things to help decide on a tourer motorcycle

Touring has its owns challenges and requirements and if the bike ticks most of these, then the overall experience would be very enjoyable. The type of trip also helps in deciding what kind of bike would be more suitable, a trip that has more highways would require different kind of bike than a trip that has lot of twisties or offroading.
Below is a compilation of certain areas of interest for a tourer. These points are in no particular order or priority.

higher power

Personally, the bikes with power above 30 bhp are comfortable. These have a cruising speed of around 115-130 kmph and is very helpful in covering long distances on highways in quick time. Most of the highways are bit boring and risky to travel, so it’s better to get rid of this section in quick time :) The Himalayan lacks a bit in this area with 24 bhp and it struggles a lot on highways and comfortable at 90 kmph only. The Bajaj Dominar, Mahindra Mojo or the DSK Benelli are pretty good here.

low range torque

Bikes where the max torque is available around 4500-5000 rpm are good for the twisties, climbs, rough roads, traffic and leisure riding. If the max torque is deployed at higher rpm, like the Mojo or the KTMs, you will find yourself chasing the higher revs at places where it is not advised. Plus, you can ride at higher gears rather than staying on first gear, waiting for the torque. Himalayan is probably the best bike in this area, with the DSK Benelli also good. Mojo and Dominar leave much room for improvement

luggage capacity

The last thing you want is to carry all your stuff on a backpack slung over your shoulders else by the end of the day your shoulders and your back would be sore as hell. It is best to secure the bags to the bike preferably on a luggage carrier or stuff the panniers. Hence, the bike should have good provision for luggage tie-ups. If it does not have carrier like the Himalayan, then at least it should have good anchor points and long seat for the bags to settle.

Here, the bags can be secured with bungee cords (2 of these should suffice, in criss-cross fashion) or bungee nets. Ensure that the secured bags do not slide and hit your lower back on and off, this is one of the most annoying feeling you can get...  

I have not tried the panniers or GIVI boxes yet, but the core requirement is that of luggage carrying capacity.

ergonomics

One will be spending long hours, through cold, hot, humid or wet conditions on the tourer and the ergonomics is one of the points that would make your trip comfortable.

Ideally, one should be seated in a straight-up position without bending towards the handle. This would assert less pressure on the forearms/shoulders and lower back. Also, gives a better and wide perspective for good frontal and peripheral vision.

The legs should not be cramped and at a comfortable bend at the knee. The leg pegs should be wide enough and non-slippery in wet and muddy conditions. The clutch and front brakes levers should be adjustable so that you can reach it with all your fingers cleanly.

The seat height is an important factor and it depends on the rider’s preference. Some are comfortable when they are able to flat-foot on both sides, others are okay even if they can tip-toe. At any point just ensure that you are able to stabilize the bike comfortably and push the bike front and back with ease.

I believe, for touring only 1 person should be on the bike, so I would not even discuss ergonomics for a pillion… :P

seat
The butt hurt is the common problem for all long rides and the seat should be selected such that it lessens the discomfort. I don't know whether this problem can be completely solved unless you develop an iron-butt. The seat should be bit on the stiffer side so that it gives you good support. The wide and long seats are better as it allows you room to shift around a bit. There are lot of after market seats available that you can browse through to suit your purpose.

brakes
When you are on the move it is without doubt that you would need good braking power as well. The high roads are common place for lot of unexpected crossings (humans or animals) and you would need good brakes to stop quickly and safely. ABS is very much recommended on highways and ABS that can be switched off for off-roading is preferable. Most of the tourer bikes come with front and rear disc brakes and the brake disc should be well perforated to dissipate heat quickly. I am not much familiar with traction control, brake assist etc, but the bottom line is that the bike should have good safe brakes.

suspensions
The overall feel of the bike on good and bumpy roads and the turning capability and efficiency depends on the front and rear suspensions. The front suspension is preferred to be upside down so that the compression happens closer to the wheel and less bumps are travel to the handle. The rear suspension can be adjustable for preload weight and as per conditions.
Softer suspension would be good on bumpy roads but unstable at high speeds as it would bounce a lot. Stiffer suspensions would be stable at high speeds but would rattle you up on bad roads. The suspension setup is more or less a fine balance between these 2 cases.

high enough windscreen

Windscreen is a boon on tourer bikes to save you from the constant fight against the wind. Riding for long hours against the wind causes forearms and hands to tire quickly as the wind is constantly pushing you back and you spend more energy by hanging tightly on the handles, just to sit up right. The windscreen would avert the direct impact of wind on your body and save that much more effort.

