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6th April 2016, 15:39 | #301 |
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| re: Royal Enfield Continental GT 535 : Ownership Review (32,000 km and 9 years) Its been a quiet but expensive few weeks on the biking front since my last update on this thread. I was out of town for several days on account of the Easter holidays and returned to find myself down with a fever and a cold. This meant I didnt use the bike at all and when I finally tried to start it over the last weekend I encountered the dreaded symptoms associated with a weak battery. Trying to kick start the bike was tough because the design of the foot pegs is such that your ankle ends up getting scratched on the corrugated edge. Definitely not not a pleasant experience and not advised with slippers or floaters on. I hoped the low battery voltage indicator would disappear after getting the battery charged overnight but even that didnt work. Speaking of the battery, the Exide 12V 14AH OEM one is ridiculously heavy and contributes in its own generous way to the bikes overall weight. Since I couldnt locate the warranty card of the OEM battery (I believe they had handed it over to me at the time of delivery) I was only left with the option of getting a new battery. My online research indicated that Amaron didnt manufacture 14 AH batteries and I distinctly recalled reading complaints on the sharp quality decline in Exide car batteries over the years and how Amaron car batteries are far superior in comparison. Does anyone know if this quality drop has extended to Exide's bike batteries as well recently? After checking with a few shops, I decided to go in for one from SF Sonic which is manufactured by waitforitttt Exide. This comes with an 18 month warranty and this time Im going to keep the warranty card safe and sound. Total damage to the wallet - Rs 2600 with the exchange of the old its so heavy it could be used as a dumbbell battery included. The MRP is Rs 2809. The Exide branded battery in comparison was Rs 3050 though I didnt ask about the duration of the warranty. The big positive of this - the SF Sonic battery feels lighter than the its so heavy that it could be used as an anchor OEM Exide so that should shave a few milliseconds from my lap timings for the next track day! The bike is back in business and with the upcoming extended weekend I hope to get a couple of good rides under my belt. So lessons learnt the hard way - dont ignore the bike and save the warranty card. While this battery incident was unfortunate but avoidable, it has served to highlight one glaring weakness with the Continental GT - the OEM keys are not strong and using them to open and lock the left side panel always results in their bending. I have seen this earlier but it was barely noticeable then. It is getting noticeably worse each time I open the panels though. Both keys are equally at fault and it is starting to get a little concerning now. Do fellow owners face the same problem as well? |
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6th April 2016, 20:14 | #302 | |
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| re: Royal Enfield Continental GT 535 : Ownership Review (32,000 km and 9 years) Quote:
I personally never faced twisting issue with my keys, apart from them wearing out. You can try using some oil on the locks. Should help. Coming to the battery. Is it a maintenance free, sealed one? Or like the normal exide batteries? | |
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The following BHPian Thanks maker_of_things for this useful post: | neil.jericho |
6th April 2016, 22:44 | #303 |
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| re: Royal Enfield Continental GT 535 : Ownership Review (32,000 km and 9 years)
Just FYI bud, never use any oil on locks. Locks on our motorcycles are exposed to all the dirt and grime in the world and the oil acts as a magnet, soaking all that crud up Graphite powder is what should be used to free up the locks. If unavailable, simply take a pencil and give the key a good rub down with it. Insert key in lock and repeat the pencil rub down as many times till you reach the desired smoothness in operating the lock Much smoother, no gunk! |
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12th April 2016, 13:33 | #304 | |||||
