[Amey Kulkarni]

Originally Posted by Rachit.K.Dogra

I am not sure what you mean by the Pricing on Honda's website for the new model. I am quite confident that Honda has not released the pricing of the new updated CBR that is supposed to be launched soon.

The current pricing on website seems to be on the lower side w.r.t what it was earlier. Don't know if Honda will carry forward the same pricing once they have the new one launched. Let's wait and see.

Cheers,
Amey

[kailashnj]

Originally Posted by Rachit.K.Dogra

Overall damages was around 6K, which is within the expected range. I am attaching the copy of the bill.

The service bill
Attachment 1609598

Wow this is really good. Service cost only 1645. Damn - Kawasaki charges that much per hour. Hats off to Honda - others should learn from them as far as customer service is concerned.

[Rachit.K.Dogra]

Originally Posted by Amey Kulkarni

The current pricing on website seems to be on the lower side w.r.t what it was earlier. Don't know if Honda will carry forward the same pricing once they have the new one launched. Let's wait and see.

Cheers,
Amey

Honestly, Even I am confused a bit too. I did hear that they are not taking any more new orders till they come up with the new pricing. Not 100% sure though.

Originally Posted by kailashnj

Wow this is really good. Service cost only 1645. Damn - Kawasaki charges that much per hour. Hats off to Honda - others should learn from them as far as customer service is concerned.

Yeah, Honda is pretty acceptable in terms of their after sales cost especially for the CBR650.

CHEERS!!

Rachit

[Amey Kulkarni]

Originally Posted by Rachit.K.Dogra

Honestly, Even I am confused a bit too. I did hear that they are not taking any more new orders till they come up with the new pricing. Not 100% sure though.

Surprised to see revision in prices on website again today.

It showed Rs 6.57 Lakhs Ex-Showroom Pune till last week. Today it seems to be Rs 7.47 Lakhs; a good Rs 90K price hike. Wonder what's cooking behind the curtains at Honda.

https://www.honda2wheelersindia.com/cbr650f/price

Cheers,
Amey

[aditya.bhardwaj]

Originally Posted by Rachit.K.Dogra

Honestly, Even I am confused a bit too. I did hear that they are not taking any more new orders till they come up with the new pricing. Not 100% sure though.



Yeah, Honda is pretty acceptable in terms of their after sales cost especially for the CBR650.

CHEERS!!

Rachit

Hi Rachit, i confirmed the same with the Delhi Wing World. They are not taking anymore bookings. They informed me to wait till September. As per them, that's when the updated model is getting launched.

[Rachit.K.Dogra]

Originally Posted by Amey Kulkarni

Surprised to see revision in prices on website again today.

It showed Rs 6.57 Lakhs Ex-Showroom Pune till last week. Today it seems to be Rs 7.47 Lakhs; a good Rs 90K price hike. Wonder what's cooking behind the curtains at Honda.

https://www.honda2wheelersindia.com/cbr650f/price

Cheers,
Amey

I am actually not surprised. I think Honda has been a bit slow in updating the website. The 6.57 is the discounted price which they had to clear the old stock. But they didn't update after the old stock got cleared.

What was even more interesting is that, they took bookings for new 2017 bikes probably at the same discounted price of the old stock. I assume this because I had gone their to get something done on my bike and I checked with them about the old stock. They said it got sold and there was a guy there booking a new bike. So I thought they probably did sell from fresh 2017 bikes at the discounted prices. But I am sure only a few bikes, because then they stopped for GST.

Originally Posted by aditya.bhardwaj

Hi Rachit, i confirmed the same with the Delhi Wing World. They are not taking anymore bookings. They informed me to wait till September. As per them, that's when the updated model is getting launched.

Yup, this is what I know as of now as well.

CHEERS!!

Rachit

[Rachit.K.Dogra]

First of 3 updates. I apologise for being late with the updates.

