I'm getting RS 457, and I came here with a negative mindset like it's going to be useless after looking at the title, now after watching the video I'm absolutely convinced about the issue. This is real! Thanks for putting out these practical issues, people should be prepared about these points before buying, because buying isn't a great deal but maintaining the bike is.
After riding in India for 17 years and then moving to New Zealand, I was shocked to know the price difference in servicing. They charged me $1000 for servicing my GSX650. That is around ₹50,000/- I moved to a Royal Enfield Interceptor 650 and learnt how to work on my bike myself. I recently adjusted the valves and love that I can work on the bike myself. Spare parts here are many times more expensive here than in India. It’s very enjoyable to work on the bike myself and I love it as much as riding the bike.
Hi vikas bro, I have triumph Scrambler, it is having tappet issues. I visited service center they said it will go after few kms. Still its the same also again i visited service center they say its normal, many owners are fed up with this issue. I am in a whatsapp group of speed/scram owners. 7/10 people have this tappet issue. Only one service center in gurgaon has fixed by adjusting shim and changing chain tensioner. Bangalore and other svc are completely ignoring. Please make a video on this. We need a bigger voice so that it will reach head officials of triumph. the Sad part is that triumph is not recalling who has tappet issues and doing stuping ecu updates. Which is not properly tested and its screwing up the engine.
Honda NX500 is the best twin cylinder out there in the Indian market as per my opinion. It's a gem of a bike. Japanese engineering at its very best Honda🔥🔥
I own a Hyosung GT250R vikas Bhai and I've enquired about its spares and trust me, it's fairing is 98 thousand, fuel pump is 12 thousand, throttle body is 33 thousand, headlamp is 14 thousand. Engine assembly is 3 lakhs 😅 So it's better to use spares of abandoned Hyosungs 😅
Hi vikas Bhai. I had a 2018 Bajaj Dominar 400 and it took 56 days for me to get the gear lever delivered 😅 Personally, I believe the Honda CB300R is a good value for money motorcycle now. The company has slashed it's price by 50 thousand. It's a good quality bike. I recently enquired about BMW RR310 in Hyderabad and they were asking 10 thousand extra for pre delivery inspection and I cancelled my booking 😃
Prices of Spare parts for ninja 300 were decreased by nore than 50% a couple of years ago.like chain set etc. please check once. I have seen whole list
The only easy peasy spare part availability was for my 2011 Pulsar 220 F. A simple mechanics and well tuned bike was back then. Never had a shortage of anything.. Until I switched over to Honda CBR 250 R. And got a pre owned 1st gen Ktm RC 390 as well.. The headache of proper service personnel and spare availability killed me. Sometimes, even if you invest all the money in the world the lack of deep experience of engine mechanisms would leave you saddened in the end... I sold off both in sadness. Now I understand how it was amazing to own my first bike 220. It's always wise to keep such a bike with you almost forever.. Kolkata is crying because of lack of specialised service personnel for complex engines. They almost couldn't adjust the valve shims or replace it properly of my CBR and looted 12000 in the name of service once. You can rely blindly on a simple engine. As atleast if and when you are in trouble you can get the work done by almost all local bike garages around or outside.. Trust me brothers, it's a blessing nowadays..
Bro, last month, I completed my Ninja 300 1st service it cost me around 7.5K, and the service charge was too high not offered free services which other brands offer
Good topic and well presented, but needs more nuance: 1. The per hour labour cost at big bike brands is at a premium as compared to mass market brands. There are some valid and some not so valid reasons driving this. So, for general services a N300/400 for example might cost nearly as much as the same for the 650's or even the 1000's. Parts costs will obviously be quite different. 2. Material specs can substantially change for the design limits of torque, stress, heat etc. So, very similar items might cost very different. 3. The companies squeeze the dealers at multiple levels so the dealers have less incentive to hold inventory. That's why we are gradually seeing consolidation across dealerships. Ultimately we ride what appeals to our hearts at whatever point in our lives. Maintainability IS a big aspect but not the major deciding one, unless it's an absolutely obscure brand/product where you will end up importing each and every part yourself. My next will NEED to be a Triple. 😁 Disclaimer: Yezdi > Shogun > Thunderbird > KTM 390 > V650 > Duc. Scrambler > V1000
Great podcast, Even for single cylinders apart from the major sellers (RE, Bajaj, TVS) if u get a gixxer 250 or like me own a Vstrom 250 you tend to face the same issue of parts not available at the dealer. Even if it is, if you check the MFG date it will be 2-3 years old! Also the technicians do not service as many bikes, that they cant fix problems apart from the norm and usually take very long time to fix them.
Hi bro… I have vstrom 250 sx…. Had issues from 1st day of purchase….has many problems, they change some parts of engine but problems remains, faulty chasis, change the chassis but stii has pulling issues, starting problem in the high altitude and cold… they are delaying the processs and harassing me repeatedly… i called for refund,,, and now they block my mail id…and not even contacting…
Even I had a issue with Kawasaki ninja 300 the spare parts are too high priced and whenever we go to service it is costing very high as I am using 1000 cc bike same issue with royal Enfield GT the customer support is not good
Totally agree on being practical in India..service experience can absolutely ruin a motorcycle experience. I owned a Yamaha FZ-S for nearly 2 years and service experience completely ruined a superb bike, which kind of forced me to exchange the motorcycle. Basic parts availability, skill of detecting problems, everything was a real pain. Service quality needs a lot of rethinking in India.
