Forum

[Jamesy]

My recently purchased 2019 classic 500 with 2k on the clock is lying at an Enfield dealer waiting for an oil leaking head gasket to be replaced (warranty work) Searched online to see if there was a problem with the gaskets on newer bikes doesn't seem to be one.Am I just unlucky or what?

[Harald]

Are you unlucky? In the sense of buying a 500 Classic - definitely yes.
The quality of these bikes is varying much. A defective head gasket is not that typical, but there are many issues concerning the tappets and rocker arms and the noise they make. You may find good exemplars and worse ones, some with many vibrations and some with less, depending of the manufacturing process and tolerances. My C5 has a mileage of 1200 km now and I doubt I would again buy one.
One problem when riding a newer RE is the dealership (of course, there are very competent ones), but a lot of them is not worth to get your money. RE is trying hard to expand worldwide and always looking to find new dealers. It is not important if you are qualified or experienced; you can apply for and will become a contract dealer. I had some trouble with my dealer and together with a RE factory representative we tried to find a solution. The representative had first to explain my dealer how to use the service monitor to read out the ECU and how to adjust the cam gears, as he did not have any clue. Both the dealer and the factory representative told me that the strange noise from the valve drives was quite normal and I should not care about it, but go on riding. After opening the engine myself, I found defective rockers. A very common problem with the UCE due to a problem in the head oil supply.
Good luck with your classic 500.

[Jamesy]

Thanks for the info. I am assuming with the top end off for the gasket he will check the rockers. After all the glowing reviews I read and watched before buying this bike its disapointing. I will keep my fingers crossed meantime.

[Harald]

It would be a good idea to tell the dealer explicitly to look for the rockers, especially the treads where they touch the top end of the valve shafts. I will add a picture of my inlet rocker arm. The total mileage when I took the picture was only 1120 km.
You will find the whole story somewhere else in the forum.
viewtopic.php?f=3&t=10728

You are correct, there was a real hype considering the C5 in the past. Now we are experiencing the same situation with the Himalayan. Both models with low mileages are being offered now in numbers at auction houses and in classified ads. Obviously, more owners are disappointed.

I will keep my C5 anyway as it is not too bad. After some repairs and modifications, it is a real classic bike that should be reliable, but needs some attention. Not a so new situation for me as I had an Ural 750 Ranger attached with sidecar in the past.
Have fun with your bike and good luck in finding a good workshop if you will not do the maintenance and repairs yourself.

[windmill john]

I bought my 2017 Classic two weeks ago-ish. I did read a lot on this forum, which can be off putting. But it is a specialist forum, so you will see everything; the same with the BMW forum I was on.

I’m not burying my head in the sand, but hope that if there are any jobs to do they will be further on into the future.
One very positive thing of course about the Royal Enfield, new and old is the number of videos you will get to see, mostly in India and some of them are easy to follow, but not speaking Urdu, Punjabi et cetera I have to rely on the visual clues.

Again like BMW I find the forums offer a lot more in-depth knowledge, there are foibles on Royal Enfield and there of course foibles on other bikes. There are things that the forum users will know how to fix that the dealers won’t and this is based purely on knowledge and number riders who have had this problem. Of course there will be dealers or mechanics who are enthusiasts and possibly read all the forums and follow these trends so I don’t want to tar all with the same brush.

Whilst touching wood and hoping nothing goes wrong if I were to worry too much then possibly I should’ve bought a new Honda or something similar.

As mentioned above I just hope any issues I have are covered by a video on the Internet or have happened unfortunately to a member of the forum who can assist. I’m pretty new to Royal Enfield and I hope eventually that I can offer assistance back to forum members. My knowledge of BMW airheads allowed me to do this on the BM Riders forum and hoping That after some time the same happens here.

Ooer, that deviated away from what you posted! Short version, keep your chin up.


John

[PeteF]

To be fair Harald, I think you were particularly unlucky.
There are many, many EFI models out there with no problems at all.
We only tend to hear about the problem bikes on forums.

[Rattlebattle]

Head gasket failure is, I would say, quite rare. They redesigned it some years ago. It is now a multi-layer metal one with what look like copper sealing rings round them - the base gasket has these too. In my opinion there is plenty of surface to form a good seal and the design looks sound. It’s just bad luck; mine needed an engine rebuild at 6500 miles.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: it’s the luck of the draw as to whether you get a good one or a bad one. I had thought that the Euro IV ones were better quality ( they certainly appear to be in the showroom), but given recent posts here and elsewhere I get the impression that quality still varies. A lot is down to how well the crankshaft assembly is trued and balanced, but there still seems to be indifferent assembly at the factory.
Singh5 (or someone with a similar handle) did some good “how to” videos on the earlier ones. There are a lot of what the Americans call shade tree mechanics posting videos in India. Frankly some of them are appalling. Really, these bikes are not for novices IMHO. They need to be understood and fettled properly, as Harald says, a bit like Urals ( and MZs etc). Despite the trouble I’ve had with mine I’ll keep it; having totally stripped the engine there’s nothing I fear doing to it now. Buy another? The word barge pole appears in my answer. Shame about the Himalayan- I know the early Indian carb models were an anagram of carp, ( I’ve seen the videos), but I thought the export EFI ones, having been delayed for a year to put right all the development faults, were mostly reliable apart from the stupid compass that seems to have a mind of its own...

[stinkwheel]

The one I hired in Portugal a couple of years back was weeping a little oil past the head gasket when I gave it back (I'd taken it from 6 to 450km, it was brand new when I picked it up). I wasn't exactly gentle with it, fastest bike is a rental bike etc.

Not much though, just a misting, I'd expect re-torquing the head bolts would have stopped it.

[PeteF]

To be fair Harald, I think you were particularly unlucky.
There are many, many EFI models out there with no problems at all.
We only tend to hear about the problem bikes on forums.

[windmill john]

Rattlebattle did try to put me off buying one and I hope I don’t give him the opportunity to guffaw into his porridge at some point in the future.
Had a great ride today. When I got back, I went to adjust the brake pedal height, done, but also glanced underneath as I’d just done an oil change.
There a tiny weep around the two strainer bolts. I did change the o ring on this with the oil change and noticed when I was doing it how thin the o ring was. I won’t touch it now, not another £40 of oil! But next time, I’ll stick in a slightly thicker o ring; tiny issue compared to some.


John