Some bikes come with wind breakers around the clutch and front brakes.. These are advisable and also protect the levers in case of a bike fall.

higher capacity petrol tank

You want to spend most of the time riding rather than worrying about the next fuel station and halting multiple times. The petrol tank capacity of 13-15 liters may sound reasonable but with the mileage of around 20-25 kmpl that the high CC bikes provide, these are not sufficient enough for long rides. At some places, you would not find fuel station for 30-50 kms and the extra few liters would prove very helpful. Anything above 17 liters is pretty good buy.

engine heat management

All the high power engines generate lot of heat and the bike should dissipate this heat quickly and away from the rider. Most of the bikes would heat up bad in traffic since there is less airflow and ambient temperature itself would be high. If the bike dissipates heat onto your legs on highways and open roads then it is not possible to ride for long hours and very uncomfortable. The Kawasaki bikes are known for taking the heat from underneath the engine and below the rider legs to provide good heat dissipation solution.

vibrrrations

Constant vibrations, whether on the bike or on the word above are annoying and tiring. A vibrating bike would tire you soon, cause joint pains and slow you down over the day. The vibrations travel through the handle, foot pegs and the chassis, essentially the whole body would be affected. Plus it creates a safety issue by shaking the rear view side mirrors too much making it hard to decipher anything. In the long run, vibrations would eventually wear out different parts of the bike and cause them to age earlier, the Royal Enfield being a classic example for this issue.

ground clearance

Now, you would like to return on the bike, same as you had left, rather than on a grounded-up bike.. On tours you never know what kind of terrain or places would you be going to.. It is practically impossible to get condition of road of your complete trip, plus you would venture out on a whim to some interesting places. Hence good ground clearance (>170mm) is important to keep your bike off unscientific bumpers, potholes, debris and water. It is also good if the bottom comes with sump-guard for further protection.. Himalayan is probably the leader here with 210 mm clearance..

bike weight

This is probably a very important point about the bike and yet very underrated. Imagine you have to balance the bike on one leg (left or right) in traffic or push your bike in fuel station or back it up, all with the strength of your legs and if the bike weighs more than what you can control, then it is wastage of lot of precious energy.. The worse scenario would be that you have a fall and not able to pick up the bike single-handedly and need some assistance. Also, even if the power of engine may be high, the performance would be much less on a high weight bike. Personally, I am not comfortable with a bike >180kgs. This is considering my own body weight and strength, your preference may be different.

headlights

This is pretty much a safety issue if the headlights are not adequate enough to light up the road well within the frontal view of the rider. Also, it would be nice if the bike has adjustable headlight inclination.

centre stand

Some of the bikes do not come with center stand as standard, these can be added as part of accessories. This is particularly important if your bike has spoke wheels with tube. Consider you have a flat and need to replace the tube, then to remove the wheel it would be easy to put it on center stand rather than make it stand on side stand. On other hand for basic fix on tubeless, the wheel need not be removed. Having the center stand would decrease the ground clearance on some bikes, so this is a trade-off.

exhaust sound

On long roads, mostly it would be you and the bike alone (even if you are in a group ride). In such cases you would want your companion, the bike, to sound as soothing as possible to you. Your ride would be that much more better with good sounding exhaust rather than a bike that coughs all the day.. :)

safety and service

Some of the necessary accessories (if not part of standard equipment) would be leg crash guard, lever wind breakers, engine guard, sump guard and more.

The paramount thing of a ride is to arrive safely, so whatever is needed to safeguard you and the bike should be considered.
The service interval (some have 10K kms) and the service cost should also be a deciding factor.

Hope above points assist you in understanding your bike requirements better..

Happy riding !!!

bangalore to ooty

Ride date: May 13-14, 2017

Riders:

Vijay - Thunderbird 500

Niranjan - Himalayan

Myself - Dominar

The Trip:

Onward journey was:

Electronics City -> Nice Road -> Kanakapura Road -> Mysore ORR -> Nanjanguda -> Gundlupet -> Bandipur Park -> Masinagudi -> 36 hairpins -> Ooty

Return journey was:

Ooty -> Pykara -> Gudlur -> Mudhumalai -> Bandipur -> Gundlupet -> Chamarajanagar -> Kollegal -> Malvalli -> Kanakapura Road -> Nice Road -> Electronics City

Total distance: 600 Kms

All 3 of us sync’ed up at Electronics City by 6.30AM and our journey started. The Nice road was Nice and it was a good warm-up cruise… Then took Kanakpura road exit and our first stop was Vasu’s hotel at Kanakpura.. This is our routine stop, a nondescript hotel with good breakfast and place to park your bike… It is crowded on all days as lot of locals come by and is a buzzing place… The nameboard is in Kannada, so watch out for missing it…

On Kanakapura Road, Niranjan, Vijay and Myself.. The Dominar in the middle.. 

