World Motorcycle day- most memorable motorcycle I have ridden

On the occasion of international motorcycle day, here is a quick compilation of some of my most memorable motorcycle rides and trips

1. Harley Davidson Street 750- Rented from WickedRides in Bengaluru for two days, Harley Davidson Street 750 is one of the most powerful bikes I have ridden till date (other one is Versys 750). Rode it in and around Bengaluru with friends for company. Bike is powerful, has great acceleration but has poor brakes and lots of limitations. Read review here. Later I wrote a post- 10 features available in Hero Honda Splendor (costs less than 10% of HD Street 750) but not available in Harley Street 750.

Both wicked ride and later Royal Brothers and Driven.in had more powerful bikes for rental. I was keen to try them for a day but 100 kmph speed limit was a big deterrent. Have to pay 7000-10000 per day but have to ride super slow, while bearing huge liability in case of damages. Thus renting and riding more premium bikes were put on cold storage.

2. Kawasaki Versys 750: Rode it during 7 days, 2000 kms Thailand bike trip. [Ride Thailand] Amazing bike, unique looks and easy to handle Rode it for half of the trip, while rest half was done on Honda CB 400X. Kawasaki Versys 750 is not introduced in India till recently. I could reach top speed of about 175 kmph on Thailand's highways.

3. Honda CB 400X: Another agile motorbike that rode in Thailand along with Kawasaki Versys 750. Honda was lighter and hence could keep up with Kawasaki despite less power. Unfortunately Honda never introduced this bike in India.

4.Royal Enfield Bullet variants: Not a big fan of bullet- have ridden different variants multiple times-friend’s bike, rented ones etc. Bullets are heavy, slow, vibrate a lot and do not have modern features. But Royal Enfield has its cult customer base who love the bullets for its retro feel. Read this post to understand why you can either hate it or love it, but can't ignore a RE

5. Thunderbird 500: Rode a bit during Wayanad bike trip and few other occassions. More comfortable than Bullet range and better equipped as well.

6. Bajaj Dominar 400: Had rented for a day from Royal Brothers- wasn’t a well maintained one but I liked Dominar’s agility and riding performance. Read Dominar 400 review here. My ride was few years ago- now even more improved, BS 6 version and a 250cc version of Dominar is also available.

7. TVS Apache RTR 160- My current bike, in its 6^th year. Detailed ownership review here, saddle bag review here, bike selfservicing experience here. Close to 30000 kms done. When I bought it 6 years ago it was a good upgrade- a more powerful engine with not too powerful to give poor fuel economy, disc brakes etc. My other option was Yamaha FZ which had mono suspension and FI extra, but was a bit expensive. Have rented and ridden over variants of RTR such as the 180 cc one and new RTR 200 4V. RTR 200 4V review here. 

Have ridden Chennai-Udupi, Chennai-Bengaluru, Chennai-Yelagiri, Chennai-Pondy, Chennai-Tiruvannamalai and such long rides on this bike. Gives about 50 kmpl and no major issues. Will use this bike for another few years before deciding on next upgrade.

8. Bajaj Discover 112: Owned it for about 8 years- have several long ride memories- Hyd-Bidar, Chennai-Yelagiri etc. Long term ownership review here

9. Honda CRF 230F -  A dirt bike which I rode during CS Santosh run dirt bike learning centre, Big Rock Motopark in Kolar. Read my experience here

Me decked up fully for dirt biking session...

10. Bajaj Avenger 220 street: Rode for few days during Bengaluru-Wayanad road trip. Detailed review here- it is good for slow paced touring, but hard to keep up with fast moving bikes and Royal Enfields.

Motorcycles, despite their fanfare have several limitations when it comes to touring- lack of protection (from rain etc), limited luggage carrying ability, less safety are major concerns.  In this post I have compared road trip by car vs bike.

I have not yet ridden super luxury, super expensive bikes. There are bikes costing as much as 30-40 lakhs (Honda Goldwing) and few costing 60-70 lakhs as well- Ducati Panigale V4 R range. I don’t think I will ever be riding them in my life. I will be content with renting sub 10 lakh bikes and owning much cheaper ones.

I am discounting mopeds from this post- else TVS Sport, Honda Navi, Honda Activa, Ather 450, Dio and few other vehicles would have made it to the list.

Internationally I have ridden in Philippines, Thailand and Indonesia.

What all bikes you’ve owned/ridden? Which one is your favorite?