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Benelli TNT135 Owner's Mini Review

Mikahl — Wed, 28 Feb 2018 12:21:01 +0800

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BENELLI TNT135 User Mini Review
28 Feb 2018

INTRO
This is my review of my BENELLI TNT135 which I purchased (new) in March 2017. As of now, it has rolled over almost 11,000km of asphalt and I think it's a good time to do a 1-year-of-ownership review. My review notes are about the bike that I own and drive, it is NOT a reference to all other TNT135s in the market today. I'm not commercially affiliated to any party in the motor industry; my views are my own as a private owner and user of this product. I’ll try to keep this review short and sweet as possible and hopefully don’t miss out any salient points.

I'm not going to beat around the bush, the TNT135 is not a practical day-to-day bike for a few reasons: it's not the cheapest in its category of engine size, it does not have storage room, it's gearing is not automatic so you'd have to pull on the clutch to allow for a gear pedal shift, it does not protect your feet from water splashes off the front wheels, it does not have many options for upgrades and many of its parts are proprietary.

It is however, a rarer breed, and it competes directly with only two other bikes within this niche category in Malaysia, Honda's MSX125 'Grom' and Kawasaki's Z125 Pro. Fun bike, monkey bike, pocket bike, mini bike, small bike... people refer to this category of bike by many names. It was my interest in this category of bikes that had me dive into the biking world. For whatever reason, I liked the looks these mini bikes, so my choices narrowed down to these three that are commonly available in Malaysia. After some shopping around and comparison, I picked the TNT135. It's a cute looking small machine on two wheels that I just had to buy, just for the fun of it. I’ve never owned a bike prior, and I didn't even have a bike license either, but this was a good enough excuse to go get myself one now. The license process is another story of its own.

THE REVIEW
Instead of jumping all over the place confusing myself and those reading it in the process, I think I'll just keep it simple by running thru the components of the bike from front to back, top to bottom.

Headlamps & High Beam
White LED - nice to look at, NOT nice to look with. It's ok for normal conditions, but don't expect to see too well on badly lit road at night in the rain. Beam coverage not as far and wide as I'd like it to be either. High beam is too high and too narrow. The height of the beam is easily adjustable by turning a knob just behind the lamp on the bottom right side. However, any adjustment will affect both headlamp and high beam together; sadly they are not individually adjustable.

LED Front Turn Signal
Very nice and bright.

Rear-view Mirrors
As always, the stock mirrors are as good as they get. Glass quality is good, stalk is thick and rigid. I changed it to those fancy race mirrors once, then switched back to the stock mirrors after a week, stock is still the best option if you intend to use the mirror as a mirror. As a new rider, mirror is very important for me.

Instrument Panel (Speedometer)
Digital display is easy to read in both day and night, and well situated on far front of the bike. Fuel gauge is fairly accurate and stable.

Throttle, Grip and Handlebar
Standard is good, no need to change. Bar-ends have pretty heavy weights inside to dampen some vibration. Forget bar end mirrors, they won't fit in well as the inner side of the bar is threaded. The raised handlebar makes riding more upright and comfortable, with more clearance for the knee when turned. Vibration is apparent (but not overwhelming) above 100kmh.

Clutch & Front Brake Levers
I hate stock levers, so I replaced them with Benelli's aftermarket bling-bling levers which were upward folding (wow!). The verdict - lousy; because they were not gap-adjustable and had to be pulled in almost fully to engage. It also had too many sharp edges, so if you were not wearing gloves, the edges can bite into the fingers. I should note that the clutch itself was not light to pull (compared to some bikes which have clutch assist). Anyway, I since replaced them with the cheapo aluminium adjustable levers from China and these, in my opinion, are the best.

Handlebar Controls (the Switches)
This is one annoying part. They have loose internal cabling issues on both the left and right sides. The wiring connections inside the controls were somewhat loose, so the headlamps won't function well after rain; presumably water got in and disrupted the connection, because when it dries up, it works well again. On the right side, the emergency cut-off switch doesn't switch on and off properly at times, meaning if you are riding halfway and it switches off, the bike will stall instantly. Had to have the mechanic open up the controls and re-solder the connections on both sides and that fixed the problem so far.

