A Real Long-Term “Review” of my 2015 KTM RC 200.

For most of us, buying a motorcycle without taking a test ride would be the stupidest thing to do. Well, I did that and after spending 3 years, 2 months and 23 days with her, I don’t have an iota of regret!

Maybe she wasn’t the one that I needed but the one I wanted.
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I aspire to travel across my country with my motorcycle. With 2 covered, I am confident she will take me to the remaining 27 states without hassle. 3 years back, I could afford only 1 motorcycle (it’s still the same :P) and maybe it wasn’t a wise decision to choose a track focused motorcycle for 100km-a-day office sprint or do cross-state touring. So how did she fare over 50,000 km in 3years is the million dollar question.

From my friends to the service centre mechanics, no one held high hopes about KTM’s durability. My friend was a bit of an “abusive lover” of motorcycles so his words didn’t bother me much. The mechanic, however, looked pretty sure that I had made the worst decision by getting a KTM and I am going to be their weekly guest. “Sir, 10,000km ho jaane do fir dekho kaise lootegi ye bike” (Sir, Clock a 10000kms and see how this bike’s going to rob you). Coming that from a mechanic who handled dozens of KTMs every day was frightening especially when almost everyone I knew was against the idea of shelling almost 2 lacs for a motorcycle.

I started chalking out all the possible expenses I’ll need for her in the next 6 months. Tyres, chain sprockets, fork seals, the cone set everything was accounted for. In those 6 months, I took her out every day. Short highway spins, a 150 km trip to Lavasa and loads of off-road sessions too! Yeah, she’s had her fair share of off-tarmac experience too.

None of those gruelling sessions caused any problems. (It’s a KTM after all). At 12000 km, I had my rear tyre changed. From the MRF Revz, I switched Michelin Pilot Street. Other than the tyre, there was nothing to worry about for the foreseeable future. This being my first motorcycle, there was too much to learn.

I wanted to understand my motorcycle, so I made it a point to take a day off from work and sit at the service centre to see how the mechanics serviced a motorcycle and fired them with a whole lot of questions on hows and whys. Eventually, they got used to this and would upfront explain me what was going around with my motorcycle and how to keep her healthy.

I did not understand when her chain needed attention. I knew some things in theory, but that was not enough. The neglect cost me a chain and sprocket change at 17,000 km.

While getting the sprocket set changed, the mechanic explained to me how the chain’s slack and it’s health affects the motorcycle’s acceleration and how I can feel it while riding. With this crash course, I knew my motorcycle’s chain is going to healthy for a while now.

At 25,000 km I switched to the Michelin at the front. Though initially, this made the front feel quite heavy, I had no issues once the break-in was done.

Next up was the cone-set. With the life expectancy of 10-15,000 km, this part managed to survive till 27,000 km. Not having really experienced riding with a bad cone-set, I could not understand why it took me efforts to change directions. A call to the mechanic and after hearing what I was experiencing, like a doctor, he said, there’s nothing to worry about, just that your cone-set would need replacement. Those rusty bearings came off after harrowing 2 hrs. With that fixed, I had nothing to worry about now, I thought.

One fine morning, I was warming her up and noticed a puddle of oil at the front tyre. By now, I was smart enough to realize it was a busted Fork seal. Cleared my schedule, a frantic call to the service centre and they happily accommodated my motorcycle without an appointment. While replacing the seal, the mechanic explained how a small thing like cleaning the fork with soapy water after a ride, especially during the rain could reduce the chances of a busted fork.

So now I knew enough to take care of her chain sprocket set as well as the forks.

At 32,000 km, the balding Michelin at the rear wheel gave way for a new tyre. And all the maintenance in the meanwhile was a weekly 2-3 hour date with her that involved stripping her, a cold shower with loads of foam. Oh yeah, and it involved some lubing too! 😉

While prepping her up for one of my Mumbai-Hyderabad ride, I noticed the rear wheel seemed a bit off. But after a test-ride nothing felt amiss. When I reached my destination, I realised something was terribly wrong. Upon using the rear brake, the wheel seemed to tilt towards one-side. I managed to bring her back without any issue. A quick check by the mechanic concluded with a new set of bearings at the rear wheel. If those bearings had broken, the wheel could have locked and needless to say, I probably wouldn’t be writing this blog.

The issue with the wheel had caused some damage to the chain and I ended up replacing it at 40,000 km.

So, with 2 chain sprocket replacement, 1 busted fork seal, 1 new cone-set, replacing the stock bearing of the rear wheel once and countless memories, she’s been not only the one that I wanted, but she also became the one that I needed!!