Hitchcocks Forum

Hello all,
Just got my 500 4sp Classic back on the road after approx 6 years sat in the Garage.
It's been suspiciously easy considering the work done on it, the petrol being years old and the battery being neglected all this time. I know it shouldn't run, the battery should be knackered and nothing should run on that fuel ( kept all this time in a sealed container) but it seems fine. Anyway, on to my question..
What sort of mileages are people putting on the old 500s before major work being carried out on the engine? The question came to mind when I was looking at a T150 Trident, 23K on the clock and a rebore just done. Everyone thought this was about average for that bike.

Hi Floyd,
My 500ES 2005 is on 13000 miles and has only had a broken throttle cable. I know this is still low mileage and does not give you much of an indication but I have a friend who had a 350 from new which was the subject of calous neglect of the first order, it really was rank, and it ran sweet as nut for 35000 miles before the oil pump spindle gave out and the big end then expired. Up to that point the engine was almost silent,ticked over like a good watch and went well even pulling a trailer with his gardening tools.

Edward,
That's very encouraging, thanks. You hear a great deal of nonsense about these bikes from people who've never owned one. I did bump into a couple of guys in spain last year. One was on an old Brough side-valve and the other on a 350 Bullet (indian). They were on their way back from Turkey! Cheers.

Edward, slight mistake in your post, it was the big end that took out the pump spindle not the other way around and as for motor rebuilds I have not the slightest idea on how many I have rebuilt and most at fairly low ks on them probably the one with the most ks was low thirties although I will put a 350 together this week that has 35000ks on the clock, this is probably the highest. Many of the ones I have rebuilt had failed under 10,000ks but always out of warranty

And just to put a downer on things. The engine in my 500 Lightning lasted just 1500 miles before it needed rebuilding. The main bearing on the timing side had collapsed. Three years later. Everything is hunky dory.

Hi Norm,you are correct. My friend, away on holiday at the time, had the big end replaced by someone unfamiliar with these bikes and did not replace the oil pump spindle and the big end failed again in a very short distance. They did the job again replacing both the bigend and pump spindle. Then the head gasket failed and he was trailered back to the Isle of Man. The bike then proceeded to blow gaskets on the oil pump housing,luckily the spindle survived,of course the original repairers had not cleaned the white metal blocking the rocker spindles.