Hi Rajesh,

Congratulations on purchase of your bike. Please do post some pictures.

All the issues that you have faced is exactly what I have as well. The Headlight dipper is too short. I replaced the bulbs to Philips Diamond 5000K 60/55W H4 and solved the headlight issue. It glows like HID and Im in no mood to fix a real HID with Projector at this point.

Horns are best to scare away mice. You might as well purchase the horns that come with the Bajaj Avenger. My friend has it and its pretty loud and he makes fun of mine.

Dont worry about headlight being hot. These headlights are designed for 60W at least. I can say that because the Classic 500 has almost the same light setup but comes with 55W bulb.

I hope you dont have any oil dripping issues, because I do have and going to get them fixed.

For the tyre puncture, you should have claimed a tyre replacement. Tyres do come with a 1 year warranty, some 6 months. The warranty means, manufacturer guarantees the tyre wont puncture, and if it does, you get a replacement. But I do not know if this holds true with MRF. I got the first punch at 11000Kms. I replaced my CEAT tyres on my old Unicorn under warranty when it got a puncture.

I suggest you replace your stock tyres as the the MRF tyres are such a disaster on the highway.

Enjoy your ride.

what tyres do you have in your bullet ??

Ceat Secura Sport 3.50 19"
Ceat Secura F67 3.25 19"

I hear TVS ATT350 gives good grip, but quality, I don't know. I have used Ceat for few years now and I can vouch, for an Indian made tyre they are worth it.

@madelikeagun Thanks for your kind words! I will soon post few photographs.

For Horns, I am currently doing research on roots and Hella. They are going to be electric horns and not air horns for now. I will look at Avenger horns as well.

Thankfully, I don't have oil dripping issues. I had read about the same prior buying the bike and I have been keeping a daily watch on the same. As I said, the only issue that I need to resolve is the petrol streaks that come out of fuel lid once the vapors condensate. Frankly, I don't have any solution for the same right now.

On tyres front I will speak to the dealer and lets see if I can get a exchange. I am not very comfortable on the grip of these MRF tyres. How's that on CEAT?

I spent Sunday afternoon polishing the bike. I have got Turtle wax that I use for my car. I re-lived my early splendor days where I use to spend weekends polishing it. I know she was looking at me while polishing TBTS so I spent another hour or so polishing my 14 year old splendor as well.

take care and ride safely

Rajesh

Hahahhaha Nice one...

My 10 month old thunderbird has developed some major engine problem. It all started with everytime i start my bike i had pull choke make the engine hot then ride. Complained to the service station they fixed it and the bike was running very smooth for few days. The problem started cropping up again before i go to service station one fine day the bike would start but did not stay ON. Pushed the bike to the nearest garage and told him he checked and said spark plug has got black and is shorted. Changed the spark plug and went to office, while returning same problem happened bike would start but did not stay ON. Checked the spark has become black went to the same garage and complained. He said take to service station immediately and tell them. Told the service station my bike is lying there for one week engine is opened 4000 rupees worth parts are replaced(it is under warranty) and still is not able to find out what is the problem. Mockingly i said to service station incharge send the bike back to chennai....I love my bike but it is totally screwed.

CEAT tyres are better from my observation, the block design on the tyre gives a little offroad capability.

Some Xbhpians have installed the 100/90/19 MRF Meteor tyres. Check the forums on tyres.

I just enquired regarding Philips ext-ream vision from the Philips authorized dealer and he quoted me 500 bucks. Is it right? And can i use the 55w only for the highway(highbeam) and use my stock light(35w) for low beam? I also added a relay to my Roots horn so as of now the connection comes like this Switch - Stock horn / (relay -Roots horn) Is it correct? And got my 6th service done @ 13.5k kms and they have changed the rear break shoes and the total amount comes to 1.7k isnt that a little steep for a bike which is maintained properly and serviced at regular intervals?

Hi Jayanth,

Im not sure of the price of Phlips extreme vision, but the price sounds right. Are you talking about 1 bulb or a pair? I got the Philips Diamond vision pair for 1100 rupees. Sold a bulb to my friend. So the Phlips Extreme Vision if it is one bulb, sounds right to me. You might as well check the prices on Ebay from multiple sellers to get a rough idea, although I do not wholly rely on that site.

For the horns, I can tell you what I did on my Unicorn previously. I do not know why you needed a relay. Or are you refering to a cutout? The cutout ensures that only the right amount of power is sent to the horns. Well, at your current setup if the horns work fine without draining the battery then I would say the setup is just fine.

