Happy Birthday to Meeeee :-)

...well, early birthday pressie. I've had the bike a year now, and whilst OKish, I've never really gelled with the sprung seat, and missed the low one I had on the 350. It was only relatively recently that I came across a version available for the C5, but only found in the US or Australia. Until it appeared at Hitchcocks. Downside was the price - the 350's cost me around £75, this one is £110, then add delivery, plus VAT. Ah well.

Then a surprise email arrived, confirming my order for one. The good lady wife had decided to treat me, and Hitchcocks, being very helpful, used my account details for the delivery address to place the order.

Got a chance to fit it today, and whilst not a straight swap, went on without much yak shaving. The underside has a tang that slips under the mounting bracket securing the front, and the rear has two brackets with nuts welded on that fit on the spring mounts. the seat is roughly the same footprint, a bit narrower at the front, a bit wider in the middle, but has a dished pan so you are more "cradled". I'll see with use whether or not this upsets finding different sitting positions when riding.

Since it is lower and longer than the original, it wouldn't go far enough backwards to slide the tang into the front mounting without hitting the rack, so it had to be loosened and swivelled back. Also means if I need to remove the seat to get at the electrics, that will need doing again. Annoying, but only a small yak. 

And the finished fit. It's 2" lower than the standard seat, I can now flatfoot the bike, and as a small bonus, can see a lot more in the mirrors. Also makes it easier throwing my leg over with the topbox on :-)

C5 Unsprung Low Seat at Hitchcocks : http://accessories.hitchcocksmotorcycles.com/accessory-shop/seats-and-saddles/38498

Grip Puppies

Finally got around to fitting these, left them in a jug of hot soapy water for 5 minutes and they went on pretty easily. Took a little bit of pulling and twisting, but they're on tight, and didn't need trimming for my existing grips. Looking forward for the decent weather to return to give them a good trial.

Grip Puppies on Amazon : https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B005C1U8R2/ 

A couple of additions...

I missed having a topbox, and wanted somewhere dedicated for the waterproofs to live, even if the topbox wasn't fitted. So I got a topbox and tool roll.

Cheap and cheerful, let's see how they hold up over the weekend's bimble around the Peak District.

Topbox : https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/NEW-52L-UNIVERSAL-MOTORCYCLE-MOTORBIKE-BACK-BOX-TOP-BOX-HELMET-LUGAGGE-STORAGE/273246717260

Tool roll : https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Motorcycle-Leather-Saddle-Bag-Barrel-Luggage-Tool-Pouch-Roll-Side-Bag-For-Harley/323260271643

Flashback Fursday

Came across the dyno run for when the Electra was having the fuelling sorted by RPM Bikes (formerly Rhodes and Track). Although half a pony was lost in the process, there was no longer the dip at 3k. Tempted to get the Despatch done as a comparison.

https://www.rpmbikes.co.uk/

Now stay there!

So, the rectumfryer mount had snapped again.

The Euro 4's have it mounted on the back of the left hand toolbox, so out with the drill, and off with the toolbox. Although when it was off, I noticed the toolbox mounting points were very similar in distance apart to the holes in the reg/rec...

...almost but not quite.

 Put the drill away, and get the hacksaw and file out.

Trial fit with the existing bolts...

...and then reassemble with some longer ones.

Bit fiddly, and the old earth connector doesn't reach, so made up a new dedicated earth cable, and ran it direct from the second earth point on the Motobatt. Also cut off and filed the remaining stabby bit of the old bracket. And whilst I was in the area, finally disconnected the side stand cutoff switch :-)

Bit of luck, that's the last time I have to find a home for it :-)

Long time no see...

So, it's been a little over 9 months with the new bike, and I've not updated this. Bad Shaggy. It had 360 miles on the clock when I picked it up, and now has just under 3000. Not bad considering I was out of action for most of the winter with a duff back.

The bike originally had a few bits changed from the original Despatch spec by the dealer before the previous owner bought it; Continental TKC80 tyres, Headlamp grill, alloy bash plate, Triumph Scrambler handlebars, short bottle silencer.

