Congratulations. Small tip. Keep bugging the dealer with frequent phonecalls. Sometimes, people cancel their bookings and you might get lucky.

SRC

Hey, Infact its a great tip. Thanks!!

Congrats Jeevan for booking the RE TBTS !!!.

I am a proud owner of TBTS (Red color) and thought of sharing my ownership experience in this thread.

I got my bike delievered in Chennai (Velevan Motors) on May 31st 2011. As on today, i have covered 14K+ kms on this one (5 services done). The purpose i choose this bike is to have comfortable long rides. Being said that, I have done a trip to coimbatore (my native) and couple of trips to bangalore (KR puram - my friend's house - the second visit was only during last weekend) during the past six months. Suprisingly, i like them and are very comfortable to ride in city as well (i am 5' 10'').

From my experience, I personally feel that this bike is an affordable ( - is 1.17L+ is less???), comfortable ( - have sat on that sofa seat earlier) and reliable ( - sounds contrary) tourer.

It is a bit heavy but the low seating posture does not make you feel all that weight. It has 19+ wheels - meaning lesser acceleration but better cruizing and good top speed.

I rode my first 6000kms (first 3 services) under 3000 rpm only without revving the machine. So the engine had a very nice run-in period and feels butter smooth @ 3000rpm (touches 70 to 75 km/hr in the speedo).

So have atleast 2000km run in period so that you are sure that your engine delivers in mileage and performance.

Though RE machines are claimed to prone to frequent maintenance, just do the regular maintenance time to time and you are sure to have a peace of mind.

Am i forgetting something .

In city i always get around 37kmpl and in highways i get around 47kmpl (when ridden in 70 to 80 km/hr margin - 3000rpm). When i ride 100+ kmph (which i did for both the chennai-bangalore-chennai trips), the worst it gave me was 32kmpl. That too i fill only ordinary petrol (91 octane). I tried with Shell as well, but i felt no difference in mileage or engine smoothness. So switched back to ordinary petrol.

I have bought magnetic tank bags, saddle bags and gloves from Cramster. Since i own them and use them for long rides, i feel they are very good in terms of value for money.

I will give a full 10/10 for saddle bags (during my chennai-comibatore-chennai trip) i got wet due to rain and drove for more than an hour before i decided to halt (when the rain became heavy and i could not see anything in front of me), all my things in the saddle bags never got a drop of water.

Tank bags are very useful. Since they are not that big and does not have a shoulder strap, i would rate them 7/10. They are not water proof, but a rain protective cover comes along with that which can be used during rain and can be folded and hidden in a pouch within it during rest of the time.

Never order gloves before you wear and feel them. Never get carried away by the size measurements. I have the Twister ones from Cramster and they feel very good during day time riding. I feel comfortable to wear gloves along with an inner. I will give it a 7/10.



BTW, I bought them all from RE showroom here in chennai (Velevan motors).

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Great buddy. What is the maximum speed attained on this bike? And how much was the maximum distance covered on a single day?

Hello Biker_Bala

Thank you very much for the ownership experience. You don't know, how many questions of mine you answered through your experience. I am feeling a great relief.. thanks again.

The max speed my bike delivered was 110km/hr (though RE claims its max speed as 120km/hr). The speedo needle got stuck there and had no intentions to move further clockwise, so i brought it back to cruising speed.

I have covered 539kms max on a single day (during my chennai-coimbatore trip).

Hi bro, replace the tube with a new one only if you plan for another long trip. If you are going to be riding in the city for another month or so, have the existing one, it will last for some more time . Last week when i went to Bangalore, i had a similar issue with my back tyre. Apart from being punctured, its mouth also got a cut (after crossing Ambur). The mechanic glued its mouth and fixed the puncture. He said it is fixed, but i bought a new tube in Krishnagiri, and proceeded without replacing it (just want to test it, it passed with distinction ). It lasted for the rest of the trip to Bangalore and city driving in there (i was solo, didn't had a pillion except for my saddle bags). Replaced the new one during my return on Monday just to have some peace of mind.

You can change the tyre into a tubeless one, but that would require you to change the spoke wheels to alloy ones and any further mods to enable you to fit alloy wheels in place of the stock ones. Basically spoke wheels have the tendency to bear more weight and withstand more hits than the alloy ones. That is why RE vehicles comes with spoke wheels. Personally, I would suggest you to stick with the spoke wheels. Check for any RE mods in xbhp for further insight. By the way how much does your odo read?? Have you changed your tube earlier?

I haven't faced this one. But do you let the machine idle for atleast a min before you start riding it? Do this and see if the problem still persists. By the way, when you say you kicked 4-5 times, what happened to the self start???

Royal Enfield Thunderbird 500 on display at the Auto-Expo 2012

500 for this one...Freak that looks cool. Loving the black engine theme out there!!!
The rear could have been better, elongated tail looks good but badly done..Love the old one though....

I wonder how much it produces....

Any price and spec updates on this one?

PS: http://www.royalenfield.com/company/...ls.aspx?ID=600

A LOT OF CHANGES FOR GOOD !!!!

Hope prices remain the same as Classic 500, So i could change my booking from Classic to Thunderbird 500.

Tbts 500

Hey guys,
Does any one has any idea when they start the production of the TBTS 500? Any idea on price?


I want to cancel my current 350 and go up to 500.

Thats not possible buddy...
They have added a rear disc break, a larger fuel tank, new seat etc,.. you can expect it the price to go up by 5k-10k...
But then again, i dont think 10k is much of a problem for that babe

Yes i have booked Classic Chrome, so if its 10-15 k increase than Classic it will be around same as Classic Chrome. But my worry is it might get priced near to 2 Lac ?