[TRR]

The last couple of months saw the GSX venture on two longer jaunts outside Bengaluru, clocking up another 1500 kms on the odometer.

For starters, the rear tire had its first puncture, just over 1000 kms into its fitment on the bike. Call it plain bad luck, but I noticed the rear tire at a substantially low tire pressure the night before I was to head into the first long ride. Wasn’t a regular nail, but a long screw that had driven itself into my rear tire. Immediately got it patched, but was slightly annoyed at the tire having picked up such debris so early into its life. Touchwood, there have been no repeats into the subsequent 1000 kms of usage and I am hoping it stays that way.





Wayanad Ride

The next day, the GSX and I set off on a day’s ride to Wayanad and back. Drove on a nice loop, hitting Mysore, Bandipur, Sulthan Bathery, Wayanad, Mananthavady, Nagarahole, Mysore and then proceeded back to Bengaluru. As usual, the bike was excellent throughout this trip since the roads were excellent for the most part, with the exception being the extremely broken roads inside Nagarahole. Ended up crawling at a snail’s pace in this part. Was slightly worried about the Kerala police flagging me down for the aftermarket exhaust, but stuck to fellow BHPian @krishnaprasadgg’s advice and kept my head and revs low inside this part and made it through without so much as a second glance from any cop. The bike returned a very healthy 25kmpl since I barely crossed 80 kmph when inside Kerala. Felt good to cruise at a low and steady pace after a long while. As stated in earlier posts, the GSX is docile when you want it to be and does not complain if ridden slowly. It is content to just chug along at calmer speeds, if that’s what you ask of it. The gear-shifts are cleaner at lower rpms, the suspension is slightly better at handling rough roads and the inline-4 engine becomes silky smooth with zero vibrations when ridden sedately. Helps that the wind blast is lower at these speeds too. The lower speeds keep the SC Project quiet too, allowing you to get respite from the constant drone of the exhaust.

Somewhere before Wayanad in Kerala



Found these lush green fields by the roadside between Wayanad and Mananthavady



Inside the Nagarahole Reserve Forest





Random photo near H D Kote. Can see some factory in the background



Started off at 5:30 AM in the morning and was on course to be back home by 03:30 PM, but ended up getting stuck on the BLR-MYS expressway because of the Prime Minister’s rally in Maddur. The deviation added another 2 hours to the trip and I ended up reaching home at 5:30 PM. Ended up covering around 650 kms on this trip, and surprisingly ended with no backache or any discomfort in the back-end. Your legs do get cramped after a long while on the saddle though, so I still needed to take breaks every 1.5 hours or so. Driving on the expressway makes me wish for a cruise control option on this bike as the open highways become cumbersome while manually maintaining the throttle at a set speed.

Also, while taking the deviation through some villages to avoid the Prime Minister’s rally, I bumped into a fellow GSX-S750 owner, who was heading back to Bengaluru from Mysore. Feels good to see other GSX owners out in the open and using their bikes. Since we were on the same route, we decided to travel back together. That GSX had a Yoshi fitted on, and while it sounded sublime, I think I still prefer my SC Project for its sound characteristics.