Front Suspension
Upside-down fork works well, travel and rebound are good.

Front Brakes
Not the best, but not the worst braking, acceptable for its size and limited speed potential. Brake pads are still good.

Cable Management
The cables are well tucked in, nothing dangling out of nowhere but I had a friend complain his brake cable was popping out from the rear of the headlamps when he turns. Apparently, his TNT135 was missing one cable retainer on the inside behind the headlamp.

Fuel Tank and Consumption
No issues with the physical fuel tank or fuel supply. I heard that an earlier batch had some fuel pump issues but nothing on mine so far. Fuel consumption: can easily achieve 40+km per litre.

Engine, Filters, Battery & Maintenance
1 litre of engine oil is sufficient per change. Depending on what brand and type of oil used, cost for standard oil and filter change is usually around RM 60-70. I serviced mine at 1k, 3k, 6k and 9k km so far, switching from Bel-Ray to PJ1, Elf and Castrol. No noticeable difference between these oils. I change the oil filter once for every two oil changes, and I run on either semi or fully synthetic oils only. Haven't had the need to change the air and fuel filter yet, so far no issues with them.

Gear Shift Pedal
This one, has an inherent problem. Once, I was riding on the fast lane approaching a turn, wanted to shift down but only to find out that the shift pedal was not where it was supposed to be. Its retaining bolt had dropped off, and the pedal was left dangling loosely so I couldn't shift at all. Had to pull aside, stop, and eventually managed to drive the bike back in one gear all the way. And mine is not the first case I've heard about. Maybe the vibration generated onto the body plus the lack of thread-locking glue, but generally, many screws and bolts on this bike is not as tightly locked in as it should've been. I’ll elaborate later.

Also, if the shift pedal is not well lubricated, the lever may not spring back into its centre position, meaning... can't shift up and down easily, problem gets more apparent after the bike heats up. If you own this bike, make sure you inspect the pedal’s free movement regularly.

Other than these hiccups, shifting is easy; gear change is light and not clunky. Getting the bike into neutral needs some practice though, as is the case with most bikes. It would be nice if there was a gear indicator on the instrument panel but there isn't. Because there are 5 gears on this bike, it's sometimes hard to feel which gear I'm in as their ratios are not too far apart, e.g. 3rd may feel like a 4th, and 4th may feel like a 5th or 3rd, etc.

Foot Pegs, Kickstand
Foot pegs are well positioned for a comfortable upright-neutral stance. The kickstand is well extended (outwards) and has a wider-than-normal base plate. Again, hinges need to be lubricated regularly.

Muffler and Tailpipe
I don't intend to change the setup. The sound is pretty good for a single-cylinder small cc bike, not pingy and not irritatingly noisy. If you don't look at the bottom where the huge ugly black muffler sits, everything's just fine.

Seating and Under-seat Storage
The seating is surprisingly comfortable, even on long rides. I don't carry pillion so I can't comment on the rear, but it is a tad small by design. As for under-seat storage, forget it. It's a naked bike by genre, there's not really any real estate below the seat except some crevice for a small screwdriver and a road tax card.

Rear Suspension
Soft when it arrived, had to adjust the sag setting to suit my weight (72kg). Damping on the shock is ok, travel is sufficient.

Tailamp and Rear Turn Signal
LEDs, nice and bright. Turn signal is embedded and not protruding out from the side, it's neater this way and easier to clean.

Rear Splashguard
May still get some backsplash from puddles, but prefer this to the standard tail fender anytime. No issues with rear number plate lamp.

Rear Brakes
Nice ornament. Mostly use front and engine-braking. There is an annoying low-screech sometimes though, but it doesn't bother me since l hardly apply rear brakes except during steep descent or emergency braking.

Rims, Tyres & Valves
At 10,000km, rear was due for change. Front was still ok. The stock tyres are Metzeler 7teens, which are descent in wet and dry. I changed the rear recently to Michelin City Grip for RM200, read some reviews and it’s supposed to be pretty good.

