[samarth.bhatia]

This is my motorcycle ownership review for Royal Enfield Thunderbird 500.
It took me a while to take the plunge, so I'm going to attempt to share not just an ownership review, but a story.

To help the reader navigate, here are some Easy Links:


The Story Unfolds

The Tipping Point

Post Booking - Pre Delivery Woes - and The Delivery Day

The One with Pics - My First Ride

3M Car Care - Seat Covers - Auxiliary Lamps - Side Pannier Boxes

First Service - 150 kms Ride - 360 kms Ride

The Second Service and some Bad Bits

Happy reading!
--

The Story Unfolds
A few years back while I was studying in Bangalore, I was faced with a situation where I needed a vehicle. Being a college student, I felt a motorcycle would meet my needs, while being easy on the pocket.

My parents felt differently. They asked me to look at cars as well, and ultimately I bought a used Maruti 800 2011 model with just 11,000 kms on the ODO. Today, I understand why my parents were not in favor of me riding a bike. I was less careful a driver, and a bike would have been needlessly risky.

Over the years I continued riding once in a while on borrowed bikes from friends. Mostly it consisted of Unicorns, Apaches, Pulsars and the lot. Every time I rode, I kept fantasizing about one day having my own bike. In the meantime, the Chevrolet Beat (T-Rex) had become my daily car. You can read my ownership review here.

Sometime about 2 years back, I went to the neighbourhood Royal Enfield showroom. Took test rides of Electra 350, Thunderbird 500 and Classic 500.
Was blown away by the Thunderbird 500 - the ergonomics were spot on. The power of course was brilliant as well.
But the test rides had been in crowded city areas - I wanted to try the bikes for a longer ride. And this is where I was left disappointed by the showroom - they were quite a busy lot, and weren't very helpful.
I couldn't make up my mind on the matter. And that was only the initial stage.
The second stage of speaking on this matter with my parents was still far away.

One fine day, I was at 3M car care, Kailash Colony, after it had recently opened. There I saw a shining RE Continental GT being worked on.
Met the guy who had gotten it there, got to know he's from the Company Showroom/Concept Store. This was the first I had heard of this.
Told him about how a long time back I had wanted to properly test ride the bikes - he invited me to the showroom (official launch happened much after).

On reaching the store, I met my new friend, and took the Continental GT on a test ride.
Now I don't have much biking experience, and the most powerful bike I had ridden till that point was the RE Classic 500. The Continental just took my by surprise - the power came in early, the braking was better than any other RE, and the bike just felt much lighter.. but only in comparison to other REs.
Went back to the concept store and returned the bike.

This time, I knew that I wanted to buy a bike. And it was going to be an Royal Enfield. I just didn't know which one.

Continental GT seemed most modern, with a nice spec sheet, and oh-so-beautiful.
Thunderbird 500 seemed nice too, but wasn't sure about the power, and had no idea about the mechanical build quality.
Classic 500 seemed least likely, with least features at hand, and the least modern overall.
The others were not in consideration, as I preferred 500cc, and fuel injection was also important to me (so Bullet 500 did not fit).

[samarth.bhatia]

The Tipping Point

This year around February I went to the store - was introduced to the manager, a friendly chap Kamal Pandey. He asked me to take the Continental GT for another ride - keep it for a couple of hours, see if it grows on me.
I was on-board with that plan - it was a nice birthday gift, I'd say

Rode it around the city for about 1.5 hours, found my confidence growing.. and my wrist aching.
Was back at the store, and immediately took out the Thunderbird 500. As soon as I sat on it, it felt like a bloody sofa, atleast in comparison to the GT's tiny seat. And the position of the wrists & palm was spot on for comfort riding.

Switched on the bike and the sound wasn't half bad - apparently it was the "offroad silencer" on the demo bike. Took at for a ride. And was completely floored. The power came in well, the braking was nice, the seating position was absolutely comfortable.
This ride was shorter as I had to return to work.

Called up Kamal, and requested the Thunderbird 500 demo bike to be sent to my place in the evening, would take it out for an early morning ride.
He was nice enough to help out with that.

