Quote:
Originally Posted by jungle1212 Thanks to work from home, i will be living in Palampur, HP. The main roads ( national/state highways) for the most part are pretty decent but potholes do often surprise you, especially when you're traversing past a blind turn.
The local roads are mostly potholes with patches of tarmac, but they often lead to the most beautiful of places.
I currently own a thunderbird 350x and honestly never worried too much about abusing it. I've taken it from Ramgarh(Jharkhand) to Delhi, most of Himachal, Punjab, haryana and West UP.
I've been lusting after the street triple r forever, and now am in a position to buy it. Back to the issue
After seeing Rohit Paradkar's review of the street r, i wanted to do a deep dive about the relationship between potholes and sports nakeds. I contacted a few reviewers and other than shumi and Rohit Paradkar who were pretty direct that rims are a weak point in the street triple, the rest just told me to go "slow and avoid potholes". As an absolute newbie I hope current owners like you and @neil.jericho and other former owners can answer some questions
1) What is the actual risk of damaging the rims in real world riding? (Usage mostly in Himachal across all road conditions, with highway shoots to Delhi, I would love to travel to leh/spiti on it but I can drop that idea ).
2) a lot of reviewers said " if you drive fast and hit a sharp pothole it's a risk", Sorry about this but what exactly is fast?? 30-40-50 kmph?
Thank you all in advance! |
jungle1212, welcome to the forum! Its always wonderful to find more and more motorcycle enthusiasts joining Team BHP.
I am coming up to 4 years with my Street Triple 675 and so far, I havent had any issues with bent rims. When I bought the bike, I resigned myself to the fact that I have to pussyfoot my way through broken sections of the road. With my Continental GT 535, I had no such worries. In the real world, this careful approach with my Triumph, means that I lose a lot of time when the roads arent the best. Meanwhile, my friends who own Tiger 800s, glide over the very same sections, without a worry in the world. As careful as I have been, there were a couple of occasions where I was caught off guard by a hidden pothole. Fortunately, nothing happened. Divine providence? Good karma?
Coming to the Himalayas, a couple of Street Triple owners have taken their bikes deep into the mountains.
I dont mean to suggest that the rims on sporty bikes are safe from Indian roads. Far from it! A close friend of mine was returning from Dhanuskodi, when his middleweight bike came upon a decent sized pothole. Both the rims on his Honda were bent immediately. The bike had to be put on a rescue vehicle and was sent back to Cochin. Being a Honda, the total damage to the wallet (
prior to insurance stepping in) was Rs 20,000. For both rims together. Had it been a Street Triple, a pair of rims would have cost around Rs 1,00,000 (
no, I didnt add an extra zero. You read it right...). God bless motorcycle insurance!
Given the local conditions that you mentioned, can you ride a sports naked? Of course you can!
Given the local conditions that you mentioned, should you own a Street Triple R (
or any other similar sports naked)? I would suggest against it.
If you have Rs 10L or so, to buy a Street Triple R, it would probably be best to buy a pre-owned Tiger 800 instead. It may not be the bike you want but the Tiger 800 is the bike you need.