Rims are black, with some white chip marks here and there maybe caused by pebbles on the road, no big deal for me. Are they easy to clean? I don’t have tiny hands so thank god they are black in colour.

The original angled rubber tyre valves cracked at their base on both wheels, like as if they were brittle due to age. Basically, they were rubbish valves, and I had them replaced with steel angled valves for RM10 each.

Overall Body Works
There’s a minor crack on the front wheel fender of which I have no idea where that came from. Otherwise, the plastic cladding is pretty solid. I ripped all the body decals off the day my bike arrived so I can't comment on those.

One MAJOR ISSUE: Loose Screws/Bolts. This bike has lots of bolts and screws all over the body, and many are NOT securely fastened, or may get loose easily. I've lost about 5 pieces already, and the latest missing bolt I discovered yesterday belongs to the cable retainer for the front wheel speedometer cable. It locks into the front fender and holds the cable in place. Now I've to use zip ties to keep the cable in place until I get a replacement. If you plan to own this bike, make sure you buy a tube of thread-lock like Loctite and keep it handy, along with some spare bolts just in case.

Add-Ons
1. Aftermarket aluminium brake & clutch levers
2. Water bottle strapped to the frame

Removed
1. Body decals
2. Yellow side reflectors

DRIVING EXPERIENCE
I still own this bike, and still ride it almost daily. It's still a lot of fun for short distance commute. The bike's short wheelbase and small wheels renders it very agile, but on this same note, potholes can feel really big if you don't avoid them. The furthest I’ve driven the bike was from KL to Genting Highlands, via Ulu Yam. Don’t expect it to fly up and down though; it’s just a 135cc bike. It will handle long journeys comfortably at a 70-90kmh kinda pace.

In terms of fit and body position, its ergonomics are surprisingly good even for someone my height (178cm). It rides in a fairly neutral position so there's no need for any awkward bending of sorts. I had to learn how to ride with manual transmission after purchasing this bike, and I think its size and weight made the task a lot easier compared to a full scale naked.

Starting up the bike is instantaneous. The battery and starter are as good as they get. Throttle to engine response is also good, and the bike can rev up pretty quickly and acceleration is good, owing partly to the small wheel diameter. There is a rev limiter that protects the engine and it won't allow the rev to jump pass 10k rpm.

The bike's top speed is around 115kmh because on 5th, the rev is almost touching 10,000rpm, and the rev limiter will kick in. Realistically, on a flat road, the bike does up to around 100kmh comfortably. I typically shift my gears between 4,000-7,000rpm without any problems so far. As far as engine vibration goes, it can be felt on the handlebars and body at speeds over 100kmh as earlier mentioned, but it’s not major. A good pair of gloves will solve the problem.

OWNERSHIP EXPERIENCE
Relatively cheap to maintain, not really worried about parts as just about anything that needs to be replaced can be easily obtained from M-force at Segambut or Penang (HQ). For everything else, there's Taobao. Just type 'BJ125-3E' in the search box, and you'll see a host of parts available for this bike. Over the past year, I've had many strangers approach me to ask about the bike, i.e. the make, cc, price, speed.... In contrast, no one has ever approached me about my MT-07. It’s just an appealing little machine on two wheels, albeit a bit funny when I ride it since I’m kinda tall for a small bike.

CONCLUSION
If I could only own ONE bike and had heavy reliance on it for my daily commute, I’d really have to give the TNT135 a miss. But I have other forms of owned transport, and this bike serves more of a hobby bike for me. To date, I’ve no regrets parting with my hard-earned RM8,500 for this little thingy, even though there were some minor setbacks mentioned above. I mean it when I said this bike is a ton of fun, it has been so far, and I’m pretty sure it will remain so for a while to come

Malaysians: Work Hard or Work Smart? Who are we?

Mikahl — Sat, 12 Aug 2017 01:52:48 +0800

I was just speaking to a friend who works in a Korean-based finance company. He says the Koreans are a really crazy hard working bunch, plus, they are intelligent, which leads me to ask him: what about us Malaysians? Are we hard workers, or smart workers, or neither?

