Hitchcocks Forum

Greetings Earthlings!



Round about noon today I saw an 05 reg red Electra-X being towed on a trailer behind a car - stop laughing, Norm - through Romsey town centre. Outwardly the bike appeared to be in good condition.



Does this belong to anyone here? Just curious if there is another enthusiast nearby.



A.

Hi Adrian, an Electra on a trailer doesn't make me laugh, I think it is a natural thing to do, best way to preserve the motor. What makes me laugh is seeing one being pushed up the road, then you know it is behaving as the Indians designed it to work

Thought the electra leanburn motor was created by avl in austria.

Yes Scotty they did, and a fine job the Austrians did in stuffing up what could have been a good design and then Indians to build it with such care and dedication to quality control

What did they get wrong with rhe lean-burn engine design-wise?



1. Big end bearing running directly in the big-end eye instead of a hardened sleeve - standard Japanese practice, though.



2. Replacing the Bullet tappets with lighter, weaker ones.



3. Replacing the decompressor valve with the valve lifter fiasco.



Anything else is down to quality control at the factory.



Ref 1, better/more consistent metallurgy would have improved big-end longevity (some owners have been lucky in this regard), ref 2 not much to say really, unless some super tough grade of steel was specified but never used, and ref 3, a decomp might have helped prolong sprag clutch life (any views on this, Sixty-5 owners?). All fixable as previously discussed ad nauseam on this forum. I hope whoever now has the bike I saw has a good 'un.



A.