Using motorcycle brakes

I know many of you reading this would know how to use the brakes on a motorcyle but there are many other fools who do not know and this goes out for them. A lot has been written about this but I will still add my two cents to it as I came across a few jerks in the past few days, who believe that only the rear brake in a motorcycle should be used to stop it.

They are jerks not because they don't know the truth because they were adamant that using the front brake will only cause the motorcycle to topple off.

For Chris sake, nothing like this would happen unless it's a really bad day or you are an idiot. Even physics supports the fact that using the front brake is better in most conditions than the rear brake. While braking the weight of the bike shifts forward so if only the rear brake is applied the rear wheel becomes light and loses traction, and thereby increases the chances of skidding. On the other hand if you apply the front brake, the weight shifts forward onto the front tyre and thereby increases the grip due to the increased pressure. There's a lot more written about this everywhere on the net. Go and read it.

The ideal proportion to brake on a motorcycle is 70% front and 30% rear but one shouldn't use the same ratio while negotiating a turn. This is something you will learn as a biker with time. Time unfortunately is not much for me so I can't explain all the details.

I hope more morons read this article and learn how to ride a motorcycle.

Yamaha R15...a mean machine or just a hype

All these days that i have been quite busy, I did manage to find some time to read reviews of the Yamaha R15...by auto journos and buyers both. First things first...to me the R15 just seems to be a hype that is initially raking in moolah just coz of its publicity and consistent ignorance of so called bikers.

Now I don't mean that the bike is not good or a poor performer...it is indeed a potent performer in the 150 cc segment but quite honestly the package is not worth the cost being asked. At close to 1 lakh and 5 thousand on road in Delhi it is a shocker. I know that Yamaha would have infinite reasons to justify the high price tag but in the end if you calculate it in real terms then it's actually a waste of money. I also know that close to 40% of the parts on the R15 are imported so that attracts duty making the price tag higher but didn't Yamaha know all this before? I agree that it isn't fair to expect a 150 cc machine belt out 25 bhp or so as there are many pollution norms in place and those can't be met with such specifications.

My point is that Yamaha could have kept the price tag lower by at least 10-12 grands and then this bike could surely have been worth a look at, mind you even then it would have been only worth a look at for me. I wrote first that I was pretty fine with the price tag but as I learnt more about this bike I found myself wrong and the moment I rode this bike...well I simply decided to pull away anything I wrote in favour of this bike.

Now about the auto journos....well most of them are forced to write further from their thoughts and some of them like to portray themselves as experts. The automotive media went frenzy praising this bike's handling on a track or curves. Now how many of the R15 riders seriously intend to take their bikes to a track!! People staying in the northern, eastern and western parts of the country don't even have a track..Only people from two cities in south have access to a racetrack and maybe the adjoining areas might have an advantage too. The journos keep talking about tracks and now some would say that everyone globally does. Well first go and check how many racetracks does the US, UK or other European countries have. Won't get into much details as these guys have a job to do and they earn primarily through ads so they definitely can't write against any potential sponsor.

About the riding impression - First of all the bike is too small to be close to any sports category. The tank is too small and tyres are too thin. The rear end looks very cheap..in fact Unicorn looks a lot better from the rear. I know that tyre size is not the only instrumental factor in providing grip and the tyres on the R15 are good and an upsize would have surely hurt the non-existent and hyped up performance. BUT if people like to call it a supersport or sports bike then a sports bike does need to have balanced looks from all angles. Unfortunately that is not the case with the R15.

I would surely feel better riding a Pulsar220 or a Karizma coz they are on the outside what they are inside, not imposters like the R15, which is just an ordinary bike that wants to be a sports bike. The bike always gives you a wannabe impression rather than reflecting a true identity.

The performance - Once again this is ok only if you are on a track or a open road and how many times do you get open roads these days? There is hardly anything impressive in the low or the mid-range. The bike surges ahead with confidence only once you are past the 5k rpm mark at the minimum. The top speed is claimed to be 140 km/hr but only if the rider is completely crouched and weighs 60 kg...I tried my best to get it past 135 in neutral winds but the bike just didn't have any juice left in it. The Pulsar 220 does 130km/hr so why the hell would I pay 20 grands more for 5-6 km/hr. Regarding the handling...well give me an Apache RTR Fi and I will show that even round a track there would be hardly anything to choose between the two although the R15 would nudge ahead marginally but only marginally and on the roads the 220, 200 and Zma are quite apt of surprising a R15 provided the rider is a good one.