From Kanakpura road (some road construction was going on), we crossed Malvalli en route to Mysore ORR. This stretch i.e: from Malvalli to Mysore is absolutely amazing.. Single lane road, perfect road, less traffic, covered by trees on both sides… and you should be here early morning on a bike… :)

From Mysore ORR, the road took us to Nanjangud, Gundlupet and then to Bandipur national park.. This is second best part of our trip through the national park.. The road was awesome, single lane, forest on both sides… The road winds around the forest and we could spot Caribous and lots of deers…  My wish of sighting an elephant or a tiger went unfulfilled… :(
Nevertheless, it was pleasant ride.. Although, lot of speed breakers for obvious reasons, and here is where the Dominar is irritating to ride…

After lunch at Masinagudi, starts the third best part of the on-going journey..

The 36 hairpins

I had read and watched videos of 36 hairpins roads, but nothing prepared me to what I actually experienced.. The road is relentless about the hairpins and turns and keeps on climbing… The stretch will be pleasurable for all and here is where Dominar let me down with uneven power delivery at times… especially on the turns… Luckily, the traffic was less else it would be an ant-walk up the hills.. The left hairpins are particularly tricky due to smaller turning radius, the right handers were fun to accelerate through.. Throughout the section, there are boards counting the number of the hairpin, it counts down from 36/36 to 1/36 from bottom to up.. The terrain was bit dry, but should be green during and after the rains… We saw few cars stopped with their hoods up, possibly due to overheating, and few bike breakdowns (one bike, not ours, had its chain broken)...

We made it… finally at the top and into the resort.. Very nice place to stay…!!!

At 30/36 hairpin.. 

DUDES .. !!!

By evening we visited Ooty commercial street, by Charring Cross and strolled about a bit.. Vijay and Niranjan did some purchasing of Ooty chocolates and we got some dinner packed.. The Ooty streets are jam packed during peak season and we were lucky that we did not take our bikes out.. We hailed an auto which was driven by a colorful charactered person and kept us entertained throughout the traffic… Came back to resort, had the dinner and crashed for the night.. An unforgettable day..!!

Off to Ooty Center .. 

Munchies for Vijay and Niranjan ... 

I swear I could hear them snoring.. The TB 500 the loudest.. :)

Return journey: 

We had nice heavy breakfast so as to push out the lunch as much as possible. We started by 10AM and our return route was down the 36 hairpin road and we were looking forward to it… It would be incredibly difficult and the element of danger spiked our interest.. However, alas, the route was closed for going down and we were redirected to different route.

All set for ride down.. 

Vijay, raring to go... 

Now, there is a saying, “whatever happens, happens for a reason”.. We truly found out the meaning of the phrase in our new route.. This was probably the most scenic route I have ridden on. The route cuts through Pykara Forest Range on its way to Gudlur. The road meanders through tea estates, shooting locations, forest with tall trees on both sides and few hairpins. The road was good and had less traffic, making the trip overly enjoyable. This route was not tricky and ideal for cars and buses to ply down and up to Ooty. If one has time, there are many places along the route to stop-by, there is a shooting location, Pykara lake and few other camping places… Along the way, Niranjan also found Ooty carrots that are shy and should not be photographed, as per the lady selling them… :)

The shy carrots... :P

On the Pykara route ... 

We reached Gudlur and from here, another awesome stretch starts through Mudhumalai and Bandipur forests. This stretch through the forest is longer than the one we took on Day 01. We could not spot any animals this time.. :(

On reaching Bandipur, we needed much required break and we stopped by for some coconut water and stretching.

From here, we made our way to Gundlupet and took detour to Chamarajanagar. This stretch of road was excellent, single lane road, no potholes, and less traffic.. From Chamarajanagar, reached Kollegal and then onwards to Malavalli on Kanakapura Road (via Shivanasamudra).

We skipped visiting the falls at Shivanasamudra or taking detour via BR hills as we were running late, but these can be attempted if time permits.. We hit upon traffic on Kanakapura road and our progress was slowed down.. Then onto Nice Road and finally to EC by 7pm!!!

The return route was certainly more scenic than onward route and an alternative for anyone who is not comfortable climbing up the 36 hairpins.

The Bike

I wanted to test out Dominar.