Chikkamagaluru Ride

The next long ride was during the last weekend. This was a ride with a couple of friends on an ADV390 and a CB300R, with the destination being Chikkamagaluru. We headed out on a Saturday morning, stayed over at a resort in Chikkamagaluru and returned back the next day. This was the GSX’s first proper monsoon ride outside the city. Covered a total of around 600 kms on this trip and had good fun tackling the Western Ghats around the resort. We planned to go to Charmadi while heading back to Bengaluru on Sunday morning, but the rains were too strong and our rain gear was woefully inadequate. As such, we turned around just after crossing Ibbani café and then made our way back to Bengaluru. The overall trip was great fun, with there being a different dynamic since this was a group ride. This trip further reinforced my opinion that a 300-400cc bike is more than what is needed in a country like ours (not that I’d ever exchange the GSX for a lower capacity bike, though). Since I don’t blast at full throttle on our national highways, the other 2 bikes were able to keep up with me with breaking too much of a sweat. Even when I did cross legal speeds in short bursts, I'd invariably get caught up behind a slower vehicle, allowing them to catch up to me. Once we crossed Hassan and headed into smaller roads though, their bikes were just as good as mine, almost making the GSX seem like overkill. The only major things that are lacking in the other bikes is that sweet, sweet inline-4 soundtrack (a huge plus, if you ask me) and the engine refinement, but in all other aspects, they were more than adequate for the task at hand. In fact, the ADV390 is slightly better off since it can easily tackle broken roads, but this was moot since we encountered almost zero broken roads once we crossed Hassan. The rain was a proper menace though, understandably so since we headed into the Western Ghats just after monsoon had landed on this coast. I only have a rain coat for my riding jacket, so riding with a completely drenched bottom half and soaked gloves is a major pain.

The 3 bikes together at stop for a tender coconut break



The view of the surrounding estate at the resort



Found some nice backroads around the resort and stopped at a quiet spot for some pictures of the GSX





The view from the cockpit



Some other random clicks





A guest who stopped by at our dinner spot in the resort



Riding in the rain - One important aspect of this ride, at least for me, was that it allowed me to better understand the GSX’s characteristics in the monsoon rains, while being outside the city. In the 2 years of this bike’s ownership, I have only ridden in the rains inside the city. Driving at higher speeds and tackling ghat roads in the heavy downpour is a whole different ballgame. Equally important was that I got to test the Vredestein Centauro NSs on properly wet roads. Happy to report that both the GSX and the NSs have been completely satisfactory in these conditions. I set the TC to level 3 once the rain became heavier to be on the safer side. Even at the highest setting, the bike rarely activated the TC on roads with standing water. I guess a part of this is due to me being overly cautious with my throttle inputs (driving on mirror surface roads took away a huge chunk of my confidence from a mental perspective), but the TC light never came on at any time. The tires successfully kept the right side of the bike up and never slipped when accelerating out of corners. Only once, under a hard downshift while entering a corner, did the rear lose traction for a second, but the tires regained composure quickly and continued sticking to the road. Obviously, as a novice rider, I did not try to explore the limits of the tires in the wet with high lean angles, but I think for my style of riding, these tires perform well enough in the rain-drenched roads. YMMV depending on your bike's power and your riding manners. Will they perform just as well with greater mileage in them? That is open for question, but is something that only time will tell.

A few screenshots of the wet roads from my helmet cam. These aren't as high quality stills as the other images, but will hopefully give you a decent idea of the type of wet weather that the tires had to deal with.





The tires held traction even as I accelerated out of this stream of water



Riding in the dark - Another thing I got to check out was the performance of the LED headlamp setup in the pitch-black countryside as we ventured out from the resort post dinner for a short escapade into the countryside. The lighting system, I feel is adequate for slow riding up to 60-70 kmph. Anything beyond that is dangerous and would need auxiliary lights. The low beam is practically useless since the throw is too short, but what it does light up, it does so cleanly and uniformly. The high beam is slightly better off and highlights a little distance further and illuminates the sides of the road in a much better fashion. But again, these are barely adequate and I would definitely recommend an aftermarket auxiliary lighting setup if night rides are what gets you going.

The spread of the low beam. Again a shot from the helmet cam, so it is a bit grainy.



Slightly better spread of the high beam.



Fuel issues - As has been noted across the forum, riding in remote places is no longer a concern from the fuel quality aspect as XP95 is available in almost every small town. We stopped to refill in Mudigere while going to the resort and had stopped again at Hassan on the way back. Both towns had IOC Petrol Pumps with XP95 available. A strange aspect I noted was that the bike was relatively rough on regular fuel from the Jio BP fuel station near the Goraguntepalya junction in Bengaluru. I noticed much stronger vibrations around the 5000 – 6000 rpm range on this fuel, though I’m left pondering if the road surfaces till Hassan was the cause or if the fuel quality was suspect. These vibrations didn’t return once we topped up with the XP95 at Mudigere. The bike runs fine on regular petrol from Nayara and Shell, so not sure what was up with this particular instance.

