There is one thing that I’ve wanted to do ever since I’ve bought the bullet in July ‘09, that is the Leh/Ladakh trip. The stock bike that comes from the factory, though adequate, left me wanting for more. I’ve been Googling the mods that one can do on the Machismo 500. Now, more than 10 months later, I have a few mods that I’ve been able to get done and here is a summary of all.

Seating:
I’m a short guy. About 5.9 and the stock seat on the bullet, although, sufficient, left me uncomfortable. Especially on the signals when I have to put my foot, where I found myself doing a balancing act on my toes. So, not surprisingly, this was the first mod I tried. Mithun from HSR services told me to go to “Rao Seats” in Shivajinagar to get the best seats. A quick asking around people, and everybody told me to go to Rao. I got the split seats set from him and put on my bike right away. There was a world of a difference.

Never would I have ever thought that just an inch or two off the seat will make such a difference!! I could now place both my feet flat on the road when waiting for the signal to turn green. And whats more, I could put the stand of my bike without having to get down.

• Cost of two split seats: Rs. 1600/- INR.
• Ease of use: Amazing riding comfort and confidence.
• My Rating: 5 star

Action Shots:

Handle bar:
Next came the handle bar. Although the handle bar on Machismo is the best in trade (for its class of bikes), it was still a little stiff for me. A quick round go Googling again, lead me to this. I had seen Shiv riding with the RD bar when he did IBA and called him up. Picking his brains for a while and thats it, my mind was made up. I went to Thirumala Auto Accessories on JC Road and got the handle bar fit.

An hour later, I rode away from the shop with the gleaming new handlebar and another boost in my riding comfort,which also resulted in a more confident ride.

• Cost of RD Handlebar: Rs. 150/- INR
• Fitting charges: Rs. 150/- INR
• Ease of use: Amazing riding comfort and confidence.
• My Rating: 5 star!

Fog lights:
With the above two mods, my riding comfort and confidence skyrocketed. But there was still something that kept nagging at the back of my mind. I had done a few rides which involved riding in the night. And there was also that ride to Sringeri, where I encountered fog for the first time. The stock lights that come with Machismo 500 LB are just plain useless @ night. With them, you’re riding blind anyway.

Before the Sringeri ride, there was a wave of fog light installations that started in the group, but none of it grabed my attention. A little more googling led me to Hella site. I spoke to the sales manager in Delhi and Chennai. The product, although good, the cost was prohibitive. A set of 2 Hella MicroDe lights was a whopping 5.5k INR! So that option went down the drain as well.

Then, one day, I was just ogling at my Swift VXi and an idea hit me like a bolt out of the blue! A quick googling again, led me to Alok Kulkarni, who had put the fog lamps of a Scorpio on his bike and got his job done from the famous Anthony of Mumbai. With that settled, I ripped out the fogs from my car and headed over to Vijay’s garage. We had to do some work to get the clamps made as we did not get anything ready made. A day’s work and presto, the lights were installed. Wiring done and I was on cloud number 9!!

• Cost of Fog Lamps: Rs. 2100/- INR for a set of 2 (but free for me as I ripped them out of my car).
• Cost of Switches: Rs. 20/- INR
• Cost of Mounting clamp: Rs. 500/- INR.
• Cost of Wire: Rs. 15/- INR.
• Ease of use: Great visibility, and looks just plain awesome
• My Rating: 5 Star!

Action Shots:

12v Accessory Socket and Switches:
After the lights were added, I was still a bit unhappy. Primarily, because the positioning of the switches. The lights are mounted on my leg guard and the switches under them. Switching on/off meant I had to bent down and operate the switches one at a time, which leads to loss in concentration and for me personally, was a pain in the a$$.

Another thought that kept nagging me was a puncture kit. So I headed over to JC road and bought the spanner, tyre removing rods, patches, sand paper, vulcanizing fluid, valves and the valve key. The idea of carrying around the foot pump did not appeal to me, so I did not buy. Also, I knew that BB has a pump and he can carry it, I have the rest of the kit. Then, I found Slime’s Power Sport Tire Inflator. I’m still trying to buy this, but its not available in India. Meanwhile, a colleague of mine got Coido as a gift. I quickly borrowed it and tested with my car. Worked like a charm. Now how to get it to work with the bike, as there may not always be a car traveling with us.

The problem with Coido was that, unlike Slime, it came only with the 12v accessory socket plug. Again, I had seen one on Shiv’s bike, but it was a contraption and not safe to mount it under the seat. I went to JC road, bought one cheap socket, and been thinking ways of fitting it on the bike, to no avail. I would ideally, like to put it in the right toolbox compartment on my Mach 500LB, but the air filter was in it, so that ruled it out unless I put a conical KnN filter and removed the pancake filter to get the box.

Yesterday, when Vijay was servicing my bike, he had an idea and told me that I can run the bike on the Standard 350’s air filter, which will also give me access to the box to put the 12v accessory socket. What an idea sirji!! That’s it, I took Vijay’s bike (A lightning 535 and wow, what a bike!!) and got the spares from JC road.

With the newly acquired real estate, Vijay fit the socket in there and after some cajoling, he also put the switches to my fog lamps there. Wallah, my dream of getting a 12V Accessory Socket and a more intuitive positioning of the fog lamps switches was fulfilled.

• Cost of 12v Accessory Socket: Rs. 120/- INR.
• Cost of Switches for the lamps: Rs. 100/- INR.
• Cost of Wire: Rs. 32/- INR.
• Vijay’s ingenuity in fixing the switches – Priceless
• Ease of use: Placement of the switches now allows me to switch on/off at anytime without compromising anything
• My Rating: 10 star!!!

Action Shots:
12V Socket with lighter and switches:

12V Socket – Covered for rain protection:

Head light:
After all this, I still ran with the under powered stock headlight and decided to fix that once and for all. I bought the AutoPal dome and it comes with the p43t socket, unlike the stock p45t socket on the Mach 500 LB. Next, I bought the Phillips H4 Xtreme Power bulbs (a set of 2) and presto! A new world revealed. The light is really powerful, but not the white light, which is irritating.

• Cost of Phillips H4 extreme power – Rs. 1400/- INR for a set of two.
• Cost of AutoPal dome with p43t socket – Rs. 150 INR odd.