Or Goldwing's seats.....

Any idea when the deliveries are gonna start for 350/500 TBTS?

November's first/second week in Pune... SHould be around the same in rest of India...

My Dealer in Thane said that I can take delivery any time I want!! Planning for diwali.

Delivery around Diwali!! Now that's news.. Almost every other dealer's been giving a range of 3+ months.. which would make it around Dec or thereafter.. Hope you receive it in Diwali buddy.. Would be happy for you It's been more than 15 days since the launch, but my dealer doesn't even have a new TBTS for test ride.. So I guess I can forget about expecting early deliveries

I sent a mail to RE, mentioning that i am waiting for 10 months without a bike for TBTS 350. And then, i said now that there is a new model that has come out, when can i expect the delivery. The answer to that, was

Godammit, that means, they will only explain and no actual delivery dates in sight

I heard from someone that the TR are available @ Shivajinagar showroom...

Anyone of you gone fully synthetic in this forum?

It is available for test ride @ Sonia Motors Bhandup if you are from Mumbai.

Yes.. I finally had the 'privilege' of experiencing a test ride on the new TBTS at this particular showroom (Dhone STILL doesnt have a bike for TR). Rode the TBTS 350 (This dealer doesnt have the 500). My wife also rode pillion, since I needed her experience regarding the potentially problematic backrest.. Regarding the ride quality, I quite liked the TBTS 350.. Weight of the bike felt slightly heavier than before.. I guess that's a matter of adjustment and getting-used-to. The newly designed handlebars (slightly lower arm position than before) were to my liking (I had felt slightly uncomfortable on the couple of TR's that I had done on the old TBTS).. Sitting position felt okay.. Nothing drastically different from the old model. Regarding the test ride, I rode along a straight stretch as well as on quite a few turn sections (mainly to get a feel of the maneuvering wrt city traffic). No problems on that front either (apart from adjustment issues once again). I'm not a seasoned biker by any means, so pickup, power, gear ratio etc. are terms which I don't quite understand.. So better not to get into that. Now coming to pillion rider comfort, my wife severely complained about the new backrest. It juts and pokes into the lower back and became uncomfortable 5 mins into the test ride. Now that's real bad news for pillion riders. Sadly, my suspicions about the backrest being problematic have been confirmed. I should also mention that the new black rear view mirrors look terrible on the TBTS. They totally kill the look of the bike. The TBTS (actually all RE's) deserve nothing other than chrome RVM's. So changing the RVMS's and the backrest are now top priority things for me once I get delivery of my bike. It's just that I am still to meet a RE technician/mechanic and ask him whether swapping the backrest is possible or not. If it turns out that it's not possible, then I (and I'm sure many others who will be travelling with pillion riders) have some problems on hand..

Will go back in a few days to test ride the TBTS 500.. Just for the experience of it!

Yes, it is a blunder in terms of design from RE. It surely hurts bad, and imagine in a bad stretch of road or sudden acceleration! I wonder if there has been any reason at all for making it short

Lets see if I can revive some dormant minds . I just got my bull back from general service. My camera battery was dead so I got it recharged, meanwhile the sun left for the day, so I'll wait for daylight to click a pic.

The front shock absorber which lost half its oil was refilled and seal replaced. The harsh Ladakh terrain took a beating, but Im proud it stood strong for nearly 4000Kms before oil started leaking. (Oh BTW, the left shock absorber is a birth defect that RE refused to acknowledge, so I get it repaired each time it leaks, last time I got it repaired was just before my trip)

The battery had lost half its water, I take the blame, I did not check the water level since I purchased the bull. Front disk brake pad voluntarily replaced for the first time at 19500Kms although it still had some life in it. Im currently running fully synthetic Valvoline 20W 50 against manual recommendation of 15W 50 and I should say first impression is really great. The engine feels free and kick start is a lot easier. In Ladakh I had refilled with Shell 10W 40 mineral oil on recommendations from local mechanic and life was much easier in the cold terrain. So now I learned to use different grades for various scenarios I will share more knowledge as I keep riding.

Meanwhile I had to replace the rear number plate as it took a hit while I was reversing in a Traffic jam somewhere near Jaipur en-route Leh. Also had to refill front break oil as it was almost depleted. With all work done and the reason I am blabbing all this out is because the Engine is in Excellent Excellent condition after the Leh ride. I have not touched or done anything to it as its running and sounding as happy and healthy as it should be. So for those who had even the slightest of second thoughts of whether to go for a Thunderbird instead of anything else the answer is there in my several historical posts and my LEH trip log in my signature.