All this communication with store, and particularly with Kamal (store manager), Tushar (sales person), and Avinash (Technical Head), was an experience in itself. I was amazed with the quality of their technical know how on the bikes, their passion towards the RE brand & products (don't worry I am into sales myself, so not exactly the most gullible person out there), and their helpful attitude in general. Needless to say, it was FAR ahead in comparison to any other RE dealership I had ever been to.

And it was enough to convince me that even if I do face an issue, it would be taken care of. I wasn't exactly convinced about RE's workmanship levels - going by the horror stories. But I could also see that the major issue faced by most owners was poor after sales support.

So finally after riding the Thunderbird 500 the next morning, I was convinced. It was the bike for me. Good power, good balance, decent brakes, projector headlamp with LED corona ring, hazard lights, and most importantly a comfortable riding posture. I took the plunge the very same day, ie 15th of February 2014 - and booked the Thunderbird 500 Filcker (glossy black) shade.
BTW, waiting for the GT was 3 months for Red, and 5 months for Yellow shades, at that point. And the classic also was about 2 months or so.

And thus, my first bike was booked, and the wait began..

[samarth.bhatia]

Post Booking - Pre Delivery Woes - and The Delivery Day
The very same day of booking, I went home and referred to my list of accessories for the bike
1. Leg Guard - Matt Black - Quality Chennai. Same shape as the one on Ravi Sir's TB500 (handle - J.Ravi)
2. Auxiliary Lamps - same as the ones on my car - LED bars 2x10W each side - totally 40W power consumption
3. Switches for the lights
4. City use light gloves
5. Gloves with a bit of protection (el cheapos bought off eBay)
6. El Cheapo knee protectors bought online
7. Waterproof fuse holders
8. F1 type flashing brake lights (2 nos)
9. Cramp busters for the accelerator - used to rest part of the palm
10. Waterproof 12V USB Charging socket
11. Mobile holder
12. Tank Bag - Cramsters
13. Solar Charger for mobile devices

There were some other things as well, but I can't remember.

I had been promised delivery within 1 month of booking - March 15 was the scheduled delivery date.
This was the first time I was buying a first hand vehicle for myself, and was of course looking forward to it..

In this one month period, I went through a lot of ownership threads on the Thunderbird 500, here on Team-BHP, and elsewhere. No doubt, the one written by Mr. J. Ravi was well detailed. Alongside, I got very good information from Randhawa's thread on Classic 500, which shares many parts including the engine itself. I did get cold feet many a times, going through many horror stories.

So I decided to create an excel sheet with reported issues and their solutions.
You can download the same here: Royal Enfield Thunderbird 500 - PDI CHECKLIST TROUBLESHOOTING guide.xls
This sheet also lists out some detailed points collected from various online forums including TBhp on the Pre Delivery Inspection.
I should thank (in no particular order), J.Ravi, sam b, Randhawa, rajneesh, enfield_500, apachelongbow, ebonho, Majumdarda, mobike008 for their brilliantly maintained ownership threads.

During the very last week of wait, I called up Kamal asking if the bike had been dispatched from the factory - I had earlier been told that my bike would be manufactured at the new plant - hence I was hoping for lesser workmanship issues.
I was told it had been dispatched a few days back - and I can hope to get the delivery on time.
About two days later, I was informed that the local RTO had not given a green signal to the Store to start getting the bikes registered.
Which meant either I had to wait another 10 days for delivery, or I could take delivery through a dealership.

Now I was apprehensive about the other dealerships - I was doing this mainly due to the high levels of professionalism I had thus far seen at the concept store. But Kamal stepped up again, and assured me of a smooth delivery process. He first introduced me to the owner of a dealership, and then took my approval. A little bit of paperwork, and I went for the PDI of the bike with Avinash (tech head). Kamal came along.
The bike looked beautiful - I could find a small mark on one of the front suspension bracket (the silver part), a small scratch on the sari guard, and one near the stand. Otherwise I found no issues, electrically/mechanically/cosmetically.

And then I opened the battery cover - to discover that the Pollution Check sticker mentioned a Dec 2013 date, while the VIN number of the bike showed a January 2014 manufacturing. This surprised me. But I was told it could be an error made by the person putting the sticker. I wasn't quite convinced. Yet eventually I gave in and made the full payment.

