Forum

[jefrs]

The older tank mount is rubberised, the tube through the frame is on a rubber mount but if you over tightened the bolt you can crush the thin walled tube and this makes vibration worse. If re-fitting the tank, check it is level. Whether you have lugs or not there will be a happy point on bolt torque for least vibration. If the tank rear/head stay comes looses, and it can, you get a lot of vibration. If you start getting a lot of vibration, check head stay, tank mounts and front engine mounts, also head to exhaust ring bolts.



The bike will vibrate a lot when new and loosen every nut and bolt it can, the vibration is telling you to keep the speed down and run it in. The book says 35-40mph but is too slow for top gear and it will knock-bottom, 45mph gradually going to 50mph as you get a few miles on it. You should be able to feel the engine and gradually increase the work going into it as it loosens up. I think most riders can feel when an engine is happy and when it is straining. Don't strain it.

[nigelphoto]

PB1 - And Another Thing . . . when you have taken delivery of your pride and joy don't worry too much about the 'variation' in the oil level readings. The sight glass is notoriously inaccurate (many threads on this subject on here) but if you do it by the book it generally works. Put it on the centre stand on level ground, warm it up for at lead 5 mins (let it tick over, don't 'blip' the throttle) switch off let it stand another 2 mins. The level should be half way between the Min and Max. Don't let it go below the Min and certainly not over the Max (it can build up too much pressure and it goes out through the breather and back into the intake fouling plug etc, can also blow seals). PS This seems to work for me but others may have different ways of doing it!

[Deanobats]

Like you, I spent a lot of time deliberating over the Classic vs the Bullet. I sat on a lot, I went home, I thought about it, I looked at the catalogs, I sat on some more. There really is very little difference between them. The classic feels like it has a very slightly lower seat, it does have a smaller rear wheel (and I think different drive sprocket to compensate) and of course the styling is different. It also has the front axle at the bottom of the forks while the Bullet has about a 20mm lead. There really is so very little to differ between them apart from styling, and each individual bike rides differently anyway, so in the end it comes down to style. From what I have been able to gather from talking to dealers and looking at the ever truthful interweb is that the Classic was on a new frame while the Bullet is basically the standard frame that's been used since time began (this is obviously not completely true as Bullet frames seem to change almost daily depending on who is welding them together). The Classic frame has a few lugs in different places but you have to look hard to see the differences. In the end I went for the Bullet because I wanted a bike that looks retro because it is basically old (EFI engine excepted) rather than a bike that looks retro because it's made to look retro. It just seems more honest. Plus, the dealer basically said the extra £500 quid or so for the classic was just down to the different style rather than any component differences. You then have £500 spare to spend with our hosts on nice things. You do however have to put up with the nasty tank decals which I now understand have been replaced with different nasty tank decals. Oh, and bits will fall off, but that's normal.

[PB1]

Thanks guys for this latest information, this forum really is a goldmine. Where else could you get stuff like this? - hard won experience and opinion that you could never find without it. Brilliant! It'll be a few weeks, maybe a couple of months or so before I buy my new Bullet. When I was 16 I started paying into a small insurance (with what is now The Forresters) and it was about 30p a week. It kept on being paid from my salary and gradually rose to £1.30 a week! 44 years later it is due to mature and the sum would pay for a GT535 (or a Bullet and £1000 to spend). Not bad for pennies a week. When reading the letter, I casually mentioned to my wife that it would be enough to buy me a brand new motorbike, something I've never owned, and blow me down if she didn't say "Well, you might as well, you might be dead tomorrow". Charming I thought, but I know what she meant. That's what led to that first test ride.

[jefrs]

The B5 and the C5 are basically the same bike with minor differences, like you will find some accessories fit the B5 but not the C5. The engine is the same, the electrics and lights are the same but the front forks (unless they've changed them, again) are not. The B5 has the older forks with the bend on the end of the leg, this probably makes changing the fork oil easier. The C5 has straight legs containing double acting progressive springs/damping, which also alters rake/track by about 1cm, probably to suit the smaller rear wheel lowering the back end.



The 2016, indeed the 2014 models are not the 2010 shown in the "Parts Book Online", for example the new bikes have different foot pegs and different O-ring sizes in the oil filters. This is RE making undocumented changes to spec, they love doing that.

[jefrs]

Small point but the RE Owners Booklet will say 18psi in the front for both bikes. I did do some loading numbers but after a squiffy moment adopted the Avon recommended pressure of 27psi, I think most owners might agree. Avon say 27/29psi front/rear for the Road Riders. I don't know the numbers for the SM tyres on the Bullet but expect similar. Better cornering grip, better braking, better feel, better road holding.

[Rattlebattle]

27/29 psi are what I use on my C5 with Roadriders. I suspect that the quoted pressures are too low for the Bullet too. If those tyres are also tubeless but with tubes fitted they will need higher pressures as the construction will be different from the original tubed tyres. It's about time RE updated the riders handbook; it is now 7 years old and changes have been made to the bikes, not least adding a kickstarter. BTW tyre pressure is not really a minor issue.

[jefrs]

The RE low front pressure may have originated with cross-ply tyres back in 1954, greater sidewall support. What tyre shaped objects are fitted to domestic indian market? I dimly remember ca.1971 the Bantam had 18psi in the front Skid Master, very different tyres to today. But are not the Bullet's Skid Masters cross-ply and the Classic's Road Riders are radial.

[Rattlebattle]

I don't know about the Bullet's tyres but I can confirm that back in the 50s the (crossply) tyres then available typically ran at less than 20 psi, the sort of pressure I use on my 1954 Tiger 100, which has elderly Avon Skidmasters on it. If I increase the pressures on that bike to, say, 27/29 it feels awful. Back then I have a feeling that low pressures were used as part of the suspension....These days I feel that the best way to determine the correct pressures is to go on the relevant manufacturers website as the recommended pressures of a particular brand could well differ from the OEM tyre pressures quoted in the handbook.

[sofiaspin]

PB1 you have a most understanding wife. She is quite right we are all a long time dead. What amazes me is how long people cogitate and agitate. Personally I couldn't wait another two months given I had waited 40 years already! Just bite the Bullet.