This morning I received a letter from Royal Enfield informing me of a defect that occurs under certain conditions. It read:
"When motorcycles are used on roads on which a large quantity of salt has been applied during the winter for melting ice. and if brake calipers are not cleaned thereafter, corrosion of the brake callipers [sic] can occur which can cause brakes to drag or brake performance can become affected or ineffective.
If you notice an unusual and/or increase in brake noise while applying brakes, presence of corrosion on the caliper by visual inspection, an unusual oder/burning smell near caliper(s), drage feeling when attempting to accelerate, unusual difficulty in pushing the motorcycle manually or anything unusual with the performance of the brakes not describe here, then your motorcycle may be experiencing this issue"
They then go on to say that I should take the bike to the nearest dealer to get the calipers cleaned and therein lies the problem. I'll explain.
Just a few months ago, as I wrote on the forum, my back brake was binding badly, to the point I could hardly push it. On inspection the caliper piston was corroded badly and would not push back. At the time I simply pumped out the piston far enough to clean it as best I could. Then, as I could not push the piston back, I had to use a g-clamp. Now here's where the real problem is. The piston is anodised aluminium, not stainless steel, so simply cleaning them is not going to be a long term solution. The pistons are not fit for purpose on salted roads. Even stainless steel pistons need cleaning after winter running, so these pistons will not hold up long term and will need to be replaced regularly. I suspect that there have been a number of complaints and RE have taken the cheapest route. I strongly suggest that any Himalayan owners in the UK who get this recall notice write back to RE and insist on piston replacements, preferably stainless steel. This will perhaps force RE into sourcing decent pistons for the bike and we'll all benefit. If you accept the cleaning solution, RE will do it once and we will have to foot the bill for new pistons.
On edit: Seems I missed the second phase bit. Well that's something. I hope they've revised the material they use and perhaps the seals could improved.
. I never took the piston out completely on the front, so don't know the state of the cylinder, but I imagine it's corroded too. Well, let's hope that RE pull out all the stops and get these parts out to the dealers by summer.