The bike was absolutely filthy from this ride, made worse from the fact that it rained even as we re-entered Bengaluru in the evening on Sunday.

The accumulated filth on the bike



Got the bike washed out at my usual place



Miscellaneous updates

Other than this, the other updates are on some regular items procured through my brother in the UK. The bike is still running on the stock OEM spark plugs and I decided to not get them replaced at the 30,000 km mark since I could procure them for much cheaper in the UK. Got a set of 4 of these Laser Iridium spark plugs for around the ₹3500 mark in the UK. These will go on the bike once my brother lands here.



Also, procured a Quadlock mobile phone mount for the bike, along with the vibration damper. This comes with a phone-case mod allowing me to use this interchangeably with my regular phone or with the spare phone that I use for navigation.



Besides this, I have a front fender extender on order, which should reach my brother before he leaves from the UK. There is a lot of mud that sprays onto the radiator from the front wheel. Hopefully, this extender closes this issue and helps keep the radiator clean and working perfectly.

In other news, the GSX has gotten a sibling in a Triumph Street Triple 765 RS. My brother picked up this beauty in the UK. Looks absolutely gorgeous and I cannot wait to see it in the flesh. Neither bike is a garage queen, with both of them running the daily office commute duties as well as the longer road trips. We now have constant debates now on whether the inline-3 sounds better or the inline-4, much to the annoyance of our parents






That’s all for this update on the GSX. The bike will mostly just see the city roads again for the next couple of months as I get busy with other commitments on the personal front. Will keep the thread posted for any interesting developments.

[TRR]

Been a long while since I last updated this thread. The odo is at 36,000 kms now, so I’ve managed to put 24,000 kms on the GSX-S since I got it in August 2021. Not as much as I would have liked to, but it’s no garage queen at least.

Couldn't stop anywhere for the 36000 kms photo, but got this grab off my helmet cam





The odo is climbing up more slowly now since I don’t wish to subject the bike to the ORR traffic every day. My new workplace offers a cab facility and that’s the preferred commute option on most days. Still, the bike doesn’t complain. Must be that Japanese reliability in its blood, for it still starts without a fuss when wheeled out in those wintery cold Bangalore mornings. With work and personal commitments piling up, the GSX now lives the life of a stereotypical Indian superbike. Head out on weekends for a 150-200 km breakfast/coffee run, head back home, get washed and sleep under the covers for the weekdays. Only when I know that traffic will be minimal or when I plan to return from work late in the night does the GSX get to do the office commute.



In the midst of it all, got the 6000 km oil change done recently. Took the bike to Hafiz and had a routine service done in under a couple of hours. Fresh oil and oil filter, brake cleaning, coolant top-up and a thorough inspection all around. Nothing out of the ordinary to report on this front. Didn’t get much pictures of this. The old oil wasn’t fully degraded, surprisingly. Probably attributable to the fact that the bike now does a 40-60 ratio of commute-highway kilometres, with even those commutes being low traffic, late night runs.



The Vredestein NSs suffered their second puncture this last weekend on a small jaunt out of town. Was stranded on the highway with no puncture repair guy around and had to call in a tow truck to get the bike back inside the city. Got it plugged, but learnt my lesson after this expensive tow truck ride and now have a puncture repair kit and air compressor handy with me to carry on any ride outside the city.



More goodies have been procured for the bike through my brother in the UK. These will be with me once he flies down this month end.

Sintered front brake pads from Brembo. Found these on Omnia Racing Italy for the same price as a set of EBCs here in India. Had them shipped to my brother. The current EBCs on my bike will last for another 2000-3000 kms and the Brembos will go on once they’re done. With these being as cheap as they are, I plan to have them brought down with my brother once a year or so, whenever he visits.



