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[MickB]

After six months of waiting and taking my bike off the road because it was too dangerous to ride, my new frame still hadn't arrived. (Problem between the importer and RE India.)I wrote a personal letter, accompanied by photgraphs to Dr. Venki Padmanabhan at Royal Enfield, India telling him all the problems. Although I didn't get a personal reply, RE India contacted the importer to say that I had written and guesse what? My new frame was flown out within the week! The dealer picked up the bike and fitted the new frame, new front mudguard, new knee grips and new anti vibration rubbers to the cylinder fins; all faulty parts and replaced under the guarantee. I collected the bike last week and what a difference! It now travels in a straight line and goes around corners without me having to wrestle it. The mechanic told me they could not believe how badly the frame was twisted. I've also had the Avon Speedmasters replaced with Avon Roadriders (free of charge) and the difference is quite remarkable; no more following grooves in the road and having a skippy back end. The only minor problem I still have is a banana shaped exhaust system, there just isn't any adjustment on the fixing brackets. If I could just raise the rear bracket about half an inch the problem would be solved but, because of the shape of the bracket I can't elongate the hole and then fix it back on to the footrest bolt. Anyone got any ideas please?

[trevorch]

Hi MickB,
Let me be the first to congratulate you on having the persistence and patience to get what you wanted. If I remember from your posting some months ago, the bike is an EFI. I have an EFI Classic and have just replaced the original silencer/catylisator with our Hosts 91080. This might help with your fixing problem because instead of having a welded on support bracket on the old one, the new one has a sliding rail, so you can fix the top end to the frame and the short strut takes up the position you want in the slide and is locked with a bolt top and bottom. Cheers TrevorCH

[MickB]

Hi Trevorch,
It was worth it in the end. The bike feels completely different and I'm still on good terms with the dealers. Result.
I was thinking of fitting our hosts' silencer to the bike, I understand it's considerably lighter and a bit shorter? Did you have to do any re-tuning or is it just a straightforward replacement? It's difficult to see on the catalogue photo but are there two fixing brackets, front and rear as on the original silencer? Thanks.
MickB.

[trevorch]

Hi MickB,

I assume you refer to the 91080 exhaust, which Hitchcocks say needs no alteration to the ECU or anything else. I found it was very noisy, but lots more power. It turns out that the removable baffle was missing from the delivery, so it was acting just like a straight through. Mr H has now posted the missing part.

Yes it is about 1/3 of the weight of the original and 20cm shorter. There is only one fixing point to the bracket that is just behind and below the 2nd footbrake lever pivot. The silencer has a short rail on the inner side with a captive nut, so the fixing is fully adjustable. I kept the original down pipe and the new silencer was a good sliding fit. Hopefully the baffled version will be a bit quieter. It certainly looks a whole lot better and the chrome quality was excellent.
Cheers TrevorCH

[MickB]

Thanks for the information TrevorCH, looks like i will be spending some hard earned euros on a new silencer. Regards, MickB.