UM Renegade Commando

When it comes to design and pure visual appeal, the UM Renegade Commando deserves full marks for its sheer American aura. The bike looks inspired from bigger American cruisers, which means that it looks big and purposeful, without being too overdone.

At the front, the UM Renegade Commando comes adorned with a big round headlamp which is encased in a black casing, which sits ahead of a small flat rectangular panel with “Commando” written on top of it. To be honest, this is one particular area, where the motorcycle looks a bit odd. The front fender doesn’t carry any drama and is styled simply without any cuts or creases, in an old-school manner. In an unconventional manner, both the spoke wheels are painted in black.

It is the side profile, which makes the Renegade Commando a head turner. The fuel tank is not too curvaceously styled, but then, it has a curvy appeal and looks tapered down from below, with a big sloping black panel housing the round analog speedometer within it. The side body cowls, again in an unconventional manner, are boxy, but don’t ruin the appeal of the bike.

There may not be any rear side body panels, but the rear fender is large enough to act like one, and it acts as a support to the big cushioned backrest, which adds in some appeal to the motorcycle. At the rear, the Renegade Commando has got a simple trapezoidal tail lamp, with two round clear lens turn indicators flanking on its both sides.

While the Renegade Commando might have scored good in terms of visual appeal, it does lack in some good contemporary features. You do miss out on some modern bits which are usual in the motorcycles of this category nowadays, such as a comprehensive and digital instrument console, LED lights and new-age suspension.

Nevertheless, the UM Renegade Commando, with its bulky stance and conventional cruiser design language, ensures that you do get a second glance whenever you hit the road on it.

While the UM Renegade Commando might not be too different from other cruisers when it comes to visual appeal, it is the powertrain which makes it feel like from some other segment. Under the skin, the motorcycle comes fitted with a four stroke, single cylinder, liquid cooled, 279.5cc engine, which puts up 25.5PS of power and 23 Nm of torque. Unlike other cruisers, which do give you a lazy or linear power delivery, the Renegade Commando surprises you with this high revving engine, which feels like that of similarly spec-ed naked roadsters.

The engine is mated to a six speed gearbox, which too has short gear ratios, which is not a tradition of cruisers. All this setup makes the Renegade Commando feel agile and quick, without being stressed. The power delivery is smooth and the gearshifts are slick so that it never feels short on power as the revs rise.

While the performance of the UM Renegade Commando is something you might not have felt in the other cruisers of this range, it is the ride and handling of the motorcycle which takes it back again to its conventional roots. The Renegade Commando employs 41mm hydraulic telescopic forks at the front and twin hydraulic coil springs at the rear. This suspension setup, as expected, is set up on a softer ride to ensure that the motorcycle feels plush especially while travelling long distances on highways.

The bigger 16-inch front wheel and 15-inch rear wheel come shod with fatter tyres which feel planted and do provide enough grip on both straight stretches and corners. The bike weighs 179kgs, which do make it a bit heavy and slightly bigger to manoeuvre in city traffic, but it is this heft of the motorcycle which makes it feel planted on open roads. The braking setup too is conventional as well, with a 280mm disc at the front and a 130mm drum. We would have liked to see a rear disc unit as well as the presence of ABS on the bike of this size, though.