[ventoman]

Originally Posted by J.Ravi

I was successful in kick-starting my son's RE Classic 500 Black three out of ten times!

Thanks Ravi.
Probably inspired by your post, I have been successful in kick-starting both yesterday and today.

[apachelongbow]

I too got my Thunderbird 500 about 20 days back, have finished the first servicing and the odo stands at 830kms so far. Some salient points about the bike, as per me.

* Feels like the best bullet yet, in terms of ridability. Seat/handlebar/footpeg position spot on. Very less fatigue on long rides.
* Beautiful fueling, spot on acceleration, lack of flat spots. Enough bottom end grunt to go chugging right from 1000rpm idle to 4k rpm in each gear. Nice induction kind of roar on hard acceleration, doesnt feel like a chugging bullet engine
* nicely put together bike. No squeaks, rattles or loose bits. All parts meshed nicely and working solidly like one unit
* Workable mirrors with a wide vision view, very important during highway rides
* beautifully put together dash, very informative with two trip meters and nice blue backlighting. Excellent corona ring kind of headlamp, using it as a DRL promotes excellent visibility on single laned roads. Excellent halogen projector headlamps. Both highbeam and low beam have good throw and spread. Since it operates directly off the battery, so car like constant beam.
* very good performance, gets to 120 in no time. Can cruise all day between 90-110kmph. Eats up highway miles easily. Outstanding economy for this performance. I am getting about 35kmpl, keeps me happy on longer rides.
* super suspension. Gas charged rear ends are firm enough to prevent wallowing at the same time pliant enough to absorb bumps and not transmit it to the rider.

Some not so nice bits
* Longer cd100 kind of silencer. A conical unit like the avenger would more suit the cruiser look. Not an issue though, can be changed for something more asthetic later.
* Lack of space for pillion + luggage. Yes the pillion seat is removable, however beats the purpose of two up long distance cruising.
* Fuel pipe from tank to EFI should have been more secure, its currently held by clamps, which can get loose spraying fuel, or can be tampered to drain fuel. A metal pipe would be the best option


So overall it seems to be an excellent bike this time around from RE.

[ventoman]

Originally Posted by apachelongbow

I too got my Thunderbird 500 about 20 days back, have finished the first servicing and the odo stands at 830kms so far. Some salient points about the bike, as per me...

Congratulations and wish you very many happy miles crunching on your TBTS 500. I guess most of us in TBHP are doing the right thing by clocking first 500kms asap to unleash the real power of this beast.
I touched 110 for a brief while yesterday and it was such a pleasant feeling - A lone bullet piercing through dusk at 110 kmph..wanting to ride longer, but alas reached the destination!

[Ragul]

Congratulations!

In the first post you said headlights were out of focus, then many posts later you praise the headlights. there is no adjustment screw. So how did you focus/fix them?

Edit: oh ok, two posts from two different members. Now why the difference in opinion?

--R

[sam_b]

Originally Posted by Ragul

Edit: oh ok, two posts from two different members. Now why the difference in opinion?--R

Hi Ragul. As i understand, Ventoman commented on the misalignment of the beams in his TB while Apachelongbow opined on the quality of the beam. The projector lamps are a real boon at night as they throw good illumination on the road. Alignment of the beams is something that may differ from bike to bike as these also involve manual adjustment to some degree. Cheers!

[apachelongbow]

Correct....my headlight beam is perfectly aligned right out of the box where in ventoman's was not. Speaks volumes of RE PDI ..

[ventoman]

Originally Posted by Ragul

Edit: oh ok, two posts from two different members. Now why the difference in opinion?

Originally Posted by sam_b

Hi Ragul. As i understand, Ventoman commented on the misalignment of the beams in his TB while Apachelongbow opined on the quality of the beam. The projector lamps are a real boon at night as they throw good illumination on the road. Alignment of the beams is something that may differ from bike to bike as these also involve manual adjustment to some degree. Cheers!

Originally Posted by apachelongbow

Correct....my headlight beam is perfectly aligned right out of the box where in ventoman's was not. Speaks volumes of RE PDI ..

Exactly. Mine was out of focus and fixed as part of 1st service. It is perfect now and quite powerful for a 2 wheeler.

Originally Posted by sam_b

..

Mate,
How is your bullet doing? Finished your 1st service? When are you going to unleash him in this forum?

[govigov]

Congrats, ventoman and apachelongbow, how tall are you?

good review so far ventoman.

I am thinking about this bike and reading about this. I am about five foot and eleven inches tall and hefty, and all other bike feels puny to me.

