[man_of_steel]

Originally Posted by TorqueyTechie

I am not an owner of Himalayan but had just TD'ed the bike and would have plonked money on it if not for having to move my money for some other financial thing at the last minute. But having said that would I have been happy reading so many negative issues about this bike. Probably no! Whatever the price point is, QC is something which is quite alien to RE. But does it matter to them? I think no as they would have been happy seeing the sales figure at the end of every month , quality issues be damned.

Exactly. Himalayan was all set to be my second bike and I kind of wanted to take a bike from the first batch itself. I have owned an RE before and I knew that the safest bet is to wait for a year or so atleast for RE to iron out the issues. I was ready to compromise on power for its handling dynamics off the road and comfort. I was fairly confident that RE has gone above and beyond their limits to test the H to its limits. But as you mentioned, it is extremely disheartening to read these and to realize that Himalayan is just another RE when it comes to reliability.

[thedragonreborn]

Frankly speaking I am buying the Himalayan over the 2017 D390 purely because the KTM outlets in Mumbai don't even allow you a proper test ride. They still, of course, expect that you buy the bike having revved the engine a few times in the showroom.

Furthermore, while the Himalayan might not be the best in terms of a product where attention has been lavished on the details, it is still endearing. I have clocked about 5 hours on the bike between test rides now. Even on the older bikes, it is blissfully comfortable, extremely predictable and can take a beating that defies belief. Things rattled and appendages screeched, by boy does it have character. I sold the moment I was introduced to the endearing pops and crackles. Show it a long stretch of tarmac and settle down to the orchestra, watching the world waft past. On the KTM, the world whizzes past.

KTM, true to the era it belongs to, is like a robot. I half expect the bike to transform itself and walk away if you treat it badly.

If I ever buy the KTM, it will be a rational decision. The Himalayan for me is me being in love. Love, after all, is blind and more importantly, inexplicable.

Should RE be taken to the cleaners for churning out rickety bikes? Perhaps. Would that stop the masses from buying REs? Doesn't look like it. Hopefully, with the years to come, they finally grow up and pay attention to the tiny details that matter. Until then, they are veritably to prodigal son that the family has spoiled silly.

[ron_9191]

Originally Posted by dkaile

Mate, your whole opprobrium here is causing doubt and procrastination about a product we own. Are we not genuine people here on the forum owning actual bikes? I do not think your cavilling is genuinely helping people.

Yes, RE is not a perfect company and neither is Himalayan a perfect product. But for the price it offers so much more bang. Case in point being the Versys 300 recently launched abroad by Kawasaki at a price point of around 4 lac rupees. I agree that the engine of the Himalayan is not as perfect as say this Kawasaki but then so is the price not comparable. For the price point the Himalayan offers a lot. It is quite a reliable cruiser, custom made for one sole purpose. Royal Enfield has not overnight turned into a Japanese manufacturer but it is trying to get closer. It has to be appreciated that the company has started some sort of innovation. Accepted, that it's marketing is stronger than it's actual products, but new product development is still a nascent concept to this company. I would like to give it a chance to compete with the foreign competitors and become a better Make in India brand.


Cheers...

@dkaile I am not spreading negativity about what you genuinely own here. I own an RE too not a Himalayan though but I have been following the Himalayan as I wanted to keep my old RE and really really wanted to by the Himalayan as my second motorcycle for long distance touring. I have got a good network of trust worthy mechanics who with no reasonable doubt can be trusted with the extensive knowledge and experience they have servicing and restoring these machines and I am more than friends with them.

What I wrote was my test ride experience and that didn't go well. I felt like RE was going backwards with the Himalayan that is and will be my honest opinion. Maybe for you the motorcycle has been flawless, good for you mate, honestly I really wish and hope you enjoy your rides that you have planned out in the years to come.

And seriously "Are we not genuine people here on the forum owning actual bikes?" did I ever mention anywhere here that people on a Himilayan who are here are not genuine?

You also mentioned RE is not a perfect company. Nobody's perfect and nobody is as forgiving when they put in their money on these things only to find it the breakdown too often and leave you stranded in the middle of nowhere.

My point is fair and square, if RE wants success with their innovation, they need to make sure that testing for reliability is also part of the innovation. And if you don't get what I mean by that and think that I am cavilling here is disappointing really.

[am1m]

Originally Posted by ron_9191

My point is fair and square, if RE wants success with their innovation, they need to make sure that testing for reliability is also part of the innovation.

Spot on!

I think the greatest strength of forums like ours is the freedom people have to post negative feedback on bikes. When I read about a new bike on an independent forum, I look for the negative feedback. Every bike manufacturer has a very efficient Advertising/PR/Legal/etc. department and they use those effectively to highlight the good points of their products. With our auto magazines also dependent on advertising rupees, independent forums like these are the only source of real information for us consumers.