I didn't like the tyres. OK in the dry, twitchy in the wet. I might have gotten used to them given time, but 99.9% of my riding is on the road, and the dealer swapped them back to the standard OEM Avon Road Riders for free.

The headlamp grill snapped one of its legs due to vibration. I took it off.

I found the handlebars too high and close, so swapped them for a standard pair.

The alloy bash plate made the oil change fiddly. I took it off.

The bracket holding the regulator/rectifier snapped. A very common problem with the EFI Enfields. I relocated it to a slightly sturdier mounting point, and gave it a decent earth.

As I was out of action over winter, I hadn't started the bike for some time, nor did I take the battery off. I killed the battery. Replaced with a Motobatt, in all its yellow glory.

The finish on the downpipe and exhaust is poor. I wrapped the downpipe in exhaust bandage, that has a nice greeny brown finish to it, which goes well with the bike's colour scheme. I also fitted a cheap heat guard where the downpipe meets the silencer, that hides the ugly mounting clips for the original bazooka silencer (which the dealer found in with their spares, and handed over). I have a can of Wilko's finest high temperature BBQ paint for the silencer, which will get done at some point. The aftermarket silencer is slightly on the side of obnoxious - I might refit the original and see how much difference it makes to performance. Dunno.

I've got the bike booked in with the dealer to have a look at the rear brake, since it's not very good. There is a sliding pivot point so that the shoes self adjust when applied. The problem is that the Indians do the bolts up with a sledgehammer and star washers, before sending it to the paint shop to get sealed in place. This means that typically only one part of one shoe gets applied. I could do this work myself, but garage space is lacking and my back still isn't quite 100%. Bedsides, if I find something like that the shoes need replacing due to uneven wear once it's apart, I'd have to put it on hold until I can replace it; with the dealer, they have them there and the job gets done.

Putting the bike away today after coming home from work, I found the new mounting point for the reg/rec has also snapped, so the job for this weekend is to relocate it again. I'll be looking at fitting it to the rear of the left hand toolbox which, I believe, is where they are now on the latest Euro 4 models.

I've a free flow K&N filter to fit, but that may cause too lean running. This might be offset by increasing the voltage on the throttle position sensor - the range is from 0.6 to 0.8v, and standard is 0.67. This has the effect of richening the mixture across the range.

To smooth out the idle and low speed running where the O2 sensor "hunts" for the correct mixture, I've bought an eliminator, but not fitted that yet. I'll see if it's more or less noticable once the air filter is fitted.

It's a giggle to ride. Grunty, matches my riding style. The gear change is great in comparison with the Albion, and better than the Electra, which was pretty trouble free. The clutch can be a bit on/off when pulling away, and the upright riding position can make you feel like you're going to disappear off the back if you don't pay attention. I think a lower seat may alleviate that a bit, as the C5 seat almost tilts back, whereas I loved the seat on the 350 - low and cradling. Unfortunately the C5 equivalent is a rare beast. I've only seen it listed in the States and Oz, and both are sold out with no hint of when it'll next be available. It is in the UK for the B5, so it might be a case of buying one of those and fettling.

The odometer is 93% accurate, and like all the other Enfields there's still no trip counter. At least there's a low fuel light - actually better than having a reserve, since it doesn't cutout during overtakes.

Speaking of which, there's a rev lmiter at 5200RPM. This is too easy to hit when riding enthusiastically. The engine's probably good for 7k, so why they didn't put it up around 6k, I don't know.

I'm averaging 75MPG, best I got was 86 which isn't too shabby for a carrying a fat bastard. Now it's run in, I've found that the bike is more than happy to sit at 70, tops out around 80, although the vibes are too much to maintain. Back it off to 65, and it's quite happy. I'd like more, maybe to hold a true 80 (speedo over-reads by 5MPH) but that's Power Commander territory, and I'm not spending £500 for one of those. There is a Dobeck Electronic Jet Kit though, at around £180 plus whatever the customs Nazis deem a suitable bribe to let you have your goods...

