[tharian]

Originally Posted by ebonho

I see from the photo that you have reverted back to the long OE silencer. I have been thinking of doing the same for my Std 500 for some time now. How does she feel after the long silencer? Any difference noted (besides the sound)?

On the 500, I wouldn't suggest this muffler since that engine works best with a free flow Goldstar type exhaust.
I have tried this long one, just the 500 doom on the short bend pipe, the original muffler of the old 500's which was called the hot tube. Out of all these, the best in terms of smoothness and power delivery was the original hot tube and free flow exhaust.
I guess your 500 being a post 2002 model came with the exhaust seen in the picture above.

On the other hand, this works fine on my 350. Smooth, torquey and silent cruising. Ideally with the filter and jet upgrade , I should have gone for a free'r exhaust, but didn't want to strain the high run engine.

[ebonho]

Originally Posted by tharian

Smooth, torquey and silent cruising.

I remember the same of my LB500 when using the long company fitted silencer.

I'll try it out on Doppie soon. I haven't used the long one on her since taking it off a few months into geting her.

So that silencer will literally be going back on to her after a decade of lying wrapped in an old chaddar on top of one of my bookshelves!

[tharian]

12 years to the day and 101000 Kms since this bike gave me the feeling of what motorcycling and riding is all about and the feeling of freedom from doing it.
What better way to do it than on a low revving big single.

The bike was brought home on a Fri the 13th and I had my doubts further being a Enfield.
12 years down the line, I know this bike is good to go for another full round on the odo.

[tharian]

Completed the scheduled service at 101200 Kms at the Authorized Service Center which I know in Mysore.
The plan was to replace few parts that had worn out and few as preventive replacements as the bike had crossed the lakh.
However due to time constraints and bad weather, it was skipped.

The rear sprocket was last replaced at 50000kms and had two broken teeth and was replaced. I wanted to replace the front sprocket as well since it was never replaced since the bike was purchased and was looking like shark teeth now. Since that was a long procedure, I postponed it and the mech in Bangalore who I visit was surprised when I told him it has never been replaced. Talks a lot of part quality at one time of RE.

The normal service was done with rear pad replacement which apparently was a non genuine pad.
Reverted back to the stock tail lamp as well to give it a more stock look.
Efficiency is at 25 kmpl constant for a while now and increases by 2-3 on highways.

The best part of this bike is that although it has run over a lakh with an unopened engine, it gets smoother on every ride and no power loss at all. I was still able to hit the top speed for this model with no weird sounds from the engine.
Reverted to the Pirelli tire from the MRF meteor on the rear wheel which freed up the resistance which was present with the flattened Meteor.

After a nice wash parked outside the KTM/Kawa showroom.

[B O V]

How much did the rear sprocket alone cost?Do you get a slight clicking sound from the front sprocket area?

Whoa man 1 lakh kilometers on an unopened engine.Congrats!

Which Pirelli tyre did you get?I'm lookin to change the MRF Meteor on my bike too.

[tharian]

Originally Posted by B O V

How much did the rear sprocket alone cost?Do you get a slight clicking sound from the front sprocket area?

Whoa man 1 lakh kilometers on an unopened engine.Congrats!

Which Pirelli tyre did you get?I'm lookin to change the MRF Meteor on my bike too.

The rear sprocket costs 800 change. No sound at all from the front sprocket, but when the rear wheel was removed , I checked the front and it looked it won't last much. Anyway I have picked up the front one as well and replace down the line.

The Pirelli is a MT60 100/90 meant for the front wheel. It is a used one which was on my 500 , but still works well in terms of grip. I changed the Meteor since I could feel the bike is dragging due the tire getting wide over time. Once this was fitted, it made a huge difference.

[tharian]

Picture did not upload in the previous posts.

[tharian]

Got the front sprocket replaced today.

In my memory it has never been changed. The mechanic said it can never last for over a lakh kms and would have been changed atleast once.
Once the clutch assembly was opened, it was covered with muck and grease. I checked the old sprocket and it did not have any RE markings like the new one.
The teeth were not broken, but surely worn and was curved at the tip.

There was one service in which the rear sprocket and chain were replaced at 59k kms. Now I am guessing the front one would have been replaced at the same time. This was in 2007 and the bill shows ,'chain sprocket set' which costs around Rs850.

No significant change in ride after the replacement, but the gear shifts has become smooth as well as the ride after a certain speed.

One of the original horns out of the dual set finally gave up. So fitted the Roots Vibrasonic horns which was on my 500.

Crossed 102000 kms.

[ebonho]

Originally Posted by tharian

Picture did not upload in the previous posts.

Your bike looks lovely. Kudos to how lovingly you have kept her.

Noticed that you have moved to the gas shocks from the oil filled traditional ones. Which ones are they - Endurance or Gabriel? Did you need to change or mod your main stand? I undrstand the Endurance ones come in two heights - the lower one does not need a main stand change/modification?

Btw, changed to the long bazooka, took one 15 km ride on her, and came back and put the goldie back on (after scraping and sanding it and giving it a fresh new coat of black paint).

[tharian]

Originally Posted by ebonho

Your bike looks lovely. Kudos to how lovingly you have kept her.

Noticed that you have moved to the gas shocks from the oil filled traditional ones. Which ones are they - Endurance or Gabriel? Did you need to change or mod your main stand? I undrstand the Endurance ones come in two heights - the lower one does not need a main stand change/modification?

