light from the headlamp and the visor edges appear lit. I sort of like it, but it may not appeal to all.

[neil.jericho]

As far as pricing goes, the front fork upgrade kit for the Royal Enfield 650 Twins (FSK 145) that includes a new set of springs, spacers, preload adjustable top caps, and Ohlins’ own fork oil retails for Rs 34,000 all inclusive. The rear twin shocks for the 650 meanwhile, are priced at Rs 65,000. These are STX 36 and are adjustable for preload, rebound damping, and length.

Ohlins has a new importer / distributor for India, the Madras based N-Gage Powerparts. Though the price may appear a bit steep, for those who want to hold on to their 650s for a long time and do a lot of highway riding, I feel the suspension upgrade is a very worthy investment. I would definitely go for one if I had the Interceptor 650 and clocked a few miles on it.

In comparison, the front fork kit from YSS is Rs 23,000 and the rear kit with similar functionality is for Rs 61,374.

Link to Ohlins news.

[ninjatalli]

Originally Posted by neil.jericho

Though the price may appear a bit steep, for those who want to hold on to their 650s for a long time and do a lot of highway riding, I feel the suspension upgrade is a very worthy investment. I would definitely go for one if I had the Interceptor 650 and clocked a few miles on it. .

Is the current setup that bad to do the upgrade? I found it quite decent, even on my 1000 km single day ride.

I'd say it would make more sense to get some "value" from the stock setup, say for 2-3 years before doing this upgrade. Atleast that my plan for my bike.

[a4anurag]

Originally Posted by ninjatalli

Is the current setup that bad to do the upgrade? I found it quite decent, even on my 1000 km single day ride.

Rightly said, this suspension upgrade shouldn't be an immediate item to be changed. One needs to spend a bit time with the stock setup and then upgrade to genuinely understand what has improved.

If one is interested to get the suspension upgrade done, I feel that the focus should be more on the front suspension to make it slightly stiffer what it is. I find it to be on the softer side and would prefer if it was a bit on the harder side.

[neil.jericho]

Originally Posted by ninjatalli

Is the current setup that bad to do the upgrade? I found it quite decent, even on my 1000 km single day ride.

I'd say it would make more sense to get some "value" from the stock setup, say for 2-3 years before doing this upgrade. Atleast that my plan for my bike.

ninjatalli, I didnt mean to cause confusion with my earlier post. I will not say that the OEM setup is bad or drastically needs improvement right out of the box from day 1. It is just that for what is a very capable package (irrespective of the brand name on the tank), probably the only slightly weak link for long term and highway use is the suspension. This is based on a lot of feedback that I have seen and heard from owners both in India and abroad. As you would have observed, motorcycle owners in India tend to be very forgiving when it comes to OEM suspension, to the extent of us saying, it is what it is and lets live with it and we dont really have a mindset or embedded culture of upgrading the suspension.

Like you , even I feel that using the bike for some time and clocking some miles will give owners the best of both worlds - getting some usable life out of the OEM suspension and then upgrading it will help really appreciate and understand the improvements. However, if one has the budget and mindset for a suspension upgrade from say 6 months in or on day 1, they should consider this as an option to help improve what is an already well engineered motorcycle. I agree that spending Rs 1,00,000 (ballpark) on a suspension upgrade for a motorcycle that costs Rs 3.2 L might seem counter intuitive but it will transform the ride experience for sure.

I do have an adjustable Ohlins rear shock on my Triumph Street Triple 675 and just working with the settings has brought about a massive difference in the feel and ride quality of the motorcycle.

Originally Posted by a4anurag

Rightly said, this suspension upgrade shouldn't be an immediate item to be changed. One needs to spend a bit time with the stock setup and then upgrade to genuinely understand what has improved.

When it comes to cars, so many of us upgrade to better tires straight out of the showroom. Similarly, many of us head to our favourite audio installer and change the head unit and speakers on day 1.

So why not improve a motorcycles ride and handling with premium world class equipment on day 1 if one has the mindset and the budget?

[nasirkaka]

From day 1, my interceptor 650's suspension makes some kat -kat sound while riding over broken roads with small potholes. Nothing too serious but an irritant never the less. Are others facing this issue too?
I would love to upgrade to a better suspension, not so much for high speed handling, but more for increased suspension travel length, if and when its available at an affordable price. There are some generic pre-load adjusters available for standard fork dia sizes like below pic. Has anyone tried mods in this direction?

[dinu2506]

Originally Posted by nasirkaka

From day 1, my interceptor 650's suspension makes some kat -kat sound while riding over broken roads with small potholes. Nothing too serious but an irritant never the less. Are others facing this issue too?
I would love to upgrade to a better suspension, not so much for high speed handling, but more for increased suspension travel length, if and when its available at an affordable price. There are some generic pre-load adjusters available for standard fork dia sizes like below pic. Has anyone tried mods in this direction?