I just hope that people start understanding bikes rather than just auto magazine articles and advertisements. If your dad is willing to give you more than a lakh of his money to waste on a R15 then let me know. I will tell you far better options than the R15 for more than a lakh rupees. In fact just wait for the Apache RTR with performance mods sue in this year. That bike alone with an additional cost of 5000 for the mods should be good enough to land a punch in the R15's face.

In the end...R15 = all show no go. Hope the riders turn from no brains, no skills to something better in India.

The Ninja 250 on the other hand would be a great value for money package. At a little above then 2 lakh rupees (if sources are right) the baby Ninja should be a really good bike. The acceleration of the Ninja would be unmatched by any car manufactured in India. The top speed at close to 170km/he would be parallel to many c-segment cars. Wait for the Ninja to be launched and the term - Value for Money should get a right synonym in the Indian biking scene. Till then the Pulsar 200/220 and the Apacher RTR are the ones which are the best VFM packages currently on sale in India.

Ford's future plans: A freeway or...

With America's plastic economy turning soft, industries have been going through a traumatic time for the past few years. Very likely the automotive industry too has suffered. Ford, GM and Chrysler, popularly known as the "Big 3" are currently facing more problems than they could have imagined or can handle. GM has been able to consolidate its operations to some extent. Chrysler's future seems to be the darkest among these three.

Talking about Ford one wonders whether the company is heading in the right direction or rolling backwards in neutral. Obviously this is something hard to predict but then again if I and others don't do it, we will find ourselves very soon in a position like Chrysler and that is a bad thing.

Ford's problems started with it's inability to cope up with the new production techniques and fierce competition from Toyota and Honda. Toyota eventually went on to claim the #1 spot in car sales ahead of GM. Then came the resurrection time for Ford. Fortunately Henry's company took many new steps and implemented many new plans. Unfortunately most of these plans and strategies turned out to be duds. Losses continued to mount, sales kept on falling, share prices became volatile with "low" being an area oftenly visited by them.

Finally the Ford management decided to sell its brands which did not fit into the company's strategy. Away went Aston Martin. Well Ford did need cash and so selling brands made sense but for Chris' sake not Aston Martin. It's hard to know why Aston could not perform well under Ford despite having a steady cash inflow. However, since the day Aston was disowned by a problem ridden father, it has witnessed a significant improvement in all areas including sales.

Then came the turn of Jaguar and Land Rover to go and off they went into the hands of Tata for less than half of the cost they were bought a long time back. Land Rover should not cause any major problems to new daddy, Tata but Jaguar is a concern. Despite making all efforts Ford could not ge Jaguar back in profitability but with the Jaguar XF going on sale, I expect things to turn around the good way. Jaguar on its current footsteps is expected to be profitable by 2009.

Alan Mullaly is now left with just Ford, Lincoln-Mercury, Volvo and Mazda to play around with. Mercury's fate does not hold anything good according to me. I see this brand being sold off for peanuts in another year's time or a little longer or probably dying away. The other three brands however have a lot to offer and if the product line-up of Ford hits the bulls eye then it won't be long before the company starts finding its way upwards again.

So let's see if the road ahead is a freeway or not.

1) 2009 end or 2010 may see a new Mustang sporting an all new EcoBoost V6 engine. A 3.5 litre V6 will replace the existing 4.6 litre V8 and still produce more horses at the crank. Not only that the car will also deliver better fuel efficiency, an increase of nearly 2 mpg.

2) A new Fusion slated to be launched in 2010 will again sport an EcoBoost engine. This will be an all-wheel-drive (AWD) car with performance being the prerogative. The new Fusion's will get the 2007 Mondeo's EU Copyright Directive (EUCD) platform replacing the existing Mazda based CD3 platform.

3)Ford will launch a new Escape in 2009. A Lincoln version will be available from 2010.

4) The 2009 Ford Flex and the Lincoln version are also a part of the queue to recieve EcoBoost engines. Details have not yet been revealed but the Flex will need to battle it out with the 2009 Chevrolet Traverse, sporting a 3.6 litre V6.

