[Majumdarda]

I had also faced similar issues with the front indicators and liberal use of black tape was required. In my case, the wire had torn after getting entangled between the chassis bar.

Is tire sealant available for spoked wheels or is it a combination of tubeless tire plus tube (to protect from spokes)?

[rajneeesh]

The original rim ( with spokes) does not support tubeless tyres. I would like to have tubeless tyres without replacing the stock rims with alloy rims. I would not lie to have a puncture at speed on this bike or push a bike with a punctured tyre.

Any suggestions from anyone?

Yesterday, I observed a black patch of tar on the exhaust of Blue Bird. So, today, I took out my Victorinox Swiss army knife, a bowl of kerosene, a kitchen multipurpose cleaner, an old can of Brasso and an old tooth-brush, applied kerosene liberally using the tooth-brush all over the affected place followed by liberal spread of kitchen multipurpose cleaner, scrubbed, started, kept the engine idling for some time and when the exhaust became hot, I started scrubbing the affected area using the Victorinox pen-knife carefully. The tar layer came out easily. I tried this cycle several times. Finally, cleaned the affected area with Brasso. The multi-pronged attack paid the dividends!

[Icarus_Deft]

Originally Posted by ku69rd

Would be keen to understand in your views on the merits/demerits of the 350 Vis-a-Vis 500.

And yes Congrats on booking the bike

Thanks.

Mostly the rationale was stuck on the pricing and differentiation vis a vis. Also, For me the bike is going to be used more in plains and once in a while in hilly terrain and hence could do with 350 to begin with, especially since I have never been a bike person. Life is long. Maybe will upgrade in next fee yrs to 500 or who knows 750.

I booked my TB 350 on 14th May at Sanpada, Navi Mumbai. Have been told a waiting period of 2-3 months. Wondering if this is true as have noticed many people in the forum getting it in a Month or so.

[white-rabbit]

Originally Posted by adnaps

Hi White-rabbit

Can you please some details of the puncture sealent. What is the make, cost, method of application and any adverse impact on the ride.

Thanks

Puncture sealent proved to be a waste of money.During my last trip,back tyre was punctured.I had a real bad time getting it fixed.Sealent didnt help at all.I paid 1800/-for both tyres,and it was of no help.When the tyre got punctured,nearest town was 26km away.

[aah78]

Originally Posted by rajneeesh

The original rim (with spokes) does not support tubeless tyres. I would like to have tubeless tyres without replacing the stock rims with alloy rims.

Originally Posted by white-rabbit

Puncture sealent proved to be a waste of money.Sealent didnt help at all.I paid 1800/-for both tyres,and it was of no help.

You can still use tubeless tyres, on the spoked rims. However, you do have to use a tube inside the tubeless tyre.
(e.g. The Bonneville T100 is a modern motorcycle with spoked wheels. It uses tubeless tyres but with regular tubes installed within).

There is another method where the spoked rims themselves are sealed from inside to make them air-tight. This way you can actually use tubeless tyres without installing additional tubes. Advantage is that you can use a tyre sealant if you get a puncture.
However, this method is not 100% successful as per reviews.

[rajneeesh]

Originally Posted by aah78

You can still use tubeless tyres, on the spoked rims. However, you do have to use a tube inside the tubeless tyre.
(e.g. The Bonneville T100 is a modern motorcycle with spoked wheels. It uses tubeless tyres but with regular tubes installed within).

There is another method where the spoked rims themselves are sealed from inside to make them air-tight. This way you can actually use tubeless tyres without installing additional tubes. Advantage is that you can use a tyre sealant if you get a puncture.
However, this method is not 100% successful as per reviews.

Thanks Aah78. However how effective are tubeless tyres when they are used with tubes. Do they still hold air inside in case of getting punctured by nails or lose air pressure immediately like tyres with tubes?

[Gansan]

Originally Posted by J.Ravi

Going by the sticker on the can, it is synthetic engine oil.

Originally Posted by kaka46

It's most likely a semi synthetic oil. Fully synthetic oils retail for around INR 700 - 850 for 1L. Here it is a 3L can and costs around INR 930.

The sticker in the photo says "Synthetic technology Motor oil", which is a euphemism for semi synthetic oil.

An unrelated query:
@Ravi, was there ever any issue of oil leakage from gear box, like the old crop of Bullets? Has the problem been fully addressed now?