The bike was touted to be first adventure/tourer bike from the stable of Bajaj. And, the initial reviews were very good of the bike. So, wanted to take it out for long trip that involved highways and twistys, and Ooty was the perfect destination to try out both.

The initial look was good, not mind-boggling, but better than other bikes in the same price range. The ergonomics of the bike were good, the seat, the legs position to the pegs and the grip on the handle were good. However, the seating position was a bit forward for my height (5.6”) and had to lean onto the handle. This eventually gave me right wrist pain when riding it for long time… At the end of the trip, my right wrist was sore and not a good feeling from a tourer.

The best part of the bike was the pick-up on all gears and overtaking was a piece of cake. One can filter through the traffic very well as well, with the good response of the throttle.

The clutch was very smooth and agile and the multiple shifts required were not an issue at all… However, the main issue was the multiple shifts required.. Just think that you are riding on 6th gear and you hit upon a speed breaker (plenty of those on the Ooty route), you have to come down to 3rd gear… Not good.. This is not a problem on Himalayan or TNT 300, where you can glide over the humps with 1 or no shift-downs…. This kinda downshifting breaks the rhythm and somehow you don’t get a good feeling on long rides… In city traffic, these downshifting would pass-by as routine and would not feel as a hassle, but definitely not on the trips… Big let-down in my mind…

The another big problem is the display panel.. It is next to impossible to read the display during sunlight.. Maybe I don’t know whether there are knobs to fix this, but the default settings were pretty bad… You cannot read anything once the sun is up.. Pretty useless…

The braking on the bike is very good, with ABS, and did not get any slide or lock-up while going up or down from Ooty. The Brembo brakes certainly do their job… The balance of the bike is good so that you can tilt the bike in the corners with good speed and confidence…

There was too much spoken about the headlights and its reach, but personally, I was not satisfied with the light being thrown on the road at night.. It can be matched by any other bike such as Himalayan or the TNT 300…

The biggest worry was from the engine performance.. There were instances of uneven power delivery from the engine while climbing to Ooty, the last place where you want unpredictable engine.. The vibrations were high at 100+ speeds and the need to run up the engine to high rpm was certainly not pleasant.. To add to this, the engine felt stressed after long hours at high speeds and was not upto the requirement…

If you are a tourer, you may not like the fact that stock bike does not come with any support for luggage carrying capacity.. There are no carriers at the back or hooks to put on the bungee cords… Personally, why make a tourer without any luggage space…

Overall, Dominar was a big disappointment in all areas that are essential for touring… This is at best a city bike, with aspirations of a tourer, a true successor of the Pulsar series…!! It’s a bit ironic that Dominar was supposed to be what Pulsar was not, but it ended up being what the Pulsar exactly is.. A strict no for and from tourers!!!

Route Map Google Link:
Bangalore to Ooty to Bangalore

Map:

bangalore to yercaud

Ride date: May,06th,2017

Riders:

Dheeraj - Royal Enfield Himalayan

Myself - DSK Benelli TNT 300

The Trip:

Our onward journey was

Bangalore -> NH7 -> Hosur-> Krishnagiri -> Dharmapuri -> Omalur Road-> Chinna Thirupathi -> Yercaud (210 Kms)

Return Journey:

Yercaud -> Kuppanur -> Harur -> Uthangarai -> Krishnagiri -> NH7 -> Electronics City (220 Kms)

Suggested Return Journey 1:

Yercaud -> Kuppanur -> Harur -> Morappur -> Karimangalam -> NH7 -> Krishnagiri -> Electronics City (216 Kms)

Suggested Return Journey 2: To completely avoid highways

Yercaud -> Kuppanur -> Harur -> Morappur -> Dharmapuri -> Rayakottai ->  Hosur -> Electronics City

Total Distance: 450 Kms

The onward journey took 5 hours including stoppage for breakfast (Adyar Anand Bhavan, few kms before Krishnagiri) and couple of short breaks.

Started from Electronics City around 6.30AM and reached Yercaud lake by 11.30AM.

Google Maps shows the route via Danishpet as the shortest route, however, we selected the one that we took since it has 20 hairpin bends. Wanted to have fun going up the hairpins… The road turned out to be much better than we expected, no bad road sections. The bike was a pleasure to ride on the highway, it is very well balanced at speeds of 100+. The gearing is such that you don't have to shift gears much for overtaking or slowing down for breakers, the throttle response is linear from low to high speeds. We expected the terrain to be dry due to summer, but were pleasantly surprised when we saw lot of greenery, many new leaves with the light green color and wonderful trees full of red flowers (google suggests the common name for this tree is “Flame of the forest”)

The hairpins on the way up.. Beautiful "Flame of the Forest"

It's me...

