Some more attention; err, expenses

A friend of mine keeps asking me why I spend so much on this motorcycle, to the level that he believes that I visit the service center way too often. Especially, for someone who owns a reliable Japanese motorcycle known to last really long.  I’ve visited so often, that he now considers if his long term idea of owning a Ninja was even a good one.

Well there are two ways to think about it:

1. The sensible way of accepting that he is absolutely right.
2. To convince myself that I was riding way too much and I need to keep the motorcycle running without any hassles.

Both are true actually. Versys was never going to be easy to maintain like a typical commuter. Definitely not, when you feel like you want to ride a 1000km every time you want to take it out!  That’s not even an exaggeration by the way. I’ve ridden on all the highways leaving Hyderabad at least twice.

I was planning this mega trip of 2500km to Madhya Pradesh to cover the next two Jyotirlinga (a very picturesque Omkareshwar situated on a small island on Narmada river & Mahakaleshwar right at the heart of the very religious city of Ujjain). – more soon!

My motorcycle had to be in a very good shape before I head out on the longest ride I was going to do since 2012. That can only mean, a visit to the IKM service center for fluid level check, get the chain adjusted, and yes, brake pads replaced after the old ones served for over 14,000km (which isn’t bad at all).

Well yeah, the bill wasn’t easy on my pocket for sure (₹5,538 for parts + ₹2,000 for labor) but it comes with something called “peace of mind” that will allow me to enjoy the ride that’s coming up!

I did try to cheap out on the brake pads this time. It worked partially, you know 🙂

Another good friend carried back a set of CNBK pads from US this time at 1/3 the exorbitant  price it’s available for sale in India. It only worked partially, because only the front ones fit fine but the rear ones don’t. Victory nevertheless!

Hey friend of mine: I’m going to one day manage to maintain my Kawasaki like it’s a commuter, or maybe find a way to cheap out on maintenance, or better still, end up riding as much as typical commuter does and you’ll realize maintaining a Versys isn’t as expensive as you think it is. Buy that Ninja man! 

So, in the end, I can’t concede the fact that the expenses (and visits to IKM service center) continue to increase but so are the miles covered on my Versys. We are inching close to 30,000kms in just over 2 years with some really good memories for sure. A lot of lessons learned too.