Delivery was made the very next day, after lot of follow ups with getting the registration number, and fixing the number plate.
I reached the dealership, again Kamal was by my side. We checked out the bike. The number plates were fixed in front of us. The process took a while but was quite smooth. I was very happy to find that there was ample fuel in the bike.
I went outside and treated Kamal to a coke. And of course thanked him.

The bike was mine now, and it was time to go home.

Coming up next - my first ride.

[samarth.bhatia]

My First Ride

The bike was delivered from Kay Tee Automobiles, a Royal Enfield dealership at Mahipalpur. This is on the infamous Delhi-Gurgaon toll road, a 8/10/12 lane major road with usual cruising speeds of 80 kmph (at 5ish pm), and lots of call center cabs.
And me astride a brand new bike.

The first moment as a turned on to the road were scary, and it was something I hadn't expected, with decent experience of this road, and riding in general. The road width was actually overwhelming with the Delhi traffic zooming by. And me limited to a run-in period speed of 50 to 60 kmph.

As the road went along, I started to feel more comfortable.

After joining the outer ring road, the traffic started to get more dense, and I found myself sticking more to the left lane to make way for faster vehicles. But wait, that's where the huge buses drive.. That unhappy realization made me shift to the middle lane. And that's where I rode for the most time.

On reaching the turn off into the residential road, I decided to go to the petrol pump with 2 out of 7 bars glowing on the fuel gauge.
On filling tank till auto cut, I only managed about 8 litres. On a 20 litre tank (out of which about 3.5 is unusable due to fuel pump priming). Which meant I still had some 12 litres in the tank, when I saw only 2/7 bars.
Having read about a similar issue on J.Ravi's bike, I decided to not worry too much for now.

Reached home and clicked a few pics.
Before you see them, did I mention I got the leg guard fixed (Quality Chennai delivered it to me, and the dealership fixed it)? And also a little something called OFFROAD silencer, an original RE accessory for the TB500?
Both items were fixed pre-delivery.









And the view from my window the next morning



Some more from my ride early one morning a few days later. March 2014 was turning out to be a pretty neat month..











This ride was till toll booth of Delhi Gurgaon road, and then to Hauz Khas Village on my way back home.

Pics from a Team Bhp meet soon after the delivery of the bike. Courtesy Utsav (devilwearsprada):

With Aradhya's awesome Thar


A motion shot

[samarth.bhatia]

3M Car Care - Seat Covers - Auxiliary Lamps - Side Pannier Boxes

The very next day after delivery, the bike went for a complete Paint Sealant application from 3M Car Care Kailash Colony. The very place where I had first met Avinash, Tech Head at RE concept store, Saket.
The 3M store manager Rahul turned out to also be an avid biker himself, and was sweet enough to give me his souped up Classic 500 Desert Storm for the day, till my bike was worked upon.
Later the same day, I took the bike back, after Paint Sealant application, and Protection Film application (forgot the actual name) on the complete tank, and the upper half of front mudguard.

After this, a few days later, I got an opportunity to visit a close friend in Karol Bagh. He was nice enough to accompany me to the Naiwala market which is quite famous for Bult accessories. Got seat covers for the bike there. And then we started getting hit by water balloons so we had to push off.
It was awesome to meet Sanjeev ji, part of the famour Khajanchi family.

Here's a peek at how she looked:





--
Another couple of days later, I was able to find a good mechanic. I needed to get two items fitted: the auxiliary lamps, and the waterproof cigarette lighter.

I got custom brackets welded to the leg guards to provide good support to the base of the lamps.
Another Sunday came, and I visited Karol Bagh again for some pannier boxes. The original idea was to get leather saddle bags, but then I found lockable panniers more practical. I got my sticker guy to put some glossy black vinyl on the lower half, and some RE branding around. I also picked up some reflective tape, as I had removed the reflector from the rear mudguard.












