[RahulNagaraj]

Thanks to Alvin Silvester for sending this in. Heartfelt gratitude for sharing it with other enthusiasts via this Team-BHP share page!

Hi Team,

Hope you are well.

One of my colleagues mentioned Team-BHP for the below matter, hoping to share what I have gone through with Royal Enfield and my bike, the same matter has already been sent to Royal Enfield.

Vehicle number: MH 04 JG 6422
Chassis No: ME3D4A5F1HM015883

My 5-year-old bike - A Royal Enfield Himalayan Granite BS4. After too many issues from the cone-set, swing arm and fuel pump, which was still manageable, another problem has risen, which cannot be ignored.

The chassis of my bike suddenly decided to crack at the fork joint of the handlebar while running over Mumbai potholes (I wonder how it would do in Ladhak or even tougher terrain), attached are pictures for your reference. Having said that, it's been 5 years and the chassis being a defect, is of major concern and has cost me an amount of INR 30,000/- and above, let's just say that almost more than 80% of my salary has been taken over by this issue. Been running to and fro with respect to getting approvals from the RTO to assign a new passing number is another task altogether.

This has caused mental, physical and monetary pain for me and for my kin, hope this email addresses that.

[VijayAnand1]

Sad indeed! I sincerely hope RE instead of dashing around with new colors for the Himalayan, should've proactively worked around the chassis issue and solved it for good. With the Himalayan clocking in good numbers, a chassis issue at this day and age is the last thing a consumer should be looking forward to. Time to let this go.

Cheers!
VJ

[shancz]

That's unfortunate and surprising.
I thought and believed RE had fixed this issue for the BS4 onwards ? Just when I start warming up to RE(Interceptor) their gremlins start creeping out.

IMO this should qualify for goodwill warranty by covering at least a percentage of the costs since they'd claimed that they had "fixed a lot of things".
To the OP, do ask them the same and hope they give you a favourable resolution.

Good Luck.

[rehaan2]

Sharing 3 related threads:

1) https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/motor...arts-free.html (Chassis snaps on a Royal Enfield Himalayan | EDIT: RE to replace chassis & damaged parts for free)

2) https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/motor...me-cracks.html (Welding defect in Royal Enfield Himalayan; frame cracks!)

3) https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/motor...wo-pieces.html (Royal Enfield Himalayan - Broken into two pieces)

[Chandrahas]

Whoa! Even $100 cycles come with lifetime frame warranty. I have always felt RE products aren't properly engineered, they just got lucky and got to ride the Retro-Cool wave that we have witnessed since the last decade or so.
Even their flagships suffer from fundamental defects like tramlining.
RE should definitely take it up under goodwill warranty, especially since it's a know issue with the Himalayans.

[RunGaDa]

We live in a country which allows plunder of customer’s hard earned money but let go a manufacturer who earn profits in crores. Any other country they would have to recall every bike of that model and asked to replace or refund.
I know they have some good bikes and some world class ones. But it does not give them the stand that they can get away with this.
Long back one of my friends got stranded in a remote place because the handle bar of his Enfield cracked. The company never took responsibility and just dusted off the complaints.

[rajeevsulu]

I was seriously considering buying a Hunter as a fun bike. I have a CB 350 and i love it. My commute to the hospital is strictly by car and i use my Honda just for fun rides. I wanted to add the Hunter but now no!!

[saitvsk23]

Originally Posted by rajeevsulu

I was seriously considering buying a Hunter as a fun bike. I have a CB 350 and i love it. My commute to the hospital is strictly by car and i use my Honda just for fun rides. I wanted to add the Hunter but now no!!

I would like to make you aware of one fact. The Himalayan is a product based on a whole new platform. The Hunter 350 is based on a platform which is perfected by RE by making 6 models. The chassis is a derivative of the above models and has been rigorously tested. The Hunter also comes with 17-inch alloys, which makes it a nimble and agile motorcycle. Hence this puts less load on the neck area of the frame, and is even reinforced to the body tubes of the chassis by a traingular section. Remember, traingles are always the best friend of structural integrity, and this example is no less in this case.

The Himalayan comes with a 21-inch wheel in the front, which comparatively puts more load on the neck area of the frame. The Scram variant again doesn't have this problem, since the front wheel is a 19-incher and puts comparatively less load on the neck, and more of the load is distributed to the road. This comparision is purely done on a front of vehicle dynamics.

I would ask you to consider taking a test ride and see the build quality for yourself. And not to let the issues of one product affect the prospective customers of another model, just because they come from the same manufacturer.

