Hitchcocks Forum

Overall loving the bike.
Owned 10 or more other bikes previous, from 1200 VFRs to vision 50cc aprillias to XL 600s.
Ridden from London to Mongolia

I've had 2 Himis, been knocked off one, done a bunch of off roading with some KTMs and Huskies, commuted thorugh winter.

Point is, This isn't a 5 minute review after a test ride.

This is a list of niggles which have bugged me over the last 2 years.
Maybe people can help me with some of them.

Quality of the rubbers.
Current bike is 1 year old. Anything rubber is cracking or broken. Pipes are all fine, but straps, holding everything from the battery to the PAIR system look like they came out of a pyramid. The gaiters on the forks too look like they are at least a decade old. Front brake.
Weak from day one; New pads helped..
4 months in, seized up twice, returned to dealer, "Just needs a clean and service, not under warranty"
2 weeks later Recall anounced due to road salt causing siezures in callipers.
1 free service, brakes are the best they have ever felt. New calipers in the new year.

Uneven Tickover.
Really minor, but it bugs me, and i think it contributes the the rare occasion the bike struggles to tick over the first few seconds after a cold start. Part of this is down to the Pair system, and the Closed loop EFI system, It just wobbles by about 300rpm at a regular interval.

Steel Welds on a stainless Exhaust.
Why would you design and build a quite pretty stainless system and then us non stainless welds and studs and fixtures on it? Why would you then think that silver paint was an appropriate way to prevent rust? I spent 5 quid and replaced all the bolts I could with Stainless dome nuts and button Head bolts. But I can't do anything about the rust red welds. Or the shoulder bolts in the header, which have rotted to dust already due to the heat and salt.

Wiring loom.
It doesn't fit. I'd accept it on the first production batch, But after 4 years of production they should have fixed it.
Everything is too tight on the bike to the point the correct mounting points for relays and such can't be reached, and they are held on with zipties.

More pictures.

Noodles - do you live on the coast by any chance? I am just over a year in with my Him and no problems at all.

Reason for asking if you iive on the coast is that a salty environment may be the cause of your rubber problems.

What mileage have you done? I have done just over 3000 miles on mine in the 1st year.

Is it parked outside? More likely to be UV damage to the rubbers than salt. Still unacceptable ona bike that age. maybe improperly vulcanised?

I can recommend giving any replacement rubbers a good spray of Aerospace 303 liquid to protect them from UV damage.

The Afgan camel driver on quality control was on holidays.

I use silicone spray on a occasional basis on all rubber. Don’t know about RE rubber, but the gaiters on my R65 were as new after seven years.
Bike was kept outside under a cover and used all year round.

Various rubber bits have cracked and perished on my C5 too. They used silver paint after playing the exhaust on the Continental GT; that looked awful. Wiring loom on my C5 is a joke and many suffered from broken earth lead and dodgy connectors. When my C5 had the EFI fitted it too would stumble or cut out on idle; you could try raising the tick over a little. It's a Royal Enfield thing. The best ones by far are the new twins, designed by ex-Triumph employees.

Royal Enfield are not a quality bike. I don't think I have ever heard any one saying it is and to even speak its name along with BMW is !!!

This is the very reason I like them--they are basically a cheap load of shit and I like to play with it like a childs toy. Its simple as you can get and you can make stuff and if it don't work throw it away.

I would'nt go more than 50km from my house on mine and its not done 5000 km yet. Here in Thailand its worth --oh say 2500 pounds. Its for chugging round the street and chucking in bike parks to get scratched, never in the same place when you get back to it.

I’m inclined to agree, although in the UK they are not as cheap as the iron barrel Bullets used to be and they’re still more expensive to buy than Chinese bikes, or I should say were, as the UCE singles have now been discontinued here. Where they do cost more is the stream of bits needed to keep them fit and healthy ( not the twins so much, but they do have ridiculously short service intervals, that are probably ott once out of warranty). I use mine as a local hack and won’t risk travelling far on it, though it’s great for nipping into town. I certainly don’t mollycoddle it but the finish is surprisingly good, nasty chrome excepted. Fortunately as a military type finish it doesn’t have much chrome. What I will say is that however much it whirrs, knocks, rattles, clanks and shakes, it always starts easily and nothing has ever fallen off it nor any bulb blown. They’re quite tough bikes really and earn some respect, but as a pride and joy machine, no way.

I did the round Britain Rally on my 350 bullet. In one continuious trip. 9,000 miles. Had to repair two punctures and a broken throttle cable and fiddle with the front brake occasionally.