Handling Issues After Front Wheel Replacement – Is This the Correct Wheel?
About six months ago, I damaged the front alloy (mag) wheel on my 2023 Dominar 400 and took it to the authorized service centre where I purchased the bike.
The service centre took more than 15 days to replace the wheel. Initially, they called me and said that the replacement wheel they had received had a different design, so they were sending it back and ordering one that matched the original wheel on my bike.
A few days later, they called again and said the bike was ready for collection. When I went to pick it up, the technician told me they had actually installed the first wheel they had received, claiming that Bajaj had updated the wheel design and that all new Dominar 400s would now come with this design.
Since it was an authorized service centre, I didn't question it much.
However, after I started riding the bike, I noticed that the bike felt unstable while leaning into corners. I reported this to the service centre, and they said it was probably due to the tyres. At that point, my tyres had around 17,000 km on them, so I thought their explanation might be reasonable.
Because of my work schedule, I barely rode the bike over the next six months—only about 1,000 km.
Recently, I took the bike for a general service at another branch of the same dealership and mentioned the wheel replacement and the handling issue. The technician looked at the wheel and immediately said that this particular wheel does not belong on the Dominar 400 and advised me to get clarification from the service centre that had replaced it.
I then went back to the original service centre. Their technician told me that this was the wheel they received from the warehouse for the correct part number and insisted that there was no difference apart from the design update.
I contacted Bajaj customer support and raised a complaint. Every person I spoke to gave me one of three responses:
- The wheel design is the same.
- The part number is the same.
- There has been a design update.
The problem is that I cannot find a single new Dominar 400 with this so-called updated wheel. I checked display bikes as well as brand-new bikes ready for delivery, and every one of them had the original wheel design.
I also noticed another major difference. The replacement wheel has a shiny machined aluminium section on the hub that was never present on the original wheel. The original wheel was completely black, whereas the replacement has exposed aluminium around the hub. This isn't just a cosmetic difference—the hub itself appears to be of a different design.
I asked Bajaj to provide any document, technical bulletin, or parts catalogue showing that the wheel design had been updated. They couldn't provide anything. The parts catalogue also doesn't show any such update.
I've spoken to multiple people from both the sales and service teams, and not one of them has been able to give me a clear technical explanation or produce any documentation.
One person even told me that they had uploaded before-and-after photos to ChatGPT, and ChatGPT said both wheel designs were the same. That isn't technical evidence or proof from the manufacturer.
I've repeatedly asked Bajaj to connect me with someone from their engineering or design team who can explain the change, but instead I keep getting vague or unrelated responses.
I'm attaching photos below. The first photo is the original wheel that came with the bike when I purchased it. The second photo is the replacement wheel currently installed. The photos are not flipped or mirrored.
Am I imagining things, or is there a significant difference between these two wheel designs? If anyone has access to the official parts catalogue, engineering documents, or has experienced something similar, I'd really appreciate your input.