Cruising on the UM Renegade Commando

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 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, 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, a cruiser straight from America (even though a large number of components come from India and South-East Asia).

The bike has good stopping power with brakes that have a fiesty bite and progression

From 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 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. A neat feature on the bike is the USB charging port integrated into the side of the instrumentation. It's easy to use and find, and can charge a sat-nav or a mobile phone. 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.

The single cylinder 279.5 cc liquid-cooled engine produces adequate grunt for cruising

Swing a leg over the low saddle (height is 750 mm, compared to the Thunderbird's 775 mm) and you realise that the relation between the seat, the handlebar and the footrests is such that the posture is ultra comfortable.

USB port on the side of the speedo is convenient. Pics/Aditya Dhiwar

The Commando's liquid-cooled 279.5-cc single-cylinder engine with four valves is housed in a double down-tube cradle chassis with a box-section swingarm. Output is par for the course at 24.8 PS at 8,500 revs and 21.8 Nm at 7,000 RPM. The engine doesn't feel particularly refined at anything above tick-over and if you cane the bike a bit, you'll be able to feel the vibrations through your palms and your feet. Cane it a bit more and the vibes come through the well-padded seat as well.

On the go, the bike feels sprightlier than it really is. Despite the 24.8 PS of peak power and 21.8 Nm of max torque, the bike lacks urgency and needs time to triple-digit 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 six-speed gearbox felt positive to operate.

On the straight roads of Delhi-NCR, there wasn't really much of an opportunity to discern if the bike handles well, but it 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 needs to look into.

Fit-and-finish and build quality of the bike need to be improved and the ride quality needs to soften up a bit, keeping in mind our less-than-perfect roads. On the plus side, however, the bike looks good and is capable of attracting attention. The riding posture is well-sorted 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 '1.59 lakh, ex-Delhi. The on-road price, therefore, works out to less than Rs 2 lakh.