[ventoman]

Originally Posted by govigov

Congrats, ventoman and apachelongbow, how tall are you?

good review so far ventoman.

I am thinking about this bike and reading about this. I am about five foot and eleven inches tall and hefty, and all other bike feels puny to me.

govigov,
I'm 5ft 11.5" and TBTS 500 is extremely comfortable for me. Please do visit nearby RE showroom and test drive both TBTS & Classic before deciding which one to go for.

[sam_b]

Originally Posted by ventoman

Mate,
How is your bullet doing? Finished your 1st service? When are you going to unleash him in this forum?

Thanks mate, it's doing just great. Finished the 1st service and finally managed to write a report too, which should be out of the assembly line soon

[ventoman]

My TB has done about 800kms so far and some of the issues highlighted earlier had been corrected.

Originally Posted by ventoman

Cons (Expecting most of these to be corrected on 1st service)

• RE QC

  • Handle bars and front wheel had to be tightened the next day, due to lot of wobbling haunting me with memoirs of old bull.
  • Rust in oil level indicator connector.
  • Headlights are out of focus
  • LHS cover is slightly loose

• Rear brake effect could hardly be felt
• Kicker is quite hard. Have managed to kick start only thrice so far.
• Fuel indicator is highly erroneous. After filling 7 liters of petrol on reserve capacity (4 litres), it shows 4 bars (half tank), then 2 bars, then one bar and then back to 4 bars etc - all on level surface!
• Slight squeak from front seat.
• Slight squeak from clutch cable when releasing
• RVMs are slightly delicate and their positions can be easily disturbed with a gentle touch (unlike any other RE component)

1) Front wheel wobbling -Minor wobbling at 40-50 speed when on single and a major impact when on doubles. Took the bull to RE again and they confirmed that the front tyre is defective. They are going to issue me a letter to collect a replacement tyre from MRF.
2) Headlights are now proper and very good for a 2 wheeler
3) Rear brake is quite effective and bull was well planted on couple of sudden brakes at 60+
4) I have been able to kick start the bull regularly
5) Fuel indicator is now proper. However there seems to be a sound coming from the fuel sensor touching the inner tank wall when accelerating. It seems that service centre folks have already raised this with RE and are awaiting an update/fix from them.
6) Seats are now proper. Need to get that long pending seat cover.
7) RVMs have been tightened in 1st service and they are now firm. I just love the wide angle view they offer.

Queries to other owners -
1) What is the tyre pressure you are maintaining. I'm sticking on to 22/32 recommended in the manual and finding it to be a bit "soft".
2) Any recommendations for a saddle bag that can carry a 15.6" laptop?

[ventoman]

Exactly one month from the purchase date, my retro bull touched 1000 kms today.

As seen on the picture, service notification started re-appearing since yesterday, although 1st service was completed few days back. I presume that service centre guys didn't reset the ECU post first service. I'll be getting it corrected tomorrow morning.

[rajneeesh]

Congrats Ventoman,
I have not been very active on the forum for the last few days so missed your report.

I too have been experiencing some funny behavior with respect to the fuel guage. It goes from three bars to a blinking bar and then 1 bar> Moreover the service due reminder starts blinking every 500 KM.

[ventoman]

Hi All,

Apologies for not keeping this thread alive for quite some time.

Exactly one month (Mar'13) after I got the bike, I had to go overseas and came back only end of last month.
So I not only missed driving my bullet; but also the regular 2 & 3rd service that are to be done at 3 & 6 months. So made it up by going for an earlier 4th & last service and now the bullet is super duper. Even the odd sound of fuel sensor touching the inner tank wall is completely gone.
Also, I had disconnected just the battery terminal points during these 6 months. It started in a single electric crank after putting them together.

Now driving the bullet as much as I can to make up for the lost mileage.

[ventoman]

Took the bullet to Mysore for the weekend. This is my first long drive on a 2 wheeler after nearly 13 years. The drive was splendid and bullet was composed throughout, offering power and pickup whenever required. Touched top speed of 130+ and overall trip returned a healthy FE of around 33 kmpl.
Onward was a night drive during when I felt that the headlights were not powerful enough in highways although it's sufficient within city. So, thinking of mounting additional (35w) LED fog lights on crash bar. Apparantly they are available for Rs.850 at Sandya Motors, JC Road.

Could anyone else please share their experiences with such similar additional lights?

PS: Odo now reads 2500 kms and I'm still making up for the lost 6 months!