So bring on the negative feedback, personally, it's kinda hard for me to feel sorry for, and to defend a multi-crore bike manufacturer that uses its initial customers as guinea pigs!

(Yeah, I own an RE.)

[howler]

Originally Posted by dkaile

I see so many heard from my mechanic, heard from my doodhwala, heard from my cousin (and even his dog) comments, it would be better if actual owners with actual problems make their voice heard. In most of the ownership threads on TeamBhp, I have heard of minor niggles and some pro-active replacements from the company. But I have not heard widespread discontentment with the bike. Serious owners with actual problems should come forward rather than make this thread one for procrastination.

Cheers...

I own the Himalayan so I think I am entitled to agree with what ron9191 has said, great concept but couldn't-care-less execution. I have been to the service centre 8 times in the 10 months I have owned it , but I'm not satisfied with it. If I had paid 30k less , then my satisfaction would have been relative to the price paid but at close to 2l inr the quality is not acceptable.

[Abhi_rx]

There is no excuse for RE to not have reliability as their KPI. But, i want to be fair to them. RE seems to have made the right moves with the Himalayan. I own one and recently did a 400 km non stop from Kolli hills to Chennai in blistering 42 degrees. The ambient temp reading was hovering on 49 degrees and i was doing full throttle the whole distance. The bike performed like a champ. So, i pretty sure RE has learnt the ropes, its a matter of perfecting them. I'm an optimist.

[mobike008]

Once upon a time, I was a owner of a beautiful Classic 500 UCE bullet for nearly 4 years and had even modified it by installing the race-dynamics power chip. It was used rather sparingly during this period-~ 14,000kms as riding it for long distances used to bother me a lot as it's just not comfortable for long distance touring. My backside would fire-up in pain just after 150kms

However, it was a great bike for short distances and enjoyed the thump while cruising around it.

Never had any major issues except for its trademark niggles which I assume were due to my less usage as I'm not a daily motorcycle rider (people use it for work etc.). It's battery would conk off regularly, tyre would develop a puncture quite often or it simply won't start for some reason. These things though were small issues would irritate me a lot and like everyone has a boiling point, I had mine and decided to cut-short my love story with bullet

Anyone owning a motorcycle would expect "reliability" as the bare minimum and if that is not there in a motorcycle then it's not worth owning such bikes

I'm happy to see RE sales balloon over the last few years and so many people buying RE that it's now little overdone (Surprisingly, majority are young teenagers opting for RE as their first bike and other major buyers are folks getting into their first job not to mention the aspiring motorcyclists who are increasing in numbers each day)

Many of us know that volumes is one of the main reason for their quality (customer service too) going downhill which was already significant even without large volume sales

I realized down the line of my bullet ownership period that being "emotional" "Sentimental" and thinking of "fond memories" which are quintessential words used by bulleteers are not worth the pain and long hours wasted to get it fixed. Therefore, I decided to get rid of it and looking back, I'm happy that I took that decision (except at times I too get the same fond memories )

As a next step, I stepped into the world of premium motorcycling and after my two ownership's (Bonnie & Versys) realized that owning a quality machine is unmatched and is pure bliss to own them just for sake of it's true purpose-Joys of motorcycling

If I want to start the bike after a week, two weeks or even a couple of months it would start at my first thumb press and I can ride away into the horizon for several hundred kilometers without something conking off the motorcycle....And, made me understood what i was missing in an ownership of a motorcycle-Peace of mind.

I think many go through the same journey as mine and others remain with Bullet (their personal choice) and write pages of their displeasure about it.

As a fellow biker, I would just advice that life is short, if bullet is an unsatisfactory choice then just move on and get something else that works better for you

We are not married to any manufacturer but, just to our passion of motorcycling !!!

Originally Posted by ron_9191

I have seen a Thunderbird 350 where the chain snapped at 80 kmph and got stuck inside the engine casing destroying the engine casing and dislodged the rear wheel from the axle. May be a one off case but I haven't come across any such stories like that. And like you rightly pointed out I am not an actual owner of the Himalayan.

My cousin rides a Bullet Classic 350 and this is what exactly happened to him. He was riding in city at a slower speed ( ~35kmph-40kmph) and his chain snapped and he went over the motorcycle and fell on the road and had several bruises to his face, arms and legs and was hospitalized for a day (saved due to his helmet)

But, I would also attribute this to lack of maintenance (knowing him and his wild ways). Not sure if all bullet riders are lubing and cleaning their chains regularly which is the primary reason for it to snap (due to dryness) and chain would snap at an extreme point so I would imagine there was no lubing done for a long time

[Darth Sid]

I watched that 37 minute video too and found very little info stretched thin over that long duration. It seems that his issue was either caused by shoddy wiring of the lights (which he claims draws 65W in the comments section) or by defective wiring. So it could be his own fault or a quality issue.

