[navin_v8]

Originally Posted by Akhileshmdp

Now the bike is nearing 3K Kms from the first service in Feb and running well, the jerk at low rpms I have noticed is because of front shocks which retract and compress pretty easily for initial travel.

Akhileshmdp mate nice to know that your bike is running well. The front shock ups behaviour is really strange, I haven't come across such a phenomenon. This wont happen unless one is riding on higher gears at lower speeds that stresses the engine and causes it to jerk. The front suspension should not dive in so much unless braked on with maximum pressure. Get it checked for compression and rebound, I believe the fork oil must have lost its property whilst the bike was lying idle for several months. Get it changed with the grade of fork oil mentioned in the manual.

Originally Posted by satish_appasani

I have a 2 months old Thunderbird 500. Last week a big plastic cover got hooked to the hot silencer during a ride. Lot of it melted and struck to the bottom area of the silencer. I could remove most of it using a paint scrapper.

Satish mate although I refrain from using flammable fluids for cleaning vehicles, but kerosene as well as petrol has done wonders getting rid of such stains. Only thing to remember is to do it on when the engine is cold and wash it off with a vehicle shampoo. You can then use chrome powder polish to polish the chrome.

[satish_appasani]

Originally Posted by navin_v8

Satish mate although I refrain from using flammable fluids for cleaning vehicles, but kerosene as well as petrol has done wonders getting rid of such stains. Only thing to remember is to do it on when the engine is cold and wash it off with a vehicle shampoo. You can then use chrome powder polish to polish the chrome.

Thanks Navin. Though I didn't try petrol and kerosene, I tried Diesel. I always have it at home to degrease my cycle chain. It did not have any affect. I tried it with cloth. I will try with scotch brite once again.

[navin_v8]

Originally Posted by satish_appasani

Thanks Navin. Though I didn't try petrol and kerosene, I tried Diesel. I always have it at home to degrease my cycle chain. It did not have any affect. I tried it with cloth. I will try with scotch brite once again.

Mate the trick is to rub kerosene or petrol on the affected part and leave it there for 20-30 mins. followed by rubbing and cleaning it off. This cycle has to be done at least 3 to 4 times in a loop. For safety concern you need to stand guard near your motorcycle as you are using flammable objects, this in order to avoid hooligans playing mischief.

[ArizonaJim]

Originally Posted by satish_appasani

Thanks Navin. Though I didn't try petrol and kerosene, I tried Diesel. I always have it at home to degrease my cycle chain. It did not have any affect. I tried it with cloth. I will try with scotch brite once again.

Personally, I would never use Scotch Brite pads on my RE's chrome parts.

All of these Scotch Brite pads are covered with abrasives like aluminum oxide or even silicone carbide (one of the hardest man made materials).

Abrasives such as these can rapidly cut thru and remove the chrome plating even on the best plated parts. (Royal Enfields chrome plating is not among the "best").
Once the chrome layer is gone there is nothing to protect the metal from rust.

Although it will take a bit longer, find some steel wool pads to use for the removal of the baked on plastic.

If you can't find regular steel wool (in the USA it is available at Hardware stores), perhaps you can find a kitchen scouring pad like SOS?
They look like little pads (65mm X 65mm ?) of wadded steel fibers either with or without soap added to them.

The steel used in steel wool (or the kitchen pads) is softer than the chrome plating so it will not remove it no matter how hard you scrub.

[doc_zeus]

Hello everyone. This is my first post in this thread. I need little help regarding a small issue in my RE Thunderbird Twinspark 2009 UCE, that's run nearly 60,000kms on the odometer. For the past 2 or 3 months I've observed loss of pick up very drastically. Even mileage dropped to half. I used to easily get a mileage of around 40-45kmpl. But now not even 20kmpl. Even I observed dark oil stains when i scrape inside my silencer rear end with my hand. No dripping of any oil from the silencer or no black smoke at all. All these changes were sudden. And i found little oil staining near the right spark plug, this has been since many months as i remember. Even the engine used to seize rarely. I even had problem kick starting the bike. One day I had the significant loss of pick up and struggled a lot to move forward, as if the bike was running out of fuel. I found a nearby mechanic and he checked the battery and we found out it ran out of juice, as this is my second one since '09. Battery was already showing signs of failure since few days. So replaced the battery and the mechanic cleaned the spark plugs, adjusted them. I mostly use kick start, so after battery change bike started with a single kick. No issues kick starting the bike since then and bike performance, pick up improved noticeably. But the loss of pick up and mileage still persist. When I showed it to other mechanics, they said cylinder head and even piston probably needs to be changed and costs around 10k INR. But according to my understanding, if those were damaged to the extent that they should be replaced, wouldn't I be getting black smoke from exhaust?

