back to blogging

It has been a long time since i sat down to write anything. But I guess its time for me to pen down some things which have been in me for a long time. I have moved out infy and write now pursuing my masters in singapore. more of it later.

my RTR fi - Part 2 , braking

Braking -

I need to do a special post for the braking dept of apache RTR fi .Needless to say it has the best brakes among all indian biks in the segment. The front 270 mm roto pedal disc offers shar[ braking and u can stop the bike where ever u want to.

The rear discs makes things even easier and better. My confidence level has grown many bound after rifing this bike for 4 months. The brakes are too good and makes the bike a pleasure to ride .

New ford mustang

The price of the limited edition Iacocca Silver 45th Anniversary Edition Ford Mustang will be from $89,950 (£55,500). Compared to the present Mustang GT the price is three times

and the Iacocca car is coachbuilt by Gaffoglio Family Metalcrafters.


Moreover, it is motorized by a 296bhp 4.6-litre Ford V8, even though purchasers can choose for a Ford Racing air filter kit that ups power to 316bhp or a supercharger that ups power to 394bhp. And a five-speed manual gearbox is standard.


With stitched leather seats, aluminium trim details and a leather steering wheel the inside section is modified and the handbuilt bodywork in addition.

Also only 45 Iacocca Silver 45th Anniversary Edition Ford Mustangs will be made with all painted in silver.

Bajaj to launch Kawasaki Ninja on October 5

FInally another most anticipated bike is going to hit your nearby showrooms. Bajaj will officially launch the Kawasaki Ninja on October 5th. Upping its ante against the mighty R15 and newly launched Hero Honda Karizma ZMR, the Ninja is powered by 250cc engine and churns out 30PS of max power and an impressive peak torque of 21Nm.

Ninja is expected to be priced between Rs1.5 to Rs.2 lakhs. The good news is that deliveries of Ninja will begin before Diwali. “The bookings would start just ahead of Diwali and the deliveries would happen immediately,” Bajaj Auto MD Rajiv Bajaj said.

Ford unviels FIgo

Ford small car named Figo launched…Ford small car Figo first time on any media…

Ford has unveiled its much expected new small car, Figo in the Indian market today. Figo, which is an italian slang for “Cool”, will be completely produced in Ford’s Plant in Chennai, India. Ford Figo will be sold in India and exported to international markets.Pricing information of the new car is not available at the moment however company sources said it will be priced competitively to win the much crowded small car segment.Ford Motor company has reserved other details for the commercial launch which will happen in early 2010.Ford is betting big of Figo to capture a notable marketshare in the Indian small car segment, which acccounts for 70% of Indian new car MarketFord has unveiled its much expected new small car, Figo in the Indian market today. Figo, which is an italian slang for “Cool”, will be completely produced in Ford’s Plant in Chennai, India. Ford Figo will be sold in Indian market and also will be exported to international markets. Pricing information of the new car is not available at the moment however company sources said it will be priced competitively to win the much crowded small car segment.

Ford has reserved other details for the commercial launch

which will happen in early 2010.

Ford is betting big on Figo, to capture a notable marketshare in the Indian small car segment, which acccounts for 70% of Indian new car Market.

Karizma ZMR launched press report :)

As you read it, HeroHonda launches its much expected Karizma ZMR FI in India. The new Karizma ZMR comes up with the Programmed Fuel Injection(PGM-FI), a technology patented by Honda Motor company. As for as the technical specifications are concerned, the new Karizma ZMR comes with 17.6 BHP max power at 7000rpm and a peak torque of 18.35Nm at 6000 rpm. Hero Honda claims the max speed of new Karizma ZMR as 135Kmph. The PGM-FI 223cc mill is oil cooled and is mated with a five speed gearbox. Karizma ZMR uses 6 sensors to scan the engine environment (read as speed,rpm,driver’s input). It also uses auto-enriching system and eliminates the need for manual choking. Hero Honda claims karizma ZMR engine uses HECS (Honda Evolutional Catalzying System) to reduce exhaust emissions.

Karizma ZMR has telescopic hydralic shock absorber suspension at the front end and 5 step adjustable iGRS (inverted Gas Reservoir System) suspension at the rear. Karizma ZMR uses disc brakes – 276 mm at the front and 240 mm at the rear. Its Front tyre measures 100/80 and back tyre 100/90. Karizma ZMR weighs 159 kgs. The dimensions are changed completely – the length has gone from 2125mm to 2110mm, the breadth is now 805mm (755mm earlier), its 1175mm tall and the ground clearance is now 159mm.

The new bike comes with lot of interesting cosmetic changes including the attractive body graphics. The Karizma ZMR FI gets full fairing with integrated turn indicators. The sporty visor sports collapsible rear view mirrors. Similar to CBZ X-treme the karizma ZMR also gets diamond shaped LED tail lamps, racy red colored rear cushion spring and split grab rail. Gold colored engine,front forks and iGRS is carried forward from Hunk. The dash is new with digital speedo and circular analog tacho. The Karizma ZMR will be available in Five colours – Blue, White, Yellow, Red and Black.

Update – 1 : Karizma ZMR comes at an exshowroom price of Rs. 91,000 (Delhi).

Update -2: HeroHonda has no plans to phase out Karizma carburetor version and will continue selling the version along with this new FI version.

So lets hope the price of the old bike to be slashed down.

My RTR fi part -1

hello folks ,

As this is my own bike i thought i would share abt this in more detail to u guys. :) . I got this bike on june 9 th 2009. So its almost 4 months old, and the experience i had with this has been mind blowing.

