Wednesday, June 12, 2019

A Matte Black Dominar 2019 Comes Home

I had been contributing to various automobile forums in India, somewhat infrequently over the last few years. Recently, had a very bitter experience with team-bhp and one of its very arrogant admin, who goes by the handle gto. With posts getting deleted selectively, changing the narrative, and after receiving arrogant communication like "do not question the admin", I started wondering why the heck should I tolerate this nonsense, especially when I am generating content for their forum for free - by writing posts there. Gave it back in appropriate words, and decided not to contribute there anymore. 

Found xBHP to be much better, and lenient community in comparison. I still post there. But by and large, decided to try using my own blog going forward, as much as possible, to note down my long term ownership experience of the Dominar. So here goes.  

THE AVENGER 

Since returning from Spiti, last September, I had this overwhelming feeling that I had grown out of the Avenger. With all the mods I had done on the bike (the handle positioning, comfortable seat, hadlebar rod to hold mobile, charger for the mobile etc), the bike was supremely comfortable for both rider and pillion, and the bike effortlessly carried all the luggage we threw at it on long rides. 

In the ghat sections, the bike's power was more than adequate, and despite having a very long front fork, cornering on the bike, with all the luggage in place, wasn't exactly scary. It behaved very well around those corners. New tires were helping as well.  

Yet, when driving it on the plains, after getting down the loooong ghat from Manali, into Chandigarh, the 220cc, ~20bhp engine started feeling inadequate. The bike would do 80-90 without much trouble, but anything beyond that would strain the engine, resulting into vibes all over the handlebar. Irritating. 


Besides, having used to cruising at 130+kmph in the car, 80-90kmph started feeling very boring and mundane. 

NEW BIKE

So, since coming back, I started saving for a new bike - which one? That was yet to be decided. The KTM 390 Adventure that was rumoured to be released during 2018 EICMA, never did. And then what started with a Dominar as an alternative, quickly degenerated into a salivating pursuit of a "sports tourer" - from RR 310 to the world of parallel twins - Ninja 300, Ninja 400, R3 and even Ninja 650. I had even finalized R3 after taking a test-ride and figuring out the economical running maintenance costs of the bike. I knew at the back of my mind all the time that the aggressive posture these bikes demand (ofcourse vis-a-vis an avenger), would make them more of a "sports" bike and less of a "tourer". Yet, childhood memories of doing oohs and aahs oggling at a fully faired sports-bike, kept pushing me towards it. 

Thankfully, around the same time, the 2019 Dominar started making an appearance in prototype reviews. And my biggest concern - that of vibes in the 'touring' RPM range of 4000-6000 - owing to an SOHC engine setup - was taken care of by introducing a DOHC engine. There was still this fly in the ointment that the compression ratio was increased to 12+ - on the lines of the Duke - meaning possible addition to vibes and excessive heat generation. I would have preferred it being decreased, and addition of more torque low down instead. But that wasn't to be. 

Anyway, the reviews that were coming in were very encouraging. I let the better sense prevail, and dropped the idea of booking an R3, that would cost almost 4.3L on road in Bangalore, and instead decided to book an equally powerful, though single cylinder, Dominar 2019. I went to Khivraj Bajaj on Kasturba road in Bangalore, and put down a booking deposit couple days after pre-orders officially opened. The prices were declared almost a month later, in April. 

The folks at Khivraj Bajaj were quite professional in their handling of a customer. While they didn't allow me to take insurance from outside, they allowed me to choose a bike out of 4-5 bikes after a detailed inspection, and gave me delivery on the day I wanted - 7th May 2019 - on the occasion of AkshayTrutiya - अक्षय्य तृतीया - one of the very auspicious days (muhurta) as per Hindu calendar. 

Just out of delivery bay. 7-May-2019

The Dominar 2019 - Finally comes home, after a long 6 months of wait.