Having been on the roads in India I'd never go over 50 more because the traffic wouldn't allow any real speed.. Lots of dirt roads outside the cities makes that a bad idea too. I will be on a much better than average indian budget thankfully. I have heard about the recommended replacements. Mostly tightening the valves and checking and replacing a number of the seals. Checking the brakes makes sense too. I used to do a bit more on my cars before they added computerized sensors and hard for a person to work on their own cars. A bike that is good but can be worked on when it acts up is fine with me. To alot of Indians its a "power" bike. Its seen as a must for the folk who live out in the country. It'd also be a enfield or crotch rocket or a scooter. I'll end up using side streets going at my own pace pretty much. I'll have a driver for work.

Dangerdean: except for the train station I think you hit the spots I was steered away from. The thing I really like is all the shops and businesses are very similar to the way shops in London and the rest of the UK is. (Which makes sense) Book stores all over the place and pretty much everyone speaks english or wants to practice their english. Most of the signs are in tamil and english, I think its easier to find engish book shops than it is to find ones in tamil. I hope to improve my tamil but its hard when everyone wants to speak in english.