[bblost]

I am not a very gentle rider on bad roads. In fact the worse the road the faster I go.

Used to do the same on my old Thunderbird. With the Himalayan, I push it even more.

Unless we know exactly what happened with these bikes, its a little difficult to believe that a bad road destroyed it.

Maybe the bikes had suffered an old front accident. Then was taken over a bump at a very high speed causing it to get air borne.
Maybe its just the issue of QC.

There is no way we will ever know.

The only thing I hate about my 14k done bike is its awful seat. The rest of it is still as tight as it was the day I got it.

[adrian]

Royal Enfield Himalayan redesign by Orange County Choppers !

Jokes apart, it is bad workmanship from RE, as always..choosing the easy routes.




They should have used round tubing (which distributes forces more evenly) instead of the square extrusion for the particular joint which takes a lot of force while the motorcycle is in operation.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sMJTk83EFhA

@Arizonajim :Expert comments please !

[ArizonaJim]

Originally Posted by Trojan

I wonder what have they done to prevent this, it has become an all too common sight with repetitive failures of this joint. Many a trip has come to a premature end.

With adverts claiming and promoting touring, adventure and what not, this is a sad reality. One of our riding group friend left from Pune to Ladakh, only to return from Dhule by bus as his bike faced this exact same failure.

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It really puts a big question mark whether or not one can venture on long distance rides with this. The company usually closes such issues on a One-to-One basis under goodwill, this results in the said part being retained by the company and results of analysis are never shared.

Pic Credit: Facebook, a rider has posted this on the Royal Enfield Himalayan Group.

Is there a way to reinforce or prevent this from happening, apart from not riding or is just the proverbial

Cheers,

Is my memory failing me or didn't Royal Enfield stop building the Himalayan shortly after it was first put on the market when problems like this with the frame began showing up? It seems to me that they shut down the whole Himalayan production line while they redesigned the weak areas and improved their welding methods.

I haven't seen any problems like this with the newer production Himalayan's they are making following the revisions.

I know Noraly has put over 35,000 km on her Himalayan using it both on and off road without a problem like the frame breaking or any other mechanical fault due to the factory build. By the way, she bought her Himalayan in India so she is riding the same motorcycle they are selling to you now.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCEI...W9WmYtsOcJBwTg

If you own one of the older production Himalayan's keep an eye on the trouble areas that have been identified in this topic. Especially the weld joints. Look for cracks. If you see any, take the motorcycle to a Royal Enfield dealer and ask them to fix it.
While additional steel reinforcing can be welded to the trouble areas by a good welder there is a chance that the heat from the weld can damage other parts of the motorcycle.

[ashwinprakas]

Well if it's any consolation the rider seems to be fine.

[navin_v8]

I don't know if its just a few bad apples when it comes to RE Himalayan or just a bad design on pre BS IV models. Remember issues like these can happen on any bikes. Remember the fork stanchion issue and recall on BMW GS/A1200. There are incidents and threads on various forums including ours on the internet by tons about alloy wheels cracking on Triumph Bonneville, KTM Duke, Bajaj SS 200, etc. BUT having said that I have never seen chassis breaking from front on other RE's of the yore. Like mentioned by bblost I have taken my AVL Thunderbird, STD CI 350's to the hell and back and same goes for my UCE Tbird500. They're going still strong, maybe because of round tubing chassis design as pointed out by Adrian.

The chassis breaking on Himalayan on the same spot looks like a design/QC issue to me. Hopefully RE has addressed this in their BSIV models. Is the model in question here a BSIII or BSIV?

IMO RE should've made a recall and fixed all BSIII models with a reinforced or better a redesigned chassis for the benefit of the riders and themselves.

[neil.jericho]

Originally Posted by Trojan

It really puts a big question mark whether or not one can venture on long distance rides with this. The company usually closes such issues on a One-to-One basis under goodwill, this results in the said part being retained by the company and results of analysis are never shared.

Does anyone know if this is the BS3 version of the Himalayan or the BS4 one? The BS3 one did have these chassis issues. The BS4, to my knowledge, doesnt because RE went back to the drawing board and reinforced the chassis.

I spoke to my trusted service advisor about the Himalayan a few weeks ago and he confirmed that the new (BS4) ones have no issues at all with the chassis. There was some small engine part which he said was sometimes led to excessive noise and that was being replaced for free by RE if they observed it when the bikes came in for service. The new Himalayan bikes being sold come with this updated engine part. Other than that, the Himalayan is now well built and has no issues. But the chassis woes are all BS3 related as per the service advisor.

Originally Posted by ArizonaJim

Is my memory failing me or didn't Royal Enfield stop building the Himalayan shortly after it was first put on the market when problems like this with the frame began showing up? It seems to me that they shut down the whole Himalayan production line while they redesigned the weak areas and improved their welding methods.

You are right ArinzonaJim, the first lot which was BS3 compliant had these issues and the bike was then taken off the market. The updated BS4 bikes with the strengthened chassis was then launched. Unfortunately the shadow cast by these serious problems with the initial BS3 bikes is long, dark and well deserved.

[rakesh_r]

Originally Posted by neil.jericho

Does anyone know if this is the BS3 version of the Himalayan or the BS4 one? The BS3 one did have these chassis issues. The BS4, to my knowledge, doesnt because RE went back to the drawing board and reinforced the chassis.

I saw Images of the Sleet, which is basically the BS4 with the same fate. The above pic too looks like a BS4, since I can see the throttle body. Being a BS4 version owner, these Images are pretty much disturbing.