Originally Posted by Gansan

The sticker in the photo says "Synthetic technology Motor oil", which is a euphemism for semi synthetic oil.

Thanks, Gansan. Price-wise too, Wurth is less compared to fully-synthetic ones.

was there ever any issue of oil leakage from gear box, like the old crop of Bullets? Has the problem been fully addressed now?

My Thunderbird 500 did not have any oil leakage problem. In fact, when the engine oil was changed recently, the oil level remained intact at the maximum level even after 6 k km.

[ArizonaJim]

Originally Posted by rajneeesh

Thanks Aah78. However how effective are tubeless tyres when they are used with tubes. Do they still hold air inside in case of getting punctured by nails or lose air pressure immediately like tyres with tubes?

When a tubeless tyre is mounted with a tube inside of it, the inner tube is the only thing keeping the air pressure in the tyre.
If the tube gets punctured, the results are the same as a tube style tyre with an inner tube in it.

Why doesn't the tubeless tyre when mounted on a tube type rim keep the air from leaking out if the tube is punctured?

The reason is because the rim which is made for a tube type tyre does not have the precision shaped rim walls needed to work with the tubeless tyres sidewalls to seal the interface.

The valve stem hole also presents a leak path for the air to leak out. (Tubeless wheels of course use a separate inserted valve stem that is made to seal in the precision hole that was machined thru the rim).

Then, we have the issue with the spokes. The holes that are pierced for the spokes all provide leak paths for any air that escapes from the inner tube if it is punctured.

Tubeless tyres are not less likely to be punctured by sharp objects than tube style tyres.

There are larger selections of tubeless tyres available and often these tyres will provide better handling and overall preformance so don't rule them out when shopping for good replacement tyres. Just accept the fact that the old style inner tube will be needed and if it goes flat, you cannot simply "plug" the leak like you can with a tubeless tyre mounted on a rim that is made for it.

[white-rabbit]

Did the 3rd free service yesterday.I had complained about faulty fuel guage and faulty parking light. The bird had clocked 5991km when I left for service.The fuel guage and speedo console was replaced under warrenty,which resolved the issues I had.But the odo shows plain 2km and all my 6000km was gone and bird is back in 2km reading now!

Originally Posted by white-rabbit

But the odo shows plain 2km and all my 6000km was gone and bird is back in 2km reading now!

Ditto here. Blue Bird was delivered to me with cracked glass on the OE stock instrument cluster, but got it replaced at 5,722 km only. The cracked glass on the OE stock odometers in new Thunderbirds reflects poor quality control at Royal Enfield. There are many owners, who got the odometers replaced, not once, but twice and thrice, under warranty!



Even the new instrument cluster continues to be inaccurate, be it the distance [+6% error], digital clock or fuel gauge [even after replacement of faulty float].



Due to change of instrument cluster, I stopped photographing important milestones at every 1,000 km, thanks to Royal Enfield.

[white-rabbit]

Speedo is still something we can live with.But the flat spot around 1000rpm,is the dangerous one.I have been to x-torque and there is a solution with them it seems.They have a ecu program which has 3 modes,
POWER,FE,BEST OF BOTH. A button will be provided to switch between these three. I am not sure this will help much,but once warrenty is over,I will give a try.

Also I won in the conflict which was going on for the price hike RE imposed on my Bird.I got the extra money I paid towards price hike from dealer.In case anybody need the contact points,I can share it.

Here are the key chains adorning my XUV 500 and Thunderbird 500 with the latter's edited a little bit to emphasize the difference.



My Blue Bird will be very happy, if Team-BHP introduces 'Live To Ride' key chains; until then, it has to be satisfied with this photo-edited virtual key chain!

[abirnale]

Originally Posted by J.Ravi

Even the new instrument cluster continues to be inaccurate, be it the distance [+6% error], digital clock or fuel gauge [even after replacement of faulty float].

Hey Ravi, thanks for this amazing thread. Inspired with this and few others on the forum I Bought a thunderbird 500 for myself. I got it delivered yesterday!

I did most exhaustive checks I could do based on a lot of feedback and things I read here. This morning, I noticed that the clock is off by few minutes. It runs behind by 10-12 minutes - I had set it up in the evening to 6.18pm and by morning 9 am it has fallen behind by 12 minutes! So, RE and electronics don't go well with each other it seems

The gear indicator is too hard to notice in bright sunlight - I almost thought it has stopped working today!