[Spark]

Hello mates,
need you quick opinion.
Could you please suggest what changed in terms of mechanics/electrical/feature/ergonomics or any other factor
for Classic 500s made in 2012 and 2016.

PS: Am aware of EFI map update and Sprang Clutch Issues in 2012.
A Friend suggests that 2012 had vibrations and was prone to instability and slip over 80 kmph.
Need your opinion on these and any other changes you observed/know of.

Regards

[cataclysm]

Hi guys,

How can I definitely tell if the clutch plates on my bike need to be changed? My bike has clocked 37k kms(2011 Oct model), and the on the last service the SA told me that the clutch plates are doing alright, you can wait for a 1000/2000 kms before getting them changed.

Thanks!

[tharian]

Originally Posted by cataclysm

Hi guys,

How can I definitely tell if the clutch plates on my bike need to be changed!

Clutch slipping is the give away that the plates are worn.
Slipping means, while accelerating you hear the engine rev, but don't feel a corresponding increase in speed. It's quite noticeable.

Also in your case, it's too early to change plates unless you clutch ride and it's actually worn early.

[aravind.anand]

Originally Posted by Spark

Hello mates,
need you quick opinion.
Could you please suggest what changed in terms of mechanics/electrical/feature/ergonomics or any other factor
for Classic 500s made in 2012 and 2016.

PS: Am aware of EFI map update and Sprang Clutch Issues in 2012.
A Friend suggests that 2012 had vibrations and was prone to instability and slip over 80 kmph.
Need your opinion on these and any other changes you observed/know of.

Regards

I am no expert, but I rented a 2012 Classic 500 for a road trip last year, and over the 750 km road trip, I could find that that bike could comfortably pull in 5th gear from 60 kmph only - anything below that was too low for the large thumper. And 80-85 on the speedo is what I could cruise on, and anything beyond that was not comfortable, as vibes kept creeping up. And at 100+ kmph even on a smooth deserted highway with not much crosswinds, the bike was never very stable.

But from most new ownership reviews, I can see that people are able to cruise till 100 kmph without much vibrations. So I am sure Royal Enfield R&D team has worked on some improvements over the years, but not been too vocal about those improvements till now. Maybe the experts and owners can thrown some more light on this...

[cataclysm]

Originally Posted by tharian

Clutch slipping is the give away that the plates are worn.
Slipping means, while accelerating you hear the engine rev, but don't feel a corresponding increase in speed. It's quite noticeable.

Also in your case, it's too early to change plates unless you clutch ride and it's actually worn early.

Thanks! The clutch on my bike was acting funny, so I changed the clutch cable. Everything is good now.

[Spark]

Originally Posted by aravind.anand

I am no expert, but I rented a 2012 Classic 500 for a road trip last year, and over the 750 km road trip, I could find that that bike could comfortably pull in 5th gear from 60 kmph only - anything below that was too low for the large thumper. And 80-85 on the speedo is what I could cruise on, and anything beyond that was not comfortable, as vibes kept creeping up. And at 100+ kmph even on a smooth deserted highway with not much crosswinds, the bike was never very stable.

But from most new ownership reviews, I can see that people are able to cruise till 100 kmph without much vibrations. So I am sure Royal Enfield R&D team has worked on some improvements over the years, but not been too vocal about those improvements till now. Maybe the experts and owners can thrown some more light on this...

Thanks Aravind, Test Drove an unused and preserved 2012 Chrome and found similar observations. Heavy bone shaking vibrations with smell of rotting fuel . So gave it a pass!

[aravind.anand]

Originally Posted by Spark

Thanks Aravind, Test Drove an unused and preserved 2012 Chrome and found similar observations. Heavy bone shaking vibrations with smell of rotting fuel . So gave it a pass!

Happy to help, Spark It would be better to try out newer examples before putting your money on one. Maybe, a long test ride of a 2015 model from the showroom should help you understand better

[saurabh89]

Hello BHP'ians!!!

