Forum

[PB1]

Many, many thanks for very helpful replies, it's much appreciated. My mind is now made up and it's a Bullet 500 I'll buy. I really enjoyed my test ride on the Classic 500, and now knowing it rides like a Bullet, it is a no-brainer really; buy the Bullet and spend the saved £500 on goodies for the bike, as somebody mentioned above. My current Honda is a grey import CB400 Super Four and is very nice, but pottering around the lanes (which is mainly what I do now) does not suit it at all. It has to be running at over 4000 rpm before it does anything useful and only really gets going between 9000 and 13000 rpm, when it does impress to be honest. But it's not what I want now and the Enfield will be much more satisfying for this type of riding. All I have to do now is choose which colour...

One further question; if I were fit an exhaust/K&N/Power-Commander upgrade, or maybe just a Motad exhaust, at some point after running it in, would that invalidate the warranty?

[Thack]

"All I have to do now is choose which colour..."



My original thought was to choose black, but I'm glad I didn't. The black is OK, but is just a plain, gloss black. The dark green is a much nicer paint, with a really fine metallic sheen to it but still really subtle, which is ideal for this kind of bike. Obviously just my personal taste.



"One further question; if I were fit an exhaust/K&N/Power-Commander upgrade, or maybe just a Motad exhaust, at some point after running it in, would that invalidate the warranty?"



I think the Power Commander might, but to be sure you really must ask the dealer. To be fair, so long as anything you do is reversible, and you remove it without trace before taking it in for a warranty job, I guess you'd get away with it. However, such modifications will invalidate your insurance unless you tell them.



My advice is to keep it stock until it is comprehensively run in (3000 miles, at least). The upgrades you mention are serious money and quite honestly, even with them fitted, it's still a slow, plodding bike compared to anything modern and Japanese. Also, I think £295 plus VAT for a relatively simple box of electronics is seriously taking the piss.



I've decided to keep mine stock because its performance is entirely adequate. The improvements are not worth the money for me. Others feel differently, but I repeat - don't make a decision until the bike is fully run in.

[jefrs]

Adding free flow exhaust, K&N and Power Commander added nothing to the insurance; yes do inform them. They don't turn the bike into a fire breathing monster but the boost in torque is significant. The main change is the power comes on smoother, more like a good carb. It's the third vehicle that I've had the ecu tweaked on and have seen rewards in extra power and economy each time. I wouldn't make any modifications until after running-in, after first service and after you're satisfied that you're not going to make any major warranty claims. Why? because I can, I like tuning stuff and because the stock exhaust pipe looks like a disaster.

The top speed is unchanged mainly due to the low gearing but also because air resistance increases with the square of velocity. Some increase the gearing by fitting a larger gearbox cog, you may get a few more mph. I may well fit a 120/80 tyre when the present 110/80 wears out, about half a tooth increase but mainly because I fancy a fatter rear with more grip, probably a Trail Rider. I prefer the extra acceleration to greater top speed, going over 70-80 is not particularly pleasant sitting upright; it is already capable of dealing with a motorway for short stretches.



Slow and plodding means it can out-accelerate a Bonnie uphill on a narrow twisty lane. He may have been unfamiliar with the road but I had to keep waiting for him and I wasn't really rushing it. A horses for courses thing.

[nigelphoto]

PB1 - good that you've decided on the Bullet, I collected my brand new B5 two weeks ago and I've now done 500 miles. So far so good, except for a minor glitch on collection with a faulty fuel pump relay. At 300 miles (I did my own first service - dealer stamped the book and supplied the oil and filter eye) I replaced the M6 plain nuts with nylocs on the fr and rr mudguards, torqued up all engine bolts including the exhaust manifold (18lbs ft) which was finger tight! I also had to tighten 5 spokes in the rr wheel. The vibration isn't too bad but I'm told it will get smoother with a free more miles, it hasn't used any oil and so far I've averaged 95.8 mpg. I choose the Marsh Grey one, snap here . . . (Some have it as Athena Grey but the can of touch up I got says Marsh Grey) https://www.flickr.com/photos/nigelphot ... 541953073/

[Beezabryan]

There is only one colour that suits me and that is Athena Grey. Rather strange
name as it is a rather darkish albeit greyish green.