Agreed, an uninformed buyer will surely get ripped by these dealers that is why I am glad to know Tarun.. he has always taken care of all my bikes, be it rx100 or cbr 250 or currently my Z650... Very trustworthy service
Much appreciated Vikas for having such a conversations, it was really needed to bring this awareness, finally here u are throwing light on dirty side of automobile spares business. companies are only interested in selling their bikes and not at all interested in after sales stories at all, they just loot in the name of brand value nothing else. Parts are of higher cc bikes are made intentionally unavailable and leaving no option for customer to run to their doors to buy at higher price taking full advantage of customers helplessness here. somehow customer will also readily agree to pay as he would have been exhausted already looking for the spares elsewhere.
spare parts become a headache for premium bikes in India. Recently I called 2-3 Yamaha service centres in Delhi for foot pegs then they told me to order now and parts will be available only after 20days.
Pathetic situation of Service and Parts in india, hats off to these two guys for raising the issue. Motorcycle companies should follow the VW Dealership model which VW employed in the US after WWII. VW had few things very clear in their mind, they are a german company, setting up shop in the US (who they just finished a world war few years ago) and the US at early 50s was the absolute Daddy in Automobiles, decades ahead of Japan & Europe. VW mandated, if you want to have a VW dealership in the US, the dealer HAS to stock full inventory of spare parts (Body + Engine), so much so, that if they receive just a chassis, the whole car could be completed and delivered to the customer from the dealership. Now thats how to make inroads and disrupt a established market.
Similarly when I compared oil filter price of both Himalayans below is the difference: Himalayan 411 Oil Filter: Rs 100 Himalayan 452 Oil Filter: Rs 250
situations gonna improve when the market grows. and there is service related issues in indian brands also that doesn't mean we should stop buying our dream motorcycles. Its better to know your motorcycle and we will grow together. Also there is a opportunity for after market service centres to grow.
Sir u have raised a valid point and may be many of the customers are not aware...the spares of all these Ninja, Aprilia, Benelli, R3 are not easily available in local market and u have to forcibly pay huge bills at showroom...the spares prices are not justified.... better to consider the RC 390 or else if ready to afford then go for proper track super bike
Absolutely true !!!! I recently changed my D390's block piston injectors clutch plate gaskets rings spark plugs .... I waited 1 and half months for each and every part to arrive and another 1 week to get the bike delivered.
Vikas Anna I do own Classic 350 single cylinder but I have charged 5k plus based on my motorcycle condition in past which was sumtimes annoying when I refrain but when I co relate with the invoice the GST is very much high and sumtimes it’s not so easy to digest 🌹❤️🙏
It's not just India, its mostly everywhere. Here in States too, you need to get hold of a good outside technician as the showroom and servicd section/ scene is totally different here. You have dealerships selling multiple brand motorcycles under one roof and their service prices are way too expensive to justify but US is generally expensive in terms of motorcycle market. Coming to spare parts, OEM parts, the only advantage we have here is overnight shipping. You won't have parts lying around but you can get via USPS/ other partners who ship overnight. Hence even Chinese bikes are flourishing here (though not as reliable). Hence as someone who was in India and is in the US now, buy bikes knowing that the experience gets better however you will always reach a point where you have to give extra care to your ride and that varies brand to brand.
I UNDERSTOOD THIS ISSUE A DECADE AGO (15 YRS) WITH THE SAME MINDSET WHEN I WAS NOT EARNING MUCH .. NOW I CAN REPAIR 90% OF MY MOTORCYCLE ALSO CAME UP WITH MY RU-vid CHANNEL #MOTOMENTOR TO HELP OUR MOTORCYCLE COMMUNITY BROTHERS .... I AM GLAD YOU GUYS ARE DOING THIS PODCAST. GREAT CONTENT AND VERY PRACTICAL. I ALSO LOVE TWINS AND INLINE FOUR AND WILL GET ONE ONCE I CAN AFFORD IT WITHOU COMPROMISING ON OTHWR LIFE PRIORITIES COZ I AM NOT BORN WITH SILVER SPOON 😂
Anna, long time bt der wz a Honda CB250 retro in Skyline theatre way bk in 2001 wich my bro n I layed our eyes on, while waiting for a show to start. Adi inline 2 unde anna
I personally like British parallel twins with a 270° crank because they are very smooth and sound like a v-twin! Singles rattle a lot! Triples n 4s eat a lot of fuel. No doubt they sound even better. Obviously, maintenance is more the more cylinders you have. But if you have the money to buy a 3/4c you shouldn't have problems maintaining one! More brands have now moved manufacturing in India. So there is hope these start producing twins, triple and 4 in India. RE twins, Aprilia 457 twin are current examples. Hopefully, Triumph/Bajaj will start manufacturing the trident/tiger 660 triple in India soon. The Japanese brands have largely ignored the growing Indian market, and are at the loosing end of the stick.
Recently I have experienced such thing in the Bajaj showroom, I own a Pulsar RS 200 & torsion spring inside the engine which is connected to the gear helps in shifting the gears got broken and it costed me about ₹1,150, it doesn't sound much right here is the funny part the torsion spring costs around ₹12. They had to open the engine side cover to access the spring so they said the servicing cost is very expensive 💀
Worst thing is some brands don't e1 offer free services and charge a hefty labour charges on the customer. I guess PPL should also consider this b4 purchasing such branded bikes. This will teach them a lesson once the sales go down.
I have suffered riding a single cylinder due to poor service. Never again. Single cylinders tend to be low revving, and the engine gets screwed if you keep it at the top end for long periods I have found multi cylinder bikes like the ninja 300 or z900 to be way more reliable. I use the ninja 300 as my daily driver, and the only negative aspect has been the service costs approx 6000, 6000 ,8000, 10700. Rode the ninja 300 for 20000km in 6 months, and there have been no complaints. Next service, I will change the brakes and maybe the chain set. That is going to be costly. Maybe I will get it aftermarket. I ride 30-40k km per year, and singles will not suffice. To cover waiting periods, I plan to use the spare bike, or my old i10.
