[Tigger]

Hi Mohan,

Congratulations on the buy!

'Tis is a far far better thing that you did, from what you had proposed to do!'

The decision not to be influenced by a brand like HD, simply for the sake of it, has led you to this great looking, sensible and top of the line buy.

I am not much for Bikes, but had I been, your buying decision would have surely influenced me!

Looking forward to an enlightening ownership thread.

Cheers.

[jkdas]

Originally Posted by mohan

Friends , Bike Gurus ,could you advise me if there are any serious octane boosters in the market .
This is now my concern since ,Hyosung recommends higher octane fuel for optimum performance. The availability is not an issue in cities but out there in far flung remote areas.
There is some information on TBHP regarding the same ,but the general opinion of the forum was that most octane boosters are a waste of time .
Kindly please enlighten.

Get STP Octane Booster. Cost 400Rs for a 150ml bottle or so.

http://www.stp.com/products/fuel-add...ctane-booster/

I am not sure how the ratio of this with petrol. My friend and TBHPian who is a fan of this uses one bottle per full tank in his Swift.

[n_aditya]

Originally Posted by jkdas

Get STP Octane Booster. Cost 400Rs for a 150ml bottle or so.

I am not sure how the ratio of this with petrol. My friend and TBHPian who is a fan of this uses one bottle per full tank in his Swift.

Please be careful when using such additives.

This link might be of some help to you.

Octane boosters reportedly cause issues with valve springs etc. and in the long run cause more damage than do good to the engine and the internals.

[SKODA_RS]

First of all, Congrats Mohan for such a lovely beast !
I have always loved the aquila from the day of the launch, and i ended up buying the GV650 Aquila from DSK Pune showroom on 11th april 2013 on the auspiscious occasion of Gudi Padwa.

One thing i want to do desparetely is improve the sound of the exhaust of aquila. Though i searched the Larry Cook which you suggested, i am not willing to go for it soon. Pls can you put some light on what modification your friend did to his GV650 for the exhaust sound. You have mentioned in the post that he spent 15k on that mod. i am really eager to know what it was. pls share.

Once again congrats, we now share the same beast in our garage's.
I will post the pics of my silver aquila soon.

Originally Posted by mohan

I have been riding bikes since I was 18 years old and still continue to do so at 45 years.
I have been riding the RE Classic 500 of late and I decided to change over to a modern cruiser .
When one starts thinking about cruisers the name that comes forcibly to one’s mind is HARLEY- DAVIDSON.

[ringoism]

Originally Posted by manolin

Hope you have read the Lambhorgini story. Forget piddly little Jeep or Landrover, they were a tractor manufacturer who put Ferrari to shame.

3) Currently they are making motorcycles only because there is gap between Demand and supply of cruisers and they can mint some cool cash pretty fast ,not because they are passionate about Motorcycles! Whoaa! And Harley cares? and Harley is on an evangelical mission to bring real motorcycling to the misguided?

Points well-taken. Moto-Guzzi's V-Twin was also of tractor-origin... and ultimately, 99% of all companies out there are in it for nothing more than market-share...

BUT:

While HD may not exactly be on an "evangelical mission" let me share this: I visited their assembly plant in York, Pennsylvania (USA) in the mid-nineties and can say that at that time, at least, the parking lot was full of Harleys of all ages (bikes got to park right in front of the building, too, whereas car-drivers needed to walk across it from further recesses); ALSO it was the case that the assembly lines were staffed with "real bikers" - people absolutely passionate (and blindly prejudicial) about Harleys - traditional long-haired biker types in denim vests and bandanas, sporting tattoos on bulging biceps; the type who probably would've been full-time hoodlums if they'd not found this one sort of useful daytime employment they were willing to be engaged in. Now, that might not be the kind of image that the typical Indian buyer is after, but it does speak to the fact that it is a machine that has long inspired strong emotions and loyalties - a religion, if you prefer - and has created a variety of images for those who ride them during the various periods of the company's existence. Hyosung may someday create their own image and following... but I don't think it will ever compete with H-D on the same terms.

Harleys at the time of my visit (as they had been for a long time) were notoriously unreliable - oil leaks and the occasional electrical fire and whatever... I had thought of buying stock in the company (as certain market analysts recommended) till I saw the shoddiness of the plant and heard the bad ownership stories and realized (from spec-sheets) how under-performing the machines were compared to the Japanese copies. Surely they could not keep duping customers indefinitely. Could they??? But for some reason, there was at that time a two-year waiting list to buy a new H-D; Used ones cost more than new for that reason. And inexplicably as time went on, people kept buying these inferior machines; I'd have become a rich man if I'd invested my money in their stock back then. It just seemed WRONG. But this was before I realized that at this level of motorcycling, common sense is not really involved that much in the purchase / ownership experiences.

