[ebonho]

Originally Posted by Insearch

I was actually hoping to share it in my first service, review post, and it would have formed the core of it. Anyway here goes...
I have not been given an owner's manual YET! ......... That is also the reason that I am keen to know my bike, rather than rely on the A.S.S.

In case I missed this at the very begining, welcome to the world of Royal Enfield. Where your mehanic becomes a privileged (and much sucked-up-to) member of your family, where all spares part shops within a 2000 km radius are on speed dial (and you still beam with a 2400 W smile when getting a 20 rupee part by courier that costs 100 rupees 2 months and 300 phone calls and folowups later), where the dealer's responsibility (and good humor) is a historical footnote once your cheque is cashed, and where the Internet and the community becomes your most valued (and more often than not, the only) resource.

[amolpol]

Originally Posted by ebonho

In case I missed this at the very begining, welcome to the world of Royal Enfield. Where your mehanic becomes a privileged (and much sucked-up-to) member of your family, where all spares part shops within a 2000 km radius are on speed dial (and you still beam with a 2400 W smile when getting a 20 rupee part by courier that costs 100 rupees 2 months and 300 phone calls and folowups later), where the dealer's responsibility (and good humor) is a historical footnote once your cheque is cashed, and where the Internet and the community becomes your most valued resource.

Well said my friend, the company acts as if they're only supposed to make those not so perfect yet admirable machines. It is upon the owner to adopt and adapt it to his/her liking. Maybe that's why there's been a strong sense of community between the enfield owners who are always around to help out a fellow rider.

[Insearch]

First Service and beyond:

I had been quite apprehensive to take the bike to the workshop because I met one of the mechanics in the showroom on the day I had taken the delivery. I had just refused to take delivery of a bike with a rusted silencer and this mechanic had insisted that there is nothing wrong and they will have it cleaned. Almost 2 lakhs being spent on a unit that is rusted in the first place, and the level of their sensitivity was scary. What would they do to my bike, when I handed it over to them and was not their as a mother to look after it?
So I had taken my time to prepare for the visit to the workshop. All the bikes including the new ones, were parked out in the open, with just a side fence to keep tresspassers at bay.

The workshop itself is a small area. The kind that you and me would open, if we had limited means. I have been to a Honda workshop, long back and had found it very well organised, from the tool sets to the people. Coming back to RE, I can understand the temperament of the mechanics, since the work place is very congested and the firm's attitude may not give them an opportunity to be proud or satisfied with what they do. Saw a mechanic arguing with one of the seniors and challenging him to take action/fire him. I will resist the temptation to go into more detail and just leave you with this photograph of the main entry.


The Supervisor and manager were kind and patient. All my complaints were duly noted down. Mainly, I had complained about the wobble that I experienced on turns. I had also complained that the right hand side rear view mirror was defective. As you can see in the snap below, it has a certain waviness in the reflection.


Both these complaints were not rectified to my satisfaction. They refused to replace the mirror and said there was nothing wrong with the alignment of the bike. While taking the delivery I noticed that the speedo had malfunctioned with the time format, hour digit, blinking as if it was in the reset mode. Three different mechanics tried to correct it, but in vain. The three switches, that are there to adjust the clock, trip meters and hazard lights were jammed and would not respond.
Eventually they noted this down and said that when spares arrive they will have it replaced it in warranty. So I left with a discomfort, hoping that the parts do arrive. Luckily, within 2 hours of leaving the workshop, the meter started functioning normally and responded to all the inputs from the switches.

Post the first service the bike makes less noises and responds to the throttle more evenly and goes to higher RPM in each gear, with less effort. Now that the workshop experience is behind me, I can mostly relax for the next 1000 odd remaining kilometres, before the cycle begins, again.
I am still enjoying the bike enough to live with the A.S.S. Time to move on to other things.

A Few other things:

The bike has a dipper/flasher on the left hand side switch panel. I do not know how many other models have this, but it is quite useful on 2 way roads, when oncoming cars decide to overtake slow moving trucks, and hog the road. Just for clarification, you need not have your headlight switched on for the dipper to work.


I like the shiny chrome on the side stand and think twice before using it, lest I soil it. Notice the appearance of rust on the chasis.


I was planning to install the charger today and had visited a couple of shops yesterday, to buy the requisite materials, could not find everything I needed and was planning to visit a place referred by a mechanic. But before I could depart, I was called on duty for some household chores and had to go shopping with the family. While the ladies shopped, I went into an electronics store and found a solution that I think is the best one. I bought a 6600 mAh external battery, which I can keep in the tank bag. It should be good enough to charge mobile, GPS, bluetooth, etc. twice over and hence be good for a long drive, where I may not be able to charge my gadgets for a day or two.


