[TusharK]

Royal Enfield has launched a new initiative called 'Service on Wheels'. To offer doorstep motorcycle service to customers, the company has deployed 800 purpose built bikes across dealerships in India.



The Service on Wheels bikes are equipped to carry tools, equipment and spare parts to undertake upto 80% of all typical service and repair requirements. They are also equipped to carry out jobs such as scheduled maintenance, minor repairs, critical component testing, parts replacement, electrical diagnosis among others.



Service on Wheels will be handled by authorized service technicians. The bikes will carry essential lubes and spare parts with 12 months warranty.



Royal Enfield has deployed 26 'Service on Wheels' bikes in Mumbai and 92 across all its dealerships in Maharashtra.



Customers can book 'Service on Wheels' by contacting their nearest Royal Enfield dealer.

Link to Team-BHP News

[neo_narender]

I think they are repurposing the unsold RE Classic Trials edition for this "Service on Wheels" concept, they did not even change the upswept exhaust to a normal one that a regular Classic uses, as there is no pillion seat or rear foot pegs anyway. Just the top box & panniers filled with essential fluids & equipment.

Brings to mind the proverb "When life gives you lemons, make lemonade".

Neo

[KarthikK]

With the covid transmission risks associated with closed spaces like vehicle service centres and waiting lounges in these facilities being shared with strangers, this is a nice initiative to get one's bike serviced at his/her own doorstep without any exposure to those elements. With the minimal tools and spares that the mobile technician can carry, this whole exercise will be limited to the routine service schedule tasks though - oil and filter changes and adjusting chain slack, etc. Other issues they may ask the customer(s) to head to the service centres.

Still, something is better than nothing . If I had a routine service coming up in the next few days, I would probably prefer this type of arrangement at home. Unfortunately this seems to be a Mumbai-only exercise at the moment. Hopefully they extend this to other major cities as well.

[darkLightning]

Originally Posted by neo_narender

Brings to mind the proverb "When life gives you lemons, make lemonade".

Agreed, A good initiative by Royal Enfield and other manufacturers should also follow suit, there is too much unsold BS4 inventory lying around which can be repurposed.
And as for Royal Enfield I feel this initiative will be even more successful in areas with tricky terrains like North East states, Leh Ladakh etc.

[Jeroen]

Excellent initiative! How do pay for it? Is there a standard fee to use the service. Do you pay the tech?

Jeroen

[rahul4321]

I saw this bike a couple of weeks ago at an Ahmedabad service station when I went to drop off my Himalayan for service. Exactly the same motorcycle right down to the last detail.

I remember this because I was taking a good look at the panniers as I was interested in getting them for myself and thought it was a good initiative by the dealership not knowing that it is an official RE offering.

Two service station guys rode it in- rider, pillion both sitting scrunched up together and the top box + panniers behind them as shown in the picture. You can’t see it clearly in the picture but there is a small mini seat behind the front saddle seat and the top box at the rear. The pillion stood up on the foot pegs and jumped off from the rear of the motorcycle - top box going between his legs and the rider dismounted the conventional way. Quite weird to watch

[KPR]

Originally Posted by rahul4321

Two service station guys rode it in- rider, pillion both sitting scrunched up together and the top box + panniers behind them as shown in the picture.

I'm worried about the scalding injuries that the pillion would've got due to the up swept red hot exhaust of trials.

[srini1785]

A Good Initiative which would cover most of the faults in standing bikes but definitely ill equipped for more serious repairs which would require tearing down of the engine. Such effort would need a bike lift. Of particular importance is the ergonomic aspect of the service technicians job. If the technician is expected to do various yoga postures while attending to the bike at home, he would mostly tire out fast. I am not sure which models are serviced by this initiative. I suppose they divide the call duties based on models and year of manufacture.

The other aspect is the space available for spares in the rear bucket. In a normal day , if the technician is required to handle 4-5 such requests, they may be needing multiple spare parts along with consumables like oil, plugs etc. Not to forget that he has to carry his tools of the trade too. Its not like an electricians job which requires few tools like Multi , tester , spanner , insulation tape and a screw driver for most jobs. A nice Omni painted with RE livery would have made a better impact.

[neil.jericho]

A few things come to mind
- From what I have heard, Royal Enfield didnt have unsold BS4 inventory this time around, they learnt their lesson well from the BS3 to BS4 migration and moved the 350 platform over to the BS6 variant much in advance of the April 1st deadline.
- The Trials (or is it Trails, I always get confused!) didnt sell well at all, though for all intents and purposes, it should have. This is a great way to get the bike seen on the road, especially in its catchy colour scheme.
- This is good publicity for Royal Enfield's luggage system as well, Ive seen some videos on it and the feedback on the quality and usability is quite good. For tourers who have the Himalayan, it is a worthwhile investment for sure! I can see some RE owners getting their bikes serviced through this Service on Wheels swinging for the luggage system after checking it in action.
- For regular services with oil change, air filter change, inspecting and lubricating parts etc, this system will work wonders.
- There is absolutely no way that this bike with luggage can take 2 people, Royal Enfield really needs to be careful on this front!
- The general consensus is that Royal Enfield is still a company that is stuck in the past churning out agre old rickety products and is out of touch with reality. Seeing many of their recent moves, including this one, I must say, they have some good decision makers who are making sensible moves indeed. Well done Royal Enfield.

[psmenon]

The best way to make use of the other wise dead inventory of trials edition, it was such a failure that a showroom I know personally was not even ready to take any bookings for this model. They were so scared that the buyers might cancel their booking at the last moment and the bike would be a pain point

[Silver Knight]

Really good initiative by Royal Enfield. This will definitely improve the service experience for the RE owners. My outlook towards RE changed after test riding the Interceptor 650. Especially with the drastic improvement in the product quality, a new category of customers will be taking up RE bikes and they will expect better after sales service.

Kudos Royal Enfield for the initiative.

[condor]

Has anyone tried door-step servicing for scooters/bikes in Bangalore ?

If yes, feedback please.