And the final component of my planned braking upgrades - the Brembo RCS19 brake master cylinder. Purchased these from carpimoto along with the Brembo mirror mount clamp and again, had them shipped to my brother. These are the non-corsa corta version and was purchased as a set with the brake fluid reservoir and mounting kit included.







This is one thing I consulted with Hafiz closely on before pulling the trigger. Seeing my discomfort with the current spongy brake setup, Hafiz suggested fitting a Gen-3 Hayabusa master cylinder onto my bike. This would be a radial master cylinder and would allow me to gauge whether changing to a radial setup would give me the feedback I sought. He had a spare Gen-3 Hayabusa master cylinder with him and offered to let me borrow it for a while. Took the bike to him and had this master cylinder fixed, but the accelerator cables coming out of the right handlebar controls were fouling with the brake lever. He managed to angle the lever a little downward to avoid the cables, but, with the bleeder valve sticking towards the handlebar, there was no way for me to fix the right-side mirror with this setup. I was unwilling to continue with this, but Hafiz suggested I take the bike around the block for a small bit and gauge the feedback and then pull the trigger on the RCS19s.

The radial master cylinder from the Gen-3 Hayabusa



The stock axial master cylinder removed



The radial master cylinder fitted



The difference in brake feel with this radial master cylinder was night and day. I suddenly had the instant, precise feedback that I had been searching for. It was incredible how precise the front brake felt with this new setup. Plus, I could easily do one-finger braking with full confidence now. Went back to his shop with the decision to buy the RCS19 now cemented. Hafiz fixed the stock master cylinder back along with the right-side mirror and from then, my wait had begun. Hopefully, the fitment of the RCS19 won't throw up any surprises

The next post will mostly be after all these parts go on the bike. This upgrade should close the chapter on the brakes front, since the only thing left will be upgrading the rotors, which I have no intention of doing. In fact, with these parts fixed, I’ve decided to pause any further upgrades for a bit and enjoy the bike as it is.



It’s been 2.5 years since coming into the ownership of the GSX-S now. I still pinch myself when going to the office parking lot and finding this machine waiting for me. There are many good things in life, but that inline-4 singing away to glory on the late-night sprints to home is something special. It plays the perfect stress-buster after those long days at work. And the weekend runs outside the city, while short, just make life so much better, especially with Bengaluru's current weather. Sure, the GSX-S isn’t the most advanced, most powerful nor the most expensive bike out there. But cutting through the winter fog on the outskirts of Bangalore with the music from the SC-Project reverberating inside my helmet, I am left pondering if there is any better way to immerse oneself into the superbike dream

[CrAzY dRiVeR]

Heartening to hear that the Suzuki service center is helping you beyond their regular duties - in trying out a different master cylinder and all! Nice

My friend recently bought a Street Triple 765RS and he would have definitely bought the Katana if stocks were available. We got excellent sales reception at the whitefield superbike showroom including multiple nice TDs for both him and me who just accompanied him.

Suzuki should really start concentrating more on other superbikes than just on the Busa.

[TRR]

Originally Posted by CrAzY dRiVeR

Heartening to hear that the Suzuki service center is helping you beyond their regular duties - in trying out a different master cylinder and all! Nice

My friend recently bought a Street Triple 765RS and he would have definitely bought the Katana if stocks were available. We got excellent sales reception at the whitefield superbike showroom including multiple nice TDs for both him and me who just accompanied him.

Suzuki should really start concentrating more on other superbikes than just on the Busa.

Oh, this isn't the Suzuki service centre that I visit. Hafiz runs an independent garage called "Dr Buza Racing" and handles servicing for all kind of bikes. I've seen Kawasakis, Triumphs, Ducatis and even an odd MV Agusta at his place. He was earlier with Aerolex Suzuki but moved out once Aerolex shut shop. He's been my go-to person for any work on my bike since his Aerolex days.