Now I have my erstwhile charger available for any one on the forum, who would like to use it, I do not plan to sell or keep it. Please let me know.

I have never in the past tried to get a specific number for my vehicles. This time I wanted to give the bike a special number (not a VIP number). And thought of what it could be. Then I remembered that my friend In Jalandhar(mentioned in earlier posts ), has a bullet that has 1313 as the number. For sikhs, this is a very special number because it has reference to an incident in Guru Nanak's life. It is said that he was sitting at his father's shop and dealing with customers. When he accounted for something as 13 , which means thirteen as well as yours in punjabi, he went into a trance and kept giving away everything in the shop for free, reciting, "Tera-Tera" (It is all yours). When his father was told about what was happening, he came to the shop and checked the cash. He found cash equivalent to the things given away.
So Tera-Tera for the registration.


And finally, coming to the average, which I had got wrong in an earlier post. I checked it twice:
Mostly driving outside town, without traffic lights: 34 KMPL
Mostly in town, with traffic lights : 31 KMPL

Give or take 5% margin for error, though I did go back to the same petrol pump both the times and topped up. Still there would be difference in the final drops of petrol that may have been pushed in or needed to be pushed in.

[Insearch]

Originally Posted by ebonho

In case I missed this at the very begining, welcome to the world of Royal Enfield. Where your mehanic becomes a privileged (and much sucked-up-to) member of your family, where all spares part shops within a 2000 km radius are on speed dial (and you still beam with a 2400 W smile when getting a 20 rupee part by courier that costs 100 rupees 2 months and 300 phone calls and folowups later), where the dealer's responsibility (and good humor) is a historical footnote once your cheque is cashed, and where the Internet and the community becomes your most valued (and more often than not, the only) resource.

Scary! Thanks for helping me get prepared. I hope I can still speak of my ownership with some passion, a couple of years down the line. I had bought the Linea T-Jet earlier, and two years later, I have two words for it: White Elephant! Hope this goes better.

Originally Posted by amolpol

Well said my friend, the company acts as if they're only supposed to make those not so perfect yet admirable machines. It is upon the owner to adopt and adapt it to his/her liking. Maybe that's why there's been a strong sense of community between the enfield owners who are always around to help out a fellow rider.

I have bet my money on the strong sense of community, so wish me luck gentlemen.

[soonya]

Dear InSearch

Like you mentioned to let you know if I meet your 'soul' person. Sincerely will try And I hope you would reciprocate!

In poorvashram, I restored, owned and gave it to a relative, when I thought I was getting too ole to take care of it, who without any feeling sold later (sob).

I have a metaphor for owning an RE bike and the Jap bikes. Owning an RE is like having a mistress, loads of fun, trophy-quotient, always demanding both your attention and money, and pandering to her brother (mechanic)- the Japs on the other hand are like the traditional housewife - forgiving, tolerating indifference and still serving faithfully. Lemme clarify, I am no sexist or an MCP!

I rather liked the reasoning behind the number! Hope you will not, like the divine being plan to give it away!

Best

[Insearch]

Originally Posted by soonya

Dear InSearch

Like you mentioned to let you know if I meet your 'soul' person. Sincerely will try And I hope you would reciprocate!


...I rather liked the reasoning behind the number! Hope you will not, like the divine being plan to give it away!

Best

Dear soonya, those are touching thoughts, I would like to keep a promise if I make one. So let me make a start by saying hello to you in person. I will also get the chance of knowing more about my bike from your experiences with your 1989 bullet.
Since you are in Hyderabad, let's meet up some time. Please PM me your contact, as I am not allowed to do so, being a Newbie.

Regarding the Number, my friend (in Punjab) wanted the same number for his new Thunderbird and applied to the RTO. As there were many more applicants, the number was auctioned. It sold for 47 thousand rupees. He did not get it, since he opted out after 20,000/- The beauty is that some people and cultures consider 13 to be an unlucky number (e.g. Jet Airways does not have row number 13 in any of it's aircraft), and here we have people vying for it.
And regarding the giving away part, that requires more courage than I can muster. Of course selling is a different thing altogether...

[soonya]

@ Insearch

Will try to send in a PM. Haven't used it yet, being a newbie till a while ago!

Will be my pleasure to meet up with you in person or speak to you on phone.

In any case, am yet not able to come over the Tera story! My nephew had a Safari with the same number, need to check with him how come he chose the number! Knew he was a rebel, but 13? In a world where everyone aspires to Mera a Tera is definitely a wonderful thing!

[urajkumar]

Very interesting start to the thread and I was hooked. You certainly live your life as your heart says and i am purely jealous. I owned the prev gen thunderbird & I confess it still irks me (as to why i sold it). I sold it only because i did not do justice to her. Reading your thread only made me think again. Lets see if the new Thunderbird thunders back into my life.