So let me say this in conclusion: If I was going to buy a premium cruiser bike and run it for five years and then replace it with my next toy, the Hyosung would be very tempting over the H-D indeed, since it probably is as reliable and rides as well in every way, for a bit less cash. I do think it is an interesting machine that will probably serve a certain kind of buyer very well.

But if I wanted to keep a bike and live with it and keep it / ride it till I grew old, there's nothing current in India that could better the H-D (or, on the relatively lower end, a Royal Enfield, which philosophically and historically seems to have been on a very similar track as HD the past several decades). H-D R&D has always been slow and methodical and a bit "behind" the rest of the world, with the benefit that they've remained comparatively simple and serviceable, with many owners (abroad) continuing to do their own maintenance / modifications, etc. Biking tends to inevitably involve this sort of "individualistic" image - so if you can't modify your bike to your own tastes, then how much of that image are you able to rightfully own? Parts supply for H-D in the U.S., Europe and elsewhere is supported by numerous aftermarket suppliers - for upgraded clutches, gears, pistons, valves, exhausts, carbs, big-bore cylinder kits, chrome, straight-pipes, etc, etc, etc... and it will probably always be that way.

And it will probably NEVER be that way for Hyosung. It must be a great machine, but it's also a niche-market, uniform cookie-cutter thing made by what has been till now something of a third-rate Asian manufacturer. It wouldn't be unprecedented if the company was able to upgrade its image somewhere down the road (as humble Hyundai did to some degree in the North American market, and like Guzzi and Lambo somehow did in their own time); but I just can't quite believe that it will ever capture the imagination of the masses the way HD or RE have done - which is, for better or worse, a lot of what also defines the ownership experience for many. You can draw numerous other comparisons - CBR vs. Ducati, etc (twenty years from now, the CBR will probably be little more than a tired and outdated sportbike, and the Ducati will be a sought-after classic). Right or wrong, that's how it's almost always gone.

Let's be honest. Nobody in India really NEEDS a large-displacement bike of any kind. It is a toy, a luxury, a status thing, unchecked hedonism, whatever. So we're not talking strict practicality and bang-for-the-buck here, and thus such bikes can't really be evaluated from a spec-sheet. The overwhelming majority of those who dream of owning one never do - but it's the history, the image, the elusive possibilities that make such machines desired and satisfying. Never mind the fact that the majority of those who DO come to own one never actually break loose of all their encumbrances and just take off on an extended, open-end exploratory ride across the country... But people were doing that sort of things on H-D's all over the world a few generations before anyone heard of Hyosung. I think that at the heart of all human aspirations is - on an actually spiritual level - FREEDOM, ironically hand-in-hand with a kind of perseverance (i.e., "ETERNITY"). It is impossible to truly attain in this world; indeed, and the One who promised it taught, "Narrow is the path that leads to life, and few that find it." Maybe a certain kind of machine can better connect with such inner yearnings. It can't actually fulfill them. But in faith, some believe it will. At the least, there may be a fleeting glimpse that seems (for some) to make all the impracticality and excess worth it...

I suspect that the Hyosung service network is never going to be very extensive in India, and that these bikes are going to just get old and die - probably when the FI ECU fails, if not before. Ironically, H-D's may always be a bit "inferior" and impractical compared to would-be competitors; but their lasting presence, the loyalty they evoke, the passion with which many owners regard them, assures that in the LONG run, they might end up being the most practical and satisfying after all. Strange twist, but true. Depends what you're in it for, and for how long.


In the meanwhile, enjoy your ride. The Hyosung should make it easy to do so, and will likely grant many smiles.

-Erik

[manolin]

Originally Posted by ringoism

In the meanwhile, enjoy your ride. The Hyosung should make it easy to do so, and will likely grant many smiles.

-Erik

I hear you man, and love the passionate post.

When a brand is created

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S33abzXQfkc

people love buying into it. Its a basic human tendency.

But there is no reason to perpetuate it if there is no actual logic or value to it. May be you are right - now we have the GQ, wide roads with few bumps, or turns, may be the Harleys' fuel injection system (has been there for a couple of years now) will last longer than the Aquila fuel injection system. Maybe Harley is bike for it. Maybe Aquila is. Each to his own. This is an ownership report of a man who has made his choice. So lets leave it at that. Thanks.

