1.5 Lakh KMs on Royal Enfield Thunderbird 350 - Experiences Part-I

15 June 2015, the fateful day a bike chose me to be its rider. It wasn't the first two-wheeler, but the first one that would be mine. I never thought of clocking 1.5 lakhs KMs on it. At max, I was supposed to keep it for 3-4 years and then upgrade. I had dreamt of purchasing a Royal Enfield for a long time. So, it was more like a dream come true. Though I didn't know, I was entering into a relationship back then.

Love at First Sight

Image: Royal Enfield Thunderbird June 2015 accepting delivery of the Bike at Jhandewalan, New Delhi

I had long admired its predecessor before I landed enough money and a purpose to buy RE Thunderbird. The first real cruiser bike in India had comfortable seating, a raised handlebar, a teardrop-shaped tank, and a sleek silencer, and it had a job that required it to soften the sound and look royal at the same time.

By the time I entered the showroom with a chequebook and a cemented heart for the long wait time, the model had modernised to the hilt. Double discs, projector headlamps, dual sparks, a larger fuel tank, and an equally royal-looking silencer.

What bit me the most was the handling of the bike. I had ridden a Bajaj Super scooter with hand gears and a Honda with equally clunky gears as the name. And the Inexperience bot was unforgiving for some mistakes. Once or twice, I released the clutch lever too quickly, and the Bajaj Super had become the Superman with anger issues.

And Honda! Oh boy! It was too new for me to coordinate my hand and foot for gears. Before I could make up my mind about whether to push my heel or foot on the gear pedal, my brother and Ir were almost on the tarmac. So, yeah, I learned the hard way.

When I took the RE out on the test ride on the busy streets of Jhandewalan, I was fully expecting to roll over and fail. But the bike had other plans. On a slanted surface among a host of day walkers, I got enough time to change gears and enough pickup to get out of the situation without losing balance. It was like the bike was helping me ride, and it was love at first sight.

After that, it was just one thing falling into place after the other. The showroom employee's enthusiasm, the dealership's candid behaviour, and, to top it all, they just handed me the same bike I tested.

First Problems

The bike's handling, pickup, power, seating position, road presence, aesthetics, you name an attribute, and it has all those values of a Sundar Sushil (beautiful and well-behaved) stree (woman) that we usually look for in almost everything. However, there are problems; it's heavy and doesn't feel comfortable with the clutch and brake riding of Delhi's traffic.

The first issue that highlighted itself was the gear lever function on the first and second. A ton of red lights around central Delhi meant frequent stopping and riding only in the first two gears, and the first one would not be happy about being worked as much. So, the first service was dedicated to fixing this particular issue.

However, I do wonder if it was fixable with a service. The bike has a soul of its own, and it demands highways. So, I caught up with old buddies with REs and went for a few rides, exposing other problems with the machine.

Image 2: RE Thunderbird 350, with new exhaust. It reduced vibrations to some extent but created other issues.

The Vibrations

On the highways, you need speed, and I soon discovered that while I can achieve higher speeds, a bike could be more cool about it. You'd be fine until your speedo needle touches the number 80 on the dash. On a few occasions, it felt as if the bike would tear itself apart if I continued, and I did, not for the fun but in sheer frustration.

However painful and annoying the single-cylinder vibrations were, it didn't stop me from trying the full throttle. On a good day, I achieved 135 Kmph on the Odo. But that was before I realised the overenthusiastic nature of the dial. It was 8 points ahead of the curve. That bas**** had me thinking I broke all speed records. I only did about 127 Kmph, that too for about 5-10 minutes.

However, the vibrations would grow more manageable as we cross 100 in 5th gear for the rider. It has other effects in other places.

The Power of Vibrations

Well! The powerful vibes we get while driving the old Royal Enfields are a thing of legend. You can find several bike reviews and critiques admiring them on the internet throughout the time. However, I didn't come across anyone talking about the effects of these. And I'm not referring to the health effects on the rider. You can actually avoid it with good boots. But the bike's parts and screws have no escape from it.

If you ride these pre-2023 models (no counter balancer) above 95 Kmph for more than an hour, you will get a slight jetlag, but the bike will get many of the following: 

• Loose screws
• Engine oil burn-out
• Loose spark plug adapters
• Loose silencer screws 
• Lose engine oil bolts (there are many, a couple of them at the bottom of the engine)
• In worst cases, a loose chain set (my friend on classic had broken spikes on the rear sprocket)
• A loose handlebar T-set cap (unique to Thunderbird)
• Leaking front suspension forks
• I even had a cracked headlamp, but other factors might have contributed to it.
• The white LED headlamp might also just fall off or become lost
• And a very low km per litre of fuel (about 20-25 on a 350cc engine)

You might wonder why we continue to ride these elephants despite all the maintenance costs. Well! When you ride an elephant, you bear the tantrums, or in simpler terms, we got ourselves the fanciest wife of the time. So, the high cost of maintenance wasn't that big a pinch back then, as it may be now.

So, Does Anything Work in Our Favour?

The short answer is yes. In fact, in my experience, several factors worked in my favour. One of them is my life. Yes, you read that correctly. It's not a metaphor, exaggeration, or imagination. The bike literally saved my fidgety ass more than a dozen times, including a few times at very high speeds.

The first incident was on my first ride in Himachal. We were late, and at night, the mountain road bends looked like they were continuing straight into a slope. By that time, I knew better that the road went left or right (basically towards the mountain) instead of straight. On one such bend, my Delhi flyover instincts kicked up, and I punched the throttle rather than downshifting.

If you have ridden a bike in the mountains, you'd know that you end up driving mostly in third or fourth gear. In those gears, the pickup and braking are both quick. So, a sudden push on the throttle almost sent me flying over the cliff into the dark abyss. Fortunately enough, I was on a Royal Enfield and not on a KTM. KTM would've certainly flown off the cliff before I could effectively brake.

Thanks to the slower response time of my Thunderbird's throttle, I pulled the clutch and stopped the bike in time, on the edge of the road. Still risky, but alive. The same happened several times in Delhi as well, but I avoided accidents with the following:

• Softer throttle response at any speed
• Great vertical balance and handling

You can consider Thunderbird to be the best handling model from Royal Enfield. It's almost impossible to fall from it if you can maintain your speed and prevent the wheels from skidding. You can see the short video of me crossing a nalah on the way to Baralacha via Tandi.

Several times, I accidentally twisted the throttle up instead of the clutch while riding behind a truck when it was braking. On any other sportier bikes, I'd have definitely rammed into the vehicle or worse. But this bike gave me enough time to come back to my senses.

Also, in the most dangerous accident I had on the Greater Noida Expressway, the bike took most of the damage. I survived crashing into a stationary tanker in the middle of the road only thanks to the handlebar control of the bike. I could slow down up to 60 kmph from about 100 kmph within 5-10 meters and controlled the bike to only hit the tyre of the tanker.

Anyway, I have had enough survival experiences with this bike, and most of them have been my fault. But I survived. Perhaps other bikes will not be this forgiving. Thus, the love continues after 1.5 lakh km and 5 years of travelling together.

(Coming up... 1.5 Lakh KMs on Royal Enfield Thunderbird 350 - Experiences Part-II)