Tag: insurance

BMW GS 310 purchase and initial ownership experience

  




After 20 years of driving a car, I decided to get back to biking again. My criteria was clear, easy to sit, easy to use, good height for seating to reduce back pain and reasonable power and torque. I really wanted it to be as lightweight as possible. I am a bit leaner than most heavy weight people so wanted a bike I could push and shove if it came to that on the road.

 

 

 

 

Shortlist & showroom visit

 

A few bikes impressed me. Friend got a Harley and from a long time I was eyeing a Ninja as well. Couple of friends had RE Himalayan and Yamaha FZ so those were under purview as well. In addition BMW caught my fancy for its brand name, looks etc and also the fact it ticked few of the boxes that I had for myself. KTM was a contender too though I felt it was too sporty and too dangerous as it picks up speed way too fast.

 

I preferred the pedals being right below my leg rather than the fact I have to angle forward and keep my legs a bit backward (sporty seating stance). So bikes such as Avenger, or bikes such as Honda CBRs were out of scope because of their extreme cruising or extreme sporty stance. I wanted a relaxed seating and relaxed driving posture. KTM was out because of it being too aggressive for a started like me (although I may have wanted to consider the duke).. That left the RE, Yamaha, and BMW though for some reason I never decided to check out Honda.

 

At the time of making a decision, the Meteor was not out, so wasn’t the Highness. So it was probably an opportunity lost to test out both. When I visited the showroom in early October, there was no test ride as bike was not launched. So tentatively booked it with 20k bucks. Meanwhile a friend had a BS4 GS 310 and I managed to take a test ride and get convinced. The BS6 version then would be only better if not worse. 

 

Booking experience and test ride at showroom

 

Towards the latter half of October, I got to test ride the motorbike and I felt it was a bit top heavy and bottom light. But all ergonomics were spot on and there was no issue anywhere as such. Post the already done booking I worked out some loan formalities for the bike and that process was rather smooth talking to the bankers and coordination with the showroom.

 

Delivery and first ride home

 

Day of delivery was just one month after prebooking but still one of the earliest bikes delivered in Rallye Kayene blue colour. It was a smooth take over of the bike with pending payments done and bank loans disbursed and there was not much fuss around the delivery itself. 

 

However the staff did make some errors with insurance papers (wrong model specified) which led to cancellation of insurance and need to reinsure the vehicle. One another major issue was the registration not done due to RTO gateway payment error. I had to literally take home the bike on a temporary registration (belonging to showroom).

 

 

 

The ride itself was smooth though the bike is revving a bit at idle more than usual. The design caught a lot of eyeballs on the road, with people asking me how much it costed and what was the engine displacement, complimenting the colour, etc. I was pleasantly surprised at the build quality of this bike. I would have preferred a much better engine grunt, but this sounds a bit lame to my liking. Basically there is no announcement or arrival at signals or places where you get the vehicle to stop. So no notice until the big huge frame gives it away.

 

This bike sits tall. I mean really tall. Among a row of bikes, this bike is like easily visible no matter where this is. Filled some fuel on the way and managed to get it home. I literally had to renovate my gates to fit the bike in. This bike weighs close to 170+ kg and needs 3 feet of clear space to enter a ramp and exit. 

 

 

 

Post sales headaches

 

Post sales support has been a bit on the downside with the showroom. As of writing the article my bike is still not registered. It is 15 days now after taking delivery. Other than being apologetic nothing is being done to logically close the case. I am feeling that I will already reach the first service date of November end and still the vehicle won’t be registered. 

 

Showroom argument is “we have created temp regn for you sir, so what is the issue”, my argument is “bike has been delivered, logically close the case”. I think they need some lessons on managing customer expectations, specially when someone is paying so much for a bike.

 

I will write about the driving experience in further threads, but for now I will leave you with one heck of a looker bike!

 

 

 

Ensure to insure

(image for representational purpose only)

I bought myself a swanky two wheeler and was thrilled to take it out for a ride. It was a normal day for me and I was full of energy and positivity to make my day at office productive. I prayed that my ride was smooth like any other day.

I started driving out to the office and while I was on the road there was an auto which took a sudden u-turn without warning from my left lane to the extreme right lane on the side of oncoming traffic. There was hardly any moment for me to react and I wished and prayed that nothing drastic happened. My two wheeler crashed into the auto and both the vehicles were badly dented.

Upon mutual discussion I gathered that the auto driver did not have valid vehicle insurance which I could use to settle the claim. Since I had my own valid two wheeler insurance, I could log a claim and complaint and get the vehicle repaired soon.

These days driving a two wheeler around Bangalore is a nightmare. The traffic is a chaos and bigger vehicles do not spare a thought about smaller ones or give way to them. There is another extreme set of drivers who keep changing lanes without warning incoveniencing two wheelers. These people exhibit a complete lack of discipline and do not care about anyone else on the road.

Some of us don’t wear helmets, some of us carry more than two passengers, some of us hold kids in precarious positions and some of us get wet in the rain and continue driving at night without proper road lighting.

I have even seen buses constantly honk by driving very close to two wheelers from behind them scaring them out of their wits. Just one touch is enough to send the two wheeler driver flying onto the road. Also in general lots of people flout rules for their convenience such as talking on the mobile or using a shortcut one way road etc.

There are lots of us who offer prayers to the lord before we leave for work each day. We even get very concerned if bad omens occur such as cats crossing on the road or if we sneeze before leaving somewhere. Some people have lemon and chillis hanging in their vehicles to ward off bad incidents. Similarly we feel good if bird poops on our vehicles, or hear bells as these are considered as good omens.

Bharti Axa has put up an ad that reflects the reality of how we believe more in superstitions than take up a rather concrete resolution of having something as important as insurance which would matter more in emergency circumstances.

While these things can alter your state of mind, the reality is that you need to be very careful while driving in this crazy traffic that is getting worse day by day.

In the worst case that you did have an accident with your two wheeler god forbid, having a comprehensive bike insurance will save you a lot of hassles. Arguably getting an insurance for your vehicle can be pretty cumbersome as you need to go around town in search for the same wasting your time. But the good news is that most insurance companies now offer you online two wheeler insurance.

You can visit their websites, punch in a few personal details and information regarding your vehicle using which you can decide on your insurance amount almost then and there. For some rare cases the vehicle needs to be inspected in case the insurance may have expired. Having online bike insurance is a boon for people who are busy at their offices as its a pretty seamless application process. Also the more expensive the bike is, all the more important it is to have proper bike insurance.

There are different types of insurance available from basic to comprehensive and sometimes even pedestrian coverage. It is always prudential to have a good insurance cover for yourself and your vehicle rather than get into a police case mess during accidents. Not having insurance will attract additional penalties as well as you are flouting the rules while driving. It will also increase costs of repair for your vehicle.

Given that every day of our life is precious for us and our families it is important not to let down the people dependent on us. We do not know what surprises are in store for us on the road, but it would be a good feeling to know that we are secured if we have comprehensive motorcycle insurance. Being insured is always a safe feeling and this is one of the reason for you to ensure to insure yourself !