My phobia kept me away from these magnificent machines for many years but now I want to start riding.

BHPian priyeshkolte recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

Hello everyone!

I live in Thane and I am a huge fan of automobile engineering. However, due to some nasty experiences in my adolescent years, I developed a kind of phobia for 2-wheelers. Because of this, I kept myself away from these magnificent machines for quite a lot of years.

However, things are really stirring up after seeing Indian automakers making sweet parallel twin engines with a refinement that beats some of the best Japanese bikemakers.

In recent times, I have had a lot of personal issues both emotional and physical for which my counsellor suggested to do a few things which might reduce the stress and allow me to loosen up a bit.

I would like to get help from the community:

• Help me understand which kind of motorcycles I should consider. I am a big fan of the extremely tractable motors which allow you to be relaxed and enjoy everything else around you except the ride.
• Can anyone from Thane help me get rid of this phobia by giving me riding sessions for a few hours?

Here's what GTO had to say about the matter:

You aren't alone:

• 45% of BHPians consider riding to be "high risk", while another ~50% consider riding in India to be "medium risk". Only 6.47% of enthusiasts think that motorcycling is "low risk" - link to poll & discussion.
• I L-O-V-E motorcycles and I love to ride. However, our roads are terrible, there is no traffic sense and one idiot driving a rickshaw on the wrong side or taking a u-turn in the middle of nowhere is enough to send you to the ICU for 6 months (or your grave). I love my life too much to leave it in the hands of ill-trained drivers or poor infrastructure.
• If you have a phobia, so be it. Have more fun in cars. As much as I love motorcycles, I don't miss riding at all, because I'm having way too much fun with cars.
• And those times that I really need a fix, I go for a short ride on borrowed motorcycles.

Am not a rider by choice & have absolutely no regrets.

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

While I am nowhere near Thane so can't help you put it directly but I can only suggest trying the Interceptor purely based on what you mentioned.

While the Interceptor is just a start, I would also suggest waiting for the Himalayan 450, and XPulse 400 expected by the end of this year.

What kind of bike? Test ride all you can think of and get what connects with you the best. Once you have a shortlist and can't pick one, come back to us, you're always welcome.

Would also suggest checking out the MotorInc channel and linking a video here which you might find interesting, ignore if you don't.

Credits to Providers

You're on a good heading, good luck and welcome back to motorcycling.

Here's what BHPian masterChief007 had to say about the matter:

This is sort of a red flag, sorry but I need to air caution here. Motorcycling needs 100% of emotional and 100% physical balance. When riding you must not let any emotions other than those which you are feeling related to the riding, also you need to be in decent fitness to not get irritated due to some pain or the other.

In case you are going through some tough situation in life, both emotionally and physically then please make sure they don't be the pillion on your rides. It's very easy to twist the throttle along with some negative thoughts.

Ok, now that I am done lecturing, start with a relaxed tourer for now which is hassle-free (Honda Highness?), wake up early in the morning 5.00 am and make rounds near your house, once you start making some miles your phobia will also vanish. Maybe catch up with fellow BHPians in your city for some breakfast rides?

Here's what BHPian aargee had to say about the matter:

The best way to overcome a fear is to have a cup of coffee with the fear; in that aspect, yes, your ride to overcome your fear of riding, which is right in a way.

However, the foundational prerequisite to ride a motorcycle {or a scooter} requires immense concentration in the mind & good fitness in the body. If you have a phobia, then that's trouble hindering you from riding right at the mind, which, in my humble opinion, has to be addressed first before anything else.

Since we don't know & not morally, or ethically & obligated to know your personal life issues, I think they've to be taken care of second. And this should automatically take care of your stress & loosen more than you can think {just remember, <50 lives a billionaire & he has stress too}, hence RIDING is not the ONLY solution for bursting stress, there're other options, especially when there's a phobia around it.

Check out BHPian comments for more insights and information.

People give you funny looks if you tell them you want a test drive for a common city bike.

BHPian 2000rpm recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

I was recently wondering about getting a new bike for a city / suburban commute in Mumbai and I was shocked to see the state of affairs at most bike showrooms in Mumbai.

