[nasirkaka]

Nice, did you yet use the id I had sent you?

Nopes. Was about to use the ID and forward the mail today, but got a reply before that. Looks like someone one from RE is closely following the thread

Anyhow i had met Mr SounderRajan (area service manager) yesterday itself, and handed him the bike. Hope he makes sure that the technicians do a decent job, and i don't have to chase them time and again..

On another note - Will changing the handlebar void warranty? i have a new Machismo OEM handlebar which i would like to try on the C5, to test ergonomics. Has Anyone tried that? Would all the cables have a bit extra length to extend to the new handlebar?

[mantrig]

Originally Posted by nasirkaka

On another note - Will changing the handlebar void warranty? i have a new Machismo OEM handlebar which i would like to try on the C5, to test ergonomics. Has Anyone tried that? Would all the cables have a bit extra length to extend to the new handlebar?

I am not sure if it will void the warranty. Ideally, It should not.

Also, you can try what Achint Ess-you-we/ Randhawa (not sure who) had done with theirs. One of them had turned the handle-bar towards themself to make the sitting more comfortable to reduce the strain on shoulders. The problem with using a Machismo handle bar will be the length of cables might be insufficient and you might have to source the cables from a Machismo.

I might be wrong here, may be others can comment.

Also, if you use the existing cables they might be custom made for C5 and they might be strained causing breakage / inefficiency due to the existing length.

(Cables I am talking about --- Front Disk cable / speedometer cable as trottle cable might not be much of an issue even sourcing or using the existing one ).

[Randhawa]

A new issue and a shocking discovery

I'll tell you the issue first.

For few weeks I was hearing a creaking noise coming from the handle so got it checked and I was told it's the T joint handle bearing.

Today I went to get it checked but before the mechanic could get to the bearing, he had to open stuff so he had to undo the caps on the fork oil seal. Which he did but after that he got confused and I was not feeling comfortable with his face expressions. Not many mechanics at the workshop dare to touch my bike so only my trusted mechanics are allowed to work on her.

The reason for his amused look was the LKey nut on the fork. He could not open up with the standard LKey bar as we found out that RE decided to up the size and did not bother to inform the dealer about it. This kind of incident was second time with me as previously the workshop did no had the socket to undo the front sprocket to replace the kick shaft seal.

So he tried different sizes but the one we needed was not there so took some help from the neighbor who runs an engineering company. Conclusion was that we needed size 12 LKey which was not at the workshop. So we ended up borrowing the LKey from them to get on with the work. I was in no mood to wait for the workshop to get a new one while I waited endless hours in sweltering heat and gassed up workshop.

Anyway getting to the bearing(dont think it's called bearing) we found out that booth the cones were damaged due to rust and all this at 10K on odo.

So got the whole set replaced under warranty which otherwise would have costed me Rs 500 for the whole set + labor. Along with that got the speedo cable changed which was playing up a bit.

Things are back to normal now.

Pictures attached for your viewing pleasure




Now for the shocking discovery I am not sure if I should be shocked or bemused on the finding.

Few months back I had a small accident and I got the whole dome head light kit replaced. For the last month I had a feeling about the light that something was funny about it. I felt the head light beam was a bit off the focus and I thought the culprit was the headlight bulb. So I thought of sorting out the issue. Got the bulb replaced but still felt something was wrong. While refitting the fork sleeve and mudguard which I was personally getting it aligned properly to avoid scuffing, kept looking at the headlight glass and observed the design of the glass.

I found out that on C5 headlight glass, Minda(headlight manufacturer) has incorporated some lines at angles in the glass to cater the needs of deflecting light when on high beam(dipping a bit down to the right side due to right hand drive in our beloved country)as in some headlights of cars these days.

As on mine


















Another C5




But if that was the case then the lines should be on the right side as on mine it was on the left side. My finding totally threw me offtrack. Got up and went hunting for other C5's to have a look at the headlight glass. All had the lines on the right side compared to mine. Checked few other headlights in the parts section which again had it on the right. Few peeps at the workshop said that it might be a old design and now they are supplying with a new ones.

Which I had to agree to disagree with them on that. My take is that RE supplied me with a headlight meant for export market. I know RE from time to time keep sending wrong and incorrect part to dealer but this is a new one. I am hoping that in future they will send me an ecu and o2 by mistake, which I will be grateful to them if they ever do so.

I was told that they will look into it and probably change my headlight assembly after confirming it with RE. So lets see what they say.

RE keeps throwing surprises and I am loving it.

Here are some pics, do kindly put your views forward to clear my doubt. Wish to know if I am going cuckoo or what!


@ Surya- The batteries do come charged and filled with acid water as to my knowledge as I have not seen the dealer putting any water into them but I'll confirm anyway to clear any speculation.

@Nasir- Change of handle bar does not void your warranty.I have seen one C5 with machismo handle bar which is about 1 1/2 inch higher but without any issues. No problems with wires and accelerator cable but you might want to change the clutch cable from Electra UCE.

@Nandishpal- Nice to have a C5 comrade with no issues. Congrats mate, hope it keeps that way.