5) Taurus is all-set to get a label of new. Ford however has not yet been able to zero down on a platform. Rumours have it that the Taurus could be based on the D3 architecture or it could turn to the CD3 platform as well. If D3 is ruled out then the platform could probably be sacked. That is because D3 will be left only with the Taurus X and the Lincoln MKS in that case and these models do not have enough volumes to make the platform a cost-effective proposition, especially in the circumstances Ford is in right now. Ford announced this model to be launched by 2009 end but with the platform still not being in place, I see a 4-6 months delay in he launch.

Ford is betting big time on its newly developed EcoBoost engine. Apart from being compact this engine also provides more power while delivering better fuel-effiiciency and lower emissions at the same time.

The product line-up seems to be good on the paper. Honestly it sounds quite promising to me. But to say anything certain about anything in America is pretty tough now. Who had expected Ford to be in this condition 10 years back, but it happened. Hoping for the best I believe that Henry's legacy will soon make a turn around and although it may not leap frog the stairs but it will certainly crawl its way up.

Superbikes in India

With Yamaha having launched its R1 and MT-01 in India, bikers have a lot to rejoice. The slow and mundane Indian biking scene seems to be picking up speed. Going further Honda and Suzuki also plan to bring their flagship models to India. Even the Italians...yes the Italians will start selling dreams in India in a few years. MV Agusta has already confirmed that and Ducati is in the planning stages.

With so many developments happening bikers in India surely have many reasons to celebrate. But, and for me its a very loud BUT....is everything really going in the right direction? I don't think so. Now one may wonder why a bike afficionado like me would think like that. Hell most of you would think I have lost it completely like the Chinese. But how many of us have tried to look beyond the rosy picture of all these machines coming in here?

The first and the biggest problem I see is safety which is and will continue to be compromised due to the Govt officials. People need to understand that "Riding a superbike is nowhere similar to riding a Splendor, Discover or even the bigger Pulsars or Karizma". But Indians since we are, so we are conditioned to believe that if one can ride a Splendor, he can ride a Ducati as well. 6 out 10 riders on the road think themselves to be better than anyone else and the remanining 3 think themselves to be better than Valentino Rossi. The problem starts when such people start buying superbikes.

With the Indian economy booming and the real estate market overshooting the Earth's ozone layer, many illiterate and ignorant people have become millionaires. Many such live examples can be found in and around Delhi. The problem I have with these guys...Well here they are

1) These guys have no sense of riding any bike, be it a Yamaha R1 or a Pulsar. All that maters to them is racing on the streets.

2) They are the ones who spoil the image of bikers by getting aggressive on the streets and trouble innocent people in the process.

3) They wear kurta pyajamas and sandals while riding a Yamaha R6 as I saw the other day. Helmets are an inconvinience to them as they think the girls will be impressed by their looks.

These people are not bikers but simply imposters who don't have an identity of their own. They don't ride motorcycles to enjoy the connection between man and machine but just to flaunt to the people that they have got sacks filled in their home with black money. These ignorant fools are not only a risk to themselves but to others on the streets as well. The streets are not meant to check whether a bike can cross 250 or 300 kmph. However the sole motive of these people is to test the top speed from the very moment the bike leaves the showroom.

Spoiled brats from rich families also pose the same problems to the society. Getting a license is one of the easiest things to manage in India when it comes to getting your work done in a Govt department. When such fools falter on high-capacity machine it's game over in most cases. Such an incident occurred recently on the DND flyover in Noida where the rider and the pillion died on the spot when their litre bike went out of control and hit the side-walls.

The licensing authority of India should install a system for such machines where a rider would be required to pass theoretical and practical tests before being able to ride these bikes. If it were only these fools to die, it was ok but why should innocent people who drive properly become a victim of these idiots' acts. I don't see any reason for their family mourning over their beloved's death because of some moron rich bloke on a superbike.

As the saying goes that social service starts at your home first, everything cannot be left to the Govt. Parents of rich kids and ignorant fools who became rich by selling lands should think over it that are they really ready to handle a machine which does a power wheelie even at speeds of 150 kmph if the throttle is opened instantaneously.

I have always said and still maintain that 90 out of 100 riders in India don't know a cent about riding motorcycles. Till date there are morons who think that only the rear brake should be used for stopping the bike coz if the front brake is used the bike will toppple over. Superbikes will continue to come in India and the companies can't be blamed for it as they do all that they can. But if these machines continue to get into the hands of such fools then our roads are at the mercy of God only.

