Interceptor 650 failed to restart at a traffic light, had to call RSA

After a few failed attempts, I had to push the 200 kg motorcycle to an empty place on the road due to the traffic behind me.

BHPian vivek_k_p recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

Today my Int 650 gave me a hard time.

I am actually the 2nd owner of a 2019 model and the bike has an odo reading of around 18k kms. The last 2k kms were my contribution.

So this is what happened. While returning home after meeting a friend I had to stop at a red signal. I turned off the engine using the engine kill switch as a general practice. To my bad luck, the bike refused to start when the signal turned green. After a few failed attempts I had to push it to an empty place on the road due to the traffic behind me.

Tried different things like taking out the key and reinserting it, tried to start in 1st gear with clutch. No luck at all, I could only hear a knocking sound when I was cranking the engine with the start button. Luckily this was close to a restaurant so pushed the bike to the parking lot and parked there. Slight relief as the bike at least is no more on the roadside.

Enquired with the nearby shops and learnt about a local bike mechanic shop nearby. Walked 100ms or so to find the shop. The mechanic said he could only inspect the bike if I took it to his shop. By then I dropped the idea of pushing the 200kg bike to his shop.

Called the previous owner to check if he had faced a similar issue. But as per him the bike never stopped anywhere like this.

So by this time, I started thinking about RSA. Called RE customer care and enquired about the same. The lady on the call gave me two options:

• I can opt for a mechanic to inspect the bike with a pre-paid service which would cost around Rs 700. But there is no guarantee that he could rectify the issue. So the amount paid is non-refundable. Then I have to ask for a towing service for ~ Rs 2300.
• I can ask for towing directly and there is a guarantee that the bike will reach the nearest service centre.

I decided on option 2 and made the payment for the towing service. While waiting I also had my lunch in the restaurant where the bike was parked. The towing vehicle and driver reached after more than 60 minutes, which was the time they promised me over the phone, so I ended up having my evening tea also at the same restaurant. I decided to give them some business to utilise their parking facility.

It hardly took 10 minutes to load the bike into the recovery vehicle. It was not at all as difficult as I had imagined. After making sure the bike was loaded properly. I requested the driver to drop me at the service center (Avahan Motors, Kalyan Nagar) and he happily agreed.

The service centre had quite a lot of bikes. So after 15 minutes of waiting, the service center guy took my bike and my details. So requested him to update the owner’s details in their records. Also took details about the issue.

They didn’t give me receipt hard copy as they have yet to update me as the owner. But they allowed me to take a picture of the same.

I used this opportunity to enquire about alloy wheel availability for the bike. They have stock and quoted a cost of 18k for both alloy wheels and installation charges. But they asked me to buy tyres from outside, that is extra. This was my first service center experience with RE, all good so far.

After reaching home, I got a call from the service center that they had to replace the battery at a cost of around 3k. Bike is still at the service centre and I will get more updates by tomorrow. So now I am thinking of which brand and where to buy the tyres.

Here’s what BHPian nasirkaka had to say about the matter:

This is strange. A running bike with a hot engine on a signal suddenly does not start and the diagnosis is a faulty battery? Usually battery health deterioration will start to show and it does not go cold turkey on a hot bike. Maybe there is more to the issue which needs investigation.

Here’s what BHPian vivek_k_p replied:

You are right, My bike showed a fair bit of these warnings, many times the bike started on 2nd or 3rd attempt. Now I paid the price for ignoring those warnings.

Like I mentioned, just before the complete breakdown, 100 meters before the engine turned off but I managed to start it on 2nd gear with clutch engaged. Now that I have got a brand new battery, it is under observation. I will pay attention to these warnings going forward.

Now I am planning to upgrade to allow wheels and tubeless tyres.

Keyword: Interceptor 650 failed to restart at a traffic light, had to call RSA