Its my first post here on this forum. Don't know what took me so long to be here!

So, I recently brought a Desert Storm last week after months of planning and research. Believe me, I have read through each and every message on this thread and it just got me hooked to this forum.

I would like to share my decision making process for buying up the bull:

Pre-Thoughts:

I have always had a liking for bikes, right from the days when my dad used to own a Rajdoot whilst I was still in my nappies. 26 years under the drain, I am happy to have still kept that love ignited. The first bike/moped I bought was Honda Dio back in 2006 followed by Honda Unicorn in 2007 (and I have to admit I just love this bike for its engine, its butter). First salary prompted me to go for my longtime dream of owning a cruiser and I bought a Bajaj Avenger 220 Dtsi in 2011, which I recently sold 2 months back. My liking for bullets grew when I was working in Manali last year for 2 months. Those rides from manali to kasol on rented bullets made me think seriously about owning one.

Information Gathering

I started reading more about Royal Enfield and that's when I stumbled upon this forum in June this year. I wanted to go for a matt finish this time for my bike and so was fixated over the Desert Storm and Squadron Blue.

Evaluation of alternatives

The other bike I was thinking about was Harley Davidson Street 750. I used to drive the bike over my weekend trips to Bangalore. One of my friend was kind enough to let me ride on this Shama Parveen, as he likes to call his 750. I somehow got the feeling of having a cadbury with a lindt packaging! This made my decision pretty simple.

Test drive

I took a test drive of the bike at Ved Motors in Nagpur and tried to ask numerous questions to the sales rep at the showroom. To be true, she had no idea about the machine! But the dealership was kind enough to connect me with their mechanics who answered each and every question of mine patiently. I then went to another dealership in Nagpur just to vet on my decision. Finally made the booking with Ved motors at the start of this month, to which the dealership agreed for a delivery in 10 days.

First ride experience

I purchased the bike on 16th Sept (delayed for 2 days due to some loan issues) and took the bike for a nice 25 kms ride that night. It was a feeling I was waiting to experience for quite some time now and I must say it was worth every penny I had spent so far. The gears were smooth as butter (pleasant surprise) and the bike has a much stable feel. The brakes were a big let down though. I so wish, RE had given disk brakes for both wheels, miles to work on this front for RE.

100 kms feel

I completed 100 kms in 2 days and the bike has been nice so far and I could kick start it finally in my 4th attempt. The bike has been nice so far, with no visible discomfort. I plan to finish first 500 kms quickly and then have bit longer rides of about 100 kms.

Will post some pictures later!!

Thanks-
Saurabh Sathe

P.S.: Mods, please shift the post to relevant thread if it doesn't make the cut here!

[ArizonaJim]

Congratulations on your DS. I know you will enjoy it for many years to come.

As this is a fuel injected motorcycle, it will automatically choose the best air fuel mixture for riding at any elevation and temperature.

If the engine has been sitting overnight during cold weather, use the Bi-Starter lever, pushed to its stop while cranking the engine. That will improve cold starting.

Also, I should mention that the fuel pump is in the fuel tank and it requires fuel to lubricate and cool it.
For this reason, never let the motorcycle run out of fuel.

Topping up the fuel tank every 250-300 km will prevent any problems.
(I've found the low fuel indicator doesn't always give accurate indications of the fuel level so keep an eye on the distance ridden following the last fill up.)

As for the brakes, you should do most of your braking with the front brake.
This doesn't mean the rear brake shouldn't be used. Rather, it means both brakes should be used together with 75-80% being the front brake and 20-25% being the rear brake.

The only time the front brake should be used to provide less than 75% of the braking force is if the streets are wet, muddy or sandy.
Under these conditions, slow down your riding speed and use the rear brake as the main brake.

I've found the front disk brake on my 500 is more than adequate, even for panic braking when the streets are clean and dry.