I'm attaching a clear pic of the model, so that you can have a clear look at it, and put your doubts to rest.

PC : maxabout.com

[rajeevsulu]

Yes. I sure will. I have booked a test ride slot for Monday. That was a very exhaustive reply with facts. It shows how naive my response was. Thank you again!

[tarmacnaut]

Originally Posted by saitvsk23

The Himalayan comes with a 21-inch wheel in the front, which comparatively puts more load on the neck area of the frame. The Scram variant again doesn't have this problem, since the front wheel is a 19-incher and puts comparatively less load on the neck, and more of the load is distributed to the road. This comparision is purely done on a front of vehicle dynamics.

The chassis of the Interceptor/Continental GT, which come with 18 inch wheel, have also have broken. Below are some of the reports from actual owners. So, 21 inch wheels being the cause is just working against recommending RE, as it was RE that launched the bike with 21 inch wheel and the owner did not swap. Basically RE doesn't have the engineering prowess to design a proper frame for the bike and is still a more of a lifestyle brand.

Scram is a fairly new model compared to Himalayan, there is high chances the issue might occur after few years of riding, as the issue has occurred in many Himalayans after few years of ownership.

The decades old push rod Enfield bullets are running fine without any frame breakage, the so called new platform(s) actually went several steps back with this basic issue.

https://youtu.be/rierCjsooxM

https://youtu.be/4gtnJOSfK2g

[MaheshY1]

Originally Posted by VijayAnand1

... I sincerely hope RE instead of dashing around with new colors for the Himalayan, should've proactively worked around the chassis issue and solved it for good...

VJ

I'm sure they have fixed this. It's a 5-yr old BS4 model, which had the problem. I'm not seeing the recent BS6 models suffering any of these issues. They got considerably heavier, though.

The Himalayan is an amazing product for its time and for its price. Only brought down by a couple of engineering issues but mostly quality issues --- quality of raw material/parts and QC. Once it entered serial production, there was less room to go back to the drawing board, re-engineer the frame to better manage the pressure points while staying around 180kg curb weight, and test it extensively. Jugaad was probably the only way out. It meant adding more metal to strengthen the pressure points. It shows in the 200kg curb weight of the BS6 model.

I have spoken with one of Himalayan's test riders and listened to the kind of riding they had done with the pre-production model. If the stories he shared were true --- and I believe they were --- the hand-made Himalayan they tested certainly was capable of a lot more than RE ever advertised.

-----------
Off-Topic:
I was in the market for a tall bike in 2016 and if I were okay with a heavier bike, I'd have found even a frame replacement every 4 years or so a reasonable price to pay for its capabilities in other areas. It is that good.

I have ridden most RE motorcycles - B350, B500FI, TB350, C500FI, Himalayan and Hunter. The Himalayan connected with me and spoke to me like very few motorcycles ever have in my life. The Honda Navi, Gixxer, and Impulse are the only other motorcycles, which matched the Himalayan's connection.

Not that the poor workmanship is excusable, but there was nothing else like it until recently. Although I haven't ridden the 390Adv and Yezdi Adv, if I were okay with the weight, I'd still pick the Himalayan over the Yezdi and 390.

I guess it all boils down to the weight. What takes off had to land. And if it's light, it's a lot easier on the frame, suspension, wheels, and rider.

PS: Hunter was the one with which I felt the least connection. It's another great product and I'll recommend it to people in my circle if their needs match with it. But it's not for me.
That's why it's critical to test ride a motorcycle before buying. A test drive for a car is not as critical as the delta or range in the 'feel' of cars is not as huge as it is in the case of motorcycles.

Originally Posted by tarmacnaut

The chassis of the Interceptor/Continental GT, which come with 18 inch wheel, have also have broken. Below are some of the reports from actual owners. So, 21 inch wheels being the cause is just working against recommending RE, as it was RE that launched the bike with 21 inch wheel and the owner did not swap. Basically RE doesn't have the engineering prowess to design a proper frame for the bike and is still a more of a lifestyle brand.

Scram is a fairly new model compared to Himalayan, there is high chances the issue might occur after few years of riding, as the issue has occurred in many Himalayans after few years of ownership.

The decades old push rod Enfield bullets are running fine without any frame breakage, the so called new platform(s) actually went several steps back with this basic issue.

The number of people riding modern REs >> number of people riding push rod REs

It's also worth noting that the cumulative number of miles modern REs are accumulating >> miles of the push-rod REs currently in working condition.

So, old REs are naturally less likely to suffer catastrophic problems than modern REs.