The new one...

Limited Edition Royal Enfield 500 Classic Despatch, number 28 of 200. Only 360 miles on the clock, just had its first service, ready for part two of its running in period :-)

Selling the 350...

...as I've put down a deposit on a Royal Enfield Classic Despatch :-)

Yak Shaving.

I only intended to replace the speedo drive unit, ended up doing the front indicators. For those who don't know what Yak Shaving is, have a quick read here.

A Yak, earlier today.

Anyhoo, whilst I was feeding the new speedo cable up, I nudged a connector for the front brake light switch, which subsequently disintegrated. In order to put a new connector on, the headlamp had to come off, so whilst I was at it I tidied up some of the wiring and put the new indicators on that have been sitting around for weeks. And swapped the toolbox locks for a set I have that only needs one key.

Disturbingly, when swapping the speedo drive, I noticed a crack in one of the axle caps - looks like a gorilla has tightened this up at some point. Good job I found it now, and not at 60mph - time to do more shopping, methinks.

Not good. Shaggy is displeased.

Pleased.

So, a nice dry weekend meant there was time to sort a couple of bits. The YBR got a new chain, ready for the MOT this week, and the Enfield had shakedown run part deux, this time NOT leaving me stranded by the side of the A508 for 5 hours. This pleases me.

Once the bike was warmed up nicely, I decided to check the air/fuel mixture with my Colortune. A bit fiddly, but simple enough to use. The default 1.5 turns out on the screw that I'd previously set it to seemed spot on - there was a nice blue burn. This pleases me too. I could have fiddled, but since it was running nicely on the outing, I figured I'd leave it alone for the time being. A plug chop session is on the cards sometime, or maybe throw some money on a dyno like I did with the Electra. We'll see.

The speedo is getting worse, and examination finds some grindy crunchy noises coming from the speedo sender unit. I'd bought a bicycle speedo some time ago, so decided now was the time to fit it.

Surprisingly accurate, an indicated 53 was 54 on the GPS. Susceptible to interference or vibration though methinks, because when stationary it jumps around. Pull off, and it settles down OK happily. This also pleases me.


I'd picked up a folding mirror at an REOC autojumble for three quid, since the existing ones have decided to act more like wind vanes. I now no longer have to do Linda Blair impressions when joining dual carriageways, and it gives me a few more precious inches width in the garage. As with all of my previous Enfields, the vibes mean that you can't tell what type of car is behind you, but you can tell whether there is one or not, and how quickly it is approaching. Enough for my needs.

This pleases me muchly.

The Culprit.

Bingo.

Since the carb was new, the fuel was reasonably fresh and there was unburnt fuel getting through, I doubted it would be a blocked jet, so went for the part that I'd last worked on - the ignition. Took the coil pickup plate off, and found that I could move the magnetic rotor around by finger pressure. Must have been OK up until the point I gave it the beans, where the vibes loosened it off.

Found TDC, realigned it, tightened it, rechecked TDC, put the pickup plate back on. Started second kick. If this becomes a problem, I'll Loctite it. Or weld it.

I won't really weld it.

Still got to tune it, get the carb setup right, and I've a long list of cosmetic jobs I want to do, but I'll settle for running at the mo. Hopefully, I'll get another shakedown ride in at the weekend, and maybe, just maybe, make it to Billing Bike Meet on Wednesday.

It's Dead!

3:30pm Take the bike for a spin

4:00pm Bike dies, refuses to restart

4:30pm Give up trying to restart it, call the RAC

5:10pm RAC attend. They can't start it either, so call for recovery, ETA 6:20pm

6:10pm RAC report ETA now 7:50pm

7:30pm RAC report ETA now 8:20pm

8:25pm Recovery arrive

9:15pm Home

9:16pm Beer

I only wanted a quick shakedown run in the sunshine yesterday :-( Bike was running fine until I took it up to WOT, and it felt like fuel starvation just before it died, so thought maybe the float height needs tweaking. Pulled over, tickled the carb, no bueno. Great time to NOT have more than a Leatherman on me - d'oh! Sparkplug was sooty (I think I need to go down a size on the main jet) so that was cleaned as best as I could and retried - still no go. Checked to see if the previous timing work had slipped at all, nope, that was in the same place I'd put it.

