Quote:
You look at her. She awes you. Clad in her snow-white dress, you can't help but admire the unmistakable beauty that stands before you.
You ask your girl, "how does she look"?
Even the mighty TB500 admits grudgingly, "Yes, she's quite a stunner"!
Then you get a chance to sample her. You thumb the starter, and are greeted by an uncharacteristic growl. Somewhat miffed at the cranky starter motor sound, you decide to reserve your judgement.
You take her out to the street. And are bowled over by it. While she might not deliver the immediate low-down punch that you are used to with your girl, she does pull away handsomely once the revs build up. And my, oh, my, the butter-smooth gearshifts!
You come back and stand beside your girl, all smiles, but at the same time assuring her that no, she isn't going to get any new competition at home!
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Or so goes my facebook post on this.
I got the opportunity to ride the bike yesterday at the launch event by one of the showrooms in Pune, and I did come away impressed. My two cents:
The bike looks bigger in the flesh, although the ride height was comfortable for me with both feet resting on the ground (I'm 5'6"). The instrument console was a geek's paradise, with a pleasing combination of analog dials and digital screens (MID, compass) thrown in - and it's all lighted up superbly.
The footpegs are comfortably rear-set, and the handlebar felt wider than my stock Thunderbird handle. It also somehow felt way more lighter than the on-paper figure might have you believe, although that might be because I'm used to the TB's 195 kg kerb weight.
Looks bigger in the flesh:
As mentioned above in my post, the starter motor makes a weird clanky noise in the initial cranking process, but once it starts, the sound was..well, okay/good for me. (I'm not a loud-RE-exhaust person).
Pulling away from zilch, the bike didn't feel as great as the 500cc Classic/Thunderbird does, but once past 2000-2500 rpm, she does pull away cleanly, going upto 80 in 3rd with no qualms whatsoever. The braking is a strong point here, I did manage to test urgent braking maneuvers, including front-biased braking, the brakes and the tires did a good job of stopping the relatively light-weight bike.
The gearbox - I had my jaw wide open in awe of the smoothness of the shifts. It's indeed a commendable effort by RE, the slickness that has never before existed in any of their prior models. Even with more than a year of experience with my TB500, I find it hard to modulate the clutch/throttle to get that just-right smooth gearshift - there's always at least a little jerk. I've in fact made it a fun game I try to play when I'm bored while riding - to get seamless drag-racing type gearshifts from 1st right up to 5th gear; but on the Himalayan, it was a given!
A look at the radiator/oil cooler, thick-looks-like-it'll-do-its-job-well sump guard and engine/gearbox (sorry for the limited angles of view):
The meaty rubber footpegs, rear carrier, provision for mounting accessories (out of the five holes seen on the plate below the rear seat, only two are used - the other three are left free for any attachments one may think of:
I also did a bit of stand-up riding, and found the posture to be absolutely brilliant! This bike is gonna be perfect for off-roading, and why not, it was designed for it. I did try to ride the bike motocross style, with me elbows jutting out, and managed to flick the bike nimbly through traffic.
For some reason, they had disconnected the horn on the test bike, so couldn't hear it, although I'm sure it would be the usual dual-tone one - it's quite useful, you see!
Adding a few pictures of the launch - Platiinum Auto at Fatima Nagar had organized a nice event. They had all visitors who had RE's park their respective bikes diagonally facing the stage in the build up to the imminent arrival of the newest kid on the block. Then they rode the bike down the steps of the showroom (in the true spirit of the bike; and must note, the ground clearance isn't just on paper - it handled the steps brilliantly!) and onto the stage, which felt awesome. They also had some refreshments for the visitors.
Closer look at the headlight, pilot lamp and visor attachment - nothing beats the Thunderbird's corona ring pilot lamp/DRL though!
Quote:
Originally Posted by rohitz ...
Does anyone around pune knows about this bike being displayed in any pune showroom? |
Quote:
Originally Posted by //M It is on display at Hridaan Motors at Chinchwad. Test rides also available. |
You can also check out Platiinum Auto at Fatima Nagar. Thankfully they didn't send a sales guy to accompany me on the bike.