Any suggestions as to what to do now? Are the mechanics recommendations to replace the head and piston genuine? Were all my problems because of these?

Thanks in advance.

[surjaonwheelz]

Originally Posted by ArizonaJim

Personally, I would never use Scotch Brite pads on my RE's chrome parts.

The steel used in steel wool (or the kitchen pads) is softer than the chrome plating so it will not remove it no matter how hard you scrub.

I don't know which Scotch Brite you are referring to Jim! I'm talking about the same 'the kitchen pads' which in India we use for washing stainless steel utensils.

I had a a similar stain on my bent pipe due to a baked jute bag! Now completely gone after several shampoo washes (the normal ones).

[nemesis86]

My TB 500 is 16.6K on the odo and I have noticed the loss of tyre treads of late. The rear tyre screeches with engine braking as well. Can you guys tell me what's the ideal time to change the stock tyres? Which one should I go for? Ceat/MRF or any other suggestions please.
I mostly ride in city and on highways (very little off-roading).

[Dr_MNC_SK]

Hello Riders and Royal Enfield Experts on the community. I have a query on a RE TB niggle that I had a couple of years since , now rectified the Jugaad way but i wanted someone to throw some light into it. I have a TB 350 AVL 2007 model. White fumes used to come out from the exhaust at times, totally unpredictable. Took the usual way out, rebored the block put new pistons and rings and it worked fine. (Thought Oil was getting into the Combustion chamber through the failed piston rings ) It was around 60K + that time on odo.
But no, it started again, head opened again, piston rings changed, problem apparently sorted but again the same thing started to happen. AVL Piston & Rings Genuine was difficult to find so I took the plunge and on a trip to Mysore got a new block cylinder piston kit and changed it. Apparently the problem seemed to be rectified. Then 5-6K on the new block and all of a sudden the smoke starts again. Air filter and all other source of oil reaching the combustion chamber including cat con (The AVL has a cat con on head upper part) were checked to be fine.
Multiple Mechanics and Friends and Experts tried to fix it but no avail. The smoke (thick white fumes with smell of unburnt oil) comes at whim and fancy and disappears on its own sometimes lasting for 20-30 kms and sometimes less.

I had to shift base to Gangtok and rode some 1K + kms , but luckily no fumes on that Journey.

Then after returning to Gangtok the Fumes again came at times.
By the way,the following mods are done in between- the AVL Tappets and guides are removed and new lathe cutting for guides of standard are done and STD guided and tappet valves are installed- this caused me to lose the Decompression mechanism as in STD the decompression is through the cylinder head and not through Tappet. Both the cam heads and cam spindles are changed, and also the oil pump gear is changed.

I took the bike to a local mechanic here , he hears my query , removes the breather pipe from the primary drive going to the Oil Recirculation Can and blocks it with a screw and connects it back and asks me to see. I have been driving like that for the last 8000 Kms and not a single incident of fume has reoccured, niether is there any loss of Oil or excessive Heating or any problem I can appreciate at present. A 5 rupees screw did the trick. Can anybody understand and explain me what actually was happenning? Thank you

[CGB]

Hello Bhpians,
My school mate purchased a classic 350 sometime back. He did a thorough pressure wash from a nearby workshop. But soon after the wash, the bike started and none of the electricals worked. I asked him to dry the Fuses and after that it was normal. May i know how water entered into the chamber which was locked? Also noticed that 500's had a rubber beading on the boxes, which his 350 missed. Guess i'm sounding right. Need help on this!

[Dr_MNC_SK]

Originally Posted by nemesis86

My TB 500 is 16.6K on the odo and I have noticed the loss of tyre treads of late. The rear tyre screeches with engine braking as well. Can you guys tell me what's the ideal time to change the stock tyres? Which one should I go for? Ceat/MRF or any other suggestions please.
I mostly ride in city and on highways (very little off-roading).

Sorry for Back to Back Post (My prior post was my query and this is a reply to somebodys query so thought of a separate post, pardon me if its not in compliance with board rules)

Tyres should be changed when the loss of tread is apparent, or when there is a major injury to the tyre risking failure or when the tyres gets too old and hard. Depending on your usage pattern, acceleration pattern and braking techniques tyres can wear out earlier than expected, you could totally ruin a tyre in less than 10K kms of high spirited riding.
The stock tyres of RE are always a question of discussion. I advocate that the front tyres to be changed to UNI RIB or MAXI RIB (single circular parallel rib design threads) -These effectively cuts through water and handles quite well also. You can see majority of long time RE Users using this kind of tyres. For the rear you could choose big blocks (Roadster by Birla is one good option- but i wonder if its available in 18 inches) or highway tyres (Stock type)

[doc_zeus]

Originally Posted by nemesis86

My TB 500 is 16.6K on the odo and I have noticed the loss of tyre treads of late. The rear tyre screeches with engine braking as well. Can you guys tell me what's the ideal time to change the stock tyres? Which one should I go for? Ceat/MRF or any other suggestions please.
I mostly ride in city and on highways (very little off-roading).