Whatever be the cause, there is no denying that the Himalayan has quite a few issues that could have been avoided by thoughtful design, forsight and quality checks. For the most part, it is a great bike. It has good ride dynamics, doesn't feel underpowered even though it could do with more power, has a simple industrial design and is ready out of the factory to tackle the unknown. All Himalayan owners I know have had a trouble-free experience even through an event like the Raid de Himalaya. A friend did have his header glowing red hot but that's not a problem until the exhaust valve burns out.

However, issues have been reported by owners and they are quite real. Poor quality checks and bad quality metals have been long known issues with RE which cause things like chassis breakage and premature component wear. Design oversight is something new, though. They seem to have gone through two generations of the clutch assembly for this bike. The steering stem was unpainted in the first lot which permitted its rusting and failure of the steering head bearings. Oil leakage, as previously mentioned on this thread, is a sign of poor machining quality. RE really needs to tackle these quickly. One year is long enough to sort out the most common issues.

That being said, KTM also has had tons of issues in the first generations of the Duke 200 and 390. Oil flooding the airbox due to bad piston ring clearance, rear shock spring paint peeling off, tank cowl cracking due to heat were some issues in the Duke 200. Moisture in console, oil seepage from various parts and bad stator (like in the Himalayan) dogged the 2013 Duke 390 and even the 200. These were common issues corrected within the 2013-2014. Basically in just over one year from launch. The valve bending (and sometimes resultant camshaft scoring) issue in the 390 was corrected much later on. Even the 2017 Duke 390 has problems. No, I will not mention "heating issue" here because that is a non-issue. You know the old adage, "where there is petrol combustion inside engine, there hot air blowing from the radiator" or maybe it was "where there is smoke, there is fire". Easy to get confused between the two.

The point is that Indian manufacturers always have issues in the first lots of their bikes. RE and KTM (and by association Bajaj) have been using Indian consumers as beta testers for a while now and this practice will continue until consumer protection laws are put in place and enforced. Tall order, I know... Eventually issues get sorted out and newer customers get more sorted machines. I feel the Himalayan will eventually become better, though when it happens and the degree to which it will be corrected is unknown. The Himalayan still is one of the bikes I would consider buying as much as any KTM despite the problems, well, an acceptable number and nature of problems. I can see the good and bad and decide accordingly.

As for "spreading negativity", that statement is misplaced as no one here seems to be doing that. We need all issues faced by users of all bikes in the market to be reported on this forum in their respective threads. It would be for the benefit of existing and prospective owners. I need not state why it would be beneficial.

PS: The final drive chain can snap in any bike. I have read (on the advrider forum, IIRC) about the chain of an F800GS snapping while riding on a highway and cracking the crankcase. When the chain snaps, anything can happen. In the Bullet, when the chain snaps, it is always the chain lock which needs to be replaced periodically as the old school conventional one is the weakest link by design. That is why the Pulsar's service schedule lists the chain lock under "replace" at every 10,000 km. This is why more modern and powerful bikes have endless chains. Those are less prone to breakage but can still break under particular circumstances.

[NPV]

Not a Test Ride report, so kind of

This is about a Himalayan owner taking legal recourse for a defective motorcycle delivered to him.

Source:Indian Express Bangalore 24 April 2017 - Link

BENGALURU: An engineer took on a renowned motorcycle manufacturer for defective parts and has won a case against the company’s CEO on his own.
...
Puneeth, a software engineer, had bought a Royal Enfield Himalayan 411 CC bike for Rs 1.61 lakh on October 21, 2016. Soon after he found out that the bike’s parts were defective. He approached the Jagadamba Automobiles from where he bought the bike but there was no proper response. “I approached the helpline of Royal Enfield and engineers from Chennai came down and tested the vehicle but it was of no use,” said Puneeth. He said he asked the company to pay him for the bike but they refused to comply. “When there was no proper response from the company, I decided to file a case in consumer court. I gathered all the evidence and produced them before the court.
...

[rohitoasis]

Did anyone else come across this petition in Change.org.

Are these claims real? Normal bullets owners dont seem to have this variety of issues.

[trishul]

I purchased RE Himalayan Dec'16 and had an issue on day 0 i.e. right from the showroom on taking delivery. Gear shift did NOT work and the bike was stuck in first gear. Had to take it directly to service center. RE service and attitude has been terrible and never resolved the gear shift issue. The service center folks often retorted why I bought the bike in the first place as it was plagued with issues. And please note, I had purchased after the first lot of bikes and when RE claimed it had resolved the initial issues post launch of the bike. I guess they haven't yet.