In general, I experienced the below:

• No quality staff to attend to customers
• No test drives are available for most models. People give you funny looks if you tell them you want a test drive for a common bike like FZ-S
• Dealers pushing mandatory useless accessories for about 5K.

My ranking from best experiences to worst experiences is as below:

1. Rank 1 - Royal Enfield (Got TDs for all bikes)
2. Rank 2 - Suzuki (even got the TD for VSTROM)
3. Rank 3 - Hero
4. Rank 4 - Honda
5. Rank 5 - Yamaha

Special Mention to Yamaha (Surya Motors Kalyan) for such a poor experience that I literally witnessed people walking out of the showroom shaking their heads.

Have 2-wheelers become commodities? What am I missing?

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

The suburban area that you are referring to suffers from this attitude where two-wheelers are simply commodities and hence the owner treats it as a business. TDs are seen as unnecessary expenses. Many don't even keep a TD unit at all.

However, I have had a mixed (good to ok) experience with different brands in the Thane area for TDs.

1. Yamaha 1 - The owner was sitting next to the sales manager and when I reached the showroom for TD of FZ25 (newly launched then), the owner whispered to the sales manager - "I don't understand what they get in TD. What benefit does it have?". The sales guy still gave me a TD for 200 meters only.
2. Benelli (when they were operating) - TD was easily available but for only 200-300 meters with staff as pillion.
3. Yamaha 2 - "No TD. We don't give TD. You can book and then do all TDs that you want."
4. Honda BigWings - All bikes ready for TD on your own for whatever time you want.
5. Suzuki - Same as Honda BigWings.
6. Kawasaki - All bikes ready for TD but with staff as pillion.
7. Triumph - Any bike, any place, any duration. They were even ready to bring the bike to my place at any time. I never opted for one in the end as I had a change in priorities so actual TD never happened.

Now the real pain point: After Sale Service. Honda has simply gone down the gutter. It was good (not great due to volumes and AMC push every time) but now it is downright pathetic and a waste of time. I recently gave them my Activa for service with a genuine problem to solve. They attributed it to the low battery charge and did only normal service. Not even spark plugs were changed which I actually had asked them to do so. One week later I took the scooter to a local mechanic and he solved the problem in the gearbox for Rs 100 in one shot. He knew the resolution from my first description.

Bajaj ASS was similar. They do regular work and for actual issues, you are better off with a local garage that will attend to you properly. I had to take my bike to Bajaj twice after full service for a problem that they solved later on the third visit.

So yes, two-wheelers are a pure commodity now (more so the lower displacements - anything lower than 200cc). Simply because the dealership and service centre owners look at it as a business only. They don't care about your hard-earned money or emotions.

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

I can just imagine the state mentioned. I have seen I drop in the service of Honda scooters and bike service centres too. Absolutely horrible attitude from the staff right up to the main managers. It’s as if they are there to do a favour for us. On many occasions, I’ve given my scooter for repair and have had it returned with a screw missing or the foot mat not fitted properly or even simple things like the washing of the bike. They just don’t bother. Forget showrooms, they know for a fact the product will get sold, if not from you, then a million others. Hence they don’t give a damn.

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

Quite sad honestly. If anyone is purchasing an RE in BLR, do not go to the following showrooms:

1. RE Koramangala Motors (Dairy Circle)
2. RE Electronic City Motors (Kudlu Gate/Singasandra)
3. RE Electronic City Motors (Bommasandra)
4. RE Bommasandra Motors

The First Showroom (RE Koramangala Motors) is where my friend purchased his Himmy wherein they delayed the delivery of the bike which led him to escalate the matter to higher-ups at RE, post which they delayed the registration and procurement of the number plate. Almost 30 days post-delivery to register it and another 20 days over that for procure the plate. All this after a 4-month wait time for the bike.