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| re: Royal Enfield Continental GT 535 : Ownership Review (32,000 km and 9 years) Despite it being an extended weekend here on account of Ugadi, I ended up working through most of it which this meant that the actual riding I was able to do was far less than what was planned. Nonetheless, I did manage to squeeze in a short Saturday morning ride with the Team BHP group that was followed by the installation of IndiMotard's exhaust on fellow bhpian Julyone_Modi's Continental GT. Now that is a sweet sounding bike! I will share the details as soon as I am able to upload the video onto Youtube. While we were preparing to leave the still sleepy on a Saturday morning town of Kanakapura, a few local guys were asking me whether this is an old bike or if I had bought it like this straight out of the showroom recently and got it highly modified. While I have spotted Classics and Bullets in Kanakapura, I doubt they have any Continental GTs around so I could understand their curiosity. A few hours later I was at a traffic signal in Bangalore when a guy in his late twenties on a Royal Enfield Thunderbird pulled up beside me and started asking me about the bike. It turns out that he didnt even know that Royal Enfield had a bike that cost this much and this was the first time he had ever seen or heard of the Continental GT. Talk about exclusivity! Quote:
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12th April 2016, 13:48 | #305 | ||
BHPian Join Date: Oct 2007 Location: Pune
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| re: Royal Enfield Continental GT 535 : Ownership Review (32,000 km and 9 years) Quote:
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13th April 2016, 14:25 | #306 | |
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| re: Royal Enfield Continental GT 535 : Ownership Review (32,000 km and 9 years) The Royal Enfield Continental GT undoubtedly looks like a million bucks and grabs eyeballs like no other similarly priced bike does. The visual experience though isnt matched by the aural and if you ask anyone about the exhaust they will say it is completely non Royal Enfieldish. Turns out the Continental GT can sound like a rockstar on two wheels with IndiMotard's reasonably priced exhaust that also reduces weight by quite a bit. We checked the stock exhaust and found it tipping the scales at 5.3 kgs. IndiMotard says their exhaust weighs in at around 2.3 kgs so even if you give or take a little you are looking at weight savings of around 2.8 - 3 kgs. As an additional benefit, the bike looks a lot more proportionate now without the long stock exhaust. Both Julyone_Modi and I found the fit and finish to be good though it appears to be a fingerprint magnet so a simple regular wipe will probably be necessary. The pricing of Rs 3,750 was the icing on the cake. At idle, it nails the deep Royal Enfield sound that Indians love. It does get noticeably louder as you rev it though so I will wait to hear feedback from Julyone_Modi before deciding to take the plunge myself. As promised here is a video of the exhaust. Quote:
Another GT owner with offroading on his mind! Do keep us posted on the fabrication and finished product. | |
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13th April 2016, 14:56 | #307 |
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| re: Royal Enfield Continental GT 535 : Ownership Review (32,000 km and 9 years) |
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13th April 2016, 14:57 | #308 | |
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| re: Royal Enfield Continental GT 535 : Ownership Review (32,000 km and 9 years) Quote:
Some exhausts that we dont get in India but sounds awesome : I would love to get either of these. Some pics of my Sentimental GT | |
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27th April 2016, 19:24 | #309 |
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| re: Royal Enfield Continental GT 535 : Ownership Review (32,000 km and 9 years) Hi All, I'm finding no time to write a ownership thread. however wanted to update on Neil's thread since he was my main inspiration to buy CGT. I was informed CGT yellow will be discontinued in december and will make way for new color. This information made me hurry up and buy Yellow CGT in december. Well as a RE owner, i did not have niggle free ownership for 4 months now. Bike has clocked 3.3k kms. I'm enjoying riding the bike but my niggles are not yet solved. More on that later. Surprise: My bike was part of factory recall. As if regular issues were not enough that RE acutally recalled my bike for changing bend pipe which has catalytic converter. I was asked to visit the showroom where i had purchased from. Was informed its free of cost. However after job was completed took 30 rs for the gasket. My bike is september make. Hope the information helps. Want to change the exhaust to red rooster and KTM the handle bar as Neil has done. However will gain some mileage before the upgrade. Last edited by Endofdayz : 27th April 2016 at 19:26. Reason: typo |
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27th April 2016, 21:51 | #310 | |
