They say misfortunes never come alone, this seems true these days at least for Bajaj Auto. First the company was hit by a strike by workers at its Chakan assembly facility, and now two of its larger capacity offerings, the KTM 390 Duke and Kawasaki Ninja 300, due to manufacturing defects. Bajaj has decided to do so informally (the recall policy in India is voluntary, manufacturers need not announce the recall publicly). While the Duke 390 is assembled in India at Bajaj’s Chakan factory, the Ninja 300 is assembled too but the parts are brought in via the CKD (Completely Knocked-Down) route. Kawasaki had issued a worldwide recall of the Ninja 300 earlier. Bajaj is the second largest two wheeler maker in India and this recall means a huge exercise for the company. We are not sure if recalling the bikes a b it secretively will do the company any good, it could affect their public image but the most important thing is that they have detected faults in the above-mentioned bikes and decided to amend them. We are not sure how many bikes have been affected by the recall at this point of time.
According to reports from owners of the KTM 390 Duke, they have received calls from their local dealers asking them to bring their bikes down to the service centers for replacing certain parts of the fan assembly and rotor. The fan assembly refers to the engine cooling system on the bike which works along with the liquid cooling system found on the bike, while the rotors could be related to the brake assembly on the bike. Higher capacity bikes are known to heat up quite quickly if driven slowly, and the traffic conditions in most of the Indian cities are a potent example of this situation. Bajaj could be adding a fix to the 390 Duke’s heating problem, on the other hand handling of the bike could improve thanks to new brake rotors. The replacement/repairs are being done free of cost, and will take a couple of hours to execute.
The Kawasaki Ninja 300 has been recalled globally for ECU tuning issues, whereby in certain conditions the bike could switch off while decelerating. Sudden loss of engine power and the potential shutting down of other systems could lead to a dangerous situation for the rider, and this problem needs to be sorted out quickly. Bajaj will re-tune/replace the ECU unit in the affected bikes free of cost, the process should not take more than 10 minutes.
Do get in touch with your nearest dealer if you are an owner of the bikes mentioned above and let us know about the problem, the rectifying measures taken by your dealer, the changes to the bike that you felt and your overall experience in the comments section below.
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