When the RAC arrived he checked the same things I'd already looked at, but gave the sparkplug a better clean, checked the gap, and heated it with a blowtorch before putting it back in. Still no go, so he orders a flatbed for a recovery.

4 sodding hours later, I'm home. Could have pushed it home in half that time.

I have compression, a spark and fuel comes out of the tickler. Current guess is a blocked jet, or the magnetic rotor has come loose and shifted. We'll see.

It's Alive!

Well, not at first :-)

Attempting to start had the bike kicking back, which according to the instructions is low voltage. The battery was checked, and with the headlight on full beam it was still showing 12.2V so that was OK.

The spark can be checked by disconnecting the stator, then shorting the black/yellow and black/white wires going to the black box. With the sparkplug out and resting against the head, it sparks every time you short the connection. So far, so good.

I moved the stator plate back to the position that the online PDF stated, and it started on the second kick. It wouldn't idle cleanly, revs were high, and only got higher when when releasing the air slide.

Since I'd not started the bike since putting the Amal on, I had an additional factor working against me. I checked the pilot screw, and found it was almost fully out. Pretty sure I had checked that when I put the carb on, obviously not. Screwed it all the way in, and back out 1.5 turns as a starting point, much happier, although the revs were still high.

The cable adjuster at the twist grip end had looked bodged when I put the carb on (I don't think it's the right one for either the Mikcarb nor the Amal - not even the right thread for the twist grip), and gave virtually no slack. I removed the adjusting ring which gave me about 5mm of adjustment to play with. This let me drop the idle down to something a bit more palatable, albeit not quite smooth yet.

And then the rain started.

Pretty sure that the timing will need a final tweak, and that the jetting/float height/needle height will need playing with, and the correct cable adjuster procured, but it's all back together now and running, and that makes Shaggy happy.

I'll figure out how to do a decent video one day.

Boyer Bransden Mk4 Electronic Ignition Fitting

After finding the broken autoadvance mechanism, I bit the bullet and ordered the aforementioned from Hitchocks. Nice and quick delivery. Finally nailed down a window of opportunity where there was (a) daylight and (b) distinct lack of rain, so went about fitting it. The first job was finding Top Dead Centre. Sparkplug out, TDC tool in, pop into 4th gear and rotate the rear wheel until the shaft is no longer moving up. Move it backwards and forwards a few times to make sure - I do it by feel with my eyes closed. It doesn't matter whether it's TDC on the compression or exhaust stroke, as the unit works on a wasted spark arrangement.

Since I'd already had the points and mechanical advance unit off, the next bit is to insert the magnetic rotor into the tapered hole, and loosely fit the provided bolt :-

Next the stator plate is put on, turned anticlockwise, the pillar screws tightened, then the magnetic rotor adjusted so that the magnets line up with the centre of the coils, and TDC checked again :-

Next bit has some confusion. The printed instructions supplied by Hitchcocks say to move the stator plate forward to a halfway position, whereas the PDF from Boyer's site say to rotate it fully clockwise. Halfway seems more logical, giving some room for tuning either way, so that's what I went with as a starting point. If I find it's out later, I can reposition the magnetic rotor slightly and realign with the coils.

I did take a picture of mounting the black box on the back of the left hand toolbox, but didn't come out that well. Ho hum. It's straightforward, but I found that the double sided tape supplied was pretty crap (even after "warming" as suggested) - when I tried to peel the backing off, the tape came with it, and wouldn't stay stuck to the toolbox. Yes, I cleaned it first. Luckily I had a roll of "No More Nails" double sided tape, which works a treat.

Wiring comes next, black to earth, black/yellow to black/yellow, black/white to black/white, white wire to positive side of the coil (where there is already a white wire coming from the ignition switch) and although the instructions said to put the blue wire to the wire that originally went to the points (also black) I connected this to the negative side of the coil, since that's where it ends up anyway.