[rakesh_r]

Just saw in the Himalayan FB group, RE has actually reinforced that particular weld area. Need to check the latest Indian versions, wonder If RE has done the changes?

[navin_v8]

I wonder why RE chose this square tubing chassis rather than tried and tested round tubing chassis. The only conclusive answer as a layman I can come with is cost cutting and reducing complexities.

As a potential customer I am not buying into this "reinforcement of chassis" stuff at the place where it snaps. Honestly to me it sounds like a jugaad. RE designers/engineers should go back to the drawing board and "REDESIGN" the chassis from ground up to overcome this snapping issue. Call me paranoid with OCD, but for peace of mind I would prefer to have a redesigned round tube chassis than this square contraption.

A little off topic but why do I always see roll cages of NASCAR, Off-road vehicles, etc. using round tube instead of square? Maybe round is definitely more stronger than square.

For further reading this link maybe helpful:

http://www.super7thheaven.co.uk/roun...ronger-square/

[Rennjit]

It's more of joint design & material selection than the shape section of chassis member. This is a decades old chassis of Rajdoot - all of 10hp, see the way the steering head is braced & reinforced. I have a Bs4 Himalayan & I can confidently say the joint is badly engineered. Two pipes butt welded on to a third facing torque load is never the strongest of joints. Where are those guys 'harris performance' ?? who designed this ? Greed & Incompetency run royal enfield.

[ethanhunt123]

Originally Posted by neil.jericho

You are right ArinzonaJim, the first lot which was BS3 compliant had these issues and the bike was then taken off the market. The updated BS4 bikes with the strengthened chassis was then launched. Unfortunately the shadow cast by these serious problems with the initial BS3 bikes is long, dark and well deserved.

If RE realised the problem with BS3 bike chassis - did they issue a recall for all BS3 bikes sold to reinforce / change the chassis ? Or because its India and ppl buy RE's like cattle fodder - they just let it be and hoped not many failures would occur or ppl will accept it as part of owning a RE ?

[marcussantiago]

So it's an adventure bike... that can't do adventure riding. Hmm. Makes perfect sense!

But it's okay, because heritage and history and charm and character blah bah blah.

Really, RE's marketing is genius. They could successfully sell ice to a tribe of eskimos if they wished.

And the proof is in the profits. Despite stories like these, people are buying Enfields like there's no tomorrow.

[Trojan]

Originally Posted by Gordon

Was the bike bring ridden over aggressively?

No idea Gordon, but I would think how many bikes from other manufacturers have faced this. Heck, even REs own stable probably suffers more from Clutch and Accelerator cable rather than chassis breaks which is predominantly Himalayan territory.

If stress is a contributor, then stress also contributes over time, but then there are countless bikes, which have been ridden over years in bad terrain, but they don't seem to suffer from such failures, and what's worse is these bikes are just plain commuter bikes and not touted as an Adventure Tourer.

In rural areas, the humble 100CC bikes carry ridiculous loads with minimum 3 people through jungle roads in all seasons and all without batting an eyelid.

Originally Posted by ethanhunt123

Ridiculous QC by Royal Enfield. If something like this would happen abroad - RE would get sued for a huge amount.

Utter disregard for customer issues, rather than solve it at a mass scale by issuing a recall, they are happy to deal with customers on a one to one basis and replacing chassis free of cost, which of course means that nothing will be disclosed. I have seen people getting these free replacements even hesitating to share the details

Originally Posted by ArizonaJim

I haven't seen any problems like this with the newer production Himalayan's they are making following the revisions

Originally Posted by navin_v8

Hopefully RE has addressed this in their BSIV models. Is the model in question here a BSIII or BSIV?
IMO RE should've made a recall and fixed all BSIII models with a reinforced or better a redesigned chassis for the benefit of the riders and themselves.

Originally Posted by neil.jericho

Does anyone know if this is the BS3 version of the Himalayan or the BS4 one?

I have seen this with both the new ones (BS4) as well as the older ones (BS3). No one from RE seems to be bothered about this issue, this particular case was tweeted and the response is a silly {That's no good!} as if this was the freaking first case of a chassis break.

The kind of advertising and terrains that they showcase the bike to be capable of conquering should also translate to the real world.
For every 100 successful trips if one has to suffer this fate, this can't be confidence inspiring at all.

Why can't RE build a single reliable bike???!!!

Its such a frustrating and losing battle for the customer especially in our country where consumer laws are probably more backward then REs QC.

[neil.jericho]

Originally Posted by ethanhunt123

If RE realised the problem with BS3 bike chassis - did they issue a recall for all BS3 bikes sold to reinforce / change the chassis ?

I am trying to find out the same.

Originally Posted by ethanhunt123

Or because its India and ppl buy RE's like cattle fodder - they just let it be and hoped not many failures would occur or ppl will accept it as part of owning a RE ?

First of all, who buys cattle fodder worth 2 lakhs at a time ?

Originally Posted by Trojan

I have seen this with both the new ones (BS4) as well as the older ones (BS3). No one from RE seems to be bothered about this issue, this particular case was tweeted and the response is a silly {That's no good!} as if this was the freaking first case of a chassis break.

The kind of advertising and terrains that they showcase the bike to be capable of conquering should also translate to the real world.
For every 100 successful trips if one has to suffer this fate, this can't be confidence inspiring at all.

Trojan, thanks for your post. Now we now have confirmation from one TBHPian that this issue hasnt been resolved with the updated BS4 platform. This is concerning.

[adrian]

As a matter of fact, the older bullets and the UCEs had this tried and tested reinforced design.



It is from here that RE went on to weld the square extrusions without any reinforcement for the frame of their adventure motorcycle.