Wednesday, November 7, 2007

Royal Enfield 500 LB Machismo - why me?

The Royal Enfield no doubt a great bike but in recent times is suffering under its own weight. It is surviving today only because of its image in the market.

There are countless debates about this topic on various forums, so I don’t want to delve deep into this, neither am I trying to influence any opinions here. I just want to highlight my experience with as many people so that they don’t get to face the same hassles I did.

No two ways about the fact the RE is an awesome bike, but its only "BAD" "NEGATIVE" "SAD" point is the "Management" itself. The people who are running the company lack the passion shown by its customers "The Riders".

My one month Old Machismo 500 LB needs a piston barrel kit changed, because there was a manufacturing defect in the bike. You would understand the emotion if you buy a new bike for over a lac and they say it has a defect after 300 kms riding, and open up the engine to replace the piston. Hell. And repeated attempts to make them change the engine are of no avail.

RE makes 500 of these in a year, and if these lousy engineers cant check 500 bikes IN A YEAR to be error free, god knows where this company is headed.

ASSUMING only my bike is faulty (that is a biiiggg ASSUMING BTW), 1 defect in 500, I hate to even do the math for quality indicators.

SO guys if you want to go ahead and buy a machismo 500 be sure to take a test ride of the piece that is going to get delivered to you, listen for a knocking sound from the engine, Don’t trust these buggers at RE. Oh and a friend of mine got one a month back it runs like a peach. So take the risk of a RE if you are up for it, or be cautious in choosing the bike delivered to you.

The best part is the answer i get from RE "its a machine hota hai" from a senior guy in the management......what the F%^& , this is their attitude, I am ashamed and scared: how will RE survive the market with this kind of an attitude. I am getting my bike repaired now, a brand new Machismo 500 LB the premium bike in the RE stable, being repaired after 300kms of running, bravo.

Its because of idiots like me who love the bike but hate the company that ensure that its still out there, but for how long is the question? and they blame the bike after all this .. Incompetent *&%$#@.

6 comments:

Jeevan Sebastian said...

ah. you should take comfort from my story then. I had the same piston problem with my 500 LB Machismo after 200-300 kms and I tried replacing the whole bike fearing the manufacturing defect would continue damaging the pistons. But of course RE didn't agree and got my piston kits changed for free under warranty. Then I go on this Bangalore-Leh solo ride and the same thing happens in Udaipur. I was out of warranty by then so I paid around 14k replacing it. I was adamant to finish the trip so I broke it in on the way to Leh and got back to bangalore only to find the same problem again. This of course could have been partly my fault as it was doing high altitudes and the engine was running for a maximum of 2-3 hrs without a break, but I never took it above 80km/hr. So yeah I spend another 16k in bangalore replacing the piston kits. 2 Months later, last monday, would you believe it, I've got the same problem! And this after the most careful running in ever! So now I'm trying figure out how to take my case to the company. This obviously is an assembly defect which is probably mistiming the engine or even something more complicated which will not be fixed with just a piston replacement
- Your brother in misery :)

Joshi said...

Jeez..thats sad and worrysome, i missed your comment somehow..fortunately mine hasnt broken down again..YET...but this is awfull if its happening to others, consumer case is the answer, but the thing is they havent identified the issue yet, i still get a very irritating noise like knocking, which RE fails to identify..god knows what this is..let me know if you find out anything

Jeevan Sebastian said...

yup..will let u know

Jeevan Sebastian said...

w

LADAKH said...

same happend with me also with in 2400km

Joshi said...

oh! sad to hear that, did it get corrected..or is still troublesome

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