Btw, changed to the long bazooka, took one 15 km ride on her, and came back and put the goldie back on (after scraping and sanding it and giving it a fesh new coat of black paint).

Thank you!

The gas shocks were fitted quite some time back . I think when they were launched with the 2004 Electra first. These are Endurance and surprisingly are still good after all these years.
The only mod that was done, was on the frame were the shocks are bolted on to. The top of the gas shocks , were the bolt goes through, is a bit bigger and the frame were the shocks are bolted onto had to be grinded a bit so they fit.

The original bazooka for some reason is the wrong muffler for the old 500's . My 500 never got along with that muffler. The vibes were too much , engine becomes rough and gearshifts irritating.

But on my 350, its perfect.

[tharian]

Update :

The bike has done 103000 kms now. Running has been low and I have been using it only to office and at times, during the weekend.

Efficiency has remained a constant 24kmpl, dropped from 25 which was the same for many years.

Recently, I did a preventive replacement of few parts apart from the front sprocket mentioned above.

The front tyre was replaced after I realized the one I was using was almost a ten year old one . I had swapped it from my 500 when I bought it in 07.
The handling had gone for a toss and I was tram-lining even on level roads. Made a world of a difference when replaced.

Replaced the battery after 4 years of using the last one. It was a Amaron sealed battery and the replacement was the same as well. This is the 4th battery including the one which came with the bike, if I remember right.
The voltmeter at the battery shop with the new battery connected showed 13.5 at high revs which meant the alternator is not providing full charging.

Few days back I realized it is not charging at all since the ammeter needle only showed discharging when the indicators and lights were used and was never charging. I was of the thought that some wire was not fitted well in the clutch case since the front sprocket replacement few months ago.
Took it to my mechanic for a feedback and he said my wiring is old and worn and he taped few and it helped for few kms and then again was back to square one.
Since I had the 500, I swapped the rectifier( the small black one) and the rectifier/regulator box( the metal one) which I had purchased since the 500 has a separate metal box for rectifier and regulator, which still didn't fix the charging.

I had given up since anyway the Electra doesn't need a battery to run the engine when I thought of yanking the wire that comes out from the clutch case and the ammeter moved to the positive.
Yanked it a bit more and it came off ! This wire ends in 4 thin wires which has a socket and is connected to 4 wires which go to the rectifier/regulator.
They weren't connected well and the vibrations were disconnecting them on and off. Connected them and taped it and charging is full notch now. I guess it was connected well enough after the sprocket replacement.

There is slight wetness in the tailpipe and a bit of a oil smoke at times, but not worrying about it since the power has not dropped drastically and the engine is smooth as ever and I don't want to ruin that.

[tharian]

With my 500 gone, all the attention is back to my Electra.
I miss the different 'skins' I used to give my 500 and how well it could carry it off.
So for a change and after many years, I decided to give my Electra a make over.
Parts used were the same that were used on my 500- up swept Goldstar type exhaust. Picked up a headlight grill and replaced the dome as well since it had a crack and the reflector was shriveled on one side.
The rear carrier remains. I wanted to fit a single seat as well, but since this is my only bike now, couldn't do that.

This is the end result :

[tharian]

An update on the rear shockers which I was planning on replacing.

The gas charged shock absorbers were replaced almost ten years back and has run more than 75k kms. They were bottoming out quite often especially when hitting a pothole in good clip and leaving my spine to do the dampers job.
I forgot that these shocks are adjustable and wanted to see if adjusting the spring height would make a difference on an already used damper.
Luckily the setting was at the second last step and there was one more to go to increase the spring height.
So removed both the shocks and with no proper tool,managed to expand the spring and twist to slot in the last step and fitted them back. I wasn't expecting any big difference since there was hardly and difference visibly. But while on the road,it actually made most of the bumps and ruts soft ,especially when riding two up.,bottoming out was gone and I could ride over rough patches without slowing down much.
Must say the gas shocks are way better than oil in terms of cushioning as well as longetivity.
The original oil shocks which was hardly used for 30kms were almost shot towards the end.

Otherwise the bike is running without any hiccups @104500 kms

[tharian]

As part of the 1 lakh kms upgrades and replacements which I am doing one at a time, I got the seat cover and foam replaced.

Couple of years after I bought the bike, I wanted the seat to be a bit lower and had visited Rao's seat cover shop in Shivajinagar and sliced the top layer of foam. The same seat was being used on my 500 when I was using it and when it was being re-built by my mech in Mysore, he had added a layer of foam and new seat cover to increase the height, without me asking him to.
However, over time it settled to a level I was happy with.

Few months back the cover started tearing in few places as so with the back rest and I decided to replace both the covers. On visiting Rao's , he mentioned the foam is gone bad , not surprised since it 13 years and needs to be replaced.

I went for the same stock sized foam and seat cover was a plain one without ribs. I wanted to the one with ribs , but I guess they didn't have stock.

It feels much higher now, but comfortable and will last another few years.

[ebonho]

Originally Posted by tharian

I went for the same stock sized foam and seat cover was a plain one without ribs. I wanted to the one with ribs , but I guess they didn't have stock.

Did you get the original RE foam or foam from the seat walla?

I had exactly the opposite problem for Doppie last time I asked a local mechanic to change her seat cover. When he brought her home I was mortified to see that he had used the 350's ribbed one and not the stock 500 plain one. I cannot stand attitude which lacks even basic attention to detail.

P.S. Doppie still has that seat cover on.