Looks-

Well will i have to comment about this. You guys know better anyday. But still i was in a huge confusion of whether to gor for RTR Fi or the yamaha FZ -S, atlast i decided i would go for the RTR for its looks and yes it has been my dream machine right from college days. And to say the bike looks stunning in any angle, the tank scoops do add to a great road presence and the bike looks majestic from the pilot seat ;-) . The racing strip is different from the carburattor version and this makes the bike even more unique.

more later guys .

Pulsar 180 2009 UG4 test drive

I rode this bike long back when i was in mysore , courtesy - my friend vaisakh :) . He was the first guy to get this bike in mysore and it was a black one.

The bike looks like the 200 and in ways better than that too. It doesnt have the oil cooler unit of 200 . This bike has a beefy rear tyre and come Sans kick start, it has rear set foot pegs to get a sporty riding position. Pulsar bikes have a posh ride and this is the same in this nike too.

Well now coming to the ride. It was like 2 km distance. And at first i was riding the bike real bad.
wasnt riding it smooth by any chance, after some metres i got used to the bike and to say the truth it was really good. The bike had good road grip thanks to the bulky rear tyres. The pick was good enough , but the only thing was the engine. I really felt its roughness . it wasnt smooth or may be i wasnt riding it that way. The torque has been reduced from the previous version and that has been the thing many have been discussing about.But i could not feel a big deal of difference in this case.

Well finally i can say this bike is a real competition for the Apache Rtr 180. Neverthless all magazines have judged Rtr as the better one. Well i would say its ur choice because this bike is not going to go down without a real fight .

later guys ....

Dimension:
Length: 2035 mm

Height: 1115 mm

Weight: 143 kg

Ground clearance: 165mm

Wheelbase: 1345 mm

Engine:
Engine type: four stroke, air-cooled, DTS-i

Displacement: 178.6 cc

Bore: 63.5 mm

Stroke: 56.4 mm

Valvetrain: SOHC, 2 valves per cylinder.

Comp ratio: 9.5:1

Carburettor: UCD 29

Max power: 17.02 PS @8500 rpm

Max torque: 14.22 Nm@ 6500 rpm

Power to weight: 119.02 PS/ton

Fuel tank capacity: 15 liters

TVS Apache RTR 180 TEST DRIVE

Finally i got a chance to test drive this beast. Ya i missed her by some 15 days or else i would have been riding on her. Anyways coming to the point , i got a chance to test drive her last week when i took my rtr fi for service. The test bike was a black one .

The show room guy popped behind me and was like instructing me how to ride the bike, i said come on man stope kidding. And pushed the start button. The first thing i noticed was the exhaust note , it wasnt even near to the one in EFI . I started moving and gosh i was able to feel vibrations in the bike even at 45 kmph. I thought what the hell and asked the guy what was the prob . He said that the fork was bit loose and thats the reason for the vibration.

Well now it was time for me to ripe her and i did, gosh i really felt the pulkling power of her. It was just awesome. But after getting used to Fuel injection's throttle response it wasnt even near to that. Neverthless this is a 177 cc mill where as the fi is just 159cc . It does make a big deal of diff.

The acceleration was too good and i was at around 70' s in few second. The showrroom guy that started like take left . take left. I had to give in for him and i took a left into a narrow street and then it was just street with poor road's all along i was not able to rip her more than that. But still the handling was spot on, thanks to the new tubeless TVS rubbers and the extended wheel base . I still feel the road grip can improve loads if it was an MRF Zapper.

It was the end of my test drive and i had tested the Menace. I would rate the handling and acceleration better than the EFI . But it didnt have the exhuast note or the response as that of my efi. Overall i wil give in for 180 because of the crazy prob's which i face in my bike. I feel this is a real VFM bike for you guys.. Ride on guys :)

TVS Apache RTR 180 Specifications:
Engine capacity: 177.4cc
Engine type: single cylinder, air cooled 4st
Max Power: 17.3bhp @ 8500rpm
Max Torque: 1.58kgm @ 6500rpm
Gear box: 5 speed constant mesh
Fuel system: carbureted
Front brake: 270mm petal disc brake
Rear brake: 200mm petal disc brake
Front suspension: Telescopic hydraulic fork
Rear suspension: gas shocks
Front tyre: 90/90 x17
Rear tyre: 110/80 x 17
Height: 100mm
Length: 2085mm
Width: 730mm
Ground clearance: 180mm
Kerb weight: 137kg
Fuel tank capacity: 16 liters

Karizma ZMR

guys now back to business . Lets do a pictorial reviwew of the brand new karizma - ZMR .
To be frank i have never been a fan of the HH guys. Their designing has never been something to take home about ,and this just repeats again in this case too. The new bike has a new fairing and thats the only thing new on this bike adding too that is the new digital console which looks great and new. I havent seen something like this in indian bikes , it looks like having a digital RPM indicator too . Well to be frank i really like the console it just looks awesome.
The rear looks to be taken out from the cbz extreme , the bike looks like made out of three diff parts. firstly the new fairing , the existing karizma R body panels and the cbz extreme's rear with the hunks GRS suspesion. Come on HH you can do better than this. And for heaven sake stop doing this stickering works on your bikes. It just doesnt make any sense launching the same bike with same engine with diff stickerings. Well in this case we have the same old karizma engine with PGMFI , it does look to have a liquid cooling system. Wow thats some news.. The rear tyre seems to be the same from the old Karizma,well thats not a great thing either.

The front visor looks like the one in GSR 150 or am i feeling that way . well i am not sure. looking at the specs doesnt impress me either .
223 cc mill with pgmfi ,
liquid cooled engine (i guess),
and 17.6 ps i heard..
i am not sure abt the torque

but the specs aint impressive and with 95k on road things dont look good. Well i may go wrong in my judgement because Indian customers are crazy . They buy stupid bikes and let good bikes go down the ditch.
Do look out for for my apache RTR fi ownership expereince ... later