This evening, my Blue Bird had 11.37 litres of petrol costing 66.85/litre at Woodlands Enterprises, Chennai 600004 upto the brim of the tank for a distance of 376 km, recording a fuel efficiency of 33.1 kmpl for the highway riding, the best recorded so far.

[Insearch]

Dear Ravi jee, I am giving you below the shots of my friend's Thunderbird and details of the charger setup. He has given his charger two outlets. One comes out onto the handlebar, where he has also affixed a handlebar mount for GPS and phone. Here is the photograph of the same:


Another Angle:


Another of these charging cables with a lighter socket ends inside his side box at the rear.


And below are some close ups of the wiring set up of the charger.







As stated earlier, you will have to call him to get the exact technical details. I will be sending you a PM with those details. His Hindi is not great but he makes up for it with his open, helpful and friendly Punjabi
Regards.

[shyamk]

Originally Posted by Insearch

Dear Ravi jee, I am giving you below the shots of my friend's Thunderbird and details of the charger setup. He has given his charger two outlets. One comes out onto the handlebar, where he has also affixed a handlebar mount for GPS and phone. Here is the photograph of the same:

Won't this void the warranty ?

Shyam

[apachelongbow]

Originally Posted by ebonho

Tankfull tot tankful, after adequate shaking to make sure all nooks and crannies and dead spaces are taken care of (Dilip Bam has a more colorful description of the same ....) is the most accurate method on a bike.

For my Baleno, which does not have a low fuel warning, I use the position of the needle and when it comes back to hit red - been prety accurate for me.

Ditto for my Zen.

For my Storme, been using amber light to amber light till now. And getting consistent results (10-11 kmpl).

On a std 500, with a 1.25 L reserve, when you hit reserve, you do not fool around, but make a beeline for the nearest petrol pump.

Or you learn quickly when you need to push a 200 kilo bike all the way home through deserted roads at 2 a.m. .....

Doc, In the Safari the amber light means you have 'atleast' 10 odd liters remaining in the tank (as per the manual), so an effective range of atleast 100km more.
The red zone means about 5-7 liters remaining.

In the TB the blinking fuel symbol means we have about 5 liters remaining in the tank. However in my personal experience, the fuel guage is highly inaccurate. When i go and fill the tank (till cutoff) when the fuel gauge starts blinking I get to fill anywhere from 4-12 liters of petrol until cutoff. Best idea is to open the fuel lid, shine a torch inside and verify how much petrol you have, generally you have much more than indicated on the guage.

Yesterday, Royal Enfield Brand Store, Chennai, called me to inform that I could collect my Blue Bird's RC and insurance policy. Today, I rode on my Blue Bird to Royal Enfield Brand Store and collected the documents. To my horror, my Blue Bird was downgraded from 500 cc to 350 cc with wrong weight in the RC. However, BHP and colour were correctly mentioned. In the insurance policy, all these specs are correctly mentioned. When I pointed out these blunders, I was assured that RC, duly corrected and counter-signed, would be given to me in a couple of days.



How to differentiate the RE bikes manufactured in the new Oragadam plant from the ones made in the old plant? According to the sources, the engine and chassis numbers would be the same, if made in the old plant; would be different, if made in the new plant. The paint quality of the bikes made in the new plant is also better than that of the old plant's bikes. My Blue Bird was made in the old plant, if these sources are correct.

[Motor Head]

Originally Posted by J.Ravi

Yesterday, Royal Enfield Brand Store, Chennai, called me to inform that I could collect my Blue Bird's RC and insurance policy. Today, I rode on my Blue Bird to Royal Enfield Brand Store and collected the documents. To my horror, my Blue Bird was downgraded from 500 cc to 350 cc with wrong weight in the RC. However, BHP and colour were correctly mentioned. In the insurance policy, all these specs are correctly mentioned. When I pointed out these blunders, I was assured that RC, duly corrected and counter-signed, would be given to me in a couple of days.

How to differentiate the RE bikes manufactured in the new Oragadam plant from the ones made in the old plant? According to the sources, the engine and chassis numbers would be the same, if made in the old plant; would be different, if made in the new plant. The paint quality of the bikes made in the new plant is also better than that of the old plant's bikes. My Blue Bird was made in the old plant, if these sources are correct.

