Cruising on the UM Renegade Commando

Letrsquos say you are in the market to buy a cruiser motorcycle because you really dig the easy riding stance of a classic American cruiser You want something to help you stand out in a crowd but your budget extends only up to 2 lakh all inclusive The most obvious purchase would be a Royal Enfield Thunderbird since both the 350 and 500 are available for just shy of your budget onroad Unfortunately the TrsquoBird wouldnrsquot help you stand out in a crowd So what else could you buy Enter the UM Renegade Commando a cruiser straight from America even though a large number of components come from India and SouthEast AsiaThe bike has good stopping power with brakes that have a fiesty bite and progressionFrom the amount of attention it seemed to be getting from passersby at the parking lot of the Delhi airport it was quite clear that the first objective of being able to stand out in a crowd had been met The Commando cruiser looks like a mini Fatboy Well not entirely but the Commando does have traces of the Harley The Intruderrsquos influence on the Renegade is more evident The Commandorsquos single large roundel that serves as the speedo and houses a digital display for odo and trip meters is placed on the tank in authentic cruiser fashion A neat feature on the bike is the USB charging port integrated into the side of the instrumentation Itrsquos easy to use and find and can charge a satnav or a mobile phone The chink in the UMrsquos armour is its quality of fitandfinish Nevertheless the detailing on the barend weights is a nice touchThe single cylinder 2795 cc liquidcooled engine produces adequate grunt for cruisingSwing a leg over the low saddle height is 750 mm compared to the Thunderbirdrsquos 775 mm and you realise that the relation between the seat the handlebar and the footrests is such that the posture is ultra comfortableUSB port on the side of the speedo is convenient PicsAditya DhiwarThe Commandorsquos liquidcooled 2795cc singlecylinder engine with four valves is housed in a double downtube cradle chassis with a boxsection swingarm Output is par for the course at 248 PS at 8500 revs and 218 Nm at 7000 RPM The engine doesnrsquot feel particularly refined at anything above tickover and if you cane the bike a bit yoursquoll be able to feel the vibrations through your palms and your feet Cane it a bit more and the vibes come through the wellpadded seat as wellOn the go the bike feels sprightlier than it really is Despite the 248 PS of peak power and 218 Nm of max torque the bike lacks urgency and needs time to tripledigit speeds Incidentally this lack of urgency might also be its strength since the intended customer of these bikes may not be in search of outright performance On the plus side the delivery of power felt linear on both motorcycles and the sixspeed gearbox felt positive to operateOn the straight roads of DelhiNCR there wasnrsquot really much of an opportunity to discern if the bike handles well but it seemed stable enough at high doubledigit speeds on the long and straight road to Greater Noida Ride quality is a little stiff and most road irregularities can be felt when travelling over bad patches of tarmac Given our Indian road conditions this is probably an area that UM needs to look intoFitandfinish and build quality of the bike need to be improved and the ride quality needs to soften up a bit keeping in mind our lessthanperfect roads On the plus side however the bike looks good and is capable of attracting attention The riding posture is wellsorted ergonomics The bike has good stopping power too with a set of brakes that work quite well The other big advantage of this motorcycle is its price The Renegade Commando retails for 159 lakh exDelhi The onroad price therefore works out to less than Rs 2 lakh