[iron.head]

Surprised to see a local mechanic having access to a Gen 3 Hayabusa part.

There was a recall for the front master cylinder for the Gen 3 Hayabusa and IMHO random used brake parts with an unknown record/history must not be used.

Might I suggest to check if this is a known problem with your year model GSX-S and if not then using the stock part while properly flushing the brake fluid with a new bottle from Motul would be a good option. The spongy brake feel is usually a result of air/bad fluid in the system and does not necessarily warrant upgraded parts.

A new upgraded master cylinder that is perfectly compatible with this motorcycle could also be a good option to explore.

https://www.advrider.com/suzuki-reca...ster-cylinder/

[TRR]

Originally Posted by iron.head

Surprised to see a local mechanic having access to a Gen 3 Hayabusa part.

There was a recall for the front master cylinder for the Gen 3 Hayabusa and IMHO random used brake parts with an unknown record/history must not be used.

Hey iron.head. Thank you for the concern and pointing out about the recall for the Gen-3 Hayabusa master cylinder.

Hafiz is a professional drag racer himself and also helps other Hayabusa owners to prep their bikes for drag racing and other mods. This master cylinder was leftover (in excellent condition) from a Gen-3 Hayabusa owner who modded his bike. Besides, the fitment of this onto my bike was never intended as a permanent solution. Was just a stopgap measure to help me understand if a radial master cylinder would give me the brake feel and feedback that I was looking for. All in all, the test run lasted around 3-4 kms, since I was unwilling to run it any longer with the altered position of the brake lever and the loss of my RHS mirror.

Originally Posted by iron.head

Might I suggest to check if this is a known problem with your year model GSX-S and if not then using the stock part while properly flushing the brake fluid with a new bottle from Motul would be a good option. The spongy brake feel is usually a result of air/bad fluid in the system and does not necessarily warrant upgraded parts.

A new upgraded master cylinder that is perfectly compatible with this motorcycle could also be a good option to explore.

Don't know why you assumed that the brake fluids were never flushed and the brake lines never bled. I am well aware that bleeding the brakes for air bubbles will help eliminate sponginess. My brake lines were bled multiple times and in proper fashion (you can find these details in my previous posts as well). In the 24000 kms that I have run the bike, the brake lines have been flushed twice and filled with fresh brake fluid from Wurth. While the sponginess did reduce to a large extent, this still left me wanting on the braking feedback front.

The GSX-S750 comes with an axial brake master cylinder and this has its limitations with respect to the braking feedback one gets. A radial brake master cylinder will give improved brake feel at the front lever, which is what my purchase of the RCS19 is intended for. I was clearly able to tell the difference in my brief use of the radial master cylinder of the Hayabusa.

[iron.head]

Originally Posted by TRR

Hey iron.head. Thank you for the concern and pointing out about the recall for the Gen-3 Hayabusa master cylinder.

Hafiz is a professional drag racer himself and also helps other Hayabusa owners to prep their bikes for drag racing and other mods. This master cylinder was leftover (in excellent condition) from a Gen-3 Hayabusa owner who modded his bike. Besides, the fitment of this onto my bike was never intended as a permanent solution. Was just a stopgap measure to help me understand if a radial master cylinder would give me the brake feel and feedback that I was looking for. All in all, the test run lasted around 3-4 kms, since I was unwilling to run it any longer with the altered position of the brake lever and the loss of my RHS mirror.

The GSX-S750 comes with an axial brake master cylinder and this has its limitations with respect to the braking feedback one gets. A radial brake master cylinder will give improved brake feel at the front lever, which is what my purchase of the RCS19 is intended for. I was clearly able to tell the difference in my brief use of the radial master cylinder of the Hayabusa.

Aye aye Captain! My bad I didn't go through the entire thread. Thought it would be better to highlight any potential red flags than not!

