ONE YEAR ON.. MY EXPERIENCE WITH THE TRIUMPH BONNEVILLE

So I just completed a year with my Bonnie. As you have read in my earlier blog, the initial experience was anything but satisfactory. Heres a recap of my first year with the Triumph Bonneville T100

The journey started when I went to Mumbai to collect my bike after the repairs (to replace the ECM) and the first service. The bike was 1 month old with 500 kms. on the odo. 

The return journey from Mumbai to Nasik was a mouthwatering 200 kms. of nice expressway (After I could get out of the congested Mumbai traffic of course J).

In the workshop, firstly I insisted that the bike servicing, including the oil change be done in front of me. The dealer claimed that the servicing was done, but thanks to my earlier experiences, I got the servicing done in my presence and departed happy.

The ride back to Nasik lived upto its expectations. The smooth roads and open throttle led to a smile, which lasted for days. The bike ran perfectly. The smooth throttle response, the torque and the long rev range, which had first made me fall in love with the bike were all back. The zero vibrations, even at speeds above 100 kmph was a very different feeling from my usual RE, but this was one thing about the RE that I did not miss.

The bike was back at home base. All the drama was behind me and the bike was as good as new. The ECM had been replaced and the first servicing was done. 

I started using the bike gingerly. The bond between a biker and his bike is very sensitive. And me and my Bonnie had not really started on the right foot. It took some time for me to understand and trust the bike again.

A new bike warranted a change in riding style too. This was not easy at first, but eventually I got used to being more aware of the signals given by the bike. No vibrations meant that I had to base the gear change on the RPM, a meter that I didn't even have in my RE. 

One thing that I did miss is the support of fellow riders. I have a great group of riders for my RE and we always discuss and support each other when problems and doubts arise about our bikes. I sorely missed having such a group for my Bonnie. I was helped to a far extent by the Indian Bonneville Group on whatsapp. Riders in larger cities will definitely benefit and I strongly recommend forming a group of like-minded riders.

The bike was running great and I was throughly enjoying the weekend rides on the highway and short city rides whenever I could slip away from home. 

But as with every bike, the road was not completely smooth.

My first (and thankfully only) puncture occurred. The rear tyre was punctured. I found this at home, and thank God that the tyre did not deflate on the highway. This was a big problem. I had preferred to buy the T100 because of the large tyres and the fact that it came with spoked wheels, which as per me have more strength that alloy wheels. But spoked wheels also mean tube tyres instead of tubeless tyres.

I understood the basics of the tyre puncture repair. Unfortunately, the owners manual did not give much detail for this activity. I am told that many riders close to the showroom choose to use the RSA to send their bikes to dealer workshop for this job. I did not have this luxury with the distance between Nasik and Mumbai being 200 kms. So it had to be a DIY job.

The removal of the tyre was easy enough, by removing both the exhausts and the axle. The problem came while refitting the tyre, as the pieces just did not fit together.

Tip: Place all the parts while removing in the same order in which they have been removed i.e. the last piece farthest and the first piece closest to the tyre. This makes it very easy to install the parts in the same manner. 

Finally after 6 hours of painstaking labour, the tyre was back in place. Whew!!

Other than this, it was pleasant sailing. Yes, the bike does overflow if kept it on the side-stand and then started immediately after. Yes, the bike tends to be a little rough when the engine is not upto temperature. But these are quirks of the bike and you get to learn and go with them over time. 

Learning restraint is a much tougher job. The bike will keep accelerating and requires discipline from the rider to control speeds, especially on Indian highways, which look deceptively open but can have dogs, people or anything else you can think of come in the way at a moments notice.

I am glad to say that the Bonnie has lived upto my high expectations and shown me a side of riding that is new and wonderful.

Read on for my blog on the second serving after the first year of riding..

MY TRIUMPH BONNEVILLE - THE INITIAL FIASCO

I had taken my time in trying and selecting my Bonneville (Read my post comparing the Bonneville SE with Bonneville T100 here). So now here it was! My new bright and shining Bonneville T100. Unfortunately, the ownership experience went downhill within a month. Here’s my tale of woe:

Experience I:




In less than a month during which I must have ridden not more than 200 kms, my bike broke down without warning, leaving me stranded on the roadside. I was riding the bike on a fine Sunday morning and the bike suddenly lost power. On checking, I found a lot of fuel leaking from the exhaust joint of the right hand side exhaust. This was worrisome. When I tried starting the bike again, I found a stream of fuel coming straight out of the silencer! It looked like the fuel injector of this exhaust was stuck in open position, thus allowing the fuel to pass through without burning. I couldn’t even risk limping the bike home as a small spark could light a very expensive fire.




I sent the video to Zubin, the service in-charge at the Triumph Mumbai dealer at the time. I was told not to start the bike and send it straight to the service station.




I figured that the bike breakdown could be a one-off incident. But the subsequent events were a shock. The showroom didn’t assist me in any way to get the bike to the service station (I am based in Nasik, 200 kms. away from the service station in Mumbai). The showroom sales people, the ones who had provided exceptional service before my purchase, happened to be in Nasik at the time of this problem for a sales promotion event. I approached them as well and thought that being their only customer in Nasik, they would help me. All they did was give me the number of the driver who transports their bikes from the warehouse to the showroom.




I was left to fend for myself. The most expensive purchase of my life was standing at home, obviously from a fault in the bike, and no one was ready to help. I got the bike transported to the service station and paid for this from my own pocket.