So in the month of June me and some of my friends went for a one nighter to Lansdowne. All of us have been craving for some long ride and wanted some twisties action. We have been thinking about going to lansdowne since many years but I had not gone there yet. Generally my first preference is towards Himachal, but the Shimla highway is under construction. Any other place would have been too much of a distance for a one nighter. So we chose Lansdowne. Little did we know what lay ahead of us. My past 2 experiences of visiting Uttar Pradesh highways have not been smooth and as luck would have it, that weekend turned out to be the hottest of the season and we were on hot blooded super bikes navigating crazy UP highway traffic.

So the plan was to start early morning around 5 from Noida. The meeting place was City Center Metro Station. But we all were in a relaxed mood and wanted to enjoy. We were thinking that Lansdowne is 270 KMs from Delhi and if we start at 5, we might reach before the Hotel check in at 10. How wrong we were

The Bikes:
2015 CBR650F
2015 Ninja 650F
2004 Ninja 636
2014 ZX10R
Duke 200
RC 390
and the Saviour in this trip, Alto.

Starting Grid


We started around 6-6.15 and mostly were doing slow speeds as we wanted to keep the Alto in sight too. The friend driving the Alto was alone in the car and we did not want to leave him alone behind. We took our breakfast break at Giani dhaba at Gajraula. We were doing pretty okay till that time and still had a lot of energy in the tank. Things started going downhill from there. First we ended up taking a longer route and then we took a couple of wrong turns going in wrong directions bringing our first day total to around 330-340 KMs. After breakfast in Gajraula, the sun was out. We did get some open stretches to open some legs of our bikes, but that fun did not last long. Soon, as customary with my history of UP highways, we hit a traffic jam. We were stuck in it for around 45 mins and it really took a lot of energy out of us. The heat with all the riding gear was not helping either. We took a break at a petrol station and realised for the first time what we had gotten ourselves into. No amount of water was able to quench our thirst. We had to make a huge effort to get on our bikes. After that progress was mostly slow and we had to take breaks for one reason or the other every 40-50 KMs. Every break we took, just went into gulping water, loads of water.

Happy faces at Giani Dhaba


Taking Detour to avoid massive jam on the highway


The Petrol Pump Break


Some open Stretches




Finally we reached Kothdwar and I was really excited that now we get the twisties. I was riding the 636, my favourite for attacking corners, but the fun didn't last long. There were literally hundreds of unmarked speed breakers, the road surface was also not very smooth and as usual oncoming traffic was over eager at turns. Also, around 250 KMs of riding in 50 degree heat out of which around 120 was done on the 636 meant my body had started aching already. I was still more than keen to make the most of whatever corners we were getting and tried my best to be on it. Riding these bikes slowly, actually tires you even more. The final 20 odd KMs to Lansdowne is an even narrow road, although the traffic is less, but sometime oncoming traffic is fast and can put you into tricky situations. I got to ride the ZX10 first time on twisties here. Although the road was too tight for something like a ZX10 but the ZX10 impressed me immensely for its friendly nature. It was actually more comfortable than the 636 and in power mode B, it was a doodle to ride. This one had an aftermarket seat which was preventing me from slipping and that made making the bike dance between my short legs super easy. Overall I came out very very impressed with the ZX10 and in my opinion foot peg positioning of Kawasakis suit me more (Short Riders). I have found Kawasaki generally puts their foot pegs a bit above than rest which helps my short legs. Both the 636 and the ZX10 are the bikes where I have found holding tank the easiest. We took 9 hours to reach Lansdowne, barely able to walk upto our rooms by the end of it.

