my splendor

i had a 2001 splendor and had clocked 70k+ kms till last year. an extremely reliable bike; i must have spent hardly Rs.500 once every 6 months on it.
unfortunately it got stolen twice last year, and haven't heard of it since.

somehow i don't feel like buying a splendor+ and yet, I cant think of any other bike that would do its job so nicely without shouting out loud.

good and also sad to hear about it man....i know its one very reliable bike...and since you said it got stolen twice....it means the first time it got stolen you got it back...so lets hope you get it back this time too

Dude, the guy is lying, please report this to local HH office* immediately and see what happens.

(*) Visit hh's website locate email id of the regional office of your state.

ya i was extremely luck to get it back the first time around. a couple of 15 year old kids had taken it on a joy ride. got it back after 4 months. had it for just 2 more months when it got stolen again. it has been 8 months and am losing all hope

yay! so now is the time you will be getting it back...

1st time: 15yr old guy stole it...got it back after 4months....

2nd time: assume a 30yr old guy stealing it....so will get it back after 8months

well sorry for the OT...i was just hoping good for you !

@rsk11584 - I had the old hh splendor 2001 model which i used it till nov 2010 and within this entire time i had clocked 2 lakh kms on it, mine was never having any issues as early like 30k as your mechanic says, i changed my piston and block at 160000 kms. i think the new super splendor piston has some issues with the crank bearings, make sure you confirm that and use NBC bearing only.

haha... let me make a trip to the police station

Headlight bulb mount ?

can you tell me , what type of bulb mount in splendor+ 2010 model ? H4/HS1 or ... anything else ? thanks in advance .

front wheel bearings almost frozen

My front wheel was wobbling since december 2010 at higher speeds, the bike is splndr+ july2010 . when I visited the present HH authorised service they did not test at high speeds and said tyre pressure was incorrect etc .. I also did not pursue the matter further then since the bike was riding ok otherwise at below 50-60kmph , which is how I mostly use it . Now during a routine tyre puncture repair i inspected the front wheel bearings by chance , they were very hard and difficult to turn with my finger . both sides . So i had the tyre repair guy take out the rear wheel also and tested it's bearings for a comparison . They were nice and smooth and easy to turn . i am sure now that the front wheel bearings are shot and that is causing the wobble in the front wheel . Basically the wheel is mainly turning on the axle now with very little or no assistance from the bearings . I called the HH service , being hard pressed for time now , and they promptly asked me to come in for inspection of the problem (good !) and that wheel bearings are NOT covered under warranty !!! I have complained to Hero Honda about this , hopefully they revert back soon . What do you guys say about warranty on wheel bearings ?? This is the offending part ....

Firstly there is no warranty on bearing as its a wear and tear part, how many kilometers you have done on your splendor, normally the NBC bearing lasts for 30-40 k kms with roads where you have major potholes after which it needs a change and again the HH owners munjal has started producing everything in house so cant say about the bearing quality produced by them. But try replacing it with a NBC bearing original ones also check for your spokes alignment and replace if you found them rusted. As i replaced mine splendor bearings 3 times in the entire 2 lakh kilometers i rode her.



Regarding bulbs you ca FIT Philips 35 watts bulb but i think you need some rewinding to be done of the coil.

i) my bike is just purchased on 01 July 2010 and run for 3600 something km .. since I have other bikes and vehicles too . This one is just for local errands . That is too early for a bearing to fail , whatever the make , nahi brother ? Yes the same words the bike manufacturers ( all of them ) say .. "wear & tear parts" , I would love to know exactly which are the non wear & tear parts in a motorcycle or a car .
Also if it was because of manufacturing defect , it would be highly unlikely for both bearing to seize at the same time like it did , while the rear wheel bearings remained unaffected. So my take is that they damaged them somehow during fitting , and there are several ways you can damage bearings / race / mountings during assembly which I know as an engineer .

2) yes the roads here in south-kolkata outskirts are real bad , that is why I insisted on spoke wheels .

3) If you read the detailed warranty conditions for splendor+ on the HH website http://www.herohonda.com/schedule/wa...ENDOR-PLUS.pdf , no where does it exclude wheel-bearings from warranty . So even if the HH parts counter said 160 Rs for two front wheel bearings and no fitting etc charges ( i.e free labour ) , I am still pressing on HH for warranty cover for principle , and so that they may take heed and learn the lessons .

4) as per the HH service/parts-counter manager their OEM bearings are SKF/TATA make .... i am not sure .. these guys are sooooo
uninformed .

5) The lesson for all of us in this being , wheel bearings on all our bikes are such critical fail-able animals that we should check them often and certainly before a long journey . Comming to think of it , all the weight / power / speed of the motorcycle plus riders rests on the road just on those 6x4 tiny steel balls .

6) I found out the headlight bulb mount by peering into it from the front lens , it's marked HS1 ...so HS1/H4 bulbs would fit.... but as I can see no amount of coil winding/bulb change will improve the headlight beam mucho , because the defect lies in reflector design ... it scatters too much instead of concentrating the light ... I am planning on removing the bikini fairing and replacing the whole headlight unit with a round one with good beam . This is not only this bike , but I often see many other bikes with poor headlight ( i ride a lot at nights on long out-of-city stretches ) , just because of poor reflector and headlight assembly design . I am amazed that despite the R&D for so many years they all haven't been able to perfect a simple thing as a good strong focused motorcycle headlamp !!

note : I am taking this wheels-off opportunity to de-rust and paint the inners rims and hope to post a how-to on it here soon . what would be the correct section to post such stuff admins ?