--
On my way back from work one day, the brutally sunny day became a bit cloudy. So I made use of the photo op:

















Hope you've enjoyed reading so far.. more to follow soon


Next Up - First & Second Service Experiences, First Bike Trip out of town

[samarth.bhatia]

First Service - 150 km Ride - 360 km Ride

The first service reminder came up on the MID within the 5th day of ownership. It was due on the 500 km mark, and the engine oil was replaced.

The bill was around Rs. 1,400 including two spark plugs bought as spares. The original plugs were fine. Also an extra clutch cable was purchased.

The problems faced till then were:
1. Erratic readings of the fuel gauge - the guys at Kay Tee service station did not check thoroughly, and hence there was no solution.

2. The clock in the MID used to display less time after being set again & again. No solution.

Otherwise, the ride till first service had been smooth with no worries.

--
150 kms Ride: Bhiwadi
Total distance covered: 150 kms
Road used: ORR-NH8 till Bhiwadi

One day, I had to visit a site at Bhiwadi, Rajasthan. This is about a 75 km journey each side, and I started from home after breakfast around 8. The side panniers came into great use as they were filled with water bottles & some snacks.
I reached the destination without any breaks, and the bike behaved very well. Since this was post first service, I could go to speeds up to 80 kmph, with occasional blasts to 90 kmph.
This ride definitely helped in giving me confidence over slightly long stretches. Just stopped once for a couple of sips of water.
After completing my work there, again geared up and left. There was just one halt on the way home after reaching outer ring road for some water and a bite to eat.
It was a nice ride, all in all.


--

360 kms Ride: Vrindavan
Road Used: DND - Greater Noida - Yamuna expressway
Passengers: 2
Luggage: Water, Lemonade & Snacks

On a warm summer's day, a friend came visiting from Bombay, on his way to Calcutta. He needed to visit Vrindavan for some religious reasons, and I decided to join in.
We decided to start around 3:30pm. Did I say it was a warm day? 45 degs approx. And I was completely geared up, and so was he.
We got mild traffic on the way to Noida, after which it was a breeze to get to Greater Noida and then onto Yamuna Expressway. We tanked up in between.
The Y-way is no fun, after a certain point. But thankfully the weather was improving.
After a rather boring ride, we found the Vrindavan exit and took a route through the farms to enter the town.











After we crossed the road going through the farms, we reached Mathura Road and crossed that to enter the town. We eventually reached the guest home where we freshened up and went to the temple.
Along the way, we entered some very narrow streets and eventually parked the bike at a parking station - this was just a bare plot between many buildings. We took a receipt and left.

On reaching the temple, and after darshan, we took a few snaps, and had some fresh lassi.














After that we decided to pick up the bike and head back. But in the narrow lanes, we somehow lost our way. It was fun at first, but as it was starting to get dark we began to ask around. Everyone seemed confused looking at the slip. Finally one shopkeeper seemed to recognise it.






Eventually we found the parking and went back to the guest home.
Once we freshened up there we geared up once more and left.

By this time, it had gotten dark. We rode through the fields once more, in some stretches it was completely dark, and quite beautiful.
After following the well marked directions, we joined the Yamuna Eway once again. And the Aux lamps came in handy here. They took only 40W of power, and lit up the way very brightly (atleast 3 times more than the projector headlamp).

After we crossed the last toll, we were about 55 kms from Pari Chowk Greater Noida, and the fuel level showed reserve - after we had tanked up at Noida. Basically about 320 odd kms. I couldn't believe it.
We met with one of the Patrol Teams and requested for their number in case we needed fuel.

Ultimately we made it to the Petrol Pump and Pari Chowk and tanked up.
Guess how much fuel went in? Just 12 odd litres. That means we had a good 4.5 litres of usable (8 litres of actual petrol left).
I was pretty pissed off with the fuel gauge.
Good thing was, right after this trip, I got to about 2985 kms. The Second service was due as we got home.. In about 1.5 months of ownership.
Otherwise, the bike behaved very well, and was stable at constant high speeds, while the braking was quite good too.

--

Coming Up - The Second Service, and Some Bad Bits

[samarth.bhatia]

Second Service - and some Bad Bits
Right after the Vrindavan trip, I had to again visit Bhiwadi. Incidentally it was the same day as the Second service. So for the first time in 3,000 odd kms, I requested our driver to ride about 15 kms to the service station, with a list of issues to tackle.

