I am writing this review about RE in general and Kings’ Auto riders at Baner, Pune in particular.
I bought RE Electra 350 in Sep’13 after 6 months waiting and its been 7 months since I have been using it now. Needless to say I have waited for one and half decade to buy this dream of a bike. It now has a much more refined engine and with the same performance.
The sound can easily be enhanced by the replacement of the silencer. I haven’t though. My belief is that these companies put in a lot of time, money in research and come up with something. It doesnt make sense for a novice to make unnecessary changes. But don’t see much of a problem with that.
Delivery: I had to follow up quite a bit on the delivery of the vehicle even after paying the whole amount, which was a bit annoying. Should improve on this. But once they promised they did make arrangements to get it delivered even though it was past the time.
Maintenance: The very next day I went back to complain about wobbling in the bike. I was told that I would get used to it in a while. After 500 kms’ and 1 month I got the 1st service and again told them about whobbling. They said they corrected it but it wasn’t gone completely. This continued for the other 2 servicings as well untill 2000 km and 6 months which I got it done at a different service center(not a self proclaimed’fitter’ ok, BUT a RE authorised service center).
Only in the 3rd servicing one of the mechanic’s identified that the alignment of this unit was incorrect. Then when we went for a ride it became evident that if you loosely hold the handle or almost leave it, the bike immediately fell on the left side.
While he said that this can be corrected by bending the handle or twisting the fork at a miniumum cost, I declined doing it and taking it to Kings autoriders again. Ofcourse I thanked immensely to that mechanic who exactly identified the problem just by looking at it. This also dawned upon me as to why I am occassionally having a shoulder pain in my right arm.
I took the matter to Shree who is the works manager at Kings autoriders. We discussed in details and he did believe me with the problem and the history of it and also informed him about my right shoulder pain. I just wasnt happy when I was told by the old head mechanic that it will cost me around 3000 INR. I paid 1.25L for a bike which I waited 6 months and within the 3rd servicing I have to pay another 3K. It was attrocious to say the least.
I took the matter to Shree again, he did the checks and confirmed the problem and assured me that he will get it done within the warranty itself whilst it usually isn’t.
It took 2 days to get the bike back after the works. While the problem was partially corrected, it still was present. Now the bike did not fall to the left as soon as you leave the hand, but went 5 - 10 meters and yet fall on the left.
Since there was a camp going on at King’s autoriders during this time, I got an opportunity to speak to their regional manager Sandeep and also Mr. Sundarrajan who was visiting from the Chennai factory. Both gave a keen ear to the problem. Shree took over the problem again and took 2 more days before the bike was returned to me.
This time even their main mechanic Salim demoed it to me that the problem had almost gone. It probably cost them around 2800 INR but Shree kept to his promise and I was not charged for this lapse in the unit. Ofcouse under warranty gets covered by the service center from the factory, but I still appreciate the gesture.
I really appreciate the help that Shree Khaire from Kings autoriders and his assistants (Salim, Pramod, in particular) provided me during all this and helped me regain the confidence and love for the bike which I bought after such a long wait and after spending a heavy sum. I did thank them heartily for their help.
What surprises me though is that how can a bike, which I understand is manually assemblled, is not checked for its USP which is the stability aspect of it? A simple test could be leaving hand or a more sophisticated technical and checking if it goes a distance, which was not performed for this particular unit. I do not know if there would be others such units as well.
But I am a little disappointed with this kind of quality from RE. I hope they take serious note of this since they are playing with the health of their customers. Not to mention the instability of the bike may also cause accidents at times.