Happy to see the detailed effort. I have a 2017 GSX-R600 and the brakes are just perfect! I recently replaced the steering damper from a crashed 2022 GSX-R600! The parts availability is pretty good on ebay.com (US) from top rated reliable sellers.

With all the work done on the bike it probably makes sense to test out these upgrades. Nice work. Cheers.

[Crankpin]

So did you finally manage to install the RCS19 master? I'm assuming it would fit all right.
Can you share some pics as I wanted to see how it looks especially the mirror mounting with those throttle cables around.
Do you, perhaps in the future, plan to upgrade your brake calipers too?
Thanks

[TRR]

Originally Posted by Crankpin

So did you finally manage to install the RCS19 master? I'm assuming it would fit all right.
Can you share some pics as I wanted to see how it looks especially the mirror mounting with those throttle cables around.
Do you, perhaps in the future, plan to upgrade your brake calipers too?
Thanks

Hey Crankpin. Yes, the RCS19 was installed onto the bike yesterday. Went swimmingly well to my surprise. The throttle cables don't foul with the master cylinder and we were able to cleanly mount the mirrors as well. No soldering or any circus involved for the brake light switch either. Hafiz had spare pins that go into the brake light socket coming from the bike. The only thing that got cut to accomodate the pins was the brake light wires provided with the RCS19 kit. Other than that, just need to angle the master reservoir to make it more level and probably route the brake line a little better for aesthetic hygiene.

Have ridden only around 50-60 kms to and from office so far. But the experience is remarkably better. The braking points are consistent and the feedback is a lot more reassuring than it was earlier. Hafiz has asked me to drop by after 500-600 kms to re-bleed the brakes to iron out any bubbles whatsoever. Didn't get the Brembo brake pads fixed since the EBCs still had some 1000 kms of life left in them. Will probably fit them in when I go to get the re-bleeding done.

Couple of pics for your reference





Will give more detailed write-up on the work done and the improvements (perceived or otherwise) after a few 100 kms of use.

[TRR]

Well, it’s time for the bi-annual update on the ownership of the GSX-S750



The bike has now crossed 43,000 kms on the odo and life with the bike continues quite nicely, albeit with some recent hiccups. 18th July 2024 marked the 3rd anniversary of the day the GSX came home. So the odo’s run roughly 31,000 kms in these 3 years, which I’d say is fair mileage for a naked sportbike. Definitely not a garage queen. Since the last update on this thread, the bike has put on another 7000 kms and glad to say that more than half of these are from weekend jaunts outside the city. It’s settled into a pattern where I end up doing 100-150 kms in the week on the office commute, then head out for 250-400 km runs during the weekend. And as always, there have been no complaints from the bike, whether in the choc-a-bloc traffic of Silk Board junction and ORR or in the rainy country side on non-existent slushy paths. The versatility of the GSX still surprises me sometimes. It’s happy to cruise around at 3000-3500 rpm inside the city and when I’m riding with friends on slower bikes, but will effortlessly change character and have you holding on for dear life once you take it past 7000 rpm and unleash all 115 horses. If you wanted one bike to do it all, I’d say this is a very good contender for being that bike.

The bike after a quick wash and chain TLC



The chain-sprocket set after 23K kms, think they're holding up well enough. The OEM sprocket was changed out at the 20K mark [PS: the water droplets were dried off before applying a fresh coat of lube ]



Pics from some breakfast/coffee runs





Caught a supercar gathering on the Mangalore highway



Some photos from a trip to Kalasa and Charmadi and back home in the same day (round trip of ~650kms)





Atop Charmadi Ghat viewpoint



The GSX on a trip to Hogennakal falls







The roads in TN are, in general, excellent and allow for some great cornering angles. This was the state of the tires after some spirited riding and cornering.



Trip to the insta-famous Penukonda fort with a friend on his ADV390





In the interim, the bike has been in and out of Hafiz’s shop quite frequently in the last couple of months due to some recurring issues, which have now been resolved. Plus have had the rear tire changed to a fresh piece of the Vredestein Centauro NS (more on this down in the post).

