while some play in the direction of rotation is permissible courtesy the cush rubbers,sideway movement needs further investigation -start with proper tightening of the rear axle nut and recheck

Yesterday I was checking my motorcycle out. Cleaned it as it was very dusty.
I cleaned the chain and lubed it. While i was cleaning off the excessive lube from chain, i noticed some play in rear sprocket.
I am not talking about the play of the chain sideways, but the entire rear sprocket was moving sideways.. i am suspecting cush rubbers or bearings, but i hear no sound.. what could be the issue?

Ok, first of all, I want to thank Royal Enfield for not giving enough power to this bike (the top speed is 130 claimed regardless of the BHP) and for the unbelievable price tag.
That's it. I would have had a huge picking of the other "adventure motorcycle" by the customer.
But I know now that I couldn't afford it because it was too sluggish for me.

B7ACKTHORN .let;s see how this welding holds up- had dismantled the entire unit and then had it welded - but RE -for all its 200kg weight ,it is using a damn thin headlight ring

Hard times indeed. Can happen, if those screw holders were not torqued well and constant vibrations might have made sure they gave up the ghost pretty soon. Also welding near a plastic unit is a no-brainer dear. The nacelle will melt almost immediately almost with the sparks of the welding itself. I'd suggest you replace the entire assembly for peace of mind. Any jugaad on a broken piece of plastic and flat metal will only make it worse, especially when there's no solid fixtures.

Cheers!
VJ

Sad! Do use Loctite next time, those bolts are required to be Loctited. Make sure your complete front end bolts are torqued to spec at your friendly garage.

Good luck.

Cheers!
VJ

Have anyone taken delivery of latest Himalayan with Trippr navigation ?

What's the current waiting period in Hyderabad - any inputs or reference for early deliveries ???

ZB, thank you for the update. Right, the current manuals state a different level. So for she's hanging in there, and will see how she fares with the next oil service. And yes, the bike masks speed pretty well, unless one peeks at the odo. Ride safe.

Cheers!
VJ

Jerry43 ,using a fully synthetic oil really helps in our Himalayan - the fully synthetic can handle heat of the engine much better-,the FS oil have longer molecular chain bonds than the mineral and SS oils- i personally use the OE Total 10W50 FS from the dealerr ASC itself to avoid duplicacy issues-this same engine oil is used in the RE 650's

B7ACKTHORN ,try filling 1.7ltr once and feel the engine just respond faster and the gears get creamier- have experiend the 2ltr thing earlier (done by the dealer) and hence know the difference. You can bet that extra 300ml whirring around the engine creates extra parasitic drag- now even the REH manual is updated to 1.6 or 1.7ltr refills- and if you don't like the results with 1.7ltr oil,you can alway pour in 300ml more.

Safeena surprised me a few days back on the way to office-there is this long curved flyover with extremely bumpy tarmac surface on my way to work-on both my erstwhile Duke390 "Blor Betty" and my current Harley XG750 "Tera Chorinja" ,i routinely hold up speeds of 85-90kmph when rounding the curve- that day morning i happened to glance down on Safeena's speedo while midway through the curve and was pleasantly surprised see the speedo needle upward of 80kmph -gave a good thank you pat on her tank as a mark of appreciation.Guess we are both now reasonably comfortable with each other. On my current A220 "Red Riding Hood 2" which i hardly ride these days ,i don't remember seeing upward of 80kmph ever.

Got the front cone bearing changed under warranty at 10425kms today with the OE SKF 30205 bearings-also got the front fork oil changed-rs450 for the fork oil + rs374 labour=Rs824 bill for the front end today.The steering has lightened considerably and the front forks dive substantially lesser on braking. The rear passenger footrest is on order but in the meantime got the Bullet standard left rear footrest fitted as a jugad to be changed when the original comes.

Mr Grey completed 12k kms!!!
MIne is a 2020 bs6 himalayan.
I am fed up with Royal Enfield SVC.
The 3rd service is done and I have to tell them to get it checked and inspect!
They haven't checked the brakes, the forks, the chain.
They just change the oil, oil filter and air filter! JOB DONE!!

The experience so far!
1. Changed the rear suspension under warranty. The suspension lacked rebound!

2. Bike runs good, no issues with the bike. Issue is with the SVC guys, I had to tell them at every service to check the valve adjustments as it starts to sound really bad when the bike is hot. You can hear the valve being too loose.
​​​​​They are like, "sir, valve bilkul okay hai, iski awaaz hi aisi hai" .
The valve i got it checked and adjusted from kerala. The SVC here is better than the Delhi ones atleast.

3. I am thinking about switching to a good engine oil, previously used a motul 5100 after the second service. But i didn't find anything better. The gear shifts were bad. Engine getting hot.
The liquid gun was running cooler than the oil, maybe i have got a fake motul from Amazon. So i changed and put back the drained liquid gun.
​​​​​​What do you guys suggest? Liqui moly, motul or Castrol. I will be buying it from offline stores only.

4. The CONESET! The handle will be tight all of a sudden. Had to regrease them. That too i asked them to check when I went for a service.
​​​​​​They said the handle is fine, I had to show them. I guess they are only interested in paid service.

