re: RS200 Alloy Wheel breaking issue!

News Approved

This is terrible. A front wheel failure could be fatal.

re: RS200 Alloy Wheel breaking issue!

Must be same supplier that had provided initial batch of D390 wheels

re: RS200 Alloy Wheel breaking issue!

This looks bad if we just go by the post! We must wait for more details to emerge before jumping to any conclusions!

Request everyone to not badmouth the company unless we have more facts coming from the incident.

This discussion will be more meaningful if we can throw light upon circumstances that can lead to situation like this, be it the low quality alloy, hitting a bump, collision with other object, or something else!

re: RS200 Alloy Wheel breaking issue!

You missed the 'not' but I agree nevertheless

re: RS200 Alloy Wheel breaking issue!

Bajaj had been struggling with quality, problems even from the time of P180/P200 and P220 Front fork and wheels. The initial batches were notorious for lower Fork tube breakage...here are some images of the type of Problem.... The initial production output of Bajaj will be "Experimental" models and the Customer is the Guinea pig.

re: RS200 Alloy Wheel breaking issue!

Oh no,, that's the front - definitely risky.
Are Bajaj officials aware of this? - Hopefully it reaches their screens.

re: RS200 Alloy Wheel breaking issue!

Bajaj officials are definitely aware of this and taking the cognizance of this report appearing on xBhp and elsewhere, they've issued this statement:

Re: RS200 Alloy Wheel breaking issue!

All these castings are made from LM24 Aluminum alloy.

Endurance is the one making both forks and alloy wheels, manufactured in LPDC & GDC Casting process. Both forks and alloy wheels are made by the same LM24 Alloy.

All these breakages are mainly because of poor quality alloy (i.e) metal compositions are way out of spec, excess silica content is the prime reason for breakage.

other than that proper quality test for alloy ingots such as fracture test, where the fractured surface should be fine grainy pattern. Spectro test, which very very important to test the chemical composition of alloy, is not even conducted. as there is a huge demand by bajaj, they cut corners by reducing the amount of time spent inspection & quality control and bajaj too accept these poor quality casting, as endurance is the cheapest die caster in india.

other than these poor dross removal process (impurities in molten metal) will also have a huge impact in the quality of these castings.

Remelting process is also not properly governed by most of die casters, mix up of various runners (excess metals after casting) Eg Runner form a ADC 12 alloy casting is mixed with these LM 24 alloy casting runners will also lead to these kinds of very poor quality.

Bajaj should (must) make improvements in its casting and its machining process to prevent these kind of failures

Re: RS200 Alloy Wheel breaking issue!

It is inevitable that any product will have its initial share of niggles and failures, even after the product is tested extensively in Leh/ Ladakh or even Antartica. This is especially true for Automobiles and we have seen it in almost all new releases from any manufacturer. Be it Honda, Yamaha, Maruti, BMW, whatever. It is a price early adoptors have to pay for initial novelty factor. This is even more true for items that are cast or forged (like wheels), because the dynamics change tremendously in volume production versus batch production.
That being said the pictures here are showing something pretty serious. But before pointing fingers at Bajaj, we need to inderstand all other aspects like Tyre pressure at the time of failure etc.

Re: RS200 Alloy Wheel breaking issue!

Saw it on FB just yesterday.

If ONLY then can come out with a fair, independent report. Report conducted by Bajaj on their own product... well I will take it with a HUGE pinch of salt

Re: RS200 Alloy Wheel breaking issue!

Now it is the handle bar. I found it online. I am not blaming bajaj as it still not clear about the incident. Only a thorough investigation will prove about the quality of bajaj's bikes. But whatever the earlier dukes and now the new RS 200 early batch is going through similar phase. Is bajaj doing beta testing with it's new customers by putting them under risk ? BTW I own a KTM duke 390 2014 model and I have good respect for bajaj

Re: RS200 Alloy Wheel breaking issue!

For me, broken wheel like this way is not a manufacturer issue. I agree Bajaj compromise with quality till some extent but these should have been tested till the accent someone can use it on the roads.

Re: RS200 Alloy Wheel breaking issue!

Quality being compromised should result in the entire batch of the vehicles dispatched ..isnt it. Not just 1 or 2 here and there. IMO, they aint going make a huge profit by cutting corners here and there and vehicle being faulty. The rider could have done something major prior to this. Like skidding over a speed-breaker or jumping up and down through a pot-hole. These alloys must have been designed to take some beating when driven insanely and must have reached it breaking-point. And when he applied the brakes with his all might power, kaput, it gave way.

Just my assumption.

Re: RS200 Alloy Wheel breaking issue!

Line stoppages will be a huge loss for automotive manufacturers, and they even accept these rejections at some point to meet the production targets.

There are cases where the chipped castings are even pasted together using epoxy putty (Eg Hyundai 1 ltr kappa engines oil sump)

All the RE Cylinder barrel castings are impregnated to remove surface porosity, but the impregnation chemicals will have adverse effect on paint and powder coating of casting but still they do it, as higher tonnage PDC castings are further more expensive and cycle time is also greater.

With team work of QC & Purchase Reps at both buyer and supplier end huge money can be made by buying poor raw material and accepting the poor quality finished product.

All die casters have a rejection rate of 10 to 15 percentage, accepting these rejection fully will be a huge loss to the manufacturer as per casting profit margin is less, So they accept these rejections to support its supplier.