I'm not overly worried about the routing of the wires as I intend to eventually move everything to the toolboxes. Once I'm happy she starts and runs, I'll tidy with zip ties.

That's the installation, now to see if it starts...

Oh dear.

Couldn't quite get the timing right, and examining the auto advance mechanism, found this.

Perfect opportunity to go electronic, methinks :-)

...a bit more work...

New Amal concentric carb fitted, old air box removed, still need to sort the twist grip adjuster though, as it's non standard and leaves no slack in the cable. Timing looked at, and whilst it's at the maximum of the contact breaker's plate adjustment, it's still not spot on. Have procured the tool from Hitchcocks to remove the cam so it can be repositioned, and the locking washer so that the timing can also be set at full advance.

New Lithium battery has been fitted, and a new positive feed cable made up, as the other one was green and holding on by about 4 strands of copper. Redid the rear loom with permanent connectors, rather than the temporary chocblock connector I'd put on, and made up a pair of brackets, then rewired/relocated a new pair of rear indicators. This means I can now use panniers without hiding the indicators, and there's less chrome to polish. Need to paint the new bolts that replaced them - far too shiny :-)

Photo was taken before I angled both the same way, and tightened the nuts :-)

Bonus tip, Rimmel of London's "Black Cab" nail varnish is a good match for a black Enfield, to cover small scratches before the rust sets in. Don't ask how I had Rimmel of London's "Black Cab" nail varnish in my toolbox.

Not Shaggy's fingers.

And lo, there was rack.

And Shaggy saw it was good, and did grin :-)

A bit of a faff to fit though, the front legs needed spreading by about 3/4". Percussive maintenance with large persuader (number 2) and a handy concrete bollard later, sorted. I had to drill the shock absorber mount out slightly to accept the new 10mm bolt too, the old one being 3/8" (9.5mm)

Rack is part number 92541, from Hitchcocks :-

http://www.hitchcocksmotorcycles.com/accessory-frame-luggage#part_4341

Enfield MOT...

...passed, no advisories :-)

New clocks

Since the original speedo thought Enf was capable of 80mph and wobbled wildly, I treated her to a new one. Can't quite stretch to a Smiths digital jobbie, so went cheap with a refaced Indian replacement. More readable, much cleaner with bigger numbers, and reports a speed vaguely in the same ballpark as what the bike is doing. 

Only downside is that cheap comes at a price - the odometer is in Kilometres, rather than miles. Not a huge problem, just adds another step to my MPG calculation at the pump. 

Speaking of which, today's fillup comes out at 47.5 MPG. This would be horrendous, if I didn't take into consideration that I'd left the fuel tap on one night and came back to a petrol pond in a fume filled garage. God knows how much I'd lost.

Also added a small clock to the handlebar, so I know exactly how late I am for work. This may be relocated to where the light switch is on the instrument cluster, and have a simpler switch in the front of the left toolbox.

I thought she felt tight...

So, when I bought Enf she had just under 15k on the clock. I was told that she'd had a rebuild done around 10k - there was a receipt for £750 from the previous previous owner, but was just listed as "parts and labour", with no breakdown of what work was carried out.

I contacted the previous previous owner from the address on the V5 copy, and yesterday got a letter back with a phone number, so I've just had a chat. The oil pump had originally failed, so new pumps and spindles were installed, and whilst it was being done they did main bearings, big and little end and rings. He couldn't remember the mileage when this was done, but said that he'd MOT'd it at the same time.

I've just checked the MOTs, and it shows the same mileage as when I bought it, so essentially the guy I bought it from hadn't even put a mile on it since the rebuild!

This fills me with both joy and dread, since I have (a) got a freshly rebuilt engine, and (b) ridden a freshly rebuilt engine with no hint of an attempt at running it in :-)

Luckily I ride like a granny with a load in her knickers, so she hasn't been thrashed too harshly, but I now know to take it easier for the next few hundred miles until she loosens up a bit, and throw lots of fresh oil at her in the meantime.