[thatsdileep]

Hello Fellow RE Riders,
Happy to share that I'm a proud owner of a Bullet Electra. Purchased it earlier this month on 10th Oct 2016 just a day before Dussera. With my resources in the RE world, luck favoured me and was able to buy it without any booking and was able to pick it up on the same day when the search started. Crossed the 500 km mark and the first service is also done. Now the Bull is in customization mode which would take a good 3 months or more. I'll start a separate ownership thread on my Bull in a few months time. Until then here are a few pics.

Thanks



MODS: My apologies for posting this in wrong thread...could you please move it to below linked thread pls.
http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/motorb...please-98.html

[Drlmtukkar]

MY LOVE MY NIGHTMARE MY TB500
HI ALL. I HAVE BOUGHT A NEW TB500 IN APRIL 2016 AFTER A NIGHTMARISH PREDELIVERY EXPERIENCE AND MY NIGHTMARE CONTINUES ……….
SO HERE IS THE POST DELIVERY STORY AS IT UNFOLDED AND THE PREDELIVERY NIGHTMARE DETAILS WILL BE POSTED A LITTLE LATER IN THIS POST.


I finally went to collect my bike on 15th April 2016 after waiting for a nightmare 4 months, there was a “click click click click” sound from the new engine. The guys at the dealership told me it’s a normal thing and that it will be taken care during the first service. But after my nightmare waiting for the bike I refused to take delivery and put in a mail to the company. Later their north Karnataka in charge also spoke to me and assured me that the sound will be gone after the first service and that it’s a 5 minutes job. So after believing these guys I finally took delivery of the bike on 20 April 2016.



After using the bike for 490kms the sound suddenly increased to such proportions one Sunday morning (first start of the day) that I immediately switched the bike off. Monday morning I again started the bike and the sound was gone. So I rode down straight to the dealership which is 1.5kms from my house and left the bike with them. Later in the day I was told that the valves need to be replaced. So this so called 5 minutes job was now going to take longer and I finally got the bike back after 5days.Can you imagine how frustrating it was for me.
The horrible “click click click click” sound was still present. So I kept going to the dealer every 3-4 days until their engineer paid me a visit. He accepted that there was an abnormal sound and did some setting of valves I guess and told me that “don’t compare your bike to other bike, all will sound different” and its normal for a 500 mill to be more noisy than a 350 one. So my only question to him was “If that is the case why was I told that the sound would go off in the first place”?



Now over the next 2-3months I persistently visited the dealer for this horrible sound which had now exponentially increased from a “click click click click” to a “clack clack clack clack” and then to “kat kat kat kat kat”, oh it was horrible. A senior company mechanic came over twice and replaced some more parts and did some setting and re setting and some more but to no avail. I was not convinced with whatever crap explanation they gave and their now standard answer “it’s a characteristic sound for TB500”. I finally demanded for an engine change.


Just before Ganesh Chaturthi I got the good news that my whole engine would be changed and soon the new engine was transplanted. It sounded good the first 2 days but after 100kms the same sound was back. I again complained regarding the same for which I got an immediate call back from the company engineer yelling at me on the phone.
I have now gotten the first service done of this new engine at 500kms and it just sounds as horrible as the first one. I have sent regular mails to the company telling them about the sound and also visited the dealer who gives me a standard answer “sir, itna to awaz aaye ga”, you keep using it, its normal for the TB500 and nothing’s going to break. And in case something does go wrong call us. They are just refusing to accept that it’s an abnormal sound now.
The bike sounds so terrible “clack clack clack clack” and then to “kat kat kat kat kat”, while riding that I have finally started using ear phones while riding .