The tech-friendliness of modern RE riders facing problems is >> tech friendliness of push-rod RE riders. So, old RE riders don't bring them up on forums like this as often as modern RE riders.

It's also highly likely that the people owning push-road REs have come to expect problems with their motorcycles. They know that they can't expect RE to fix it for them with a turnaround time comparable to that of a modern RE.

So, just because we don't hear about push-rod RE problems doesn't mean that they don't have problems. If they were indeed that good, then we'd see them more often on our roads munching miles. But the people who have them keep them around because of emotional connection with the older REs. They often love the machine so much that they're willing to look past the problem.

Point is, modern REs are objectively more reliable.

[Rocketscience]

Pretty much another day at work at RE but I'am shocked with Interceptor series too facing this issue, this has single handedly eliminated all my trust on the brand and will strongly advise everyone to run the opposite way despite great marketing and showroom experience because this is a major engineering failure inside out no matter how someone would justify it.

Anyways why did the OP not avail their insurance for getting this fixed if RE wasn't helping, not saying RE should not own up the issue and do it for free and throw some freebies too but are there any reasons insurance claim can be rejected in such cases?

Originally Posted by MaheshY1

-----------
Off-Topic:
I was in the market for a tall bike in 2016 and if I were okay with a heavier bike, I'd have found even a frame replacement every 4 years or so a reasonable price to pay for its capabilities in other areas. It is that good.

I'am not going to argue on the merits of other points but this is just wrong thinking or wrong advise because frame breaking in the middle of the ride can have life threatening consequences and what can be bigger than that?
It is a major and vital part of running of the bike and not as trivial as say replacing the headlights every 4 years or so.

[MaheshY1]

Originally Posted by Rocketscience

...
I'am not going to argue on the merits of other points but this is just wrong thinking or wrong advise because frame breaking in the middle of the ride can have life threatening consequences and what can be bigger than that?
It is a major and vital part of running of the bike and not as trivial as say replacing the headlights every 4 years or so.

Your're right. It IS a vital part. One of the 2 most R&D-intensive components in any vehicle. That's why I don't expect it to snap because I missed braking for a puddle. In this kind of usage, it'll crack before it snaps. I'll have plenty of time to fix it before it throws me on the road.

It usually breaks on simple broken roads because we have already put it through some abuse before. But, if I'm the owner, I'd not want to disclose that part because I'd like to get the manufacturer to fix it for me for free. If I'm going airborne every weekend, then it would be part of the routine checks, especially after knowing that the frame breaks.

Finally, even if it snaps without warning, I'm covered head to toe. That's why I put on the riding gear. Every moment I'm on 2 wheels is unpredictable. Hopefully, my crash in such a situation will teach others the importance of quality safety gear like boots, gloves, pants... It'll give me another reason to justify spending so much on riding gear.

[WhiskeyTangoFox]

As much as I condemn RE's approach to handling such cases, I will state that the OPs bike has run around 50k Kms, which is a lot for a BS4 Himalayan (I'm sure there are people who have covered more but I'm stating this in general). Considering that this will vary from bike to bike and rider to rider based on usage, type of terrain the bike encounters everyday, riding style etc, this may occur with a select few bikes.

There have been reports of the chassis breaking on a few himalayans before but those are far and few in between compared to the number of Himalayans on the road as of now. As a matter of fact, I met a gentleman at the RE SVC yesterday when I went for my regular service, who had run 30k Kms and hadn't faced a single issue till date, mechanical or structural. I must state that I am not defending this in any manner because I own an RE Himalayan and can only hope that this never happens to me or to anyone else, but it is a fact that the number of reported cases of these are very low.

However, RE's approach to customer service is something that must change. Aren't all the chassis(es) designed by Harris Performance? If there is an inherent structural defect, then they are to blame as well.

[Sankar]

Originally Posted by MaheshY1

The number of people riding modern REs >> number of people riding push rod REs

It's also worth noting that the cumulative number of miles modern REs are accumulating >> miles of the push-rod REs currently in working condition.

1) Number of years enfield has been selling push rod old frame bikes >> than the number of years enfield has been selling new frame bikes.

2)

Not responding to the second point because no one really knows about the miles on old enfields because 1) many didn't have a working speedo and 2) no one really cared it went on.

regards,
a castiron pushrod ex-biker.

PS: Btw this "bullet" culture enfield cashed on was built by the old push rod bikers, cast iron and avl. "Rider mania" brand was built by bullet clubs which RE trademarked one fine day after seeing its success and prevented clubs from using the name. No one in the clubs thought of doing it first.