[Rattlebattle]

I too feel that you should try it as it is at least until it's properly run in; only then can you determine first hand what any tuning mods have achieved. FWIW I chose to change mine to a carb rather than go the more usual PCV route. My dealer is still quite happy to support warranty claims not related to this mod, though obviously if I were to cause damage as a result of the change it would be down to me, which is fair enough and a risk I was prepared to take. Bear in mind, however, that there are many owners who are happy enough leaving the bike bog standard as far as tuning is concerned. When I got my C5 the rear brake was literally useless because the shoes had not been centred on the brake plate - an easy fix, though the dealer should have done this. Also you should fit an NGK BPR6ES (or possibly an NGK BPR5ES depending on how clean the plug looks) as the original Indian Bosch clone is rubbish. FWIW the only fasteners that have loosened on mine are the ones holding on the heat shield on the exhaust pipe. Later ones like mine have a lot of nylon nuts on them, so seem to have fewer loosened or lost nuts. BTW, Nigelphoto, does the 2016 B5 Bullet have the much improved fuel tank mounting as fitted to mid-2015 onwards C5s? One of the things that put me off the B5 was the tank mounting at the front.

[jefrs]

RE do make undocumented random changes to the bike specs.



N.B. The rear brake centring is down to RE painting the 'bush' to the brake 'cover plate', so the shoes cannot centre. It is simple but tedious to fix. You have to take the wheel out and the shoes off, free off the 'bush' and re-fit it tight enough so it doesn't move except under full force of your foot, i.e. just nipped up - but they're very small screws and easy to over-tighten. The two little nuts on the outside are lock nuts and they are put there by design so the bush can slide to centre the shoes. Once fixed it works rather well.



The BPR5ES, which is about half a step hotter than the BPR6ES - this one came about for me when I had an ignition fault which fouled the Bosch-India WR7DDC4. The next WD7DDC4 had a snapped inner electrode porcelain, I gave up with them. I fixed that fault (HT cap) but the engine was still coked up and blackened the BPR6ES. Eventually the engine de-coked but by then it was happily running on a BPR5ES. I did a couple of plug chops and decided the BPR5ES was running cleaner than the BPR6ES. Since then I've left the BPR5ES well alone, it's happy. If you work the motor harder than I do you may find the BPR6ES is the right plug.

The WR7DDC4 and the WQR8DC (CGT-535) are given as equivalent to the BPR6ES but the BPR5ES (stock in olde Vauxhall Nova) is given the as equivalent to the WQR8DC, there's a good overlap. It is most certainly not hot enough to burn a hole in the piston. Apart from carbon-cleanliness, Haynes Joke Book plug colouration on unleaded with an injector is practically meaningless.

[Rattlebattle]

I found it quite hard to find a BPR5ES. Oddly enough the supplying dealer had one in stock, though that was just fortuitous in my view, not least because when he fitted a new plug after sorting out the tps issue I had with my C5 a while ago he put in a BPR 8ES! While the engine ran for a while, unsurprisingly it didn't take long to foul. I haven't yet tried my 5 grade plug, mainly because it seems to run nicely on the 6 now that I've put a carb on it. I must say that it goes way better than it used to, especially considering it still has the standard log exhaust and restricted header pipe.

[nigelphoto]

Rattle battle - the new B5 has two flanges on the inside faces of the tank which fit over rubber mounts on frame lugs. Certainly a great improvement on the bolt through the frame at the front of the tank on my 2011 C5. As for spark plugs, I've used both the Bosch-India WR7DDC4 and the NGK BPR6ES on my C5 and found not a lot of difference. I did put in the Iridium for a short while and if I was just pooling around town managed to foul up so it went in the bin and I put my £12 down to 'experience'. I forgot to mention about the M6 crossheads fixing the heat shield onto the silencer - they need Loctite and a humungous screwdriver - but as I'm going to Chadwick End next week I'll pick up a 91080 and the log which I currently tow around with me will be going on ebay!

[jefrs]

The easy to find BPR6ES is used in many lawnmowers. The BPR5ES is a car plug as used on the old Vauxhall Nova and a few other models, it is still out there (Halfords) but in packs of four. I'm not surprised the BPR8ES fouled because it is very much cooler. Imo the iridium fouls because its electrodes are the size of a pinhead so once it gets grubby, it cannot find a clean spot and thus keep itself clean. If you use the NGK R-for-resistor plugs you want the non-suppressor HT cap. The BP6ES is the same thing without the resistor so you want a suppressor cap. The C5 (and probably Bullet) HT lead looks like it's bonded to the coil but apparently not and is clipped in so it can be swapped out.