The bike was working perfectly post the Brembo RCS19 master cylinder install. The brakes were finally where I wanted them in terms of feedback and bite. I prefer instant bite and the RCS19 is far ahead than the OEM master cylinder on this front. Plus it allows you to very finely modulate the brakes and this gives you incredible confidence. The Brembo brake pads were also fixed in towards the end of March and the braking feel and response became even better. Elated with this, I decided to make one final change of removing the handlebar risers and see how it would be to live with a slightly more committed riding posture for a bit.



Well the good news is that the lowered handlebar hasn’t made riding more difficult or painful. I feel like there’s somewhat better control over the front end with the more aggressive posture, but this could just be placebo.

But the bad news is that with the removal of the bar risers, a series of problems started to occur. This is obviously unrelated, but a couple of weeks after the bar risers were removed, I could feel a weird click-like vibration, accompanied by a knocking sound, in the handlebars whenever I went over any imperfection in the roads. Identified the issue as the steering bearings having given way. The bearings had run 40,000 kms and this problem grounded the bike for a week until I could source a replacement part and find time from work to take it over to Hafiz’s place. Got a set of the All-Balls steering bearing kit and had this replaced.



Once this was done, I took the bike in for it’s bi-annual service with 41,000 kms on the odo a month later. Around this time, I had noticed some weird vibration at the front end and could feel the brakes becoming very spongy at sporadic times. The ABS would act slightly wonky and the bite point kept changing. Hafiz had the bike checked and found a lot of metal debris stuck to the front ABS sensor. This was cleaned and as a precaution, the brake fluid was bled and replaced in its entirety. Other than that, this was a routine service with just the oil and oil filter being changed, the air filter cleaned and general maintenance being done.

The side panels removed for the service


Fresh oil and the OEM oil filter



The bike was running fine for 700-800 kms post the service. Just when I thought the issues were resolved, the front end vibrations started again and I started hearing clunking noises from the front end. This used to happen very sporadically and I wasn’t able to recreate the issue at will nor when the bike was at standstill. The front end would judder when the noises occurred and I could feel the vibrations through the handlebar. Would sometimes happen when going over road undulations, speed breakers or even while tilting the bike from side to side. Felt that the front wheel bearings could be shot and immediately went back down to Hafiz. After a brief test ride, he too concurred that this was most possibly the issue. He decided to open the front end up and check thoroughly. With this, we found that one of the wheel bearings had given way completely and was basically shredding itself slowly. This was the source of the metal debris that was sticking to the ABS sensor and as expected, the ABS sensor was clogged with metal debris again. Luckily Hafiz was able to procure a spare set of wheel bearings and replaced both the wheel bearings at the front end.

As luck would have had it, before dropping it off at Hafiz’s place, I also noticed that the left frame slider was suddenly missing. Looking at it more closely, we realized that the bolt had cut and part of it was stuck inside the frame. The bike had to be taken to a metal worker, who had to weld and remove the stuck bolt. Looking at the bolt on the other side, we realized this too would shear soon as it was heavily rusted. Hafiz procured a set of generic frame sliders and , on request, also added a pair of fork sliders to the bike.

The debris inside the rim



The old and deteriorated wheel bearing set



Metal shavings caught onto the ABS sensor



The new wheel bearings and the cleaned up rim interior



The new frame sliders and the fork sliders



After this, I have ridden for ~1500 kms now and the problem seems to be fully resolved. The GSX is back to running smoothly and hopefully, it stays that way. To be honest, this entire ordeal was a bit frustrating, but hey, these were general wear and tear items. Unsure of how long these generally last, but on my earlier Duke 390, the steering bearings were replaced at the 25,000 kms mark.