The return journey was almost similar. After not much of a rest from last night, our battered bodies took the mantle of coming back. We wanted to go to Tarkeshwar temple, but the return journey seemed so daunting that we promised Shiv ji to come back again and skipped Tarkeshwar. The entire trip was full of water breaks. This is where Alto proved a saviour. It had all our luggage and some water. We drank and drank and none of us urinated. The water just seemed to evaporate out of our bodies. The highways in UP are not smooth. The traffic is awry, there is population on the sides and generally keeping speeds is not easy. By the time we reached Jain Shikanji in Modinagar, we were good to leave planet earth for heaven. We just lay on chairs for an hour and had buckets of Shikanji. We started our last leg and as if God thought it was not enough we saw a massive traffic jam. What happened next was the fight to survive. It had become an endurance challenge. Super hot weather, Super Hot bikes beneath you, battered and dehydrated bodies and stop and go traffic. This was not working out. We did what everybody was doing, started navigating from extreme left which meant puddles of dust and mud and what not but we didn't care about the bikes anymore, we were just desparate to make progress. In this 7-8 KMs ordeal which lasted around 2 hours, our bikes heat up twice. Finally we made it alive and reached friends place in Noida and if previous day was a record in taking the highest time to reach Lansdowne, we had broken it as we took 10.5 hours to reach back.

Overall experience was not as grim as it may sound. What stood out was friendship. We all kept pushing each other for that little more, we all stuck together as a group. Nobody left the group and the group followed the slowest rider always. We kept switching bikes which helped us in concentrating. The bikes performed flawlessly. This was just not what these machines were made to tackle, but none of them skipped a beat.

Lessons learnt: Dont take 636 touring.
June is not the time to tour.
Good friends around, help you go through the toughest of challenges

Some Pics:
Me with the 10R


Some photography by a friend on the return leg









Duke 200


Arjun on my bike


Me on the ZX10


RC390


A couple of Videos:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08KAl2WQStQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AoSuM-XSU0Q

Next Updates:
Tyres Changed
5th Service

CHEERS!!


Rachit

[thevwguy]

Hi there Rachit,

Awesome ride and mods there brother. I’m probably the most silent tbhpian albeit in its history I’ve been following ur thread right from the very beginning and also have been all the other sbk owners. The big Bike itch has always been a part of me for over 4 years now and the CBR650F 2017 is a strong contender thanks to all the vital information in your post. I’ve just been in touch with the Honda dealers in Chennai and looks like the 17 version is expected to launch in Nov. It always seems to be the following month every month a few more test rides should finally push me over the edge to take the plunge. Do keep this thread updated please with your experiences and rides. Thanks

[Rachit.K.Dogra]

Originally Posted by thevwguy

Hi there Rachit,

Awesome ride and mods there brother. I’m probably the most silent tbhpian albeit in its history I’ve been following ur thread right from the very beginning and also have been all the other sbk owners. The big Bike itch has always been a part of me for over 4 years now and the CBR650F 2017 is a strong contender thanks to all the vital information in your post. I’ve just been in touch with the Honda dealers in Chennai and looks like the 17 version is expected to launch in Nov. It always seems to be the following month every month a few more test rides should finally push me over the edge to take the plunge. Do keep this thread updated please with your experiences and rides. Thanks

Thank you very much brother for your wishes.

I hope you realize you fulfill your Big Bike Itch very soon.

I will surely try my best to put all the information here.

I recently visited the service center to get the 5th service done on my bike and I heard similar thing from them around the Nov launch. They also did say that, they might just tip over the launch to next year and get the 2018 model instead but as of now, Nov is the planned launch for both the CBR and the new Fireblade.

Also, they stood by what they had said earlier on pricing around 7.3 EX Showroom. This is what they told me and I don't know what the final price would be.

Yes, do take test rides off all the bikes in this range. Happy Decision Making.

CHEERS!!

Rachit

[thevwguy]

Originally Posted by Rachit.K.Dogra

Thank you very much brother for your wishes.

I hope you realize you fulfill your Big Bike Itch very soon.

I will surely try my best to put all the information here.

I recently visited the service center to get the 5th service done on my bike and I heard similar thing from them around the Nov launch. They also did say that, they might just tip over the launch to next year and get the 2018 model instead but as of now, Nov is the planned launch for both the CBR and the new Fireblade.