5. The Engine noise, I hear strange krr krrr noises from top of the engine or around the front portion when i accelerate under load or when the bike is hot! The engine sounds sweet when the bike is cold.
But when the bike climbs that RPM. sound is vanished.

6. I am comparing my old cast iron bullet to himalayan. Even though they are world's apart.
Both are different motorcycle.
​​​​The smoothness of that old enfield is what i miss because i have been using my dad's enfield for the past 6 years.
The engine will be still smooth even if its tooo hot, no change in the smoothness.
Mind you, the cast iron is known for the heat it produces. 😂
But in himalayan, once the bike is used extensively in traffic or when it's ridden on a hot sunny day. The engine get rough, too much friction.
​​​​​​Maybe the liquid gun oil is the main culprit here.

I think I need to ditch RE service centre and work on the bike on my own, using a good manual. I have cleaned the evap unit last week only by the help of the thread which was posted above.
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Election day off, coupled with a few parts availability at the right time meant it was the right time for the Hima, which was overdue.

Though not a tough job, having the right tools and parts help. Should help DIY-ers on how to replace the engine oil of your Himalayan in your home.

Parts required:

New Oil Filter 1 Nos
New Oil Filter Cover Gasket 1 Nos
Drain bolt copper washer 1 Nos

Step1 & 2
--------------
1. Start off by warming up the engine, this helps the oil to be less viscous. This process helps especially when you live at places where ambient temps are less than 19 deg C. Case in point I live in Ooty, hence the engine was fully "warmed" up before draining the oil.

2. Tools required: 21 mm ratchet with extension and 8 mm T handle or 8 mm 1/4 ratchet set. I have used a T as you can see from the image.

21 MM ratchet with an extension to remove the main drain bolt. Extension helps in great leverage and easy torque.
8 mm T or ratchet to remove the smaller bolts of both the oil filter cover on the right and the drain cum strainer cover bolts on the left.

In the image below, you can see the two 8 mm bolts on the left and right, and the main drain bolt 21 mm in the middle.

Note: Always remove the main drain bolt first, drain the oil. Then remove the 8 mm bolts to access the strainer. Removing the 8 mm bolts directly will result in a terrific mess.





Step 3.
---------

After removing the drain bolt, tilt the bike towards left to make sure the engine oil smoothly flows into the drain pan. You can see the mess it had created due to me dropping the drain bolt due to the heat of the oil and hence the mess below. Oil is hotter than what the engine feels to touch. Once drained, remove the two 8 mm bolts holding the strainer cover as discussed above, removing this results in access to the strainer which is kept on the paper, as you can see in the image below.



A closer look at the strainer. Gotta say, pretty impressed with the muck filtration. 101% clean. Throughly surprised and impressed. No wonder, RE topped the charts in clean manufacturing. You believe it when you see it. Well, I gotta say I witnessed it today.



A more closer look. Nope, nothing. Absolutely not a grime. Happy soul to say the least.



A closer look at the drained oil. Quick insight about the oil, the bike was lubed with Motul 7100 10w50 then and now. Though performance was good, Motuls always have a tendency to become watery. No complains here, the oil served for more than 4k without a fuss with occasional hard shifts here and there, which is a sign your oil is used up.




Moving over to the right side of the trouble. Here we undo the three 8 mm bolts to access the oil filter.



Pretty neat oil filter to say the least. Again no complains here.



Pro tip: Always make sure you replace your oil filter irrespective of when you change the oil. Oil filters are cheap and they help your engine last longer, cleaner and the pros outweight that laziness to go to that ATM machine. New oil filter goes in along with new oil filter cover gasket ( that triangle gasket). Oil filter cost Rs. 99 and the triangle oil filter gasket is Rs. 10. Yes, you read that right. I bought a pack of two and it was Rs. 10 for two. So, parts are cheap, ain't they! Moreover with an RE, you definitely need peace of mind.



Pro Tip: Make sure you pre-lube the oil filter before installing. My practice is to dunk the filter for a few seconds, immediately install it back inside the recess to where it belong. Helps during start up. Here's me dunking it in!


Process 2
========

The refill process. RE recommends 2 liters of engine oil every consecutive oil change, which was followed religiously. Make sure you replace the copper washer for the drain bolt.

In the name of science, I wanted to know how much does the oil sight window show per one liter of engine oil filled, and here is the result. This was helpful in many ways, helps us to get an idea as to how much oil does the bike actually have after parking overnight with the bike on the center stand.


Here's the bike's sight window after pouring in exactly 1 liter of fresh oil after draining every ml of possible old oil, the best I could.

1 liter being poured in.



Sight window after pouring in exactly 1 liter of fresh engine oil.



In goes another one liter (Making it two liters)



Tada! That's full two liters of fresh engine oil, with the oil filter pre-lubed and the bike on the center stand and that's how the sight window looks. Satisfying! That's how it all looks after everything's cleaned and filled in.





PRO TIP: And last but not the least, make sure you take additional 15 mins to clean the portico, so that you don't get poisoned for lunch by wifey later.

You wanna ride that thing, don't ya!




Ride safe! Hope it helps.

Cheers!
VJ