How to reduce vibration in Royal Enfield

Royal Enfield or such bikes are designed is such manger that they give their rider that vibrating feeling but not to that extend where it becomes a problem for the rider.

In India, RE made a remarkable come back in last decade from their grave. The new generation of riders got used to the feeling of Japanese bike and their smoothness and now when many are getting attracted to the classic and retro looks of RE models, sales of the bike is and have picked up drastically. So is the complain and unhappiness about the vibrations, engine noise (note, not the exhaust node), which to some becomes problems in longer rides.

Same with us also as when we started clocking few thousand kms with a Classic 350, we were also unhappy with the vibrations and to us, it was so much that we had to stopped frequently to ease up. As did what every one would do, end up crying at their service center for solution, where we found they did everything as per manual and certified the bike and engine to be in perfect condition. When complained about vibration, the reply was obvious, “Enfields are made for this feeling”.

First thing was to notice and try to pin point the source of vibration. With a Royal Enfield, unlike other brands, there is a very little common issue or problem. Every individual motorcycle has its own problem but after riding a few similar models of Enfield, what we could see that couple of common issue.

• Engine harshness and Vibration
• Vibration from Exhaust mounting (transferred to chassis from the mounting point

Engine Harshness and Vibration

Oddo at 6k kms with serviced from authorized service station, the motorcycle already had the all ok certificate from Royal Enfield and we also found no issue in longer runs with engine condition at-least hence we narrowed down to the most obvious point, the Engine Oil.

Before we started out testing, we knew the bike is already running Motul 3000 4T Plus 20w50 since Royal Enfield service centers use this one. Although cheaper in cost (cost does matter when you need 3L of oil for change), but as it seemed, it was not enough for our satisfaction of smoothness.

Vibration from Exhaust mounting 

Once again a common issue. Many people may locate other parts also from where metallic vibrations are noticed. What we did is really simple. We used few washers (rubber and metal) along with a lager bolt (if and where required) to dampen the vibrations. Its a very cheap way, but it is very effective.

With these two simple easy to achieve modifications, at speeds of 70 to 80, the bike is as smooth as any other contemporary models. Only thing you can notice is the exhaust node but then again, when this bike is given to some veteran RE riders, they complained about the emptiness since as per them, without the vibrations and harshness