UM RENEGADE COMMANDO & SPORT S
UM RENEGADE SPORT S & COMMANDO So you’re looking for a good-looking cruiser motorcycle that can munch a few miles but, more importantly, also helps you stand out in a crowd. But then again your budget doesn’t reach the realms of astronomy. Can these two m
LET’S 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 that will help you stand out in a crowd but your budget extends only up to Rs 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, on-road. Unfortunately, the T’Bird wouldn’t help you stand out in a crowd. So what else could you buy? Enter the UM Renegade Commando and the UM Renegade Sport S, a cruiser and a roadster straight from America (even though a large number of components needed to create the bikes come from India and South-East Asia).
The ball started rolling at the Auto Expo 2016 earlier this year, when UM Lohia Two Wheelers Pvt Ltd, a partnership between UM Motorcycles (a little known American motorcycle manufacturer) and Lohia Auto, showcased the Commando cruiser and the Renegade Sport S roadster. At the time, there seemed to be a tremendous amount of interest in these products. As a matter of fact, when we had uploaded photos of the bikes on our own Facebook page (you can Like us on www.facebook. com/bikeindia), those pictures were swamped with ‘Likes’. Fortunately or unfortunately, no amount of looking at a bike will tell you what it’s really like so we hopped on to a flight for Delhi to get you a first ride review.
Even from a distance, the bikes look attractive and, from the amount of attention they seemed to be getting from passers-by at the parking lot of the Indira Gandhi International Airport in Delhi, it was quite clear that the first objective of being able to stand out in a crowd had been met. The roadster, Renegade Sport S, is reminiscent of the Suzuki Intruder while the Commando cruiser looks like a mini Fat Boy. Well, not entirely but the Commando does have traces of the Harley. The Intruder’s influence on the Renegade is more evident. The Commando’s 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 while the Renegade’s unit is housed in the small fairing. A neat feature on each of these motorcycles is the USB charging port integrated into the side of the instrumentation. It’s easy to use, easy to find and can charge a sat-nav or a mobile phone. Where features are concerned, these are basic motorcycles and there isn’t much on offer. Switchgear is easy to reach and operate but lacks that tactility that is so essential to a positive feel. In fact, the chink in the UM’s armour is its quality of fit-and-finish. Nevertheless, the detailing on the bar-end weights is a nice touch.
Swing a leg over the low saddle (saddle height is 750 millimetres compared to the Thunderbird’s 775 mm) and you realise that the relation between the seat, the handlebar and the foot-rests is such that the riding posture is ultra comfortable. This is actually contrary to the initial visual perception about the bike’s ergonomics since the foot-rests are neither in the centred commuter position nor in
the feet-forward position of classic American cruisers but somewhere in between. The seat itself is wide and not too firm nor too soft, and the combination works to make the bike quite comfortable to sit on. The pillion seat, however, is relatively smaller and not as comfortable, but the padded backrest does provide some comfort in terms of back support. This is true of both the Sport S and the Commando. In fact, the only perceptible change — and you’ll be able to perceive this only if you look really hard — is caused by the different handlebars on the bikes: the Sport S has a wide T-shaped handlebar while the Commando has a slightly narrower easy-rider handlebar.
Underneath the superficial differences, however, the Sport S and the Commando are identical. Both use the same cycle parts and mechanical bits. The liquidcooled 279.5-cc single-cylinder engine with four valves is housed in a double down-tube cradle chassis with a boxsection swingarm. Output is par for the course at 24.8 PS at 8,500 revs and 21.8 Nm at 7,000 RPM. The Commando was fitted with fat and long stock exhaust while the Sport S was equipped with an optional (louder and much better sounding) exhaust. The engine doesn’t feel particularly refined at anything above tick-over and if you cane the bikes a bit, you’ll be able to feel the vibrations through your palms and your feet. Cane them a bit more and the vibes come through the otherwise well-padded seat as well.
On the go, the bike feels sprightlier than it really is. Each time I thought I was doing a certain speed and looked at the speedo to confirm, I realised I was going slower than I really was. I couldn’t figure out whether it was a perception caused by the gearing or the bike’s stability and dynamics but the perception persisted throughout the ride. Despite the 24.8 PS of peak power and 21.8 Nm of max torque, the bike lacks urgency and getting up to tripledigit speeds needs time. Incidentally, perhaps this lack of urgency might also be its strength since the intended customer of these bikes will most likely not be in search of outright performance. On the plus side, the delivery of power felt linear on both motorcycles and the six-speed gearbox felt nice and positive to operate. The brakes on the bikes (280-mm disc www.bikeindia.in
with dual piston calliper up front and drum at the rear) work well, offering both bite and progression and are capable of bringing the bikes to a halt without any drama.
Where the dynamics of the bikes is concerned, on the straight roads of Delhi-NCR there wasn’t really much of an opportunity to discern if the bikes handle well but they seemed stable enough at high double-digit 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 need to look into.
Overall then here’s how we can sum up the pros and cons of the Commando and the Sport S. Like good journalists, we will start with the cons first so here’s what needs to improve. Fit-and-finish and build quality of the bikes need to be improved since this will also have a direct impact on the bikes’ longevity. The engine could have been punchier and the ride quality needs to soften up a bit, keeping in mind our less than perfect roads. On the plus side, however, the bikes look good and are capable of attracting attention, and the riding posture is very comfortable with well-sorted ergonomics. The bikes have good stopping power, too, with a set of brakes that work quite well. The other big advantage of these motorcycles is their price. The Commando retails for Rs 1.59 lakh and the Renegade Sport S for Rs 1.49 lakh, both ex-Delhi. On-road prices, therefore, work out to less than Rs 2 lakh. So, at the end of the day, if you’re that someone looking for a sub-Rs 2-lakh cruiser motorcycle that will help you stand out in a crowd, both the UM Renegade Commando and the UM Renegade Sport S make interesting purchase propositions. Are they the best propositions out there? That will have to be answered with a comparison but interesting they certainly are.