PDI of Royal Enfield Himalayan
So the D-Day arrived and my dealer friend phoned me to pick up the Himalayan. But as I don't pick up machinery on 13th or Tuesday, I told him I would pick it up on 15th Wednesday. He insisted to at least do the PDI today, which he knew I would like to do personally. So PDI day it was...
So Black it eventually was
2 White bikes had also arrived and we were given the choice to choose if we wished, but we stuck with our original choice
Special engine oil of the 15W50 grade for the LS410 Engine of the Himalayan had already reached them. It is manufactured by Hindustan Petroleum.
This is the component that delayed the PDI. The engine oil filter, unique to the Himalayan in the RE range.
Just 107 bucks, none charged to me. Notice the seat texture in the background, extremely comfortable saddle.
The oil cooler fins were checked. One of two were out of place which were carefully straightened.
The bare-bones. Removing the seat and the tank is a few minutes job. Will be easy to route the power socket cable to the battery underneath the tank, which I plan to do soon, part being on the way from AliExpress.
The oil was drained and 2L fresh oil and oil filter were replaced. Surprising to see this policy of RE to waste perfectly good engine oil.
The battery was checked and serial number jotted down for uploading to the RE mainframe in the PDI checklist. The battery is a
VRLA type (maintenance free) 12V-8Ah, and is manufactured by Amaron.
The voltage was checked (12.9V)
The 'ugly' saree guard was removed
The 'defaulting' plastic caps on the frame were identified. The frame nut behind them tightened...
... and they were super-glued back into place so as to not fall off. All 4 of them, 2 on either side.
Some oil had collected inside the engine protection plate while removing the oil filter which I wanted cleaned. Hence asked them to open the 'bash' plate
The under belly view of the 'solid' aluminum plate
And cleaned properly and re-assembled
The side-stand indicator switch by Minda was checked for proper functioning and display in the instrument cluster
The front tyre. 90/90-21 Ceat. Pressure was adjusted to 27 psi (add 2 psi more for pillion riding)
The rear tyre. 120/90-17 Ceat. Solo pressure is 32 psi (34 psi with pillion)
The instrument cluster was checked along with all lights and switches. 15.3km on the odo for delivery.
The idle RPM was adjusted to 1150 (range is 1150~1500). 1.5L of petrol was also filled FOC. All the gasket and casing bolts along with the chassis bolts were tightened to avoid a arulpeem type incidence. I was further informed by the Service Manager that the company has directed them that if there is any undue noise or leakage from the engine in the initial 500 kms, they are strictly directed not to try any repairs and the whole engine will be replaced free of cost from the company. Heartening news that the company is taking this bike seriously.
Ready to rock and roll
IMPORTANT NOTE - I spoke to their regional service head at Lucknow about the various complaints about the notchy gear shifts. He suggested that they have experimented with replacing the OE clutch cable with that of the Classic 350 which is slightly longer and gives more play, which according to them has solved the issue, and suggested to me to try the same. So the dealership replaced the stock clutch cable with that of the Classic free of cost and asked me to take the test ride of my own bike. I was happy to note that finding neutral was not a issue any more and the gearshift was smooth. More can only commented after doing a few more miles after delivery. The original cable was also handed over to me as a spare. BTW, the bike did do a tyre burn out on first start! This bike has some serious torque! More to follow on this on my ownership thread.
Identifying the Month and Year of manufacture by the VIN (Chassis Number) - The year of manufacture is the 10th digit of the VIN while the month of manufacture is the 11th digit of the VIN. Decoding the Year - F=2015, G=2016 and so on. Month is decoded as A=Jan, B=Feb and so on (I and J are not used in the month coding). My 10th and 11th digits of the VIN were
G and
E which translated to
May 2016 manufactured vehicle. All the 4 Himalayans in stock were May 2016, hence 2nd lot vehicles.
The bike was moved securely to the showroom for delivery and does it not look 'glam' with the saree guard removed
More to come after delivery on Wednesday and then onwards to my ownership thread.
Cheers...