How I'm facing pathetic spare parts support from Honda for my CB300F

I hit a pothole which destroyed the front rim completely and created a bend in my back rim.

BHPian kurian_john recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

I bought this bike in March 2023 at the discounted price of 2.05L onroad. Since then over 6 months I've driven more than 13800+ km. My experience with the bike has been very good for my daily commutes and for long tours. I regularly get a mileage of 36-39 kmpl. I've done 500+ kms in a day 6 times and multiple other trips in the 300-400 km range. 80-100 kmph is definitely the sweet spot for cruising on this bike. Above that there are quite a few vibrations. Seat isn't the best for long tours but you can easily get an air seat or add a proper cushion. Bigwing's service has also been good for the most part for me.

But the biggest issue has been the spares availability. On August 13, 2023, while coming back during heavy rain on the highway due to bad visibility I hit a pothole which destroyed the front rim completely and created a bend in my back rim. I decided not to go for insurance as I wanted the replacement process to happen quickly.

Only the front rim finally got replaced on 31st August. I live in Chennai but the rim had to come from Thrissur, Kerala. This delay is okay. I can kind of understand it though I was a little perplexed how Honda didn't keep stock in any major cities.

Now coming to the back rim, they absolutely don't have one in stock all over India. I've personally called and checked with service centers in Chennai, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Kerala, Mysore, Lucknow, Puducherry, Mumbai and Delhi. They all said that the rim isn't in stock anywhere in India. That to me is unacceptable from a big company like Honda. And this is even though CB300F and CB300R share the same rims. When two of your motorcycles share the same rims, how can you not keep any in stock? My service advisor told me that for another customer the headlight frame took 4 months to arrive. My service center in Chennai has been very responsive and I can see that they are trying all they can. But without the rim stock available all over India, there's nothing much they can do. I've read Team-BHP threads and twitter threads where people have been waiting 3-4 months for the same rims in cities like Kolkata.

So finally I would say that the bike is pretty good till you actually face a situation where you require a replacement of parts, because Honda's spare parts management is absolutely PATHETIC. Please don't buy it unless you know a way to source spare parts yourself or Honda solves this issue. I'll keep you updated when I finally receive the back rim.

Here's what BHPian shancz had to say on the matter:

Very unfortunate to hear this especially since I considered the CB300F as a no-nonsense VFM do it all motorcycle, like the Unicorn.

What I fail to understand is for someone like Honda 2 Wheelers India with their extensive logistics chain, not use the same when it comes to BigWing or Topline which are supposed to deliver a more premium experience?

IMO taking it back to the standard Honda showroom, ASC and supply chain can actually do wonders for the motorcycle.

Here's what BHPian antz.bin had to say on the matter:

Truly pathetic situation. It's not as if this is a proprietary high-tech hardware and needs to be imported from a far-off country.

I had a question regarding this though. What is stopping us from cutting Honda out of this particular transaction altogether? Why not get the sturdier and lighter weight KTM rims instead? Not only the availability will be better, you will get better performance as well. It was quite commonplace for the CBR250R and its Disk pads where people used to use Pulsar 220 disk pads since the ones from Honda costed 10x more and had similar performance lasted roughly the same amount of time.

Anyways, with the official price cut now bringing the bike to the price you purchased it for, it is quite a VFM offering compared to the competition.

Hopefully these lower prices bring additional volumes which can then help alleviate the spares situation on this motorcycle.

Check out BHPian comments for more insights and information.