I took delivery of my bike from Electronic City Motors at Kudlu Gate/Singasandra and my oh my what a crap show. They didn't delay the delivery of the bike, in fact, I got it earlier than promised, but their attitude was absolute trash. No one cares when a customer walks in, you could sit there for half an hour and no one would bother. In addition, on the day of the delivery, they asked us to come at 5:30 pm, and we were there on the dot. They made us wait till 6:30 pm and brought out the wrong bike (cross-verified the VIN) with all my accessories fitted. They took it back, removed and refitted the accessories onto my bike, cleaned it and finally delivered it at 7:30 pm.

Another horror story that happened there was with regard to them delivering the wrong bike, a friend of mine riding it for 500kms without realising it and then them calling him back informing him of the same, and swapping the odometer as if nothing happened.

A third and more recent incident from this showroom is when a friend of mine purchased his GT 650 and they took the cash from him for his personalised number, didn't deliver the bike for almost a month after the promised time, then didn't apply for registration for another month after that. They later informed him that the number that he wanted wasn't available after paying the cash in full. They still haven't procured his actual number plate. My friend just had one made that resembles an HSRP from a local shop using the RC that he got on Digi locker. Speaking of RC, they haven't given me my physical RC copy yet and I have to go to the RTO to collect it.

Their service station is also subpar. Avoid this showroom at all costs.

I haven't been to the Bommasandra Motors showrooms personally, but a couple of my friends who bought their bikes from there told me about the absolutely crappy customer service they offer, similar to that of the Koramangala Motors Showroom.

The only showroom and service centre worth going to IMO is the Company Store (at least towards south BLR). They do a pretty good job for the most part. Not sure about the showrooms and SVCs near HSR and Lalbagh, maybe the other members who have had better experiences can update the same here.

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

I have had a similar experience while buying two-wheelers, more so when it comes to scooters in Bangalore.

When we were looking to buy a scooter in 2016, my wife wanted to blindly buy the TVS Scooty Zest as she used to have a Scooty Streak earlier and it was lightweight. In order to convince her that weight is not that much of an issue when it comes to scooters, I asked her to try the other options available.

In most showrooms, they would directly show you the price list and models and not even offer a test ride. The only exception here was Vespa, who offered a test ride first, maybe as they knew the pricing was on the higher side, and a test ride would be needed to justify the price.

On asking, Honda, TVS, Suzuki and Mahindra 2 wheeler's showroom guys did not waste much time arranging the test drives. In fact, all had a different section for test drives and helped us test drive all models (Honda and TVS have a lot of options). Mahindra Gusto's experience was the best in that regard, where the salesman encouraged us for a longer test ride and also helped us with the seat height adjustment option, asking me to try with a higher seat height, to highlight the feature.

The worst experience had been with Yamaha, which even though nearest to my house, failed to provide a test ride after 3 visits, each time claiming that the test ride vehicle has gone for display at the mall or at a corporate event. However, all these test rides were rather short, hardly a few hundred meters, with Mahindra being an exception, who encouraged us to take it longer.

I am glad that Honda has Big wing dealerships now, as in 2015 when I was looking for test drives for Honda CBR 250 ABS, it was not available in most showrooms. After visiting many Honda dealerships, finally, one told me that he has the bike available, and when we went there, they only had the CBR 150. The salesman said you can test ride the 150, 250 is the same just more power and less mileage. He also told me spending more for ABS is a waste of money, and I can save some money with the non-ABS version which they have in their warehouse stock.

When I insisted on a test ride of the 250, they asked me to come after 2 days in the afternoon, for a test drive, as evening the bike will be delivered to customers. They were planning to give me a customer's brand new bike for a test ride, even before the customer could ride it. That was the final nail in the coffin, and I am yet to ever ride a CBR 250.

The experience at the KTM showroom at BTM also was quite bad, where they were allowing test rides in a service road adjacent to the showroom, which lead to a dead end in 300-400mts. RE and Benelli were quite good and we could easily get test rides for the bikes we were interested in. I finally ended up renting the bikes I was interested in for a day before finalizing.

This is in stark contrast with the experience in car showrooms, where test drives are the norm, and the price and discussions start after that.

Check out BHPian comments for more insights and information.