Also, they stood by what they had said earlier on pricing around 7.3 EX Showroom. This is what they told me and I don't know what the final price would be.

Yes, do take test rides off all the bikes in this range. Happy Decision Making.

CHEERS!!

Rachit

Thanks Rachit!! Hope I do too before the scenes change and I lose my chance yes the ex showroom price is at 7.3 bringing the OTR to about 8.3 ish. Thats a good 2lakhs cheaper than the Striple who is also a forerunner in the race BTW, i recall seeing that you are near the 24K KMS mark if I'm not wrong? Have you had your valve clearances checked if so?

[ethanhunt123]

Originally Posted by thevwguy

Thanks Rachit!! Hope I do too before the scenes change and I lose my chance yes the ex showroom price is at 7.3 bringing the OTR to about 8.3 ish. Thats a good 2lakhs cheaper than the Striple who is also a forerunner in the race BTW, i recall seeing that you are near the 24K KMS mark if I'm not wrong? Have you had your valve clearances checked if so?

Why not the Kawa Z900 - inline 4 engine, extremely smooth engine, relaxed ergonomics & japanese reliability. It should be only about 50-60k more on road than the CBR650 - making it a no-brainer.

[thevwguy]

Originally Posted by ethanhunt123

Why not the Kawa Z900 - inline 4 engine, extremely smooth engine, relaxed ergonomics & japanese reliability. It should be only about 50-60k more on road than the CBR650 - making it a no-brainer.

Hi there. Two main reasons, unusable pillion seat and maintenance costs / reviews. The costs r super high and the word about kawi A.S.S is not really good.

[ethanhunt123]

Originally Posted by thevwguy

Hi there. Two main reasons, unusable pillion seat and maintenance costs / reviews. The costs r super high and the word about kawi A.S.S is not really good.

The difference would be 5-6k per service - 10k per year. Even if you keep the bike for 4-5 years - do you really want to buy an inferior bike just for 50k less ? Kawasaki is still finding its feet after Bajaj divorce - i dont see why they wont improve. Plus with the Japanese reliability - dont think it would require unscheduled service.

CBR650 is a very good bike no doubt - but highly overpriced. It would have been a worthy option at 6.6L ex-showroom - but at 7.3L - there are far better options out there.

[thevwguy]

Originally Posted by ethanhunt123

The difference would be 5-6k per service - 10k per year. Even if you keep the bike for 4-5 years - do you really want to buy an inferior bike just for 50k less ? Kawasaki is still finding its feet after Bajaj divorce - i dont see why they wont improve. Plus with the Japanese reliability - dont think it would require unscheduled service.

CBR650 is a very good bike no doubt - but highly overpriced. It would have been a worthy option at 6.6L ex-showroom - but at 7.3L - there are far better options out there.

Sorry buddy I wasn’t clear on my last reply. It isn’t just the cost, it’s unavailability of spares, general working of the A.S.S. They really have not inspired confidence in me who comes from a spree of bad service centres. The motorcycle as such I do agree is definitely a notch above. But I’m also in need of a comfy pillion seat with a 4 pot motor.

[Rachit.K.Dogra]

Originally Posted by thevwguy

Thanks Rachit!! Hope I do too before the scenes change and I lose my chance yes the ex showroom price is at 7.3 bringing the OTR to about 8.3 ish. Thats a good 2lakhs cheaper than the Striple who is also a forerunner in the race BTW, i recall seeing that you are near the 24K KMS mark if I'm not wrong? Have you had your valve clearances checked if so?

I have clocked around 14K KMs as of now brother. Although I have been through 5 services where the the 5th is done at 24K KMs. 2 items are pending on my bike because I have not clocked enough KMs, Breaks Bleed and Valve Clearence. The service center said, they will do when I clock the necessary KMs.

CHEERS!!

Rachit