Forum

[500Goldstar]

Hello all
New member here,i bought a 1962 big headed bullet,one owner from new and last on the road in 76...
whats made me curious is its got an Alloy barrel on it plus the valve collars are Alloy also
i know the barrel should be iron but did they come with Alloy valve collars from new...
also the cams are marked as S1 +..anybody got any idea here
cheers 500goldstar

[Adrian]

Alloy barrels were used on competition Bullets and are still popular aftermarket items for the older Indian-built Bullets. The competition version of the big head Bullet, the Fury, had an alloy barrel as standard.

It could be that your Bullet's previous owner tuned the engine and/or wanted it to run cooler. It would be interesting to know if any tuning work has been done on the head, alloy valve collars are also an aftermarket item unless on of our Redditch experts can confirm otherwise. "S" cams are the standard Bullet road bike/ touring profile, I for inlet and E for exhaust, "R" cams were used for competition bikes.

It would be nice to see a photo or two.

A.

[500Goldstar]

Thanks for the reply Adrian,the original owner is long gone but i was told by his family this is how the bike came from the factory,who knows...id love to show a photo but cant find where you upload one

[Adrian]

When you're typing your post, look for the grey bar blow the text box, click on Upload attachment, another oblong button labelled Add files appears. Click on that and you can select the photo you want to post on here from wherever it's stored on your computer or internet-enabled toaster.

A.

Testing, testing:

[500Goldstar]

cheers...its the only photo i have

[Chris Tindal]

Hi

Myself and a fellow club member are keeping a record of all the surviving Bighead bullets that turn up. As you'll know only around 720 were made between 59 and 62. We have around 40 so far and yours looks like a new one to surface. Would you be happy to send me the frame and engine number? If so that would be great, my e mail is:

[email protected]

Thanks

Chris

[Adrian]

Nice picture, it all looks pretty original apart from the pattern Goldie silencer. Hope you get to enjoy riding it before too long!

A.

[500Goldstar]

Just taken the head as curiosity got the better of me...the piston is huge must be 9:1 and the inlet valve is around 2 inch
is that Fury sec ?????is it worth lifting the barrel to look at the rod ?

[Adrian]

The engine could well have been tuned by the previous owner, so that alloy barrel conversion would make sense. The Fury head would have had a 1.5" inlet port for the GP carb with the stud centres at 2.5". However yours appears to have the standard 389 Monobloc carb on there which will have the more common 2" stud centres, so it's probably the original head off the touring model big head engine, whatever has been done to it since.

Checking the con-rod for any signs of damage is a very good idea, AFAIK it should be the standard 500 Bullet alloy job, though you might be very lucky and find someone has fitted a steel item from a different bike, Matchless or Velocette rods could be fitted back in the day. Kicking about somewhere on the internet there should be the old Royce Creasy article about how to toughen up a 500 Redditch Bullet so that it doesn't go bang, I think he used a Velocette rod. Our hosts have their own version in the accessories catalogue.

A.