My troubles did not end there. Time passed slowly as I waited for a response from the service manager. A week past and after several calls, I was informed that the bike had been analyzed and the data had been sent to the company for analysis. This explanation sounded extremely fishy. Couldn’t an authorized company service station figure out the fault?




Fortunately for me, Zubin, the service in-charge, turned out to be an honest guy. He informed me that the ECU of my bike was faulty and had to be replaced. I understood that the showroom was simply making excuses as they were waiting for the new ECU to arrive from the UK.




I was furious. I visited the showroom and threatened to leave my bike there for good and file a legal case if I was not told the truth. They reluctantly informed me that the reason given by Zubin was correct. As per them, “only 6 bikes with this problem were in India, and this could not be termed as a recall because of the small number of bikes involved”. But On the other hand, I read a blog on motorcycle.com that recalls for the same problem were made by Triumph in several other countries. Indian customers are just not worth the trouble, it seems.





After 3 weeks of waiting, I was told that the ECU had arrived. On arriving in the showroom to collect my bike, I realized that unlike the original ECU, the new ECU did not have the chassis number of my bike. This could potentially be a big problem if I decided to sell the bike later as it could mean I had swapped the original ECU. I demanded that I be given in writing that the company has replaced the ECU under recall. After much arguing and speaking to Sunil, India service head of Triumph India based in Gurgaon, India (I had to speak to him as the Mumbai showroom simply refused to give me anything in writing), I was sent a mail that the ECU has been replaced. Not one word of recall or the problem was mentioned.




Minor issue.. Maybe for triumph.. but not for me

It was at this time that I was given the registration of free RSA (Roadside Assistance) provided for every bike complementary in the first year. Shouldn’t the showroom have informed me of this at the delivery stage itself??

Experience II:




The next fiasco made by Triumph was regarding the power output of the bikes. The website and brochures of the bikes gave the specs quite clearly. The Bonneville had power output of 69 Bhp, the Street Triple of 105 Bhp etc. One fine day, a customer realized that the specs on the website had been changed by the company. The output figures had been reduced from 69 Bhp to 59.9 Bhp for the Bonneville and from 105 Bhp to 77.9 Bhp for the Street Triple. No customer was informed. There was no announcement made by Triumph India. They had planned to simply fly under the radar.




This raised a huge storm amongst the existing customers. However, Triumph remained completely silent on this issue, despite many customers demanding an answer.




Several blogs including bikesindia.org also highlighted this issue, but alas it did not change the attitude of Triumph.




Meanwhile, the company had contacted every Street Triple customer individually and offered rebate of Rs. 1.5 lacs in cash back or in the form of accessories. No response was ever provided for Bonneville customers. This again showed the apathy of the company and its dealers towards their customers. Us Bonneville owners were left to fend for ourselves at every stage.




Unofficially, the Mumbai dealer verbally explained to me that the power output was different in India as the earlier published figures were for tests done in UK where is ambient temperature is taken as 10^oC, vis-à-vis the 35^oC taken for the Indian tests. But the fact remains that Triumph had the specs for India (Based on mandatory pre-launch ARAI test results) before they launched the bikes, and they misled all customers by knowingly marketing their European specs! 

Experience III:




The fiasco continued even further. About 3 months after the power output issue, which led to no logical conclusion for the Bonneville users, a customer mentioned on a Bonneville owners group that the Bangalore showroom had informed him of a recall of all exhausts in 2014 Bonneville. Since I have a 2014 Bonnie, I waited for some word from the Mumbai showroom.




No information came forth, and after waiting for 5 days, I called up the showroom who confirmed (after checking my chassis number) that my bike was indeed under the recall list. It seems that the stock exhausts were not meeting the environmental standards and thus had to be changed. Of course, the dealer said they were “just about to call me” regarding this matter.




I had had quite enough of the nonsense and I insisted that the dealership send a technician to Nasik to replace the exhausts and there was no way I would bring my bike 200 kms to Mumbai for a 20 minute job. The showroom had no choice but to accept. Their service personnel came down to Nasik and changed the exhausts. Also, they retuned the ECU. Even though the service head claimed that the ECU map was the same as the original, the bike runs much smoother now.




Experience IV:



Recently, reports have surfaced about another problem. The left foot peg of some Bonnevilles fell off as the bolt holding them to the bracket snapped. There were no warning signs and about 6-7 such incidents came to my knowledge through Bonneville owner groups in India. Many users tried to discuss this issue with Triumph to ascertain the reason for this. Several explanations came forth including excessive heat from the exhaust, incorrect torque, quality of the bolt itself etc. Again, Triumph kept mum on the issue. 

The broken foot peg

The snapped bolt 

Since then, several owners have tried their own 'jugaad' for ensuring the foot peg strength. Some useful tips such as on triumphindia.org have also been circulated. This issue has made me lose confidence in the strength of the foot peg and I have stopped standing on the pegs of my Bonnie, which is quite a common practice while going over bumps, rumblers and while off-roading. The result is a sore back after every ride, thanks to the severe jolts when the bikes goes through on bumps and rumblers.

  

Conclusion:




All these experiences have led me to lose faith in Triumph India. Their head of Indian operations, Mr. Vimal Sumbly has repeatedly ignored customers and seems to only appear during new model launches and events.

Triumph has a great product and a legacy and heritage to be proud of. But they are ignoring the best kind of references: referrals from happy customers. In my opinion, the product is good, but potential buyers should be aware of the service standards. You obviously expect much superior service standards as compared to the likes of Royal Enfield and Bajaj, but I’m sorry to say that the service standards of Triumph India are lower. Triumph should stop taking its customers for granted, as they can only go so far based on their brand and engineering.