They did the same error with RC for my bike also, how ever I was told that the correct RC will take another 15 days, do let us know when you get your RC. This the way the "Brand Store" works, wonder how the regular dealership treats there customers. I also got my got the first service done for my bike from the kottivakam work shop, reached at sharp 9, my bike was the first in for that day, yet it took them 4.5 hours to finish the service, I was observing the mechanic who was working on my bike from the customer waiting area and he was just wasting time talking to every body in the work shop....apart from the time they also managed to put a scratch on the tank, which I pointed out at the time of delivery and another 30 minutes were spent with the buffing machine to remove the scratch....no apologies were offered......felt sad that most of the RE owners are so passionate about the bike and the brand yet people who work at RE and are brand ambassador's have such callous attitude towards customers.

Originally Posted by Motor Head

it took them 4.5 hours to finish the service

Today, the company-operated service centre at OMR took 5 hours for chain adjustment and brake overhauling! But, they did water-wash and cleaning of my Blue Bird without my telling them to do that. The chain adjustment was required as I heard dak..dak sound from the chain touching the chain-guard. Similarly, I heard some noise from the front brake necessitating brake overhauling. I was charged 3 only for the split pin.

My Blue Bird completed 2,000 km on the odometer tonight at Kodambakkam High Road, Chennai.

Originally Posted by Insearch

I am giving you below the shots of my friend's Thunderbird and details of the charger setup.

After weighing pros and cons of connecting a charger to the battery circuit, I decided not to disturb the delicate and sensitive battery circuit of my Blue Bird, and instead, to go in for a stand-alone solar charger. I found a solar charger of 5000mAh capacity in ebay.in and bought it by paying 1850 through my credit card on 20 June 2013 and received it just an hour back. The details and the specifications are here. I require this charger mainly for my MapMyIndia navigator that requires an input current of 1500 mA.

Soon after I received the charger, I tried charging the charger by solar light on a cloudy weather at Chennai, by laptop and from wall socket. Now, I find the charger fully charged!







Later, I connected my MapMyIndia navigator with the charger and the former worked brilliantly powered by the charger.







I will try my using navigator hooked on to the charger in the next long ride on my Blue Bird.

Thanks a lot once again, Insearch, for taking pains to post the photographs and details of the 12 V charger.

[rakesh_r]

@ J.Ravi-Congos and excellent review.Couple of months back i had booked a DS 500 but had to cancel the booking due to mounting marriage expenses.Right now am seriously considering the t bird 500.How is the pillion seat comfort? I intend to extensively tour with my wife

Originally Posted by rakesh_r

@ J.Ravi-Congos and excellent review.

Thanks for the wishes and compliments.

How is the pillion seat comfort?

My wife, who sits keeping her both the legs on one side, is of the opinion that my son's Classic 500's pillion seat offers more comfort to her than my Blue Bird's; but my daughters, who sit keeping their legs one on each side, say that Blue Bird's rear seat is better than that of Classic 500! I suggest, you test-ride both DS 500 and TB 500 with your wife on the pillion, and then, decide.

[docaxe]

Getting my tbts500 52 days of waiting...doing the payments in an hour. What all do I need to check. It's stone colour. Kindly advice.

Originally Posted by docaxe

Kindly advice.

Congratulations and best wishes, docaxe.

Check your bike thoroughly before signing the RTO documents. Check for dents, scratches, damages, broken glasses, etc. Start the bike and observe if there are any abnormalities. Only after getting satisfied, sign the RTO documents. Note down the engine and chassis numbers and see that all the specifications are entered correctly in the RTO forms.

Today, self and wife rode on our Blue Bird Chennai>Pondicherry>Chennai. Left our Chennai Royapettah home by 5 am, reached Pondy at 7:45 am, had a darshan of Manakula Vinayakar, breakfasted at Adyar Ananda Bhavan, hand a tankful of petrol at Ashram BP pump costing 65.44 per litre, visited our relatives, left their home by 11:30 am and reached our Chennai home at 2:30 pm. While going, I took the East Coast Road [ECR] in a good climate and for the return journey, NH 66/45 via Tindivanam under scorching sun.

Today, I received JCB ankle boots costing 1,434. I ordered online on 27 June 2013. All along, I used to wear my jogging shoes for riding my Blue Bird, which did not serve the purpose fully. With the new JCB Excavator ankle boots, I tried kick-starting and shifting of gears of my Blue Bird. I could do these tasks very easily. Also, these ankle boots are light in weight and VFM. However, I will post my reviews after riding long distance in my Blue Bird.