I had the same issue with my Bonnie and the preload adjustable caps really helped. I think it worth a try for the INT as well. If you are a DIY type, its fun to do this at home as well. I dialled in some preload to the front after this and the irritating kat sound that used to come is now gone.
Please see my post on this - Post #1084
https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/super...t-sold-73.html (My Triumph Bonneville. EDIT: Sold!)

[nasirkaka]

I had the same issue with my Bonnie and the preload adjustable caps really helped. I think it worth a try for the INT as well. If you are a DIY type, its fun to do this at home as well. I dialled in some preload to the front after this and the irritating kat sound that used to come is now gone.
Please see my post on this - Post #1084
https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/super...t-sold-73.html (My Triumph Bonneville. EDIT: Sold!) (My Triumph Bonneville. EDIT: Sold!)

Thanks! Very well captured and in great detail. A3/SEs were plagued with this and even on my Bonnie the front fork sound over humps was a big irritant.
For the interceptor, this preload adjuster cap could be a good way to experiment. Nothing much to losse, can always revert back to stock. Hope it is ok to use PVC pipe as spacer wrt compressive strength, etc.

[dinu2506]

Originally Posted by nasirkaka

Thanks! Very well captured and in great detail. A3/SEs were plagued with this and even on my Bonnie the front fork sound over humps was a big irritant.
For the interceptor, this preload adjuster cap could be a good way to experiment. Nothing much to losse, can always revert back to stock. Hope it is ok to use PVC pipe as spacer wrt compressive strength, etc.

Frankly speaking, the PVC pipe was a concern when I started out with this. But I read lot of reviews and could sort of understand that this is not a stressed member at all since the compressive load is taken fully by the springs. Maybe the reason why even the stock spacer is a very thin walled MS pipe. My Bonnie has been running on the PVC spacers since March 2018 (almost 2.5 years) and 8500 km. It has been holding up well, no issues. Recently, I had to open the forks for a fork seal change and could see that the spacers were in perfect condition with no cracks, chipping etc. However, if you have access to a lathe, I would still recommend you get a MS pipe spacer or if you are not too keen on retaining the stock spacers, just go ahead and trim the stock spacers.
This was one of the best mods I did on the Bonnie

[derek]

Originally Posted by nasirkaka

Put another add-on visor from the likes of PRO-SPEC and one is mostly sorted for wind protection.

I checked out their website, but cudnt see anything for the interceptor. Anyone using one of these extenders?

[nasirkaka]

I checked out their website, but cudnt see anything for the interceptor. Anyone using one of these extenders?

They do not have bike specific products but something of a generic design with slightly different visor shape options. These fit most of the bikes existing visors. Its just like you insert the plastic clip type part onto the existing visor, and tighten the small allen bolts to hold the visor in place with friction. Once fixed on the existing visor, the height of this add on visor can be slightly increased/lowered with the help of those red tabs. I have been using one on the 310GS for a year now without any issue. I will try and install it on the interceptor and share a pic. These are not very tall, and if used with carbon racing windscreen, the combo should be enough to expel the wind over the helmet.

[derek]

Thanks looks very nice. I’ll be getting my Puig tomorrow and will install in a day. Would appreciate if you could take a pic of this on the interceptor please, thank you.

On another note, I get a lot of noise from the left side of my engine. The right side is silent in comparison! This noise began after the left bend pipe (header) was removed to install the sump guard. It actually feels like the noise is coming from the the part where the header is fitted into the left engine.

Can anyone throw some light on this?

[ashishk29]

Ah. Returning to the thread after a long time! Lots of interesting discussions going on. Good to see

I have since added a Carbon racing windshield to my bike:



DIY'd it at home. Took about an hour+. The experience is far better than the stock "Tall" flyscreen. Almost no wind-blast to the chest or shoulders, only a slight stream of airflow around the chin and upwards area. The quality is good, and the most important bit is that it comes with the stainless steel supporting rods which attach to the handlebar. Had to remove my phone holder in the process, but I'll probably put it back on soon.

After that, had a small circuit around Tamhini, and the roads were so "awesome" that it reminded me very "hard" why I was so desperately looking for a front fork upgrade.
The front suspension was next to useless on bad roads. I returned home with incredibly sore arms thanks to it. On the plus side, the new windscreen setup held up *incredibly* well. No rattling, no noise. That I'm quite happy about.

So now I'm back into the front suspension upgrade boat. Stuart Fillingham did put out the YSS upgrade review, and he covers the _exact_ problems that exist with the front forks.

That kit costs around 23k, and I'm looking for distributors in India. I've clocked about 5000km now (I know, not much. Thank you COVID 19). But these 5k have convinced me that the front forks need to get some work done.

Rest of the bike is fantastic. The engine, the gearbox still leaves a smile on the face. I am noticing hints of rusting around the exhaust headers, just like some other members have shared on this forum. So I am assuming that it's "normal".