Getting a superbike is like a dream come true and I understand that but all I want to convey is that before getting your hands on such a machine just prepare yourself to handle it properly and keep the safety of other people in mind. Last but not the least, while riding a superbike PLEASE do not wear pyajama kurta. Safety gears are easily available all over the country. If you can't get one let me know and I will arrange it. And do not ride a sports bike wearing a local helmet bought from the road-side vendor. get a good lid and by a good one I mean the ones which cost Rs 3000 upwards. An ISI mark Rs 1000 helmet will prove useless when you crash at a speed of 220 kmph.

Ride safe and burn the roads not incense sticks on photo frames in your and someone else's home.

So my take on this scenario is that Superbikes in India have arrived at the right time but in the wrong way. Hope some improvements take place before too much damage is done.

Major car making countries -Part 2

Now that some people have agreed and some people have cursed me for the part-1, I think its time to start with part-2 of this series.

P.S. In case you haven't read the part-1 of this series then please do that first so that you can be able to link the story. The article below this one is the first part.

In part-1 I had briefly written about car making countries and their strengths and blunders. Well it's time to get a lot more descriptive on how good or bad these countries are when it comes to making performance-oriented cars. I will herein not talk about Britain, Sweden, France, China and India since what I have written before sums up most of the facts for them. So let the revs build up.

America : Previously I had mentioned that America is good only for muscle cars and nothing else and I still stand by that. So are the muscle cars really good then since the burger land has a specialization in that. Well...sadly no and that's a big, loud NO. See the thing is that from the moment you set your eyes on these cars, it looks as if they can intimidate anything and everything on the road unless its a tank and that is actually a good thing. Take a look at the spec sheet and one feels that the car has really got some serious muscle under the hood. Look at the cost and it's like "oh great that's less than half of any Lambo or Porsches and still more power.

Unfortunately the picture is great only till this moment. Err. slight correction, even when you get into the car and have a look at the interiors the picture is good. Fire the engine and floor the pedal and the picture is still great, not just good. The acceleration just shoves your spine in the seat and your adrenaline glands start working at twice their production capacity. All this till the time the road is straight. Try and be brave over a curve and its time for your heart and the adrenaline to stop. Some American cars will have so much understeer that the car is not in the desired angle even after going wide and hitting a tree else the rear will spin out so easily that onlookers will start wondering which direction are you driving in.

Yes there are exceptions like the Ford GT 40 but sadly again that is the only exception and the only proper performance car or supercar the burger land has ever built. That this also was accidental is evident by the fact that later versions which should have been faster, better, sharper turned out to be the worst ones. The GT 70 and then the confused looking GT 90 were pure blunders despite Ford having access to better technology. Even the original epic GT40 was actually not built by Americans. It was built by Ford's British division when Henry Ford wanted to buy Ferrari and Enzo pulled out so Henry ordered his British division to make a Ferrari crushing car and the Brits did it, not the Americans. Other car like the Mustangs, Vipers, Camaros, Chargers just look good and are good drag machines, nothing else than that.

The Corvette...well what do I say about a car which claims to be a supercar and uses leaf-springs!!! Some say that GM is not foolish enough to use leaf-springs if they are not good. So are all the other car manufacturers mad to be using modern suspension systems in their cars? About reliability and build quality...I won't even talk about that. Its so greatly disastrous that I really cant explain that.

Now many people say that Americans can't make good cars. Well....NO...If they can make the best space-shuttles, fastest planes, missiles and other million things which are technologically way more advanced than cars then cars should not be a problem. But the thing is that Americans' idea of "good" is quite different from the rest of the world. To them only the things which are big and have big effects are good. Just like their food (big ham-burgers and sausages), their health (really big overblown tummies) and stuff like that and that's why all that matters to them is big cars which mostly turn out to be disastrous. Fortunately though the turmoil in the American automotive industry is forcing the burger land people to shift to smaller cars and the car companies too are finally learning pretty fast from the Europeans and Japs. Wanna know how? Chrysler recently tested some of its new models on the Nurburgring and then worked on improving the handling till the cars could lap the track in a respectable time. At least they learn to use testing for making cars.