For the lights, why do you want to use a 35w low beam and 55w high beam. You are complicating things here. The bulb comes with 2 filaments, 1 for low, 1 for high. They are not 2 sperate bulbs. So in my case, the Philips Diamond vision is a 60/55w. You can keep the 35w bulb that you replace as a spare during emergency.

As for service is concerned, I plan to take my bull to Sudhakar's garage in Ranigunj as I am done with the RE incompetent service. I will do so before my LEH ride in July. My bird's break shoes were replaced at 8000 Kms which was a miscommunication at the service station. They were supposed to fix the fork oil leakage instead replaced the break shoes for no apparent reason. A break shoe change at 13.5K still makes sense. So Dont worry about it. The cost you mentioned is reasonable. Remember, Royal enfield parts and maintainence is heavy with sub-standard quality. Its something you ought to live with.

And a small piece of advice. The 35W bulb itself burns the stock reflector. The stock reflectors I had was burned on the top portion. When I removed the headlamps, I saw 35w/35w written on the reflector, which Im assuming that, this stock reflector is capable of handing only the heat generated by 35w bulb. Well, atleast that is their intention, however as I said, even the stock bulb burned the reflector, cheap quality. So Imaging what a 60/55w bulb could do to your reflector.

Please replace your stock reflector may be with the autopal/ambassador type of get a size suitable that is of good quality from some spare parts dealer.


Ride safe! Be proud. Whatever RE is, I love riding this beast. The feeling cannot be explained.

my new tbts

hi xbhpians,

i finally got my silver t'bird delivered on evening (more like night!) of 25 april. been a buzy few days with a couple of visits to the service center already thrown in but did manage to notch up over 300km already. i was initially a bit apprehensive about what all defects it might have, but luckily they were only minor ones. have fallen in love with the engine......... have started cruising on highways and traffic-free routes in spite of longer distance jst for the feel of it, mileage be damned!

problems at time of delivery included a front brake which squealed like a pig (literally!) and free falling (look ma ...... the springs r busted!) rear footrests. discovered after reaching home dat the handlebar lock refused to work! the idea of leaving the bike unlocked terrified me..... so i put some cookin oil into the lock and tried to insert and rotate the key in it at hourly intervals, right until 3am in the morning! it did manage to rotate in the morning......... went to the service center later and got it fixed wid rust free spray , front brake was also ground by d mechanic. since mirrors n manual were not available at time of delivery, i've got to wait again for a couple of weeks to get hold of them.

mileage is a big plus.......... i topped up the fuel tank wid 500 bucks worth of petrol...... 6.8 ltrs approx...... n 2 litres reserve provided by showroom. fuel meter showed empty sumwhere around 250 mark but the bike just kept on going and finally i tired of doing mileage calculations! got satisfied dat my new bike was giving in the ballpark of 40 and topped it up at around 280km on the odo...... nw im thinking dat the fuel meter is probably defective..... but atleast its better dan no meter! (am thinkin std 350 n electra).

i've got the bike after an excruciating waitin period of 7 months, during that time i read a lot of tips on how to run in the engine. finally i decided that i would keep it below 2k rpm. am planning to do this till 3000km on the odo. throttle response is great, but my friends avenger has better acceleration in my opinion. bt the feel of riding this bike on a winding stretch of deserted road while listening to the exhaust is sumthing which im experiencin for the first time ........ nothing to beat it on that front!

differences between my bike and my friend's t'bird which he obtained sum 8 months ago.......... first of all, those miserly buggers at enfield have shrunk the key! cost saving measures i guess ?! next, the engine and exhaust sound from my bike seemed to be quite a bit more than my friends bike when it was new. im quite happy about it as the engine is running fine i dont have to fiddle with changing the xhaust pipe jst for the extra decibels.......... thirdly, i think the horn is quite powerful....... havent had the chance to compare it wid an older enfield yet....... but it is sufficiently lound to irritate me and is quite sufficient for use in heavy traffic also IMO

planned modifications:

i originally planned to fit headlamp and indicator caps(which have eagle printed on them) on my t'bird, but after i saw a couple of thunderbirds with headlamp caps i dropped the idea. i felt these mods ruined the bike's look. they look much better on the classic n electra. ramkoti in hyd is the go to place for mods though the service center mechanics strongly advised against going there to avoid getting duped.