Its been 5 months and only time seems to have helped the issue in my case. I have only done 2K in this time and the gear shift is noticeably better (as in I am no longer stuck and fidgeting with the gear lever struggling to shift to second gear). I almost always have to start the bike with choke for the first 15 minutes even during the summer here. I am dreading the visit to the service center for my second service. I know they will have no spares and will not replace any parts here in RE Hyderabad service center. I will count myself lucky if I am out no worse after the second service. I feel some RE Himalayan owners who got free replacement of the faulty or silently recalled parts should count themselves incredibly lucky.

I wish we had more options in the 2Lakh tourer segment. I can't wait for the KTM 390 adventure tourer to arrive soon enough.

[The_Mad_Hatter]

I contacted the showroom today and was informed that deliveries of the new FI Himalayan would commence from the 15th of May. I was also given an info sheet earlier, indicating a list of faulty parts that would be addressed and replaced in the new iteration of the motorcycle. Time will tell if the replacement parts are actually of better quality, but I do hope that given the hue and cry raised by many Himalayan owners RE will have actually addressed these issues upon release of the new Himalayan.

[aruncheloor]

Hi all,


I bought my Himalayan on 28th October 2016 and sold it in the 1st week of March 2017. Used it for just 1300 kms. And i told myself, i'm done with it. The main problem of the bike is the engine itself. The engine Heat is unbearable. Especially in the city riding during day time. Its almost impossible to ride it without wearing jeans & boots. Unfortunately, i'm a man who prefers pants & slippers. The rear side of the petrol tank also gets hot like an anvil. i was so scared that it might catch fire anytime soon. And i would be a sorry victim of RE's poor engineering. The other usual hiccups were as follows.

Gear shifts were hard. It Got slightly better after 1st service.

Very Hard Clucth even after 1st service

Ignition relay got stuck one day. The bike kept cranking on itself for 2 minutes before i could disconnect the battery. The service people came in next morning and they gave 2 hefty blows on the unit & Viola, its back in action again. Stone-age engineering i should say.

Steering Cone set was wobbly.

I sold my bike & switched to a TB500 last month. Even though the suspension is not as comfortable as the REH, the rest of the bike is like a bed of roses for me. I'm happy.

[rahulkodinya]

Originally Posted by dkaile

I see so many heard from my mechanic, heard from my milkman, heard from my cousin (and even his dog) comments, it would be better if actual owners with actual problems make their voice heard. In most of the ownership threads on TeamBhp, I have heard of minor niggles and some pro-active replacements from the company. But I have not heard widespread discontentment with the bike. Serious owners with actual problems should come forward rather than make this thread one for procrastination.

Cheers...

Originally Posted by dkaile

I see so many heard from my mechanic, heard from my milkman, heard from my cousin (and even his dog) comments, it would be better if actual owners with actual problems make their voice heard. In most of the ownership threads on TeamBhp, I have heard of minor niggles and some pro-active replacements from the company. But I have not heard widespread discontentment with the bike. Serious owners with actual problems should come forward rather than make this thread one for procrastination.

Cheers...

It has been almost a ~Year of ownership and 8000k KMs, mostly tours covering 600 to 800 Kms around Bangalore. My bike is from first batch itself. let me list my set of issues:

1) Tappet Noise: Solved as part of recall with tappet pin replacement. Noise had come down to acceptable levels.

2) Oil Hose leak (Hose to Oil cooler): Occurred at 5.8k odo. May be, I triggered it by overfilling the oil above the "High" mark. Replaced under warranty.

3) Engine heating is a problem sometimes but I feel it is inherent in higher CC bikes. On 2 occasions, I found it pretty noticeable. Once when the clutch wire came loose and second time when a puncture guy fitted the rear wheel without caring for alignment. Both the times it was from the transmission case.
I also got the carb tuned for slightly richer fuel mixture. That helps in keeping it little cool at the cost of economy.

I had met a major accident near Hassan. I aas riding close to 90 when an Activa hit me from the side. It did skid for 15-20 meters before hitting the divider. Major damage was to me and the left side of the bike, especially the gear lever. After twisting it back to normal, I managed to ride another 200KMs. Overall bill was 28k mostly precautionary replacements.

At least on my bike, gear switching was never a major issue. Since I received the bike, I ensured myself "Just" 2-3mm clutch [at the end of clutch lever] play as prescribed in the user manual. This is also the first thing I do every time after receiving bike from service center. Sometimes gear switching becomes slightly notchy after riding long in "stop n go" traffic.

I flush oil at every 2500 KMs, chain lubrication, and slack adjustment every 1000 KMs. It's Happy Going ..

[mobike008]

In contrary to the video posted in previous post (He does say no money paid but, he is speaking like an employee of RE), we have this at the other end of the spectrum

Not sure what is the problem as it was a Whatsapp forward