Saturday, February 28, 2009

My Long-lived RTR!!!!!!!!!!

Just crossed a huge Volvo Bus at almost over a ton mark on the digital Speedo, in the smooth laid GQ, NH6, towards my ride to Panskura. It’s a lazy ride in the evening to cheer me & my ride RTR, Apache 160. Its 8:30 PM, and we are standing by the highway side. Night ride is always a pleasure in RTR with its well spread headlight. A click on the left hand side yellow button and all the highway monster trucks will give a way, and me zoom past them, hah. Silly highway pests, be careful next time.

Ok, I don’t want to write an ownership report here, just want to share few white & black. In my twelve month long ownership of this machine, I didn’t face any major problem with her, apart from those small nik naks and service related issues. Always gave her a good service from the Chopada Service (TVS Service Center), between a interval of 2000 kms and refill a good can of engine oil was enough to ride her long, rip her long and do whatever you want & wherever you go. Initially faced some problem with the TPS, which was solved after lots of trials & errors.

I did some modifications with the electricals of the machine to produce good headlight and a pair of stylish parking lights. Change her spark plug to NGK Iridium for better combustion of fuel and smoothness of the whole process. Apart from these small changes, she is stock by heart & soul. Also there is a plan to switch to paper air filter for more power and cleaner combustion.

This machine always gave me good overall fuel efficiency, be it in City or in highway, without considering the pickup and the top end power. I always cherish its rev happy character and the sexier exhaust sound, which is best in the country.

I must say some of its dull side here; the rear mechanical drums brake never had the enough power to hold the unlashed fifteen horses without the help of the front petal disks. The new Fi version, which comes with the rear petal disk brake, is way better in this front. Tappet sound was always a part of life for RTR. The TVS rubbers are not very sticky, though they provide good traction either in full wet or in full dry condition, a mix & match of this combo, and the handling go toss a lot. A good pair of rubber will defiantly improve the overall handling of the bike, I will love to see tubeless in my RTR someday.

Now if you ignore these small niggles the RTR is very good package, the newly lunched RTR Refresh & Fi has incorporated some good technology like rear disk and fuel injection system, which makes it even better; ANYONE?

13 comments:

Anonymous said...

It's very good writting, I must say

Bese valo likhecho,darunnnnn......

Anonymous said...

BTW Apache is not female, its a boy man, kindly rectify.

BlueFalcon said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
BlueFalcon said...

Long live apache rtr 160, ride her safe and secure , and be carefull while you pass by the trucks or busses , like just remember my phone call while you pass by, so watch their tires and make a pass if you feel its safe to pass by them , thats a life saving habbit, make it a habbit of yours.And yes i must say the rear disk brake is most effective upgrade that apache is getting these days with FI and RD version , but yes you might face problems while you have a flat tire cause its not that easy to put together the system as it is in case of rear drum one, just had an experience today at 571kms reading and 10 days of ownership.
But yeah when you open the throttle all the dark side just wipes away, also its really awsome headlight , i had been riding LML machines for a long time , but apache has better headlight i must say.
and do you think we can upgrade to tubeless for apache, provide some more information on that plz.

Anonymous said...

how many kms man?

BlueFalcon said...

dear @Anonymous are you from Kolkata or outside ? if you want to join us sometime we can make some trip together , for sure give me some time to complete my rtr fi running in period, so far 630kms i have managed to make. May be next month it will clock around 1200 or so then we can make some weekend trip. :) and do you own rtr or any other,like just curious, its good to be on RTR though hahahaha.

Anonymous said...

sure i may join for a ride!
But where would you ride!

BlueFalcon said...

@Anonymous well we can arrange for some meetup trip like some kind of introduction trip you can say, like may be next month or so dunno also have to ask fellow rider @Kaushik he has hectic schedule so we will arrange a time and make a week end trip may be short one but there will be one for you for sure :) and you are within 40-50 kms from Kolkata or you are in proper Kolkata.

Anonymous said...

am based in kolkata.
tell me a date place and time and i shall be there

BlueFalcon said...

@Anonymous ok thats cool i will let you know once i get something arranged , stay in touch.

Anonymous said...

yup
do keep me updated!
will visit this page regularly for updates

BlueFalcon said...

@Anonymous finally got the sunday morning free lets meet at Dankuni Toll Plazza at approx 7:30am tomorrow (Sunday) i will be on t-grey rtr fi lets meet bud, see you there .

Anonymous said...

Hi buddy nice write up.....

And yes FI dual disks are awesome you can say.... but the tyre's grip issue is still there guess menace will not be the same.....

Ans yes it's not a girl yaar..... It's a bloddy full fledged Man......