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| 10K up! Taking a year and a half to cross the 10,000 mark isnt something that I am rather proud of but the bike's odometer has finally inched it's way into 5 digits. I used it to commute to Whitefield twice last week and it was so much easier than before with the new handlebars. For days when you want to ride a little aggressively (snigger not, the Continental GT is capable of some mild hooligan riding) sharp braking with the stock handlebar results in pulverizing of your wrists. Earlier the smile on my face while arriving at a red light would be replaced by a grimace as I massaged my wrists back into normalcy much to the puzzlement of other riders. It took me a little time to get really comfortable with the raised handlebars as I am used to sticking my left elbow out (bad habit, I know) so my left hand has had to readjust itself but it looks as though all is well. While waiting at a particularly long signal I was checking for any leaking oil on the left side (a question of how much really) and was rather surprised to see that something had fallen off altogether (red arrow in exhibit number 1 below). It looks like a screw has vanished and this was the part that went between the two ends of where the screw was supposed to be placed (refer yellow arrows in exhibit number 2 to understand my complicated statement). I have also attached another picture of the same thing on the right side for reference. Something for other Continental GT owners to look out for. Sigh! All part of the Royal Enfield ownership experience ..... Mileage : Its been a while since Ive updated the thread on this front. The last four tank fulls returned 30.08, 27.28, 24.93 and 27.29 kmpl with a mix of weekend rides, city commuting and track day throttle wringing (that accounted for the lowest figure). Overall mileage since day 1 is 27.17 kmpl which is good enough for me. Is there any better way to celebrate the 10K mark than with track day pictures of the Continental GT? All pictures courtesy the facebook page of Tendance Roadster! Quote:
It is quite the looker in black, how loud is the Red Rooster exhaust? I happened to visit the Red Rooster factory recently and I was quite impressed by their manufacturing setup. Very professional indeed. However they didnt have any dyno figures to back their claims of enhanced power which made the purchase price of Rs 9,500 seem even more steep. | |
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27th April 2016, 23:29 | #311 |
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| re: Royal Enfield Continental GT 535 : Ownership Review (32,000 km and 9 years) neil.jericho Based on your photos, the bolt at that location did not merely fall off. It broke. You probably know this but this bolt serves as the "head steady" which ties the upper part of the engine to the frame and it is a highly stressed part. The similar bolt on the other UCE powered Royal Enfields is torqued to a value of 50 NM (37 lb/ft). For this reason, along with the loads that pass thru this location, the bolt is made from a hardened, heat treated steel. Although the hardening makes the material much stronger, it can also make it more brittle and likely to break. Usually the steel is tempered following hardening. The tempering reduces the hardness a bit but greatly increases its toughness. It is possible the bolt that broke was not properly tempered. That does not mean it should not be replaced with a similar bolt. The strength is needed here so do not replace it with a common, low carbon steel bolt. The photos also seem to indicate that the engine has shifted a bit so I highly recommend that you take it to an authorized Royal Enfield service department and have them repair it. If they do it correctly, they will need to loosen all of the engine mount bolts, shift the engine to the correct position and then re-torque the mount bolts. (All of the engine mount bolts are heat treated, high strength alloy, torqued to a value similar to the one I mentioned above.) As a side note: When the cylinder head steady is broken, usually a large increase in the vibration of the entire motorcycle will be felt. After fixing this problem you may be surprised at how little your motorcycle vibrates. |
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29th April 2016, 15:48 | #312 | ||
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| re: Royal Enfield Continental GT 535 : Ownership Review (32,000 km and 9 years) Quote:
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I headed to the recently relocated company operated SVC today morning and I met one of the service advisors who said that they didnt have the correct sized bolt but nonetheless took the bike in to check. Another SA spoke to their spares division and reconfirmed that they didnt have it but could get it by Wednesday. As per both of them, spares for the Continental GT are hard to come by these days. The price of exclusivity! I was a little surprised that they didnt have what looked to be a regular bolt in stock and planned to go to my regular mechanic who would have one lying around for sure. Just before leaving the SA and I checked with one of the RE mechanics on the size of the bolt and luckily enough he had one lying among his tools. A couple of minutes after he removed the half that hadnt fallen off, the new bolt was in and I was set to go. Five stars to the mechanic Chan who was actually working on another bike and stopped that to help. Total damage to the wallet - a big fat zero. And yes, as ArizonaJim