In between all this, I had to have the rear tire replaced sometime in late March. The last set of Centauro NS had lasted for ~10000 kms and had suffered 3 punctures so far. With the last one being too big to plug, I decided to have only the rear tire replaced since the front tire was only halfway through it’s useful life. Didn’t want to try different patterns at the front and rear, so decided I would go ahead with another piece of the Centauro NS at the rear and replace both front and rear to another brand once this set had run it’s life. Procured the rear tire from an authorized outlet. The date stamp was 5323 so this was an end-2023 manufactured piece. Had the tire replaced at Madhu’s on a Sunday morning and also got the front wheel balanced.





That’s all on this update. With this set of issues resolved, keeping my hopes that nothing else of note comes up in the next few months

[VijayAnand1]

Brilliant! TRR, have always loved your simple elocution and as sweet as it sounds, your words corroborate your heartfelt connection to the bike -- not all threads can communicate the same, at least I felt so. Secondly, it's great that the front wheel bearing issue has been sorted for good.

Looking at the inner spacer seizure, if this issue were to be neglected or to be ridden for long, the front rim's axle inlet inner diameter would have literally started grinding/galling and would have been enlarged. If that would have been the case, the rim would be toast and would have required a replacement.

Ride safe and ride long.

Cheers!
VJ

[TRR]

A minor update to catalogue here. The bike has just done 46,4XX kms as of this update.



Will detail more of the bike ownership in a separate post. Been an eventful 3,000 kms since the last post with long rides, multiple visits to Hafiz’s place and some OEM part shopping from Japan.


But this post is more of a gear update. More specifically, on the helmet front.

First off, I was able to procure a set of photochromatic (transition) visors for my HJC RPHA11 from the UK. These are in the Red reflective color and have been somewhat of a revelation to me. The visor is almost clear in low light conditions (<5% tint) and are fully tinted under bright sunlight. Plus, the red visor gives everything a bluish tint in well-lit conditions, making for a ‘cooling’ kind of sensation on the eyes (could just be placebo). This has been incredibly convenient for me as I no longer have to swap out my visors on long rides or even the office commutes. Even with the ease of changing visors on the HJC, this has just made things so much easier. Well-worth the spend, I feel.

In their somewhat clear stage, halfway through the transition.



And the visor under bright sunlight, almost fully opaque from the outside, appropriately tinted from the inside



The second update is a bit more significant. I am now the proud owner of an Arai RX-7X. While the HJC is up there and is an excellent helmet on its own, I always wanted to move to the big leagues and get an Arai / Shoei. I’ve always been a sucker for intricate artwork with complex designs and multiple colors. The RX-7X in the Oriental Blue Frost colorway fit this perfectly. On a recent visit to Singapore, I was able to pick up this stunning helmet. This version carries many traditional oriental designs, from the artwork inspired by the ‘Great Wave off Kanagawa’ (one of Japan’s most famous artworks), the Dragon on top, the Koi fish at the back and the multiple flowers adorning the helmet all around. All this is on a matte blue background.

The frontal view



The front left



The left side of the helmet (the waves dominate this side)



The rear left side (the large flower is in almost fluorescent red IRL)



From the rear (the large Koi takes centre-stage here)



The rear right (same as on the right, the flower is a fluorescent yellow IRL)



The right side (again dominated by the waves)



And the front right side (can see Mt Fuji at the bottom, similar to the front left)



And finally, the Oriental dragon on top



Planning to get the tinted visor and the rear spoiler for this a few months down the line.

I have just ridden for a short jaunt of 100-ish kms so far with this and am impressed with the stability and ventilation it offers. Can instantly feel the coolness seep in once the vents are open. There is almost no wind buffeting at speeds up to 100 kmph. The view out is excellent and it seems to handle wind noise better than my RPHA11

Will drop a more comprehensive review once I have used this for a few 1000 kms, including maybe a comparison with the HJC RPHA11. For now, the Arai will be reserved mostly for out-of-city rides, while the HJC will fill in the commuter duties. The HJC is little over 3 years old so I plan to use both helmets side-by-side for a while. Will allow me to better understand the differences in the characteristics between these two helmets as well.

That's it on this update