Germany: The story began with a sketch by Hitler to make a people's car (The VW Beetle) and fortunately with time the story just got better. The Germans today are known for making some of the best cars in the world.

From luxury to performance, you name it and they make it and they don't just make it they also excel in it. Pick any German brand and they have a unique identity in the car-making business. Porsche have retained the same design for 911 since the time I wasn't even born but catch a glimpse of any 911 today and it still looks fresh and soothing to the eyes. Its a perfect car in every sense.

BMW offers the best of luxury saloons but it ain't no dud either when it comes to performance. Take the M3 out for a spin on a track and it will blow-away any Mustang or Viper. Audi showed it to the world with the R8 that supercars need not be excessively powerful or unpractical and that supercars can also be efficient. The only negative which can be said about German cars is that they seem to be so perfect and so mechanical and so complete that at times the fun-factor is missing but still no one in the world can beat Germans in terms of build-quality.

Italy: Like sex isn't comlete without a woman (I meant the normal people, not the mentally-ill ones) and a celebration isn't complete without champagne, motoring isn't complete without Italians. Ferrari, Lamborghini, Pagani, Alfa Romeo, Maserati, Fiat...the mere mention of these names sends one into a world of beauty, passion, perfection, refinement and all the good things in the world.

Italians don't just make or manufacture cars, they craft them and there is a world of difference between a product and an art masterpice . Like the Americans, Italians can make their cars go fast in a straight line but unlike them and quite surprisingly for Americans, Italian cars can turn by rotating the steering wheel without hitting a tree!!!, and that too at speeds which Americans find to be fast in straight lines. Unlike American cars they manage to look pretty too. Let me tell you how..To say that a Dodge Viper and a Chevrolet Corvette standing besides a Ferrari F430 and a Lamborghini Gallardo look better is like saying Venus Williams and Serena Williams look better than Scarlett Johansson and Keira Knightley when standing together. I know that looks are subjective but for those whose looks are sooooo subjective.. Well the governments in almost all countries these days provide free cataract check-up camps. Please visit one soon..



If someone finds the car in green to be better-looking then please do quickly what I have written just above the pictures.

Japan: The saviours of the people who can't afford European cars but still are not willing to compromise on safety, performance, handling, looks.

Japanese companies are quite good at making all-round packages and in fact they have also taught a lot to the entire automotive industry about the production techniques. Japanese cars are generally very light on your pocket as well as the environment. But that doesn't make them ugly like a Dodge Viper, or slow as a Ford Escort or technologically bland like the Corvette or a complete dead duck like a Hyundai.

Japanese cars have all the good things in just the right quantity. Reliability is a hallmark for them. By the time their neighbours' cars( Hyundai and Kia) have got their major engine parts changed more than twice and are going to or have landed into the junkyard the Japanese cars don't even require the clutch plates to be changed. The only area where the Japanese cars lack is that when you are driving an Italian, German or some European car, you can feel as if you are communicating with your car, as if the car has a heart and a soul of its own and Japanese cars lack just this bit but that still doesn't take away any credit from them for the commendable contributions they have made to the automotive industry.

Korea: Have you ever heard a saying- "Korean Efficiency"? Well I just made it and its absolutely false, rubbish and pointless so forget it and never use it unless you want to tell the world "Hey look, I am an ass".

The problem with Koreans is that they always try and make cars which have a little of everything good but unlike the Japs their cars turn out be a lot of everything bad. Reliability is a problem, spare costs is a problem, technology is a problem so what else is left then. I tried hard to find a major automotive invention done by the Koreans but failed to find one. In case anyone knows one please let me know about it. Performance wise......thinking.....thinking.....thinking.....still thinking.....forget it. No point in trying to think about something non-existent.

In the concluding stages of this article I would like to point it out that the reason why I have mostly made comparisons to American cars is because it annoys me that despite having the ability to make great cars they just don't want to and the industry is paying a price today for this callousness. I didn't make much comparisons to the Koreans because they just don't seem to have what it takes to make good cars, leave alone great cars. Expecting Koreans to make good cars is like expecting a failed art student to straightaway jump in the cockpit of a Stealth bomber and go and bomb Iraq and bring the plane back in one-piece. The day this happens, the Koreans would have made a car better than BMW and Audi and not just that. I will also go and buy myself a Korean car then.