Hitchcocks Forum

Good Afternoon

I have been looking at a Bullet Electra, I have owned a classic engined bullet previously and liked that
I was wondering what are the advantages / Disadvantages of the Electra Engine over the classic engine
Which is the best to go for?

I am not really that bothered about the electric start, but the five speed box is nicer, although not essential

I am wondering about Reliability , longevity and performance of the bikes.
I have owned a Sixty5 and a standard kickstart four speed trials model in the past
I seem to spend more time tinkering and modifying now and whichever bike will be getting some upgrades

I am just not sure which is the best bike

I appreciate your advice

Regards

Richard

The main Electra problems are the starter sprag clutch and big end failure. If you're not bothered about the electric start then just remove it. The big end on my bike failed at about 16000 miles and two of my friends had similar failures at about 10000 and 20000 miles respectively. In all three cases the problem was a worn crankpin. My friends rebuilt their cranks but it can be an expensive job so I broke my bike for spares!

Thanks for your reply
So is the classic engine a better bet than the Electra ?

Yes, there are issues with that crank.
IMO you had the best of the "old" machines with the Sixty-5.

Are we talking about a Bullet Electra with the iron engine or a later EFI?

I've had the crank rebuild at 40,000 km's after having read about failures and so on but here was nothing wrong with it. I've owned Electra (X) from new (2005). 5-speed gearbox seems to get better and better with time.

2cvandy,



the Bullet Electra with the iron engine was a 350 home market Indian model - I think from what Richard said in his post it looks like the AVL engine Electra-X rather than the Electra-EFI.



Both the Electra-X and the 500 classic Bullet engines have their own separate issues, all of which can be fixed. I'd say buy the Electra-X and keep a bit of money back for the crank repair in due course! If I were buying something with a 500 Classic engine, a steel con-rod and roller big-end bearing kit would be top of my shopping list.



A.

Naming of parts - to confuse the issue, the current "Classic 500" (EFI) is also named the "Bullet Classic 500" by RE in some markets (USA?)