Are we competitive, innovative, able and willing as Globalisation engulfs us? Can we, or our generations to come, survive and prosper as global competition and demands increase?

We are all individually exposed to a multitude of nationalities and characters whether in school, at work, at leisure. Anyone care to share their views on where Malaysians stand in contrast to our global neighbours in the context of the Malaysian character and attitude?

View posts in reverse order

Mikahl — Mon, 29 May 2017 17:23:50 +0800

Anyone knows how i can set posts in order of 'last post on top'? Can't seem to find this info on search button. Thanks.

Budget Bluetooth headset for motorcycle helmet

Mikahl — Sat, 15 Apr 2017 12:31:45 +0800

Looking for Bluetooth headset (fullface helmet). Saw many recommendations on the web for Sena brand but very expensive. I just need for receiving phone calls. Any suggestions on which model and where to buy? Budget around RM 200 if possible. Tq

DIY PUSPAKOM Vehicle Inspection for Interchange

Mikahl — Tue, 21 Mar 2017 14:30:51 +0800

DIY PUSPAKOM Vehicle Inspection for Interchange (swap new number onto old vehicle, old number onto new vehicle) 2017

I’m buying a new bike, and a new plate. I want to exchange my new plate with my old car, vice versa. This process is defined by JPJ as PERTUKARAN/PEMINDAAN NOMBOR PENDAFTARAN a.k.a. ‘INTERCHANGE’. If you understand the process, it is fairly easy to DIY; but you’ll need some free time on your hands.

The entire INTERCHANGE process:
A. Buy new vehicle registration number (JPJ).
B. Carry out Vehicle Inspection (PUSPAKOM).
C. Submit for number plate change (JPJ).
D. Slap the relevant number plates and new road tax discs onto the respective vehicles.
E. Update Insurance Policy to reflect change in vehicle registration number.

IMPORTANT! WHAT I’M SHARING HERE:
*This post is to share PROCESS-B ONLY: PUSPAKOM INSPECTION (DIY)
*This process falls under the category of ‘Special Inspection’.
*REQUIRED: Original VEHICLE REGISTRATION CARD/GRANT of the vehicle being inspected, and RM53 (vehicle dependent).
*This is based on my experience on 20 March 2017 at PUSPAKOM BATU CAVES (Jalan SBC 9, Taman Sri Batu Caves). Other inspection centres may have a different setup. I did not see any lorries here, only cars and motorcycles.

THE VEHICLE INSPECTION @ PUSPAKOM BATU CAVES

1. Do phone booking at 03-5101 7000 few days in advance. Select place and time (based on availability). You will be given a Booking Number that is 15 characters long for whatever reason (I eventually didn’t even get to use it).

2. On the day of appointment, drive your vehicle to PUSPAKOM, stop near the GUARD HOUSE (at the front gate).

3. Walk to the GUARD HOUSE, pass the guard your Grant and say: “interchange, ada booking”. He will look at your Grant and return it with an ‘Inspection Form’ that has a checklist at the back.

Before walking back to your car, ask which line to queue (there are 2 lines where I was) then go and park behind the designated queue (I went half hour earlier and still had to queue with 15 cars ahead of me)

4. Fill up the Inspection Form (name, NRIC, vehicle number and phone number). The form has an inspection checklist at back (for inspector to fill).

5. Crawl with the queue (with around 15 cars in front of me which started to move as they reopened at 2.00pm, I reached the Inspection Bay only at 3.30pm, that’s about 6 mins per car. And there were dual queue lanes).

6. Upon driving into the inspection complex, follow inspector’s directions on where to park or just follow the herd as they inspect in batches of 4 or 5.

7. Stop where you are told to, turn off the engine, OPEN THE BONNET, and alight from your car.

8. Quickly go look for ‘KAUNTER BAYARAN’ to Register: submit Inspection Form, Grant and pay required amount (mine was RM53 – Pickup Truck category).

9. Take back Grant, Inspection Form, and Receipt.

10. Walk back to your car and place the Inspection Form and Receipt Copy on your car dashboard for inspector use.

11. Wait nearby, don't disappear as the inspector may want to ask you some questions regarding your vehicle.

12. Once complete (mine took 15 mins), the inspector will ask you to bugger off. You drive out of the bay and park at the visitor parking bay or anywhere along the road outside.

