TVS Apache RR310 ARRC OMC Race Bike Ridden!

Gallery A series of unfortunate events The whole nine yards Second chances

A series of unfortunate events

My first lap on the TVS Apache RR310 ARRC OMC racebike was nothing short of disastrous. For the uninitiated, ARRC stands for Asia Road Racing Championship, while OMC denotes One Make Championship. The former is the race event, and the latter is the motorcycle category. As you can tell, this is a race bike; one I have never ridden before. And while it’s derived from the road-going RR 310, this bike is a far-cry from its production counterpart.

So, as I navigated Turn 7 at the Sepang International Circuit, I found myself tailing another rider too closely. Exiting the apex, I rolled on the throttle, but the rider ahead did not. With a potential collision looming, I faced a split-second decision: risk avoiding him and potentially take him down, or gently apply the front brake to create distance. I chose the latter. But the bite and power of the front brake were a lot more intense than what I was used to. And it felt like I squeezed the lever too hard.

So, the bike rewarded me by locking its front and tumbling into the gravel trap, shedding some of its broken bits and pieces along the way. I followed, sliding into the gravel, bringing an abrupt end to my riding session.

I spent the next 30 minutes behind the barrier watching fellow journalists lap the RR, glee shining through their clear visors. Thankfully, I’d get another go. But more on that later.

The whole nine yards

Let me get you up to speed with the bike. As I said, the race bike is based on the road-going RR 310. But, TVS seems to have thrown the kitchen sink at it to make it a capable, respectable, and quick (for its class) race bike. Now, it shares the same main frame as the stock RR. And the engine - at least in construction and capacity - is similar to the road bike as well. But, the rest is bespoke.

The engine, for instance, might still displace 312cc, but it runs titanium valves. It uses ram air intake (the reason for that gaping hole in the front) to get a denser charge into the cylinder. And, it runs a twin exhaust setup to move the spent gases out of the combustion chamber as quickly as possible. Better and quicker scavenging means significantly improved output figures.

And the results are astonishing! The race bike makes a staggering 60bhp, up from the stock bike’s 38bhp. That’s not all. The engine also runs more aggressive cams and a race ECU with customisable maps. The racer can work on the engine maps based on his riding style and circuit layout to get the best possible lap time.

Substantial effort has also been invested in enhancing the dynamics of the motorcycle. For starters, the focus on weight saving is huge. The race RR runs carbon fibre bodywork down to its seat and rear subframe. Furthermore, it runs lighter forged wheels, race-spec Dunlop slicks for tyres, and fully adjustable Ohlins suspension front and rear. The brakes - as I found out in my first session - are easily one of the sharpest, most powerful I have experienced on a mid-capacity motorcycle. The bike runs a 340mm disc at the front and a 240mm rotor at the rear with radially mounted callipers from J. Juan.

The bike, as a result, weighs under 130kg (wet). The stock RR310 for comparison is 174kg (kerb). The race bike also runs a slimmer rear tyre - a 140-section instead of 150 on the road bike. And here’s the kicker, at Chang International Circuit - the same one that sees MotoGP bikes going round and round - the TVS RR310 ARRC bike can hit a true speed of 216kmph! This is from what is still essentially a 312cc motorcycle.

Second chances

It’d been half an hour since I returned to the pits after my fall. And, in the time I made my excuses and doled out apologies to the TVS race team for damaging their bike, one of the race engineers had already fixed my bike. So, I seized my second chance as soon as the pit lane reopened. It had gotten dark, and we were riding under the lights at Sepang. It was surreal but not as easy as riding under the sun with shadows obscuring my vision and reference points. And to commit under the veil of uncertainty was proving to be difficult.

Thankfully, the RR310 race bike proved easier to ride than I had imagined. It is fast, no question. And it drops into corners quicker than most road bikes I have ridden. And, of course, it stops on a dime. Not surprisingly, I was running tighter lines than I would have liked and braking way too early. And given the lack of aggression in my road-biased throttle hand, I was not using all of the track at corner exits either.

Plus, I was making mistakes. Not silly ones like I did in my first session, but more around lines and speed. I found myself entering corners too hot, running wide, and leaning way more than I would like to get back on the right line. Yet, the race bike dealt with my amateurish riding without putting a foot wrong. And that’s what impressed me most. This bike, at my pace, was forgiving, smooth, and very entertaining.

It was also quite tiring. You see, the riding position was quite intense. And my lack of fitness prevented me from tucking under the front fairing properly on straights. Plus, constantly shifting from side to side, corner after corner, and then folding myself back into that demanding riding position drained me. And before I knew it, my session came to a close. I dismounted, gleaming; partly because of the humid weather and exhaustion but mostly because I’d had a wonderful time. The bike was fun, the circuit lovely, and even though I went down quite unceremoniously earlier, I hadn’t broken anything. What more could one ask for?