Hitchcocks Forum

Dont bother spending £££s and hours replacing the sprag, only for the new one to fail within days, DO bother listening to the Oracle that is Norm, and throw it all in the bin, accepting a future of kick-starting the bike !!!

With you all the way here mate

IAN----spot on, matey !! It's the old adage of those who don't learn the lessons of history are doomed to repeat it. For me, there is a fundamental flaw in the design of these sprags ie because they are able to transmit in reverse therefore they are NOT a sprag clutch, if only by definition. This fault has been known about ever since the first starters were fitted to the Classic 500 Bullets ( at least in this country) some time ago. Has there been ANY FORM of research, development, publication of a modification, feed-back from the factory, customer enquiry form (for those who had a warranty replacement fitted), owner involvement-- etc, etc ?????? NO !!! NOT A THING !!! ................. CHENNAI, you are now in the modern world of global production, quality control and >>>>> CUSTOMER CARE. GET A GRIP ON YOURSELVES, LADS. !!---- and more importantly get some research staff allocated to a workable, re-designed sprag---including the current range of UCE bikes. AHHHHHHHhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh !!!!!!! That's better.....Engage "Relax mode" plus "ZIPP-it" function.

If you can`t kick-start your motorcycle (which is half the enjoyment of owning one) it`s time to give it away.

Ian,
All I can say is sorry, and no oracle just seen it all so many times

There's no denying that the spragg is a poor design but to fail wthin such a short time there must be something wrong with the setup of the bike. My first bullet has had the spragg removed by it's previous owner so I purchased my second bullet because it still had an electric start fitted. My right knee is playing up but I still want to ride although I only get half the enjoyment.

Who cares how you start the bike, surely it's about the riding? My knee can protest at times too, so electric start for me!!

Sprag binned, starter motor binned, solenoid binned.... you get the picture, bike back on road, and grin back on face !!!

-----------IAN, un-bin (?) the starter and solenoid-----put them on E-Bay. At least get something out of the whole de'bacle !!

Ian,
At least now if you happen to stall it, and remember there are lucky people out there who have never stalled their bike, you won't live in fear of that sickening bang that occurs in the following split second
Alan, the Enfield solonoid as we know is way over priced so ebay or somebody here might want it, but as for the starter motor which is a top quality Jappanese one, if you do your sums, the factory was producing around 40,000 bikes per year over the 5 year period these were made,say 200,000 produced with a 50% failure rate that means there is about a 100,000 of these starter motors sitting on shelves around the world. Talk about supply and demand, be a while before they become rare enoght to command dollars to help the retirement package