13. Walk back into the complex and look for the 'KEPUTUSAN PEMERIKSAAN' waiting room, go and wait until they call your registration number.

14. Take your RESULT SHEET, and before jumping up and down like a monkey, look out for the ‘LULUS’ word first, then check all your particulars. If all is OK, sign out on the record book they have lying around somewhere in the room.

15. DONE!. Now you can jump up and down like a monkey!

TOTAL TIME TAKEN: 20 mins early, 1.5 hours in moving queue, 3 mins to Register & Pay, 15 mins for Inspection, 10 mins for Results. Arrived at venue at 1.40pm, left at around 4.00pm.

TOTAL COST: RM 53.00 (Inspection and Processing Fees), RM2.20 for vending machine Nescafe while waiting.

WHAT I GET BACK: One piece of paper in a letterhead with a few signatures with the word LULUS in bold, and this is essentially the GREEN LIGHT to go ahead to swap the plates.

Sounds exhausting? Not really. Just need some patience and a good plan: some mobile phone games and some snacks in hand. Cold drink can buy at vending machine. Toilet and water cooler available at site 

Some final notes
I read in some forums about PUSPAKOM being very strict with TINTING. My answer is: YES THEY STILL ARE! Luckily I removed my front tint before I went for inspection because they only allowed 30% (this part most will FAIL). Front windows can go up to 50%, while rear windows and rear screen can go up to 70% (I think). My wheels are negative offset, but I had extended mudguards so they passed it. K&N drop-in filter no issues. My truck front lifted about 2 inches (aftermarket coil spring). I told the inspector, he looked at it and said No Problem. No other mods besides these.

DISCLAIMER: This was the process I went through, and should only be used as an unofficial reference for you. Processes may vary from time to time, centre to centre, so please don’t treat this piece of information as a ‘be it and end all’ basis.

LINKS
JPJ Interchange Process
http://www.jpj.gov.my/web/eng/procedures-f...stration-number

PUSPAKOM Special Inspection Process
http://www.puspakom.com.my/en/inspections-...inspection.html

The above links are active as at 21 March 2017

New biker: Advice appreciated

Mikahl — Sun, 26 Feb 2017 23:09:32 +0800

Hi sifus/otais,

I'm considering learning how to ride. Can anyone share some info with me on these 2 things:

1. LICENSE: I saw thread advising to go for Full B instead of B2. Which is a good riding school around KL/PJ?

2. RIDING/SAFETY GEAR: Which brand helmet, jacket, gloves to buy and from where (shop or online)? I'm concerned with safety and don't mind pay a bit more for good gear so long as not killer price la... midrange pricing preferred.

Thx

[WTS] SOLD! Sevylor Fish Hunter inflatable boat

Mikahl — Fri, 05 Dec 2014 14:42:18 +0800

Item(s): SEVYLOR Fish Hunter HF360 Inflatable Boat (6 person).

Description: Specially-designed for comfortable, organized hunting and fishing
• Handles and grabline for easy carrying in and out of the water and over shallow areas
• Swivel oar locks for easier rowing
• Chafing pads for a more comfortable ride
• Two fishing rod holders and two inflatable seats to sit back and relax
• Two tunnel chambers for lateral stability
• Drain plugs
• Gear bag and motor battery pouch
• Six-person capacity, or up to 1200 lbs.
• Inflated dimensions: 12 ft x 5.5 ft (approx)

Bundled with: (NEW) SEVYLOR aluminum paddles (2 pcs.), COLEMAN bellows foot pump.

Price: SOLD, THANK YOU.

Warranty: Nil (can test inflate before purchase, i have foot pump )

Dealing method: Self-collect, or can deliver if nearby.

Location: Desa Sri Hartamas, KL

Contact method/details: PM please; serious buyers only, tq.
---

Item(s) conditions: 9/10 (2 years old, used once, kept in plastic box)

Actual product photos below:

Reason for sale: Boat needs new owner who can put it to better use.