I had reverted to the stock air filter some time back with the open bracket, and that seems to have had a positive effect on the fuel efficiency.
Bhpian shield recently shared this with other enthusiasts:
Some fittings that I got recently for the Doubleheader.
Since I use the bike most of the weekdays to drop my daughter off at school, I rest her schoolbag on the tank, which was beginning to leave minute scratches as there was no paint protection done when I bought the bike. I was thinking of options when I saw the Hitchcock tank rack, which sat on suction cups. This was good that I didn’t have to drill the tank to screw it in but there was a drawback that anyone who notices it closely can steal it when parked.
I got this and the oil temp gauge which sits in place of the engine oil filler cap which I wanted for a while now. The temperature on a ride showed around 90c and in peak traffic almost standstill, it went to 110c.
Apart from the weekday school runs and dropping my wife off at work which works out to around 23-24 kms each day, I try and do a short ride whenever I can. The traffic in Bangalore has got so bad that thinking of it makes me stop from going for a ride unless I plan it days before and leave early.
Last weekend, I did an impromptu ride covering around 225 kms and wasted almost an hour in traffic getting out of the city limits.
The ride was via Yelahanka to Gauribidanur via Doddaballapur and then cut off to Madhugri which is a nice stretch of road, and to Dobbespet and back via Nelamangala and Yeshwanthpur. Thankfully, all the stretches of roads were good and fun to ride on, except for strong cross winds that kept pushing me from left to right. There was light rain on and off, which wasn’t a bother. Towards the last stretch, the roads were soaked as it had rained a bit before I passed through. I got to experience the tyres in full wet weather conditions and must say they are quite good and I was riding at more or less dry road speeds. Got back home before dark and more rains with a nice ride and the bike covered in muck.
I had reverted to the stock air filter some time back with the open bracket and that seems to have had a positive effect on the fuel efficiency. The usual 20-21 kmpl was 23 kmpl last time which was a full city tank to tank. I need to check the highway numbers, although I am not expecting any changes there. The engine seems to be much smoother as well now and I had also changed the baffles from the closed type with holes in them to the stock open baffles the AEW slip-ons came with. Both these changes made the engine run much smoother and a bit louder note.
I also got the Motosafe ear plugs for riding which filter out the wind noise to a good extent and filter in the exhaust note to an audible level which makes the ride much more fun now. Thanks to Rajeevsulu’s post on a similar product and I had to get it since the 3M ear plugs were basically not for riding nor for wind noise cancellation and were also painful for long durations. These are comfortable and easy to plug into the ear and don’t shift once plugged in. A good buy.
The bike crossed 19k kms during the ride and the annual oil service is due next month.
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