Royal Enfield Thunderbird is the king of the road and king of cruising. My wife who accompanied me all the way to Leh had no leg/joint/back ache (of-course she did use back support and extra cushioning) as part of the preparations. As for me, as long as I took that 5 min break every 60 mins, I could go on and on forever, just that the international borders held me back.

After servicing my bike at my trusted mechanic, I took my bull to the Royal Enfield showroom in Uppal in Hyderabad. My word, I was surprised that this pawn shop look showroom I saw 6 months ago has been transformed into something like a BMW showroom. I saw several 500CC brand new Thunderbird on display. I asked the man, so whats this transformation all about? He gave me a grin and said, many new models sir, many new customers. I told him, no use of new models when you can't deliver to your customers. Thousands of booking in Hyderabad and just 3 or 4 Showroom/service stations. Not enough.

Anyway the reason to go there was to get me a pair of mirrors that got stolen (another story.) Replaced rear mirrors for 444Rs and service center looked real impressive. So I told the supervisor, Ill come here one more time. Impress me with your service then I shall change my mind about RE after sales service. So we made a deal and took off.

My first impression of the RETB 500CC is that I did not like it. Apart from the HID lamp which I will be the first one to buy and fix it on my bull, nothing else impresses me. The rear tyre looks like I am going to buy a pulsar. At-least they could have gotten the RE Classic rear tyres on the TB500. Looks like the tyres are 18 inch? I have not read the specs but it looks smaller. If that is true then there are lots of options in the 18" segment because I suffered a lot to get the right 19" tyre for my LEH trip. Im waiting for the long term ownership reviews of this bike, but will never purchase another Royal Enfield until many other factors are sorted out. I am very happy with by TBTS and I spend a lot of money to make sure it is happy. Maybe one day if RE decides to come with a twin engine series, maybe then, Ill think about it.

Enjoy riding folks. Bullet is a pride to ride.

Edited: Oh BTW, so many things happened in those 10 days I could write a novel of my trip. When I was in Kota, I had serviced my bike at an ex-Royal Enfield showroom. That was the best experience I ever had with Royal Enfield. Sadly he is an ex-dealer. Although he did tell me why he quit the dealership I won't write the reason here. I had a fatal tyre puncture at Kota and had to halt there for the night. The Kota ex-showroom who was so helpful. He took my bike in and did a full service of my bull and to fix a major wobbling issue. What happened was nearly 250Kilos + Kerb weight of the bull slammed hard on the rim when a 3 inch nail flattened my tyre. The Tube was totally destroyed in 5 places and I had to replace the tube with the spare I had, but the bike was wobbling so terribly. After adjusting the chain the wobbling was fixed 60%. It was only at Leh the wobbling for fully resolved and I give a hats off to that mechanic. I now know the reason for the wobbling.

At Kota I had to replace the silencer gasket which is one of other Royal Enfields chronic problems with their cheap parts running in the market. The gasket I replaced I dont remember how many times. It just dies on me after 2000 Kilometers or even less. It S***k* in street language terms.

So the Kota guy acknowledged the same that the RE Silencer gasket is a good for nothing piece. He fixed Yamaha silencer gaskets and told me, this wont fail. You have my word. I respect his honesty. 6500Kms later, my friends the gasket is running super strong. Its only few times in your life you come across honest people who really want to help. When you find them, keep them close to your heart.

Good night!

They'll have it after Diwali...
Yeah, it looks bulckier than the earlier one. bigger tank, rear disk, thicker forks have added some weight to this one.
may I know your height please?
that's a real bad news...
better change them with Avenger's...
yet the list is quite shorter than the one for previous model. you had to change the head lamp, horn, silencer (optional for dhuk-dhuk lovers). others like rear disk, broad and short rear wheel, a good useful console are already loaded. so worries...
I'll be removing the backrest completely if cannot be replaced... will look better too...
just ask the dealer about color guarantee for 500. I heard someone here on forum saying that RE guarantees 350's color for 1 year, but nothing for the 500's matt finish. please confirm this. unfortunately, i am stuck up in other fronts so unable to make it to showrrom for TR.
Also how was the gearing !? still as hard as other REs or better...!?

I'm 5 ft 7.. By the way, it turns out that this new showroom has ALREADY delivered 11 new TBTS bikes since the Oct 11 launch! 10 of them 350s and 1 a TBTS 500. I was shocked to hear this from the salesperson.. When almost every other dealer elsewhere has been saying a waiting period of 2 months (for old model booked customers), this new showroom dude has already gone ahead and delivered 11 bikes within 20 odd days!!

Thats nothing! If you know the dealer well, your number in the queue jumps up in "surprising" rate!! Imagine, my # is 10th for the past 3months. The RE dealers are a big load of bollocks.