My Dominar 400 Experience

Till June 2018 I had no plans to buy a new bike and infact in the same month I changed the rear tyre of my Honda Trigger and got a new Michellin. Like my other vehicles, Honda is in perfect condition almost as good as new after 5 years of use.

One fine morning I went to different bike showrooms with my friend Anil as he wanted to purchase a new bike between 100cc and 150cc. It was then that we went into a Bajaj Showroom in Jammu to check out Discover 125cc and the very moment we entered the showroom, i forgot all other bikes the moment I saw Dominar placed there just opposite to the entry of the showroom. Like never before, I found this bike so awesome at the first sight of it. The first feeling that came to my mind was as if I have found what I was looking for. A big stylish bike with sporty looks, something which I had never thought will be so affordable for me.

The moment I came home, i searched and watched dozens of Dominar videos on youtube and those videos took my excitement about the bike to completely different levels. And the best part was - Dominar seemed to be the best combo pack which is a city commuter bike,  a sports bike and a cruiser as well.

Finally I purchased the bike on 27th July 2018 and I couldnt even wait for my previous bike to sell off. After its first service was done at 770km, myself and Anil planned a trip to Amritsar where we had to return on the same day. And due to some reasons we started quite late from jammu at 11am.

We had the view that its good to cover the maximum distance in first go before it starts hurting and then the number of breaks will increase and the distance covered between consecutive breaks will keep falling.

So we covered almost 100km in 1 hour and 20 minutes and took pur first break at Madhopur, the first town as we enter Punjab. By then, Anil had started feeling quite uncomfortable and had a pain in his leg. Since I was drivind and the front seat is quite comfortable I was almost fine and negligible discomfort or fatigue.

From there onwards we planned to take a break after every 45 minutes and keep changing our positions. And this decision really paid off. Here is our take on Dominar 400 and our experiences on this bike in different conditions -

1. If you are going for long rides where you have to cover more than 300km every day, taking a 15 mins break after every 45 mins will be a great idea where in both the riders will feel 100% comfortable and perfectly at ease.

2. The average speed must be kept between 70km/hr and 100km/hr. So you will end up covering close to 50km in every one hour (including 15 mins break).

3. Maintaining this speed will have two major benefits - we got an awesome fuel economy of 38 km per litre and riding between this speed limit on Indian roads increases probability of safety immensely and gives us a lot of confidence to deal with endless uncertainties which can be thrown at us at any point of time.

4. By taking such regular breaks even the pillion will be absolutely comfortable if he/she cant drive a bike and has to take a back seat only.

5. Covering 50 km every hour ensures covering more than 300 km in a day of 7 hours ride and with a major lunch break inbetween.

6. Dominar 400 has excellent brakes which inspire a lot of confidence even if the road is wet. And the bike stops very smoothly without any sudden jerks.

7. The full LED headlight does its job perfectly and you will never feel the need for any additional light.

8. The engine is so powerful that we never felt that the bike was under-powered even during high speed overtaking.

Even after riding for almost 13 hours and 450km (includes city ride in Amritsar and 2-3 breaks for the work) we were as tired as we would have been in a car. There was not much of difference.

Thanks a lot to Bajaj for making such an excellent product which meets all our needs and is quite affordable too.

Inside R T O Office Jammu

INSIDE RTO OFFICE JAMMU

I own a car which is registered with RTO Pathankot. Few months back, after the car loan was paid off and i obtained the NOC from the bank, i went to Pathankot to get the hypothecation cancelled on my car Registration Certificate.

I was told to fill and attach a few forms along with Bank NOC and make an online payment of the fee and submit the documents. It took me around 2 hours to complete the process and i submitted the documents. I was given a receipt and was told to collect the RC after 15 days. Once again i went to collect the RC and i was free within 10 minutes with the new RC in my hand.

Contrary to this when i went to RTO Jammu to get my bike's hypothecation cancelled, it has already taken around 4 visits and more than a month and still my work is pending. On the first day, they just took the NOC and form 35 and asked me to come after 2-3 days and ask for next step at the window just below on the ground floor. When I went after 3 days, I was asked to attach the original RC, copy of insurance and get the form attested from Notary outside RTO office.  I did the same and submitted the file once again and was told to come after a few days and then submit the fee.

I visited the RTO office once again after a few days and was told that the concerned person is on leave. Once again i went back after a couple of days and submitted the fee. And was again told to come after a few days to collect the RC.

Till date I havent received the new RC and it wont be a surprised if I will be told that the file has been misplaced and then it takes a couple of months to locate it as it happened with my uncle. His work is hanging from past 6 month as it took 4 months to locate his misplaced file only to find just the cover with all documents missing. He was told to re-arrange all the documents.

And it is much more important to mention here that the RTO Office Jammu works from 8am to 2pm out of which you can only get your work done till 12pm. So if you have some work at RTO Office, leave everything aside and go there and stand in the queues for hours and your day is almost wasted as you will have to take a half day leave from your office.

If RTO Pathankot works till 5pm for the public, whats the problem with RTO Jammu? Is this sich short timing delibrately kept to promote agents and do the office employees take a cut from the agents' commission?

This reminds me of another incident. A very elderly person of close to 75 years of age had to get the RC of his car renewed. The total expense which includes all fees stands at Rs.4100 but if you go through agents, you have to pay Rs.8000. As his work was delayed and he had to make multiple rounds of the RTO office, the agent inside the office openly told him that its their job and this elderly respectable citizen must leave it upto them. Why shouldn't he boast of this when agents openly break the queues at RTO Office and move ahead to submit their documents and are fully entertained by the employee sitting on the other side of the window as if the agents are their bosses.

I went once more to the RTO office on friday, 10th August and was once again told that my case is oending with ARTO and since he also goes to supervise the driving trials there is no deadline when I will get my new RC. And the next day was saturday when these maharajas dont work.

Most recently, i visited the RTO office on 14th August and I was told that the file has been cleared by ARTO and i will get the new RC within a week's time. God knows how many more weeks will it take and how many times the file will be misplaced.