Cheers and safe riding!

[masin4]

Hey Insearch,

I had also given my bike to service at the same service station prior to my drive to Bangalore considering proximity to Gachibowli.
Echo your sentiments there had the same issues with them, no attention to detail,lopsided attitude to the work on hand.I had to spend close to 4 hours checking what they had done and getting the work redone.The folks were not happy to do the work since they were already running behind schedule on all the bikes and saw lot of owners loosing their cool with the folks at the agency.

[mobike008]

Offtopic Info :-

Being a newbie, you can neither receive nor send PM to any other member. This feature will be enabled as soon as you cross 25 posts.

[soonya]

Thanks mobike008, now I figure out why I could not send a PM.

Will wait for Insearch to get over the 'rites-de-passage'! I guess that should be sooner than later.

[Hells_Fury]

Originally Posted by Insearch

I bought a 6600 mAh external battery, which I can keep in the tank bag. It should be good enough to charge mobile, GPS, bluetooth, etc. twice over and hence be good for a long drive, where I may not be able to charge my gadgets for a day or two.

Hey Insearch, do you mind letting me know where you sourced the external battery pack from? I am on the lookout for something similar.

[Dry Ice]

Originally Posted by Insearch

A Few other things:
...
Attachment 1037268
Attachment 1037196

A little late to the party, nevertheless, Congrats for the T'Bird!

Seems like we chose to photograph the bike at the same place (assuming this is the road just ahead of the Wipro Circle)! Here's mine taken almost 2.5 years back.

Originally Posted by Hells_Fury

Hey Insearch, do you mind letting me know where you sourced the external battery pack from? I am on the lookout for something similar.

I think this is listed on flipkart too, Insearch can confirm if its the same model.
http://www.flipkart.com/cooler-maste...ooler%20master

[sam_b]

Originally Posted by Dry Ice

Here's mine taken almost 2.5 years back.

Hi Dry Ice,

What a stunning snap. Your Avenger looks 'extra long' in the snap, the bike version of the 'Caaar' perhaps. Good work by the photographer.

[Insearch]

Originally Posted by mobike008

Offtopic Info :-

Being a newbie, you can neither receive nor send PM to any other member. This feature will be enabled as soon as you cross 25 posts.

Thanks mobike008. I had wanted to also check with you if the offer for joining your group of riders is still open.

Originally Posted by soonya

@ Insearch

Will try to send in a PM. Haven't used it yet, being a newbie till a while ago!

Will be my pleasure to meet up with you in person or speak to you on phone.

In any case, am yet not able to come over the Tera story! My nephew had a Safari with the same number, need to check with him how come he chose the number! Knew he was a rebel, but 13? In a world where everyone aspires to Mera a Tera is definitely a wonderful thing!

Well, now that the PM part is clarified, I guess we just have to wait and thanks again. Do excuse me, I have been in people facing roles for so long that I typically surge at the opportunity...
Regarding the number, this is another example how beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder. You are able appreciate something, what many wish to avoid.

Originally Posted by masin4

Hey Insearch,

I had also given my bike to service at the same service station prior to my drive to Bangalore considering proximity to Gachibowli.
Echo your sentiments there had the same issues with them, no attention to detail,lopsided attitude to the work on hand.I had to spend close to 4 hours checking what they had done and getting the work redone.The folks were not happy to do the work since they were already running behind schedule on all the bikes and saw lot of owners loosing their cool with the folks at the agency.

Found a thread by bblost, which I think is the perfect answer. Try this link:
http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/motorb...-pictures.html
I plan to visit him this weekend, hopefully.

Originally Posted by Hells_Fury

Hey Insearch, do you mind letting me know where you sourced the external battery pack from? I am on the lookout for something similar.

You should get it at a shop that sells peripherals, like headphones, pen drives, etc. Many stores selling gadgets will also stock it. Best place would be to hunt in a mall. Also you can buy it online from a variety of websites. Do compare the prices though as also, buy as per your need. You may not need as much back up as I want, since I intend charging a GPS, Mobile and a bluetooth.

Originally Posted by Dry Ice

A little late to the party, nevertheless, Congrats for the T'Bird!

Seems like we chose to photograph the bike at the same place (assuming this is the road just ahead of the Wipro Circle)! Here's mine taken almost 2.5 years back.

I think this is listed on flipkart too, Insearch can confirm if its the same model.
http://www.flipkart.com/cooler-maste...ooler%20master

What a snap! Yes it is the same road, clearly it used to be less busy, back then. And you are right about the model. In fact there are many other types available on the same site, for example with a retractable cord, or ones that can charge three devices at the same time.