Dheeraj had earlier been to Yercaud and he suggested few good places to stop-by. First was ‘The Regent Hill Side Resort’. It is a wonderful place, close to the lake and the host makes you feel very comfortable in no time. It has a restaurant too, so a quick stop-by is highly recommended. The restaurants has lot of funny and quirky lines written all over the place, keeps you smiling. The owner of the place is also an avid rider, so lots to share over the stay.

The second place he suggested was ‘Kitchen on Call’. This place sells home-made jams, spreads, pickles and more. Picked up few items from there at very reasonable prices. The hosts there have a very interesting background story, find it out for yourself… Had lunch at ‘Salem Heights’ restaurant which has an excellent view of the valley and a small sky-walk.

Dheeraj on the sky-walk at Salem Heights restaurant... 

The kind gentlemen at ‘Kitchen on Call’ suggested us to take the Kuppanur route for return journey and was the best advice we could get. The road from Yercaud to Kuppanur via SH188 is bliss for any rider. The roads are very good, few hairpin bends, going through forest with tall trees on both sides and absolutely no traffic. On our way down, the sky opened up and we had to pull up. My bike was running low on fuel, on inquiry of nearest fuel pump, was surprised to hear that 2 shops away, a grocery store sells petrol in bisleri bottles. Happens only in India :)

Had to tread slowly on wet road a bit, but once the roads dried it was smooth riding again. It was 27kms of awesomeness from Yercaud to Kuppanur!!!!

Yercaud - Kuppanur Route... Pure bliss... 

From Kuppanur to Uthangari via Harur (67Kms) the road was manageable. There were some good sections and some bad sections with uneven roads. I was finding it difficult on TNT 300 with its stiff suspension, the Himalayan fares better on such roads.

The road from Uthangarai to Krishnagiri (47kms) should be avoided at all costs. Later realized that this section is part of the famed Chengam road to Thiruvannamalai. This section is very bad with no roads at some places. 47kms of bad roads was the last thing we wanted after long day of riding. Somehow we endured through the pain and reached Krishnagiri and back to good roads on NH7.

Our return journey was longer and took more time due to some bad roads.. We left Yercaud by 2PM and reached Bangalore at 8PM.

Yercaud is perfect place to visit on a 1 day trip from Bangalore!

The Bike

DSK Benelli TNT 300

The first impression of the bike by the way of looks was awesome to me. The packing of 2 in-line cylinder engine and 6-speed gearbox is very compact and concentrated at the center to give the bike very good agility in turning.

There are few concerns to use the bike in city traffic. The engine gets hot at low speeds and the inner legs get nicely and slowly cooked. However, this is certainly not an issue at high speeds on open roads.

The gearing is too good for city traffic. Was able to ride on higher gears at speeds of 30-50. This means less gear shifting is required. The clutch and gearbox are very smooth and no worries of skipping/false neutral. This is a very big plus point.

The suspension of the bike, both at the front and at the back are very stiff. This ensures that you feel and are rattled by each and every bump on the roads. However, the same stiffness makes the bike extremely stable at high speeds. And, high speeds is where the domain of this bike lies.

At low-mid speeds (<75), one can certainly feel the weight of the bike. At 200kgs kerb weight, it is unnecessarily heavy, in my opinion. The weight plus the stiff suspension adds to the jarring on bad roads. Still the bike is very easy to maneuver due to its good weight balancing.

The ergonomics are excellent, the seat height of 795mm would appeal to lot of riders in our country. The footpegs are rear placed, giving sports bike kinda position. The best thing is the firm and well contoured seat. It provides very good support to all of the posterior and the well shaped fuel tank can be comfortably held between the knees providing stable seating. The rear view mirrors are big and well shaped and are very adequate in city traffic. The low and high light beams do a decent job.

It is when one crosses 60kmph, the bike comes onto its own. Within matters of seconds the bike crosses 3-digit speed and is a pleasure to ride. The stiff suspension adds to stability and turning at high speeds is a delightful act. The exhaust note of the bike is awesome and gets sweeter as the speed increases. At 100+ speeds is where the bike feels like what it is designed for. All parameters, like the engine, exhaust, suspension, ergonomics, stability are designed on the bike for such speeds only.

Overall very good bike for long highway rides, not ideal for city commute, bad indian roads and off-roading though.

Route Map Google Link:
Bangalore to Yercaud to Bangalore

Map: