Re: Had enought of my Thunderbird ;( Need a new bike.!!

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Re: Had enought of my Thunderbird ;( Need a new bike.!!

Buddy I am a Dominar owner but would ask you to wait a while before you take the plunge. So why did I do it myself? Simply because I had the NS before it for over 3 years and was extremely happy with it. Being associated with Bajaj and having a great experience with one of their product previously gave me the courage to take the plunge.

Still there is that off chance that the initial batches may need some tweaking as some owners have complained of excessive vibes and small quality issues. Selling off your troublesome T'bird and then getting another bike which also gives you similar quality issues (speculation) will send you over the edge. Best bet would be to put your bike in the market and keep taking reviews from regular users of Dominar and maybe even the newly launched Yamaha FZ 25 before zeroing in on it.

Also be absolutely certain that no other bike can give you the feel of riding a bullet. i hated mine too but I do remember the feel of it and it can never be replicated by any other bike.

Re: Had enought of my Thunderbird ;( Need a new bike.!!

Thanks Vikram Its not that I hate the bike, but the after sales service is literally the worst from RE specially the ones in Chennai. And I have a couple of people from work who have the dominar and are extremely happy with it. More over the reviews are also mostly positive with the negatives being very nit-picky ones. Anyways like you said, I will keep my options open but I feel this bike (Dominar) is the best bang for the buck. PS If someone knows a good service center for RE please tell me.

Re: Had enought of my Thunderbird ;( Need a new bike.!!

A friend of mine also sold his T'Bird last year due to the service centre woes. Guess what we read in management books about After Sales Service being as important as the product was true after all!

Personally till now i am happy with the Dominar. I always wanted a heavy cruiser - ish bike but wasnt willing to get the RE. Unfortunately till the Mojo was launched, that seemed the only option south of 2 Lakhs. The Mojo sales are a dud in my city and as such when the Dominar became a reality it forced me out of hibernation and with good reason. Still some very real negatives of the Dominar:

1. Bit vibey in the 4 - 5000 rpm range.
2. AHO gets way too much attention than intended. People keep reminding me to switch off my headlights.
3. Its a bit forward positioned and I am yet to get used to that. Im used to riding bikes with neutral seating position.
4. Small tank. Went through a tank full in just 4 days. That too I live in a small city so i think I will be becoming facebook friends with the fuel pump attendant!
5. Heavy - i feel the heft, though for you my friend that will be a non issue if you ride it.

Re: Had enought of my Thunderbird ;( Need a new bike.!!

Thanks for this Vikram, I will keep my options but TBH I don't like the Mojo for its weird looks. It looks like an extra-terrestrial animal and besides I love how the dominar looks. I have driven one and also loved the riding position. And other than the fact that it does not have a Gear Shift Indicator, I love and adore that bike specially the Plum color Dominar

Re: Had enought of my Thunderbird ;( Need a new bike.!!

Good to know Arjun, hope your future purchase gives you a better experience. Please feel free to reach out in case you have any specific queries in respect to the Dominar. From one biker to another - I wont sugar coat any negatives of the bike just because I own it.

Re: Had enought of my Thunderbird ;( Need a new bike.!!

[MENTION=76649]arjunpaliath[/MENTION] have you tried the svc at adyar? Heard it's better than the other RE svc. I too ended up selling my 1.5year old tb350 due to lack of proper svc. Don't bother with the svc at kaatupaakam. Those guys are pretty useless.

Re: Had enought of my Thunderbird ;( Need a new bike.!!

Thank you. I have tried most places in Chennai and although the best was Adyar it too was not good enough since my bike still had small niggles. I knew that REs have to be serviced and they are high maintenance but this is kind of too much IMO.

Going to check out the Dominar but do recommend any similar VFM bikes.

Re: Had enought of my Thunderbird ;( Need a new bike.!!

what's your budget? dont think it was mentioned in your op. i'm also getting a new bike in a few days. gixxer/ns200/fz25 are some options out there right now. there are also reasonable number of upcoming launches in march-apr.

Re: Had enought of my Thunderbird ;( Need a new bike.!!

Sorry I had missed it completely.

I can spend up to 3 Lakhs. But I like a naked bike.

So Duke 390 (not sure how the new one is for touring and city)
Dominar 400 all come with in it AFAIK.

Re: Had enought of my Thunderbird ;( Need a new bike.!!

It is the same in Bangalore as well. Frustrated with after sale service and quality of RE. I own a TB500, 2 years old. Even i was thinking of Dominar 400, as someone said here, I'm just waiting to hear the initial niggles of the bike if it has and buy it after few months. By the time hopefully BMW G310R also will come.
Currently D400 seems to be the best for the budget.
For your TB, Find a really good local RE mechanic. I don't take the bike to ASC anymore and pretty happy with the work the local mechanic does, although the bike isn't reliable at all.
I guess we're in the same boat

Re: Had enought of my Thunderbird ;( Need a new bike.!!

Mate, just one question. Are you selling the bike solely because you're irritated with the service while still loving the bike ? If yes, then there are some descent third party SVCs in Chennai and I suggest you start looking out for them. There's one on Taramani, more like a small shop, exclusively for REs.

I second the horror stories of RE SVC in Chennai. I'm also looking for a bike for the past 3 months and just one visit to Pallikaranai RE showroom's SVC made me run away from REs. There are close to 100 odd bikes stranded outside their SVC, some of the bikes were even turned on and the battery was draining. The merciless way the SVC guys treat those bikes will be a nightmare for the bikes' owners. When questioned they give some answers like only if the bike is driven that way it'll be helpful for them to find problems and I don't find that reasonable at all.

Cheers!

Re: Had enought of my Thunderbird ;( Need a new bike.!!

Yeah I like the G310R. It was recently reviewed on YT and they said it's a wonderful bike with good VFM.

I mainly do city commute for work around 40kms and on weekends tour to places like Mahabs or Nagallapuram. And I also mostly have a pillion so Duke is out of the question since all my colleagues who own a Duke say it's a one man bike.

Next closest is the Dominar which I really like and adore. I know Bajaj has good service coverage as well so thinking of getting that.

I have tried the Taramani one since my office is close to there but still not satisfactory. May be it's just my luck but I am fed up.

And now I am looking for options.

Re: Had enought of my Thunderbird ;( Need a new bike.!!

[QUOTE=arjunpaliath;1279763]Yeah I like the G310R. It was recently reviewed on YT and they said it's a wonderful bike with good VFM.

Hi Arjun,

I didnt know the review was out for the Beemer. Have the prices officially been released too? I ask this because of the VFM comment. Would be interesting to see this bike in the flesh specially if its in the same ballpark in terms of the pricing as the 390 - wishful thinking