Modifications and Maintenance

Someone in a popular bike forum said that - "Modifying your bike is just like taking your girl friend to a beauty parlor!!". Well that's very true. But at the same time, Bike Modification and Maintenance is much much more than the visual aspects of things, because how you modify your bike and how well your bike is maintained, very largely decides how long your beast serves your!!

Well Bike Modifications and Maintenance have an ocean of works that can be done ranging from -

Maintenance

1) Paint Jobs

2) Decals

3) Petrol and Engine Oils

4) Chain Cleaner and Lube

5) Choice of Service Provider and so on

Modifications

1) Various body works imaginable including Carbon fiber body parts

2) Engine Re-bore

3) Exhaust Slip-ons and Pipes

4) Head Lamp mods including HID and Projectors

5) Disk brakes mods, like front dual, rear disk, caliper mods

6) KN&N and all the mods around it and so on

So, the wish list can be limitless. India is fast developing as a very potent market for Bigger and Faster bikes. Every major foreign player is trying to bring flagship model in. So, there is more more craving within the desi biking group to take their steed closer and closer to the exotics, not only look wise but also performance wise.

With the Indian biking community getting more and more finicky about their steed, the urge to know the bike better is on the high. So much so, there is a little mechanical engineer inside almost every passionate biker.

But at the same time, there is a big time absence of after-market availability for Indian bikes. Most of the one stop outlets like the KRP and DSG are very much oriented towards providing after markets for the SBKs instead of the Indian bikes. KRP to some extent do provide scaled down after markets for Indian bikes but the range is very limited and labor cost is like huge!! For example, the 150-200cc has been here in the Indian market for around 10 years now, but we don't have any single Indian brand of Exhaust Slip-ons available, forget about the Carbon fiber parts.

Talking about the National Capital, where every tom dick and harry is a Rossi/Phiefer mixed breed Avatar in long hair, still we don't have any authentic mods and maintenance facility over here. The only known Mecca for Mods here - the Karol Bag area, is very much concentrated with cheap body modification works, with very remote and countable outlets who actually know what mods and maintenance actually suite a bike and such outlet are already flooded with work and quality is work done on the bike is always a concern. Think of performance bikes and you think of Pulsars and R15s. How many Indian companies one might be knowing who manufacture after markets solely for these bikes?? I can't think of any. Pulsars have a huge fan following in Indonesia. Just Google about it and you would be amazed to see the after market support our Indian Pulsar has in this country. Things that we have not heard of are easily available there.

Finally every drills down to YOU - you would be collecting the required accessories from various sources, you would be grabbing hold of a reliable mechanic to have to accessories go into the machine, you would be tearing yourself between your office, home/wife and the bike.