the headlamp is quite good but i am gettin blinded by oncoming traffic. plannng to plonk philips xtreme vision in place of stock lamp. many thanks to 'madelikeagun' for his helpful info.


regarding alloys i have enquired at 'on the rocks' at madhapur and the dealer quoted sum 6k for them. will worry about those after sum 10000km i guess !

riding gear
i'd read a lot of posts regarding helmets n also after riding 4 3days i decided to get a helmet asap as at the end of a day's ride, my eyes n hair r getting totally messed up by dust, wat wid d level of pollution here...... helmet is necessary, if not to protect head den atleast the hair!
ls2 n cross helmets appeared to fall within my budget so i made some enquiries and dealers r quoting 4.5k here, cross is much less available than ls2. ontherocks offers slightly lower prices n d dealer said he'd take roughly two weeks to get me one. dat is one tiny shop wid a neat collection of stuff, most of which are overpriced i must add! there is this other website which is offering quite good rates IMO, n dey promise a delivery within a week. however since its not cash on delivery, im not sure whether it is trustworthy or not. if anyone has any suggestions regarding sum gud shop, please do share wid me.

i had planned on getting knee & elbow protectors but all the ones i've seen so far jst look like plastic baubles. cramster.in has a bionic knee guard but elbow guards r not available

since doing long rides is definitely on my agenda, ws thinkin of gettin a gps thingy also. mapmyindia has sumthin specific for bikes retailin at 20k. but a-gps is available in cell phones also though it is rather dependent on signal. forum members, please advise regarding gps nd also which maps provider has more accurate maps of india.

this concludes my long and rambling post ............... ! mods, im not sure how much information is relevant to this section but i think i've posted wat all issues a newbie might face

Thanks for the reply. Guess i'll stick with 60/55w bulb .And BTW what would be the cost of the autopal/ambassador reflector?

Congratulations on your purchase of this amazing machine and welcome to the RE club. I am sure, with proper care your bull will go a long way in serving you.

First, I want to say that, avoid comparing the TBTS with the Avenger , both are a total different league and Cubic Capacity. Although, both bikes are cruisers and Twin spark, they have total different feel when riding. I did get your point about the power generated in Avenger. Both bikes deliver almost the same power (Avenger 19.03 @ 8400rpm, TBTS 19.8 bhp @ 5250 rpm), However note the RPM. And the TBTS is a torque machine. If you are looking to zip pass traffic frequently then Avenger will serve you the purpose. My travel partner recently purchased the Avenger 220CC. He loves my TBTS and I love the few small features Avenger has which could have been incorporated in TBTS. For first, Avenger has a 60W H4 stock bulb that is powerful, the horns are loud, you can lit the pilot lamps on with the ignition key and remove the keys if you want to step away from your bike for a few minutes. The Full DC setup Avenger has a relay, which turns off your headlamp just before ignition. Mind you, the Avenger has no Kick start. These tiny features are no big deal to incorporate in TBTs when you pay 1Lakh 17K on road.

Coming to Run-in, just follow your manual. Make sure you run-in your engine for each speed range. Example, if you have never touched the 90Km/h mark and you intend to do so, do not rip off the bike, run in the bike for the speed range. Which means, gradually increase speed to 90km/h and ride 2 mins at 90km/h, slow down and repeat procedure.

Regarding helmet, I have the Studds, downtown (1900 Rs) and I am pretty impressed and satisfied with the product. It's not like those old studds helmets which was just a piece of metal. But you are looking for world class quality, sure - nobody stopping you from getting a LS2 or Cross.

As for Knee Guards are concerned, you may go for a good brand ranging from 1500Rs above. Same goes with Elbow guards. I do have the Fox Elbow and Knee guards which cost me 600 Rupees. Mind you these are designed for BMX Bycycling. I got these just to test its quality. Quality wise they are worth what you paid for. It's like a Use and throw piece, one bad fall will damage the guards but protect your bones and skin. Fox do come with expensive ranges, look on the US website what you need and you can purchase one at the range of 1500 to 3500 from Ebay.

As for GPS, I found Map my India GPS to be the best. With the amount of Local information it has, like ATMs, Lodges, Hotels, Restaurants, Dhabas, Govt Bulding, Mechanic shops, shopping malls, all the small tiny roads, etc. This is the best GPS money can buy. I love the MMI 20K model you were looking for. It is fully water proof and comes with a Mobile charging station of its own. Your fellow riders can also tune into the specified Radio frequency from their Mobile radio and listen to the Voice guidance system. What more do you need. Due to its heavy cost, I have the Road pilot 2 which costs around 8K. So I got an external Bike charging station for 250/- from IdeaForge India and the GPS works fine as they are continously charged while on the run. The GPS battery is 1Amp while the Idea Forge output is only 500mAh. This is the only drawback I have seen in this setup. But hey, if you have the money to spend 20K, knock yourself out.