mentioned, the vibrations have come down as well! Incidentally, bhpian Julyone_Modi and I were recently comparing the vibrations on our respective bikes and we put down the excessive vibes on my Continental GT to Royal Enfields notoriety for not ageing all too well. Once again, a very positive experience with the helpful RE mechanics and service advisors. The new service centre is fantastic as well and is so much bigger and better than the old place that they operated out of. I cant help but feel happy for all the RE staff who now have a much better working environment with vastly improved facilities. Directions : From Silk Board junction head towards Jayadava flyover. At the first signal take a left and head down the road (you will eventually see Madiwala lake on your left) till it takes a 90 degree right turn. Just after the turn you will spot the Royal Enfield showroom on the right side and the large SVC is behind it. | ||
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2nd May 2016, 10:06 | #313 |
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| re: Royal Enfield Continental GT 535 : Ownership Review (32,000 km and 9 years) Hey Neil, Thanks for the concern and directions. I have been taking bike to company SVC near madiwala. Main concern i have is 1. Ground clearance. With single seat if i try to cross any speed breaker, it scraps bottom. I have complained this twice to company. But standard reply was this normal for CGT. 2. While slowing down to second or first gear or sometimes try to move in first gear there is loud thud sound. I believe sound is coming left side engine cover. the sound is more like chain slipping from the sprocket. while mentioning these problems i also told them to adjust the CLutch. Partly this issue has been taken care but not completely gone. This is issue is there from day 1 of delivery i was quite annoyed by the sound and before i could take the bike back to showroom i had travelled good distance. One thing i can tell you Neil, RE service has not even improved a bit. Owner of different RE bikes since 2009 and same Company ( brand store ) service. nothing has changed. Also have experienced that previously shooting a mail to customer service, and they use to follow up so good and proactive. but with passing years i believe even they have gone lame. Last edited by Endofdayz : 2nd May 2016 at 10:08. Reason: change in statement |
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2nd May 2016, 12:21 | #314 | ||
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| re: Royal Enfield Continental GT 535 : Ownership Review (32,000 km and 9 years) Ok, After using the exhaust for past two weeks, here is a quick review of the exhaust. Quote:
My requirements were fairly simple when I was looking to change the stock exhaust.
Other local exhausts were ruled out for want of real world testimonials. Red Rooster was ruled out for cost reason, imo it does not make any sense to pump that kind of money just for sound. And I am of opinion that changing exhaust will not result in any kind of bump in power figures (I may be wrong but hey, we are talking about RE). So only choices were Sports exhaust from RE and Indimotards Thumper. I chose the latter and boy, I am completely satisfied with the money spent on the mod! Coming to the exhaust review,
Bottomline: Am I happy with the mod: Yeah Will I continue on the mod:Hell Yeah Quote:
Any drawbacks: None mechanically that I have observed till now. However you tend to twist the throttle more often-more than necessary, just to SHOW-OFF Cheers, | ||
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3rd May 2016, 16:44 | #315 | |||||
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| re: Royal Enfield Continental GT 535 : Ownership Review (32,000 km and 9 years) We did a short 200 km ride to our top secret HQ at DD hills and the surprisingly high highway traffic levels (for a Saturday at least) meant that we could not just sit back and cruise lazily in higher gears like we usually do. Working my way through the gears, I found that overall vibrations have come down by a significant notch though I am now distinctly aware of vibrations from the seat / rear of the bike at higher RPMs. In all probability, those were already present but werent as noticeable earlier due to the overall clatter errrr I mean character. Yes character. Julyone_Modi and I were chatting at a red light when a guy who was walking by stopped and asked us about the bikes. "How much?", he asked. "2.3 lacs, top of the line Royal Enfield" was the answer. "No, no. I was asking how much is the mileage...." Sigh, only in India! Mileage : The previous weekend ride to beyond Kanakpura and back plus office commuting added up to a total distance of 280.9 kms. Petrol consumed : 9.78 litres. Mileage : 28.72 kmpl. I tanked up just before the weekend ride and filled up at Shell while returning. Total distance : 163.3 kms. Petrol consumed : 5.25 litres. Mileage : 31.1 kmpl. Quote:
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