I bought a TVS Apache RTR 160 (Black) 2 weeks back (Aug 5th 2009). The model I'm guessing is the Refresh version it's certainly not the FI version. The showroom guys weren't too sure themselves. :)

Now I haven't seem too many Black RTR's around though I feel out the of the 5 colors (White, Grey, Black Yellow & Red) that are available for this version Black is definitely the better of the 5. As far as looks are concerned this is not bad at all. I liked the over all look and feel of the bike. It is however slightly short for me as far as seating is concerned, since I am over 6ft tall. Not sure of the effects it will have on my back either in the long run. So far so good is all I can say. As far as performance of the bike is concerned it's too early to say anything. Though there are a few things that stand out right now.

Let me start with the pros :

1) The pick up is very good and effortlessly reaches 50kmph in no time.
2) Handling is very easy.
3) The bike is fairly lighter when compared with others in it's class.
4) The rear disk brake makes riding really easy and stress free.
5) Shocks are good and make the whole riding experience really pleasureable.


The cons :
1) I've noticed gear slips.
2) The digital fuel indicator gives different readings sometimes. Plus or minus 1 bar.
3) Kick starting the bike in the morning is an effort and it takes a minimum of 3 kicks to get the bike started. Electric start is not advisable durign a cold start.
4) Bike shuts down while in the middle of a ride. This has happened twice for me already.

Let's see maybe these are one off things as far as cons are concerned and shouldn't repeat in the future.
I did some research before buying the bike and narrowed it down to the Unicorn by Honda and the Apache RTR 160 by TVS. I went in for TVS after comparing the 2 and the performance of the TVS Apache RTR 160 is better than that of the Honda Unicorn, at least on paper. :)

Let me see how the performance of the bike is in the coming days and will keep updating as when I discover something new in it.