1. Fuel gauge readings - this was number one priority: It was taken up after multiple requests. The tank was full, so they emptied it to half level. The gauge seemed to work well till then, so they refilled to the brim and said it's all good.
This is exactly what they had done during the Ist service too.
This time I did not let them off so easily.
The problem in reading came after tank was half empty, and more petrol was used. The reading suddenly would reduce to 2 bars, 1 bar, 1 blinking bar (reserve), while there would still be at least 8 to 9 litres of fuel.
So they emptied the whole tank, and started refilling it slowly.
Then they saw the issue.

The fuel float was replaced under warranty this time.

I never got a note stating the same from the service center.

And the problem still exists.

2. Some traces of oil were discovered around the right side of the engine block. These were not the splashes from the chain, that was quite clear.
I was also surprised to hear that of low engine oil level.
I requested them NOT to top it up, as I wanted to check it for myself.

--

Post service, a few days later, I was on my way to Karol Bagh once more. This time I was headed to the courier company's office to pick up my Wild Boar exhaust. It was a nice early evening ride.
And then I was stuck in massive traffic.

And then the bike just stalled. I was on Ist gear at about 2.5k overtaking another vehicle, and it just died. I thought I had improperly released the clutch, so tried thumbing the starter - heard the DENSO starter motor do its job, but the engine refused to start.
Somehow dragged the bike to the side, and tried kick starting it. Nothing.

Waited a few minutes, and then thumbed the starter again. This time it worked. So I started riding once more. Another couple of meters later, while overtaking a bus, the bike died on me again.
Same process repeated, and after waiting a bit, it started again.
By now I was seeing the low voltage indicator on the MID.

And this repeated itself atleast 14 or 15 more times in a distance of 10 off kms. On reaching Karol Bagh, the courier company's office was in the same Naiwala lanes where we had the Bullet mechanics.
Took her to one, and they suspected some problem in the ignition coil.
They however refused to touch the bike, knowing that it was under warranty. It was a good call, although at that point I wasn't sure of making my way home if it would keep stalling.

So eventually after calling Kamal & Avinash, I started on my way back. It stalled a few more times, so I went straight to Saket Concept Store. Met Kamal who then asked his mechanics to take a look. They cleaned the ignition coil, returned the bike.
I was happy to hear the problem wouldn't repeat itself.
Next day I was about 3 kms away from home, and again it repeated.

This time I asked Kamal to check the spark plugs - the right side one was a bit loose. So that was changed.
And yet the problem continued.

Finally the next morning, the bike was sent to the service station.
There after an entire day, they found some waste in the fuel injectors. Also, they pipe coming from air filter assembly to the engine had a sharp bend on AF side, and was cracked. This was also fixed.

The cause of dirty injectors was zeroed down to the removal and refilling of fuel done one week back at the service station Kay Tee Automobiles. This was seriously shocking. But I must thank the staff at concept store, as well as South Delhi Motorcycles (RE dealer) for competently handling the issue. Kay Tee has been good to me, but for this experience.

Did I mention this was just one week prior to my next (and so far longest) road trip on this bike? So until the very last day, I wasn't even sure the bike would make it. I actually rode within the city for about 200 kms in 5 days time to ensure that the injector problem was actually solved.

Also, the bike received an oil top up and the chains were cleaned.
Also the pannier boxes were shifted more to the back side, as their original position slightly blocked the pillion's leg near the shins.

--
Would the bike make it to the trip? Coming Up Next..

[mobike008]

Note from Mod : Thread moved from Assembly Line to Motorbikes section. Thanks for sharing.

Originally Posted by samarth.bhatia

The bike was delivered from Kay Tee Automobiles, a Royal Enfield dealership at Mahipalpur.

Congratulations and best wishes, samarth.bhatia. I wish you many thousands of miles with smiles on your Thunderbird 500. Notwithstanding the niggles and substandard parts, I am sure you will enjoy your ride.

[samarth.bhatia]

Thank you Ravi Sir for your wishes..
Hope your TB500 is doing well.