Draw back of mobile GPS is that, not only you pay for GPRS transmition, the GPS drains your mobile battery in few minutes. So GPS + GPRS is a disaster. And places where you have no mobile connectiviy, your GPRS wont work. Now even if you install the paid MapMyIndia map they sell exclusively for mobile phone, then you will use the GPS on the phone. My take is, when travelling, use your Phone as a Phone, Use your GPS as a GPS and Use your MP3 player as a MP3 player, dont club all in one gadget and end up having nothing in the middle of an emergency. The MMI GPS has no subsciption fee and with the maps pre-installed, the only time your GPS service can get disrupted is if you are in a Basement with multiple levels of concrete above you, extremely bad weather, or the US government decides to block GPS services for Civilans.

If I missed something, just reply again. Enjoy your ride.

I have no Idea Jayanth. Sorry.

@Chotu_r : Welcome to the RE TBTS Family!!! Congratulations on your new acquisition.

@Jayant : I got Philips Extreme from Reliance Autozone for INR600. Ideally at Philips dealer it should cost less IMO.

Well, On saturday, I had gone for 350kms+ drive and bike worked like a charm. During the entire run which constituted for National Highway, 4 Ghats, and a state highway, the mile munching capability of the bike was amazing. I never strained the bike. I crossed only a couple of time 70kmph speed but only for few seconds. RPM never beyond 3000. Bike is extremely smooth and steady at 70kmph speed.

During the entire course of ride, we had 3-4 stops regularly. However at the last stop, I saw oil leakage from the bike. Leakage seems to be between lower half and upper half of cylinder block. I guess, the gasket is the culprit. When I checked the oil level, it was at the bottom level indicator.

As a result, I decided to drive the bike till nearest civil area with speed 40kmph and rpm not more than 2000. After reaching the shop where I got the oil to refill, the level was not seen even at the bottom mark. So, I filled the oil, but, I did not see the level while filling the oil. After putting in 1 litre, I again could not see oil in the glass window, so, fearing that I have lost too much of oil, I put in another litre of Oil. Total capacity is 2.75 with refill capacity of 2.35

Even after filling 2 litres of oil, I did not see oil in the window. Got confused. But with logic of already putting in 2 litres, I decided to ride bike home with was about 30 kms away. During the entire ride, before and after the Oil refill, the bike was smooth and never felt harsh, deviod of oil or anything like that.

Next day morning I checked the oil level again. I could not see oil level. When I closely checked it again, it now looks like oil is beyond max level and now, looks like there is too much oil in the engine. Oil was too clean to be noticed. I know this (too much of oil) can cause harm.

I now intend to drip drain the oil till the required level and then drive it to service station and get the oil leakage fixed.

The bike has now 1231 on the odo and all the while, "run-in" directions have been strictly adhered to.

I know oil leakage is an issue with most of enfields, and till last week, I kept my fingers crossed that I have not faced that issue. Can you guys tell me exactly from where have you all faced oil leaks and how have you fixed them? Is this a perpetual problem or this can be fixed?

take care and ride safely

Rajesh

Hello there, I understand your issue.

All the while there was enough oil in your bike however you topped it up again and again. Not your fault. I experienced the same thing. Took my bike to the service center and he explained to me how to exactly check the engine oil level.

Either you Let the Engile Idle for 10 min or ride the bike for few kilometers. Kill the Engine, put the bike in center stand and then you will see the correct oil level. There were hundereds of instance where I saw the oil level below normal or never even saw oil level. So nowadays what I do is. After I go for a short ride, like to the shop or to my office, I put my bike on center stand and check. I see the correct oil level. My bike leaks oil like crazy. I mean, its only from the bottom, near the bolt. Its like when the engine is hot, the oil drips. When Engine cools down no more oil drip. Inspite all this, my engine oil level never goes down below normal.

Once the service center guys put some sealant when oil leak was found near the silencer gasket area and near the spark plug area. That issue is solved. But the oil drip from the bottom, irritates me. Only because it spoils my house owners garage

Otherwise I really don't care because the bike is just fine.

You need to remove excess oil otherwise may lead to other issues.