Hitchcocks Forum

Hi Everyone-
I am currently restoring a 500cc single engine Royal Enfield Bullet (big Head) and I am looking for a complete engine,gearbox and primary side (scissors type clutch). Any condition will be accepatble. Can anyone help me ?????

I think you may find that the Big head Bullet had a pushrod clutch, not scissor and you would be extremely lucky to find a complete engine.

Hi Spyder, Wayne is right, the singles never used a scissor clutch so you will struggle with this. It may be possible to fit one but the mainshaft on the twins is shorter on the scissor clutch than the pushrod clutch so one would assume the Bullet will need the same difference which may not exist.
Regarding the bighead complete engine, if you can't find one of these there is always an option of trying to get a head and converting a standard 500.


Chevy

I agree with all the others have said. The Bighead in all it's variants (including Indian Woodsman, Westerner, Fury) was made in very small numbers and the 500 Bullet in pre-Bighead form also represented only about 10% of overall Bullet production, the 350 always being much more common. A Bighead engine complete sold on Ebay about 2 years ago for £1500 (if I remember correctly) but it had obviously been stored outdoors or in a wet shed and looked pretty rough. And apart from a head on it's own that's been about it for general sale, even through the REOC. If you really want a Bighead your best bet is a standard Redditch 500 (also difficult to find, see above!) and buy a new head from our Hosts. Remember, the new Hitchcocks head will fit the modern Indian 500s and that's probably the simplest and cheapest way. Good luck!

REgards, Mark

According to the Accessory Shop section of this web site, the Big Heads in both standard and Fury versions are now currently unavailable. I had one of the very last of the most recent batch after having to return a faulty Fury head, and from talking to the guys at the shop, they had a few problems with them and weren't about to have any more cast up. There was an un-machined casting in one of their display cabinets which might be usable with a lot of work, so give them a ring to see what the current situation is.



The stuff is still around, I know only about 200 Furies were made and shipped to the USA, plus 20 Big Head Westerners, and not many have found their way back, but that doesn't take into account domestic Big Head Bullet sales. A restored Big Head Bullet recently sold on ebay for £4330.



Someone who does seem to be able to find the Stuff is Paul Henshaw of Performance Classics who uses Big Heads on his racing Bullets, he might also have an ear to the ground for complete bikes for sale. If nothing else he can build you a seriously together conventional Bullet engine. Don't forget a decent set of 350 crankcases can be converted to 500 spec. Contact details here:



http://www.midlandbullets.co.uk/perform ... assics.htm



Mark M is right about the relative scarcity of even the pre-Big Head 500 Bullets. I owned a restored '57 version for a while which I perhaps foolishly sold on to finish a project, though to be fair it had a few issues and needed more TLC than I could manage at the time. It was sold on again afterwards, and the current owner in France has since treated it to a proper ground-up restoration. His research showed that RE only sold less than 300 of the 500 Bullets in the UK that year.



Happy hunting!



A.

Thanks everyone - these are great tips.