My first set of tires lasted 40kms without any loss of road grip and not even a single puncture. I changed them at around 42k kms, as I was feeling loss of road grip, especially in rains. Stock tires were Dunlop. My second set of tires, I opted for Ceat Gripp of same specs as stock ones 3.25x19 front ones(ribbed) and 3.50x19 rear ones. Both front and rear ones cost me about 4500 INR. Road grip in city driving is excellent. I would definitely recommend them. I'm not sure TB500 has same tire specs.

It's better to go in for replacing the tires, especially if you feel loss of grip on the roads. This minor cost would prevent any major damages from slipping, especially with the oncoming rains in few months.

[kanu2k15]

Hello guys,
I have now moved to Bangalore so wanted to add on some accessories to my Classic 350 like a LED Cree lights, etc. So if anyone in Bangalore can tell me where to get these things installed?
I heard about JC Road but not sure where to go there. Any recommendations for any shops where I can get these LED lights installed. Hoping to get a response soon. Thanks in advance.

[prasanna_indaje]

Originally Posted by kanu2k15

Hello guys,
I have now moved to Bangalore so wanted to add on some accessories to my Classic 350 like a LED Cree lights, etc. So if anyone in Bangalore can tell me where to get these things installed?
I heard about JC Road but not sure where to go there. Any recommendations for any shops where I can get these LED lights installed. Hoping to get a response soon. Thanks in advance.

You can check Sandhya auto spares in JC road.
You can buy the accessories and there is a mechanic next to the shop who can fit them for you.

[ArizonaJim]

Originally Posted by Dr_MNC_SK

...

I took the bike to a local mechanic here , he hears my query , removes the breather pipe from the primary drive going to the Oil Recirculation Can and blocks it with a screw and connects it back and asks me to see. I have been driving like that for the last 8000 Kms and not a single incident of fume has reoccured, niether is there any loss of Oil or excessive Heating or any problem I can appreciate at present. A 5 rupees screw did the trick. Can anybody understand and explain me what actually was happenning? Thank you

I am not that familiar with the 2007 AVL but the "fix" is a real puzzlement.

By rights, plugging the crankcase vent hose should increase the pressure below the piston which would increase the tendency to blow oil up past the piston rings into the combustion chamber.

Is it possible that the hose for the PAV (Pulsed Air Valve) was somehow connected to the oil catch can and this is the hose the mechanic plugged?

If the PAV were connected to the oil catch can, it could draw oil into the exhaust pipe right below the exhaust valve. That would make a lot of oil smoke.
You did not say if your spark plug was oil fouled but if the engine was burning oil, it would be. (That is one of the first things to check if the engine seems to be burning oil. No oil on the spark plug electrode = the oil is getting into the engine downstream from the combustion chamber. )

Anyway, I'm glad to hear you got it fixed, even though I don't know why the fix worked.

Originally Posted by CGB

Hello Bhpians,
My school mate purchased a classic 350 sometime back. He did a thorough pressure wash from a nearby workshop. But soon after the wash, the bike started and none of the electricals worked. I asked him to dry the Fuses and after that it was normal. May i know how water entered into the chamber which was locked? Also noticed that 500's had a rubber beading on the boxes, which his 350 missed. Guess i'm sounding right. Need help on this!

You and your friend found out why I say, Never use a high pressure washer on a motorcycle.

Not only are the tool, electrical and air boxes, the fuel tank cap and the air inlet not designed to keep high pressure water out but the seals on the wheel bearings and other bearings and the connectors on the electrical harness are not designed to withstand blasts of high pressure water.

These things are designed to withstand normal sources of water like rain, rain puddles and the like.

Slow flowing water from a hose should not cause a problem so limit washing to using this method and a soft wash rag.

[kanu2k15]

Originally Posted by prasanna_indaje

You can check Sandhya auto spares in JC road.
You can buy the accessories and there is a mechanic next to the shop who can fit them for you.

Great. Thanks for the information, I will go there tomorrow and check things out. Hoping cops don't stop my bike for being a DL number. I haven't got the papers yet from Delhi.