[dZired]

Royal Enfield has temporarily suspended production of the Himalayan motorcycle. While the company hasn’t made an official announcement about the same, a couple of dealerships have confirmed that they haven't received a single unit of the Himalayan after the BS-IV regulations were enforced from April 1, 2017.

Reports suggest that Royal Enfield is taking some time to rectify all quality-related issues that have been cropping up in the Himalayan, ever since it was launched in March 2016. Owners across the country have reported issues related to the clutch, gearbox and excessive noise from the bike. Royal Enfield had even issued an official recall for the Himalayan over these issues in July 2016.

Dealerships have claimed that Royal Enfield will be launching a BS-IV compliant, fuel-injected version of the Himalayan in August this year. Bookings for the bike are still being accepted, though customers are being promised delivery only after August. With the addition of electronic fuel injection (EFI), the Himalayan is likely cost Rs. 6,000-8,000 more than its current pricing.

Source: BikeAdvice

Link to Team-BHP News

[Rehaan]

Originally Posted by dZired

Reports suggest that Royal Enfield is taking some time to rectify all quality-related issues that have been cropping up in the Himalayan, ever since it was launched in March 2016.

One related (and shocking) such issue :

Welding defect in Royal Enfield Himalayan; frame cracks!

[GTO]

Classic case of launching a product before it was ready for sale. At least that's my impression going by the large number of niggles reported by owners. Sure, a lot of new products have niggles in the first year of production, but some on the Himalayan were of a critical nature.

Could be because of stock market pressure, fixed deadlines or whatever. But this was not done. The Himalayan had a lot of potential and if the launch was pushed back by a year to sort out the issues, it would have been a runaway success. I keep reading posts from BHPians who considered the Himalayan, but backed out due to the reported problems.

Crazy - you develop a product for 4 - 5 years, then launch it a bit early and the market rejects it. From November 2016 onward, the Himalayan has sold in the mere 3 digits. Even if Royal Enfield does sort out the issues now, it's going to be a tough sell. Once your reputation is damaged in India, it's incredibly hard to build it back.

[farhadtarapore]

It's not as if ALL their bikes are of poor quality. A few from each batch are lemons and a few have minor quality defects and a few have major quality defects.
What this is pointing towards is lack of control and consistency in the manufacturing processes (of the frame, chrome plating, for example) and lack of thorough quality control processes.

[Roy.S]

Originally Posted by GTO

Classic case of launching a product before it was ready for sale......
.....
.....

Bingo! I have a Suzuki Shogun which I tortured on a daily basis from '95 to '99 and the worst that happened was that I managed to slightly bend the frame when I hit a dip in the road at speeds that I had no business doing. I still ride it sometimes and 22 years later it shows no signs of giving up.
How can the frame on the Himalayan just crack?
I am still holding out on my bike purchase hoping that RE manages to get it's act together. However, the Dominar looks more tempting with each passing day.

[timuseravan]

Originally Posted by GTO

Crazy - you develop a product for 4 - 5 years, then launch it a bit early and the market rejects it. From November 2016 onward, the Himalayan has sold in the mere 3 digits. Even if Royal Enfield does sort out the issues now, it's going to be a tough sell. Once your reputation is damaged in India, it's incredibly hard to build it back.

GTO, RE works on a different plane than the normal manufacturers.
They have two phases - internal product development for 4-5 years and then external beta testing for another 4-5 years.
And the best part is that the beta testers pay for the privilege of testing!
What company would not want to be in this envious position!

[Hammer & Anvil]

15 July the BS4 bikes hit showroom for test ride and bookings open again for these 'new' bikes.
So says my neighbourhood Soniya Motors RE Dealer.

[TorqueyTechie]

Bookings open for himalayan. The Himalayan FI is priced at Rs. 1.84 lakhs (ex-showroom, Chennai). This is almost a 20000 rs increase from the earlier carb version. Deliveries to start from August. Also according to the article in motorbeam, RE has acknowledged the shortcomings of the earlier version and has spent Rs. 600 crore on a new plant in Chennai to focus on quality improvements. Lets hope that all theniggles and the qc issues are sorted out. Royal Enfield has also hinted at a bigger version of the Himalayan in the future but has not given out any information about the bike coming ABS equipped.

PS: Aren’t all vehicles from 2017 supposed to come with ABS as default?

[johny_desparado]

There is another Indian manufacturer that does this extremely well and gets away with it as our country lacks stringent lemon laws. It's Mahindra. We pay for their prototype and they learn from their customer's misery and release a better product latter, making the first batch of customers to end up looking like idiots in the society at large.

[ReluctantRebel]

I am not surprised that this product has so many issues. Its RE after all. Even though i haven't owned one, i have ridden quite a few and am familiar with the problem that the owners face. However, its a sin to release such products in this day and age where there is much more scrutiny.

@GTO, i dont think its due to stock market pressure as the company is performing really well. I am assuming that its a combination of two factors: confidence of having a first-of-its-kind product and pure arrogance.

[marcussantiago]

And yet, RE continues making mountains of money because people keep falling for the "sexy retro macho WWII-era" look.

Even now, people are still queuing up and waiting months on end for Enfields so they can wake up the entire neighborhood blasting their open-flow exhausts to let them know they own an Enfield, and are therefore totally macho badass Bullet-wallahs. And worldwide, RE sales are continuously rising thanks to unshaven, vinyl-record playing hipsters who want that "authentic WWII-era" look and character, despite the fact that one ride on an actual first-world highway at highway speeds and that bike will never run properly again. It's all part of the charm, don't you know. Character and all that.

As a result, Royal Enfield needs a team of bulldozers to shovel in all that cash. They will change absolutely nothing about their strategy / engineering / quality control / etc because whatever they're doing (or not), it's clearly working.

[sandeepmdas]

I invite the attention of enterprising TBHPians to a great business opportunity hiding in plain sight. Start a chain of professional unauthorised (third-party) service centers exclusively for the RE products.

Based on the sheer number of those shiny new Bullets on (Kerala) roads, I won't be surprised by 2020 even the roadside bike repair-walahs make half a million rupees per month by mending them.

[satishv1987]

Originally Posted by marcussantiago

Even now, people are still queuing up and waiting months on end for Enfields so they can wake up the entire neighborhood blasting their open-flow exhausts to let them know they own an Enfield, and are therefore totally macho badass Bullet-wallahs.

Slightly unrelated to the topic but relevant nevertheless.

I read an article in a national daily that the Police in TN(or AP, I am not able to recollect which state) are beginning a crackdown on these modified exhausts, many of which breach the 90dB upper limit.

Some of them that I see on the road are absolutely ridiculous. They look like the mouth of a medieval era cannon.

[marcussantiago]

Originally Posted by satishv1987

Some of them that I see on the road are absolutely ridiculous. They look like the mouth of a medieval era cannon.

Well, isn't a cannon the old school logo for Royal Enfield? Possibly hinting at their handling and sportiness characteristics...

[Roy.S]

Originally Posted by marcussantiago

And yet, RE continues ....
.
.
RE sales are continuously rising thanks to unshaven, vinyl-record playing hipsters...
.
.

"unshaven, vinyl-record playing hipsters.."

Thank you, sir, for that remark which has significantly improved my mood for the rest of the day. Possibly week.