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[windmill john]

Many thanks Rattlebattle, a good write up.

[Rattlebattle]

Thanks. I suppose at the moment I feel a bit jaundiced about the UCE models. If I had abused mine or not meticulously run it in and, like many, obsessed over oil changes and spec and generally carried out all the usual mods the need for major surgery could perhaps have been, if not acceptable, at least bearable. But to have done all this and still have major failure at such a low mileage is a mite annoying. I thought things had moved on since my brother bought one of the first iron barrel 500cc Bullets in the early nineties and had to put a new big end in at 10,000 miles. That said it has run perfectly well since and is now a classic in its own right. In those days of course they were cheap bikes; the UCE isn't, certainly not good value when compared to the new twins.
To be fair, there are a lot of owners out there who have suffered none of the problems that can afflict the various iterations of these bikes but if you look at threads on other forums abroad you'll see how shocking some of the 2009 bikes for the Indian market were and not all of the issues were resolved before they were sold here. I believe that up to the Euro IV bikes it depends almost entirely on how well it was built. There as a really good set of articles in Real Classic magazine by Roger Slater, who as you may know was the importer of Laverdas and the creator of the Jota along with his brother. He also imported the original 350cc Enfields in the seventies. Anyway he has a C5 Classic and set out to see if he could improve the terrible vibration from which it suffered and had a rotten reputation for in the USA where he now lives. He confirmed that it was the crankshaft that had neither been balanced to the correct factor nor did the flywheels run true. He balanced his crankshaft properly, showing how, and made the point that if he could do it in his garage why can't RE do it right in the factory?
In many ways the UCE engine, which is really a totally different animal to the iron barrel, is a neat compact design. Having now had the privilige of opening the cases it appears to be robust and in many ways quite innovative. RE do seem to be a bit liberal with their sealant and I noticed that in mine there is a small piece of webbing missing from the main bearing housing....
If I could choose I would have the Euro III 500cc engine and EFI with the build quality of the Euro IV bikes in the CGT frame and cycle parts, but with a roadster style like the B5 Bullet. If only...

[windmill john]

Blimey, sounds like I need to choose carefully if I get another RE!
I have to say that I’m pleased with my iron 350. Then again according to the clock, it has only done 3000 miles.
I have been been and will be using it to get work, after this debacle, a;ternate game between bikes.

Whilst I’m happy doing mechanics, I would find it frustrating to have to fix engineering issues as well as previous owner issues.

[Rattlebattle]

The thing is I really like my C5. I wouldn’t want one as an only bike but it has been my go to ride for local trips because it’s just so easy, at least since I put on a carb conversion a couple of years or so ago. I also have one of the last air/oil-cooled Thruxton 865 bikes, the main reason why I don’t want a 650 RE. They are in many ways very similar, though the Thruxton is significantly more powerful ( more so than the later w/c twins, even the second gen ones). Like the RE 650 they need modding to get the best out of them ( brakes, suspension, exhaust, inlet and remapping) but there is such a wealth of knowledge out there on these bikes that I doubt there’s anything left to learn. They do have well-known issues though, but all can be prevented. Definitely a keeper and now a superb running and riding bike. Personally I’d do the same for the RE 650, which in many ways shows its ex-Triumph employee design genes.
But for sheer all-round dependability and reliability my Honda is the one. I have a Crossrunner, the VFR 800 in tall roader guise. Yes, it’s a PITA to get the fairings off but to be fair the exhaust system on these is stainless and on the latest version like mine the valves don’t need checking until 24,000 miles. This is one thing I wouldn’t do myself, though some do, but oil changes etc are easy enough. Also, more than one VFR has done over 100,000 miles without a valve- check anyway. There are no parts that need upgrading on these apart from regulator/rectifiers after a few years (the same goes for Triumph and many others anyway). I’ll keep that until it gets too much to shunt around.
There are many good UCE singles, but IMHO they need proper care and experience of home servicing and repair or failing that a good knowledgeable dealer ( expensive on the latest models given the absurdly low mileages in the service schedules).

[windmill john]

Yup, when I had my 650 Transalp, 5.5 hours to do the tappets!!! 15 to 20 minutes on my old Airhead BMs.

My current 700 Transalp... I started to do the tappets and the novelty wore off when I had to remove the fuel injection bodies and rads to do the job!

Still, generally they don’t go out of true. Power is good so I don’t think they are closing up, or too wide. I do everything round them to make sure the bike is generally good, air filter, oils, plugs, fork oil, etc.

[Rattlebattle]

Yes, I had a 700 Deauville a few years ago. When I did the valves on that I ended up with ten assorted fasteners left over! Managed to find where they all went though....
I read somewhere that Deauville valves didn’t need adjusting much if you don’t thrash the bike. All mine had closed up. Ahem. In the end I found it was a bit too slow.
700 Transalp is quite sort after these days. They go on forever and aren’t stupidly heavy.

[windmill john]

I didn’t realise when I got it that the 700 Transalp weighs more than a 1200GS!

Mine now has 40,000 miles on it. Whilst not high compared to my old Airheads, I don’t want to start fiddling with the electrics any time soon.

[Rattlebattle]

Heavier than I thought then! The Deauville weighed about the same as the BMW 1100RS I once owned, but it was 30bhp down on power. For all that I liked it a lot but when out riding with the local IAM group I had to wring it’s neck to keep up. I part-exed it against a new F800GT, the bike that ended my love affair with BMWs. It did go well but had too many problems and despite a lengthy test ride when I bought one I just didn’t bond with it, so it had to go.

[windmill john]

I’ve had too many bikes, it’s a fault.
I also had an 1100RS for a while. Good old ABS issues. There was a fix, but I didn’t want to tap into the spaghetti under the fuse box. 800GS had a very twitchy front end; very! It almost destroyed my riding confidence and I’ve done enough riding including off roading. The Transalps have always been good, but as it gets older, I’d rather fiddle with simpler Machines.
I’m probably always making excuses! It’s my foible, passion, craze.... everything.

[Wheaters]

I also have a 1991 Honda CB750 Nighthawk. It’s the simplest bike to service I’ve ever owned. It has hydraulic tappets, a single drain plug and the oil filter is a screw on canister, sitting horizontally at the front of the crankcase. The air filter sits behind a side panel and has a simple metal strip holding it in place. The strip slides out, the filter lifts out, reverse the process, all done. The thing that takes the longest is waiting for the oil to drain. About thirty minutes, all done.

Thankfully it has no ABS to go wrong, a single disc at the front and a drum at the rear.