@Mantrig- What does a speedo cable has to do with a taller handle bar?

[EssYouWe]

Originally Posted by mantrig

Also, you can try what Achint Ess-you-we/ Randhawa (not sure who) had done with theirs. One of them had turned the handle-bar towards themself to make the sitting more comfortable to reduce the strain on shoulders. Also, if you use the existing cables they might be custom made for C5 and they might be strained causing breakage / inefficiency due to the existing length.

(Cables I am talking about --- Front Disk cable / speedometer cable as trottle cable might not be much of an issue even sourcing or using the existing one ).

I did that, but am not very pleased with the result. It still isn't good enough. However, coupled with a better seat it could work out as a plausible solution.

The cables will need to be changed. That isn't a big deal either. I saw a C5 running the TBTS handlebar in Delhi. Apart from the fact that it looked ugly, it just shows that it can be done.
You'll just have to settle for ugly cables.

Originally Posted by Randhawa

A new issue and a shocking discovery

I'll tell you the issue first.
.
.
.

@ Surya- The batteries do come charged and filled with acid water as to my knowledge as I have not seen the dealer putting any water into them but I'll confirm anyway to clear any speculation.

@Nasir- Change of handle bar does not void your warranty.I have seen one C5 with machismo handle bar which is about 1 1/2 inch higher but without any issues. No problems with wires and accelerator cable but you might want to change the clutch cable from Electra UCE.

Sanjeet paaji, sell it! Stop trying to make it run against its will.

Just kidding!

I am busy with the last week of college life, will have some word on Slime by the first week of June.

Cheers.

[Randhawa]

Oye Shhhhhhh quite yarr, don't want Anastassia to get upset over it. I was wondering about slime as we were supposed to get it few weeks ago Hey tell me about the Digi Techo, I tried my luck again with the TBTS techo today but still no luck.

[mantrig]

Originally Posted by Randhawa

@Mantrig- What does a speedo cable has to do with a taller handle bar?

I just realized that while I was at work (working on a client presentation), ended up using speedo instead of clutch.

Please ignore the error which even I realised only after reading you post.

[hollywoodhogan]

Originally Posted by mantrig

I just realized that while I was at work (working on a client presentation), ended up using speedo instead of clutch.

Please ignore the error which even I realised only after reading you post.

well, what can we say? i hope that you gave nasir the right email id though.

[hollywoodhogan]

Originally Posted by Randhawa

@ Surya- The batteries do come charged and filled with acid water as to my knowledge as I have not seen the dealer putting any water into them but I'll confirm anyway to clear any speculation

no need for speculation, however, please check and revert. dealer does not put any water into the battery. the charging happens as part of the job before delivery. all batteries of new bikes come dry charged from factory, i.e. NO ACID.

[Randhawa]

I am confused with your post. You say the battery is sealed maintenance free(officially it's not, need topping up at intervals) and its comes dry charged from factory. We booth agree that dealer does not put any water(my layman term for electrolyte,acid water)

Electrolyte is present from day one in the battery when the bikes are dispatched. So are we diss-agreeing on fully charged battery from factory to charging of the battery at dealers end?

[mantrig]

Originally Posted by hollywoodhogan

well, what can we say? i hope that you gave nasir the right email id though.

Luckily, yes.

I just copied it from a past email and pasted it in the pm. So the margin for error their was fairly minimal.

[Randhawa]

Today got my headlight assembly replaced with a new one as when I explained them the issue again, they understood what the problem was and agreed for the replacement.

Now back to riding my bike with the headlight glass meant for RHD

A small issue which I thought was taken care off has shown it's ugly head. As my speedo was playing a bit so got the cable replaced yesterday which I thought to be the culprit. But it did not helped so got the speedo gear on the hub replaced but again same result. Finally swapped the meter to a new one from a Std bike and it worked just fine.

Now I have to wait for another two weeks to get a new one.

[bradhey]

My Odometer is outpacing my C5, quite literally !!
When the bike actually covers 20 kms, it reads 21.8 kms.
So there is an error of about 9% on the higher side, on the Odo reading.
It now explains why I was consistently getting 34 kms/lt of fuel

I have asked for a replacement but the dealer does not have it.
Let's hope it gets done sooner than later.

[Randhawa]

You will get the speedo changed only when the RE engineer agrees to it. Then your dealer will raise a VOR and pass it on to the engineer who then sends it off to RE for dispatch. If your dealer has not issued a VOR then you can expect to wait for eternity.

[EssYouWe]

Its always way too much to expect an RE to work right, isn't it?

@Sanjeet paaji

The speedo I was talking about is nowhere near as sophisticated as your work. It was a IR based digital tacho configured as a speedo.
I realised it was lame and abandoned fixing it on the bike. :P

[indian21r]

the mechanics have been called for some workshop in chennai. So I have asked Malik to get clarity on the skidding issue and solutions for that.

Getting spares from RE is a sure pain man. I have been waiting for a new fuel tank for quite sometime now. I did not get opportunity to go to workshop last week and the next whole week he is in chennai. So I will be able to to something about my bike only next week :(