[mohan]

Originally Posted by ringoism

Hyosung may someday create their own image and following... but I don't think it will ever compete with H-D on the same terms.

In the meanwhile, enjoy your ride. The Hyosung should make it easy to do so, and will likely grant many smiles.

-Erik

Erik , I simply loved to read your post ,although long-ish ,it came straight through your heart.

I appreciate your point of view ,which at some places almost seems like a "believer's apology".

This world which we live, knows of many religions. Many Gods and their exponential followers.

The older the religion ,the charismatic it is and more strong the group ,since it has a "rich heritage" and it has its own legends and legendary figures.

One such religious group is spear -headed by a demi-God, "Harley Davidson " and the other well known God in our part of the planet is "Royal Enfield". These religions are old.
These have multitude of followers , who love their Gods ,have an unshakeable belief even when their Gods wont deliver .

It's the sense of belonging to a group and the sense of being a family that bonds.

I too was a very religious man ,worshipping my Royal Enfield-Classic-500 when I attained enlightenment.

I decided to be free from dogma ,religion ,faith.

I now am a non-believer , I now have the Hysoung Aquila.

[Saptarshi B]

Originally Posted by mohan

I decided to be free from dogma ,religion ,faith.

I now am a non-believer , I now have the Hysoung Aquila.

Well said. Think you have already started believing- in the Aquila

[cool_dube]

Mohan,

Excellent write-up - very candid and to the point! Needless to say, the bike looks super-cool and I am sure that it rides as good as (probably better than) it looks. Do keep us posted on your ownership experience, especially the after-sales bit.

On a related note, any idea if the 250cc cousin of the Aquila Pro is launching in India anytime soon?

[ashtorque]

Hey Mohan, this is one good looking bike. But what I liked better is the venue of your photo shoot. Mandwa Jetty happens to be my favorite spot! Yea, I also belong to that place. I am more of a sports rider but eagerly waiting to hear your riding experience.
Congrats!

[mohan]

Originally Posted by cool_dube

Mohan,

On a related note, any idea if the 250cc cousin of the Aquila Pro is launching in India anytime soon?

The Aquila 250 is a hugely successful budget cruiser in the US. On enquiry from DSK Auto ,it was learnt that the Aquila -250 would be launched probably next year along with one more model.

Originally Posted by ashtorque

But what I liked better is the venue of your photo shoot. Mandwa Jetty happens to be my favorite spot!
Congrats!

Hello ashtorque, yeah this definitely is Mandwa jetty ,the famous locale for almost all photo shoots. Just recently the BMW guys had been there too for a photo shoot !

[dkaile]

Hyosung’s GV250 up next - http://www.autocarindia.com/News/345...0-up-next.aspx

[dkaile]

Wanted to inquire from you Mohan regarding fuel requirements. Is it absolutely essential to run this machine on higher octane petrol or can it run on RON 91 that is commonly available? Can you inquire this from your dealership/company and inform. Because we have no way of procuring high octane petrol in smaller cities like Meerut, unless you fill a jerry can on your every visit to Delhi which would be bordering on absurd.

[mohan]

Originally Posted by dkaile

Hyosung’s GV250 up next - http://www.autocarindia.com/News/345...0-up-next.aspx

THE AQUILA 250 is a hugely successful "budget cruiser" in the US and Australian markets. The EFI variant was launched in 2010.

Originally Posted by dkaile

Wanted to inquire from you Mohan regarding fuel requirements. Is it absolutely essential to run this machine on higher octane petrol ..

The manual says you need 92 octane or more .
Considering the (inevitably)adulterated fuel which we get at the regular pump,could be anywhere around 88 octane,the only option that remains is to add an octane booster.
I use the Wynn Octane booster which gives me an appreciable performance.
Although the company claims to boost your octane rating by 8 RON ,IF,you use it with a 89 octane fuel, I doubt ,it would really be increasing it to that levels.
After I have started using Wynn's I have found 2 major differences :
The Engine heat-up is significantly reduced and a better acceleration/torque,as evidenced by the throttle response/lesser gear change ( which could be imagination to some extent).
The former parameter leads me to believe that this product works and the latter maybe subjective.

[shreeharsh]

Hi Mohan - thank you for your detailed post. I was almost on the verge of buying the Aquila GV 650 when I happened to read it. Next thing I did was book one for myself and I got delivery last evening as promised (within 10 days time). I will soon be posting my own thread! :-)