Jan 29, 2011 10:57 PM
38179 Views
(Updated Jan 30, 2011 12:21 PM)
My friend, who is an Enfield Mechanic called me today evening and asked me to take a look at the new Classic 350 Bike that was in his garage. When I went there, what I saw was heart breaking.
A new Classic 350 bike was fully dismantled and I could see a big crack on the engine case, which was repaired with some welding work.
The story unfolds like this; The Classic 350 was only 1 year old. A loose chain resulted in the engine crank case being broken.(I shall post more details on how it happened). I have captured some snaps of the unlucky Engine.
Lot of hope.
When I heard of Classic Bullet Twin Spark being announced 2 years back, I was having lot of hope on this Bike. As I was having a 2009 June Model of Machismo 350, I saw myself as a prospective buyer of the new Classic Bullet. But once it was on the roads for more than 5 moths, I heard lot of complaints and disappointed buyers.
Some of the typical complaints were,
Vibration of the bike during running in. This was more than I felt on my machismo. The RE Engineers hardly had done any improvement on the new Engine. I wonder if its the same with all Twin Spark models now entering the market(Electra Twin Spark, Standard Twin Spark, Thunderbird Twin Spark).
Engine Damping, Engine weight for the Power Delivered etc are not suitably engineered; as a result, there is lot of drag on performance, and also vibration of Engine.
Build Quality, especially the Aluminium Alloy Case casting is of poor quality.
Rusting bolts, nuts and accessories- All fasteners, clamps etc gets rusted very easily, which I think is very bad for a brand like Royal Enfield. After 1.5 years, most of the tubes get stiff and lead to cracks.
Arrogance of RE India.- The above case happened when the bike was just 1 years and 8 days old. When the case was reported, the RE Service men rejected to look into it, as the warranty was over once the first year is crossed. So he took the vehicle to an expert(my friend) at Saidapet.
To add to all these, the RE service centers are too ill equipped to handle the large customer base.
Though the technicians are very helpful, the cramped space handicaps their efforts. The service has to be booked 2 months in advance.
.More to come