Well , I finally did something about the rusty rims .
I got a friendly tyre repair guy to come to my place and help me take them out and put them back in when I was done . I have a foot-pump to inflate tyres at home .
This is how they looked when I took off the wheels and removed the tyres . NOT GOOD !! This was inside a just 9 month old Hero-Honda rims , i'e one monsoon !!



So I got to work with some steel wool , a bowl of kerosene and a old rag . Rub rub rub and wipe down ...



Not to forget your favourite beverage ....



With as much as of the rust that could be removed without scratching the chrome plating .... Next it was de-greased with dishwash soap , old toothbrush and wiped and dried .....



All cleaned up and ready for painting . Most of the rust was superficial




But .... as can be seen in some areas the rust have etched itself right through the chrome plating layer into the steel underneath .... awesum !!



My favourite automotive paint primer .. red-lead oxide ...



A very thin layer spread on with a stiff brush ( old toothbrush ) to reach inside the small nooks .


Primer done and dried for whole two days in sun ...


Again a thin coat of hard black enamel paint ( berger luxol ) .... and dried for another whole two days in sun ....



These rims won't rust again in ten years ... touch-wood .

I reported to the HeroHonda Authorised dealer/service centre near me ( as their manager instructed me by phone & email ) at Sitala Auto Care & Service , 4A/4 baishnabghata byelane , kolkata 700047 on Monday ( 04/04/2011 ) at 11Am . The familiar service manager was absent and the owner himself was there managing the affairs . He told me they were too busy and I have to leave my bike there for the day , which I flatly refused . Then they said if you want to be present when the work is done you have to come back again in the afternoon 5pm . I did that . Upon arrival , again the owner was there and started to lecture me how it was my fault to have destroyed the bearings by greasing or hammering or something and that they were replacing it just because it was instructd by the company on "goodwill basis" and it wasn't under warranty at all . I didn't argue .. . They dismounted the wheel and tried to convince me that the bearing was NOT Faulty !! It was barely turning with great force with my finger . I showed them that this wasn't the case with my rear wheels bearings . Then they said rear wheel bearings are different type and front wheel ones are supposed to be normally tight like that . LOL . Both wheels of the splendor uses the same type bearings , i.e 6301 RS ( NBC ) . I demonstrated to them that the front wheel bearings of other bikes which were there for service was not tight like mine .He then called up someone called Saurav from HH ( likely Mr Sourav Bose ) and told me he was in a meeting and wasn't taking calls and I have to wait . After waiting 2 hours total like this at 7pm they finally got to talk with this HH manager and flatly told me they won't replace the bearing under warranty , and wrote in my service booklet "wheel bearing functioning is ok" and sent me off . Infact he was too busy to attend me because he was busy trying to fleece thousands of rupees from a hapless ZMR owner , who had come in then with a failed alternator on the highway from north bengal to kolkata , and he hadn't been able to take the previous 2 free services , so they claimed his warranty was void ! Hard luck comrade !! They even left my front axle bolt loose in the hurry ... which they did inform me by phone next day and apologised as a mistake by the mechanic and asked me to come in again . The wheel was clanking badly , so I took out my toolkit and tightened it myself #14 & #19 wrenches .
Anyway I have had enough of this bunkum and didn't want to damage my bike any further and decided to chuck the remaining 3 months worth of this sick HeroHonda warranty joke .
I got a couple of these ... for a 180.00 Rs total . Unlike the HH OEM single sealed type RS , these were both way sealed bearings of type RSS . They come factory pregreased for the life of the bearing , no maintenance required ever .



This was the defect ... the bearing would not turn by normal force with my finger , with hard effort or with the weight of the wheel mounted it would turn with resistance .


The bearing on this side was very very tight to turn too ... it is unlikely that two of them were defective at once , I suspected improper mounting or something like that , but bearings being cheap I chose to replace anyway .



Lacking a bearing puller device ( which i did not have ) the older bearings have to driven out by a draft from the opposing side , and a hammer by tapping gently on the outer race only , rotating to all sides . It is easier to drive out the opposite side ( from this picture ) first as it is less deeply recessed . Pry out the rubber oil seal on that side with a flat screwdriver blade . Remember that there is a spacer tube inbetween the bearings inside the hub . It has to be tapped / moved a bit to one side first .


The new bearings also have to be gently tapped around the outer race ( never touch the inner race ) into place with a draft and hammer , or a round socket driver of same size as the outer race etc . Don't forget to grease the hub and mounting on the hub and the bearing too . Although these are sealed bearings , never to be internally greased , an outside coating of good waterproof all purpose lithium grease ( I used elf lex3 ) will keep dirt and moisture out of the seals .



This is the spacer inside the hub , it has a thin collar in the middle to keep it centered there . Don't forget to put it in like I did first .




Wheel is now ready to mount .



And this was the culprit of all this trouble . The keepers of one of the bearings ball-race had sort of popped , and it was jamming up against the inner spacer causing internal pressure to both the bearings and the tightness and jam . Clearly someone had slipped a tool during factory assembly and hit the inner race instead of the outer race ( as I had warned earlier !) ... or was it from a big road pothole that caused it .. I am not sure .



Anyway , too tired to speculate , I saved up the good one and threw out the shot bearing and called it a night .

clap clap clap ! your efforts are going to pay you back...those efforts put in there are very much appreciated...

Thanks nin'jee , hopefully someone can make use my experience someday and I will be a happy man . Please forgive my bad grammar and spelling mistakes .