Whatever...

Happy new year 2015 to you! Hope you spend hours and days on roads without traffic in the coming years. I had a dream new year eve - on the road, going home. After numerous previous road travels on this route (read here  and here ), this time I decided to travel by my Royal Enfield Std 350. I was short on any sort of planning time, so decided to use my experience and just take the route taken before.  Google maps says it should take about 14 hours to do this journey. However, we took a night halt at Raichur and including the halt, completed the journey in 29 hours. Our itinerary , roughly, was: 30.12.2014, 16:00 - Depart from Lingampally, Hyderabad 30.12.2014, 21:15 - Reach Raichur, Karnataka  Night Halt at Hotel Kubera Palace @ INR1400 per night including complimentary breakfast Better option is Hoten Kritunga which we took last time 31.12.2014, 08:30 - Depart from Raichur, Karnataka  31.12.2014, 09:30 - Puncture in rear tyre about 40 Kms from R...

Very unlike me, I am going to write a review about this Royal Enfield Service Station in Gacchibowli, Hyderabad without availing any service from them. I was really happy when Royal Enfield came up with a service station nearer to where I stay. But this happiness was short lived. I have been trying to get my Bullet Standard 350 serviced from these folks for past 1 month. First of all, it is located in a weird place. About 200 metres from the main road, you have to ride a unmade road through dust, slush and garbage. Then the staff seems to be more than unwilling to accept your vehicle for service. The first time I went there, they told me that they have enough vehicles to keep they busy for next 4 days. And I was asked to come back after 4 days. This was about a month ago. When I visited them after 4 days, the service station was closed! Then I called them last Friday to check if I could have the vehicle serviced now. I still get the same reply. I am advised to come on the followi...

For the uninformed (you can't be if you are on Facebook ), I bought a Royal Enfield Standard 350cc motorcycle on 25 th Novemeber 2009. This has been the fulfilment of a long (8 years!) cherished dream. Here we are... After exactly three months I faced my first breakdown on my way to work on a Friday. The throttle cable snapped. Thankfully I had a spare at home and I was pretty confident I could replace it myself. Having lived with a 1984 model Bajaj Chetak for 5 years, I was in the habit of applying first aid myself. This wasn't as easy as seemed though. I manage to get the handle side of the throttle cable out. But had issues with the engine ( carb side). I checked with fellow biker Aravind (who also owns a Standard 350 that is as old as him). He said it was a pretty simple process and promised to join me in 30 mins . But once he came, we realised, RE had done some changes that had lead to this problem. Here is the issue - If you refer to the picture above, I was suppo...