SO FRIENDS, WHAT I WANT TO KNOW IS:
[FONT=Calibri]1) [/FONT]Are you guys also having this sound from the 500cc engine?
[FONT=Calibri]2) [/FONT]Am I so unlucky to have a second junk of an engine.
[FONT=Calibri]3) [/FONT]Is there a major design flaw in the engine itself?
I have been asked to keep using the bike and that it’s normal for the bike to sound like this.
So what are my options….
Now at 1850kms there is a squeaking sound from my rear suspension and its safety cover is also rusted. There’s a kat kat kat sound from the rear wheel whenever I ride doubles. Haven’t yet visited the dealer yet for these issues but will be going soon.


Any advice on how to get rid of this sound would be welcome or it would be great if all of us having these problems select a particular date and put in a mail to the company on the same day.
Keeping my fingers crossed and hoping for the best.

[Endofdayz]

Originally Posted by Drlmtukkar

MY LOVE MY NIGHTMARE MY TB500
HI ALL. I HAVE BOUGHT A NEW TB500 IN APRIL 2016 AFTER A NIGHTMARISH PREDELIVERY EXPERIENCE AND MY NIGHTMARE CONTINUES ……….
SO HERE IS THE POST DELIVERY STORY AS IT UNFOLDED AND THE PREDELIVERY NIGHTMARE DETAILS WILL BE POSTED A LITTLE LATER IN THIS POST.


I finally went to collect my bike on 15th April 2016 after waiting for a nightmare 4 months, there was a “click click click click” sound from the new engine. The guys at the dealership told me it’s a normal thing and that it will be taken care during the first service. But after my nightmare waiting for the bike I refused to take delivery and put in a mail to the company. Later their north Karnataka in charge also spoke to me and assured me that the sound will be gone after the first service and that it’s a 5 minutes job. So after believing these guys I finally took delivery of the bike on 20 April 2016.



After using the bike for 490kms the sound suddenly increased to such proportions one Sunday morning (first start of the day) that I immediately switched the bike off. Monday morning I again started the bike and the sound was gone. So I rode down straight to the dealership which is 1.5kms from my house and left the bike with them. Later in the day I was told that the valves need to be replaced. So this so called 5 minutes job was now going to take longer and I finally got the bike back after 5days.Can you imagine how frustrating it was for me.
The horrible “click click click click” sound was still present. So I kept going to the dealer every 3-4 days until their engineer paid me a visit. He accepted that there was an abnormal sound and did some setting of valves I guess and told me that “don’t compare your bike to other bike, all will sound different” and its normal for a 500 mill to be more noisy than a 350 one. So my only question to him was “If that is the case why was I told that the sound would go off in the first place”?



Now over the next 2-3months I persistently visited the dealer for this horrible sound which had now exponentially increased from a “click click click click” to a “clack clack clack clack” and then to “kat kat kat kat kat”, oh it was horrible. A senior company mechanic came over twice and replaced some more parts and did some setting and re setting and some more but to no avail. I was not convinced with whatever crap explanation they gave and their now standard answer “it’s a characteristic sound for TB500”. I finally demanded for an engine change.


Just before Ganesh Chaturthi I got the good news that my whole engine would be changed and soon the new engine was transplanted. It sounded good the first 2 days but after 100kms the same sound was back. I again complained regarding the same for which I got an immediate call back from the company engineer yelling at me on the phone.
I have now gotten the first service done of this new engine at 500kms and it just sounds as horrible as the first one. I have sent regular mails to the company telling them about the sound and also visited the dealer who gives me a standard answer “sir, itna to awaz aaye ga”, you keep using it, its normal for the TB500 and nothing’s going to break. And in case something does go wrong call us. They are just refusing to accept that it’s an abnormal sound now.
The bike sounds so terrible “clack clack clack clack” and then to “kat kat kat kat kat”, while riding that I have finally started using ear phones while riding .