--

Wild Boar - And the First Real Out of Town Trip

I had gotten the problem with the injector fixed, and around same time, I had also installed the Wild Boar Reverse Conical exhaust. This has no baffles, and has only glasswool filling. After some research online, I found out that while baffles will add to the back pressure, their removal ensures a smoother exhaust flow, and glasswool absorbs most high pitch sounds, leaving the smooth low pitch note. And that's exactly what I needed.
Plus I had been listening to the wild boar videos available online and simply loved it.

Post installation of Wild Boar, the bike felt a bit lighter, and it felt better to go occasionally to the 5k RPM mark. I had not expected any jump in performance, but maybe the RE accessory offroad exhaust creates a higher back pressure - which now was reduced due to the free flow nature of the wild boar.

Anyway so another week later, I found myself on a trip with a fellow biker and close friend on an Avenger, and a couple of other friends in an Innova, on my way to Rishikesh. We started fairly early around 4:30 am, and the bikes managed to reach our camp site at 12:30 pm, while the Innova reached around 3:00 pm I was pretty exhausted due to high temperatures towards the later half of the journey, but the cold river water was very refreshing.

There was a very steep slope with sand/mud path going towards the river camp, away from the main road. Initially we walked down to the site, and later brought our bikes down. We were worried a bit about slip possibility, but eventually it turned out to be easy on the bikes. And even going back up was a simple affair.

On out way back after two days, the bikes started at 4:00 am in pitch darkness. Again the awesome Aux lamps with the main headlamp beam lit up the ghats section very well. It was mostly a non eventful journey back to Delhi.

Along Meerut By Pass road towards Muzzafarnagar




My friend took these excellent moving shots
















I had finally found a Micro USB charging cable at 10 am in Haridwar. On a Sunday. The town was still waking up. And I was happy




Some more pics taken:





















Overall, it was a wonderful weekend trip with a nice 700 odd kms to and fro bike ride. The bike behaved well, and the blocked injector issue did not repeat itself.
A small issue I faced towards the end of the journey was the gear level getting a little sticky - on upshifting using the heel part, it would take just a little bit longer in returning to the center position. This problem vanished after the bike had cooled down


---

Some pics taken a while back with aspiring Bhpian Aditya's new Bullet 350













Cheers,
Sam

[akshay4587]

Congratulations
Welcome to the 500 CC club.
How much did you pay for those small LED bars?
Whats their power rating?
and how is the light throw(pictures if possible).

[rakesh_r]

Congos for the bike.She looks superb.How much did you pay for the LED's and from where did you pick them up from?

[vishalrr]

Hi Samarth .... one Quick Q.. the move from Offroad silencer to Wild boar was prompted only for the sound or was here any issue with the offroad silencer.. am planning to install the offroad till mine completes 10K.

Mod Note : Please avoid typing with excessive dots.........like................this.

[samarth.bhatia]

Originally Posted by akshay4587

Congratulations
Welcome to the 500 CC club.
How much did you pay for those small LED bars?
Whats their power rating?
and how is the light throw(pictures if possible).

Originally Posted by rakesh_r

Congos for the bike.She looks superb.How much did you pay for the LED's and from where did you pick them up from?

These are 10Wx2 = 20W each side.. Totally 40W of power, all in spot configuration. The throw is such that I don't have any need for the stock headlamp - these are about 3 times the brightness.
I have the same pair of lamps on my chevy Beat as well.
They are on a testing cycle for now.

Originally Posted by vishalrr

.. the move from Offroad silencer to Wild boar

Vishal,
The move was initially meant just for the sound.
Eventually I got a good result with engines behaviour as well. The free flow exhaust definitely add punch past the 3k mark.
If you need, my 2 month used offroad exhaust will be up for grabs on the classifieds soon.

Cheers,
Sam

[akshay4587]

How much did you pay for the bars?
They seem to be 6K each on Car Led India
Also;the RE 500 EFI is tuned to perform best on stock exhaust.
Stick to stock and you will enjoy it for sure.
Offroad exhaust and Free flow cause issues related to drop in top end and back fire.