Hitchcocks Forum

Just been for my first ride on my new Bullet 500 (B5, the one that has the '50s style panels). I've also had chance for a good look round it. My first impressions are that the build quality is good, but not excellent. The design has improved in a number of small ways from my Electra X, with various bits being cleaner and simpler. The paint finish on the frame is good, apart from one glitch near the VIN number plate in front of the engine. Interestingly they supply a tin of touch-up paint with the bike, so I'll be fixing it up soon. Probably the only significant criticism is the finish on the engine castings - specifically the polished outer casings. Some of these show hurried and unfinished polishing, with inadequate smoothing in some areas before being buffed up. There are "dirty"-looking corners and edges, and even traces of the polishing compound. However, all this can, of course, be finished off by me, so it isn't really a problem. The welds on the exhaust system have silver paint on them, for some reason. The clutch is remarkably light and works brilliantly; the accelerator is much lighter; and the brakes seem fine. The engine is great apart from a couple of small observations. Firstly, it will definitely not tick over as slowly as the Electra X. For some reason, anything much below 700rpm and it is prone to just cutting out. I've got a feeling it might be the automatic decompressor kicking in, because I could have sworn I heard its characteristic clicking a couple of times whilst ticking over. It's supposed to operate only below 350rpm. Certainly when delivered the engine is set to tick over much faster - maybe 1000rpm or so. This is correct according to the manual, which specifies an idle speed of 1050 +/- 200rpm. Much faster than the old engine - a shame. I used the large brass screw to slow down the tickover, not the throttle stop. The second thing is tappet noise - despite them having hydraulic lifters I can definitely hear the clickety-tickety of the tappets sometimes. The engine feels lively, although as it's got less than 20 miles on the clock I can't really tell what it will be like. I'm sure it'll settle in. On the whole, though, I'm very pleased and love the bike. Apart from the frantic tickover, it's a better bike all round than my Electra X.

Have to agree the EFI is better than the Electra on all fronts.

I have the Bullet de luxe EFI (09 reg 9500 miles)and mine ticks over very slowly and although it sounds like it's going cut out doesn't usually.

I like to think I've improved it with some of our hosts parts including the full exhaust system.

All in all I'm really glad I changed to the EFI model and it's also easier on the maintenance side if you're more used to Jap or Italian bikes as I was.

Congrats Thack hope it goes well for you

Cheers, guys. Hey, I forgot to mention one BIG improvement over the Electra X and the 500 ES: the centre stand actually lifts the back wheel off the ground. On my previous two Bullets the back wheel remained in contact with the ground when on the centre stand, so it was useless for lubricating the chain. What a terrible design!

MartinB: how slowly does yours tickover? Are you able to estimate the number of beats per second? At the moment mine is about seven per second, which comes to 14 revolutions per second, or 840rpm. That's slower than the specified 1050 rpm, but still faster than I would wish. As I say, much below that and it will just stop sometimes. Mind you, it's only got 50-odd miles on it yet, so perhaps things are still a bit tight.

Thack, yes I think the new bikes are better than they are definitely benefiting from Eicher's investment. I'm curious though why you would want to have a super slow takeover? The EFI engines are set to run at around 1000 rpm at tick over, my Continental GT which is obviously the same engine with a few tweaks, runs at the factory set 1,150 rpm or thereabouts. I wonder, though I can't prove this, whether this speed is selected in order to ensure proper oil circulation? I say this because my experience of other singles, I had a couple of BMW singles which are basically Rotax engines also had what can pay to the old bikes seem to be a very high tick over speed. It did remind me however my father's tales of the 1930s when a slow tick over speed at the lights was a badge of honour – basically because it meant that ignition, valve clearances, carburettor settings were correct and the bike was in a good state of tune. But it was easy to achieve a slow tick over by manually retarding the engine and it was often actually a test of how that the magneto was. Modern unit engines do seem to tick over faster and, as an aside, it's actually not possible to slow down the takeover on the BMW singles – you just have to put up with the crunch when you engage first gear. Something I don't experience with the Continental GT.

Clickety- tickety hydraulic tappets usually mean no oil up there.

Leon - yes - 'in there' would be correct though - since they are at the cam end of the valve train. Slow slow tick over - would concern me. Slow slow oil pumping.....

I've no idea as to the actual tickover speed I'm afraid - it just sounds slow!Sorry if that's not much help.I wish they would fit a rev counter although I know these too can be inaccurate.

The centre stand on my Electra was fine as is the one on my EFI.They are/were both easy to use and lift the wheel at least an inch clear of the ground.

Neither do I find the to p end tappity.Maybe yours just needs some miles Thack.I wouldn't worry as it's under warranty and you should be able to talk it through with the supplying dealer hopefully if they're any good!