SO FRIENDS, WHAT I WANT TO KNOW IS:
[FONT=Calibri]1) [/FONT]Are you guys also having this sound from the 500cc engine?
[FONT=Calibri]2) [/FONT]Am I so unlucky to have a second junk of an engine.
[FONT=Calibri]3) [/FONT]Is there a major design flaw in the engine itself?
I have been asked to keep using the bike and that it’s normal for the bike to sound like this.
So what are my options….
Now at 1850kms there is a squeaking sound from my rear suspension and its safety cover is also rusted. There’s a kat kat kat sound from the rear wheel whenever I ride doubles. Haven’t yet visited the dealer yet for these issues but will be going soon.


Any advice on how to get rid of this sound would be welcome or it would be great if all of us having these problems select a particular date and put in a mail to the company on the same day.
Keeping my fingers crossed and hoping for the best.

Hi,

Sad to hear your experience with TB500. Replacing new engine on the bike and still the problem there ? One smal recording of the video will be helpful. I have been owner of these 500s since 2009 and currently riding GT ( One of the premiere offering). Regarding Tak tak sound, not sure till we hear the recordings, However from rear wheel. Even i Had this sound. which increases as speed increases. Check the Spokes. If one or two spokes given up, then we have this problem.

Quality of parts are pathetic to say atleast. I have already replaced 6 Spokes till now. and another two has given up now. So check for spokes.

Regarding Rust, Ask them to replace rusted components.
Regarding Shocks sound, I guess we need to live with it. or get service done. With Pathetic Quality control and Pathetic Service centers I will not be surprised if the Shocks oil is less in quantity.

Another advise for you. Please do not look for strange Nosies in Royal Enfield. You will be disappointed everyday.

Their customer care was very helpful in previous occasions, Now even their Quality is gone down. They will try for sometime and then give up on you. SO yelling at you, im not surprised.

Dont think too Much. Go ahead and run the bike for some more KMs. their service center are as crappy as they can get. Hence find a Independent garage and check if you can get the engine noise rectified. OR you can take opinion from them.

Ride On!!!

[farhadtarapore]

Originally Posted by Endofdayz

Hi,

Sad to hear your experience with TB500. Replacing new engine on the bike and still the problem there ? One smal recording of the video will be helpful. I have been owner of these 500s since 2009 and currently riding GT ( One of the premiere offering). Regarding Tak tak sound, not sure till we hear the recordings, However from rear wheel. Even i Had this sound. which increases as speed increases. Check the Spokes. If one or two spokes given up, then we have this problem.

Quality of parts are pathetic to say atleast. I have already replaced 6 Spokes till now. and another two has given up now. So check for spokes.

Regarding Rust, Ask them to replace rusted components.
Regarding Shocks sound, I guess we need to live with it. or get service done. With Pathetic Quality control and Pathetic Service centers I will not be surprised if the Shocks oil is less in quantity.

Another advise for you. Please do not look for strange Nosies in Royal Enfield. You will be disappointed everyday.

Their customer care was very helpful in previous occasions, Now even their Quality is gone down. They will try for sometime and then give up on you. SO yelling at you, im not surprised.

Dont think too Much. Go ahead and run the bike for some more KMs. their service center are as crappy as they can get. Hence find a Independent garage and check if you can get the engine noise rectified. OR you can take opinion from them.

Ride On!!!

Or sell off the bike and buy something better.

[Drlmtukkar]

With so many car manufacturer going in for recalls, would it be wrong to expect the same. They have robbed me of the pleasure of riding a new bike. I was thinking of taking legal action against these chaps. I've always wantes to be RE since 1996 when I bought my first bike but always stayed away all these years because their horrible quality. But finally I took the plunge and its been a bad bad experience. My pre delivery experience was also totally aweful.

[pratyush6]

Need to get my battery replaced for Classic 500. The bike was not touched for 3 months. The battery was dead before though. It was serviced and then put in a shed.

Any other pointers that I need to follow for the bike in general.

PS. Apologies if the question is repetitive I searched quite a bit but did not have great results apart from the Exide battery.

This is the only battery that shows up online:
http://www.batterybhai.com/battery-d.../570/1/10/14/7

I simply could not kick start the bike, hence need to get it replaced online.