[siddharth_menon]

So is there a free / paid ECU Map upgrade for old owners ?
I really don't trust the Nerul Service centre for all this.

And what is ECU sleeve ?

[Sutripta]

Originally Posted by Randhawa

@NST- Congratulations
... but if you had the pre 11 C5 then I would have added a bit info about the sprag clutch failure. But you are lucky to have this problem sorted in your bike

Did RE beef up the sprag clutch, or do something like retarding the ignition during starting? Does it apply to the 350 as well.

Regards
Sutripta

[smoghe]

Oil leak in under 100 km !

I came back from a five day vacation and found a small puddle of oil under my engine. The MIL seems to be normal so I do not think it is a serious leak. I am planning to take it to the service center this weekend to get it fixed, but thought I'll seek opinion on whether it is common. I cleaned up the underside and parked it at a different spot last night and got just a single drop of oil today morning. Please shed some light on what could be the issue.

Thanks for the help.

[adrian]

Hi, is it normal to have a small free play on the rear wheel with the brakes fully engaged ? My bike's rear wheel rotates back and forth a bit with the brakes fully applied (while in the c stand). Faulty cush rubbers or is it a normal phenomenon ? I checked it out on a splendor and the wheels were locked hard. Please advice.

[Randhawa]

Originally Posted by nasirkaka

Nopes :(

Infact i have got the new mapping done thrice so far. Mine was one of the bikes used for the new mapping R&D, i guess. After the first map, there were major issues of startups, uneven idling, and stalling. So we got it mapped again with a new throttle body, and still the issues persisted. Then we changed the entire injector, and throttle body, and remapped it again, and so far its been holding good. And all this was happening with the technicians from chennai factory, who were in Bangalore for a long time, refining the map.

All these days of experimentation, no one mentioned any thing about the ECU sleeve, free or with cost. They only offered me the free plastic air-filter cover, which i declined as it would not fit over the K&N. So far, the Scotch is working fine. (tape and not the whiskey for all those pervert minds)

Aren't you a lucky chap Got a new TB and injector worth 6K and the remap. You should have not declined the cover and I think you should still get it from them. You never know when you might like to get things stock on your bull.

ECU sleeve is just a rubber cap for the ECU connector which is coming on the new ones. Our ECU connector is water/dust proof anyways so not a biggy. It's not possible to fit it on unless you rewire the whole wiring. The way RE is doing now on the old ones makes it silly to even bother with. That's by cutting one side of it and putting on to the connector. Then wrapping tape on it. What a shoddy way to do it.

Originally Posted by aresq

After reading the entire thread, have come to the conclusion. Save longer, buying the Ninja 650r!!! Btw had taken a Electra on the Himalayan odyssey in 2009, the CL was being tested at high altitude, was running beautifully, no issues.

Yeah man, RE is not every ones cup of tea unless you want to become a descent mechanic. Did you managed to see a Ninja 650r up in Himalayas!

Originally Posted by siddharth_menon

So is there a free / paid ECU Map upgrade for old owners ?
I really don't trust the Nerul Service centre for all this.

And what is ECU sleeve ?

Yup, for old and pre June 2011 C5 owners. Yes it's free but mostly been done on those C5 owners bike which had reported problems of jerking and missing. 1K just for the plugs(small plug upgraded to high heat range plug along with the Bosch Platinum Plus) so RE really does not want to do it for every single customer.

ECU sleeve- Just a rubber jacket covering the ECU connector.

Originally Posted by Sutripta

Did RE beef up the sprag clutch, or do something like retarding the ignition during starting? Does it apply to the 350 as well.

Regards
Sutripta

Earlier it was a local sprag bearing. Now it's a Japanese bearing with a heavy duty design. Search the thread for the pictures. It applies to UCE 350/500 only. Timing issue was only with the avl/lb bikes which was later sorted out by a delay circuit.

Originally Posted by adrian

Hi, is it normal to have a small free play on the rear wheel with the brakes fully engaged ? My bike's rear wheel rotates back and forth a bit with the brakes fully applied (while in the c stand). Faulty cush rubbers or is it a normal phenomenon ? I checked it out on a splendor and the wheels were locked hard. Please advice.

If you do hard rear braking then it's normal but the down side of free play is that you don't get good feedback from the brakes when the cushion rubbers becomes sloppy. I am s sucker for the cushion rubbers, on mine it does not last more then 3k(my riding style) and I do not like the brakes to be sloppy. Good feedback from rear brake makes you more confident with braking. You also get rid of unwanted jerks which some people can confuse with ECU related trouble.

On older CI bulls they last really long as they(bikes) are quite light compared to our UCE bikes hence the short life and quality of the rubber is quite poor too.

[gopzdoc]

Very disappointing to to know that the quirks of RE remain. Lets not romanticize the quirks and fallacies of brands like RE, Mahindra and Tata. Its high time they got over the hangover of a protected market and get down to being competitive. C'mon! Rust issues in this time and age!

[Randhawa]

If Triumph comes to India with a single thumper up to 600cc in the shape of Bonneville then I'll buy it with eyes closed. What RE needs is some competition.

[ArizonaJim]

Originally Posted by smoghe

Oil leak in under 100 km !

I came back from a five day vacation and found a small puddle of oil under my engine. The MIL seems to be normal so I do not think it is a serious leak. I am planning to take it to the service center this weekend to get it fixed, but thought I'll seek opinion on whether it is common. I cleaned up the underside and parked it at a different spot last night and got just a single drop of oil today morning. Please shed some light on what could be the issue.

Thanks for the help.

Did you recently oil your chain?
There is a shelf right under the drive sprocket and a newly oiled chain will throw off a lot of oil on that shelf.
The oil then runs forward and down to the bottom of the engine where it can drip onto the ground.

A very few new Export RE's have had a seal leakage where the kick starter enters the engine case and this is in the same general location as the drive sprocket so, if you have not oiled your chain, take your motorcycle to the dealer and tell him about your leak.

[Rennjit]

Originally Posted by Randhawa

...... What RE needs is some competition.

Exactly! It even needn't be Triumph. any with retro-conservative looks & riding position, a low rpm but free revving engine of min 350cc from Honda/ Kawasaki will be good to introduce RE the concepts of quality, reliability etc. there are many who wish a reliable full size daily runner.

[sandip]

Originally Posted by bradhey

The bike is still in testing phase. RE wants to be absolutely sure that it has no niggles (but of course they can only hope that way, an RE without niggles is not a real RE

No definite dates Sir....!!

This may seem Ridiculous, but when it comes to our Bikes, we all are like that, right ?

Yesterday, I changed my TBTS booking to CL 500 Chrome

The waiting time is 4 months as of now and it starts from yesterday
I am trying to convince the dealer to give me some priority, I have already waited for 3 months since the time I booked for TBTS ( 2nd Jun to be exact).

[girishab]

Originally Posted by smoghe

I came back from a five day vacation and found a small puddle of oil under my engine. The MIL seems to be normal so I do not think it is a serious leak. I am planning to take it to the service center this weekend to get it fixed, but thought I'll seek opinion on whether it is common. I cleaned up the underside and parked it at a different spot last night and got just a single drop of oil today morning. Please shed some light on what could be the issue.

In addition to what @ArizonaJim mentioned, can you check to see if the oil drain plug has any oil drops collecting on it? I had faced a similar issue on the very first day. Got it checked at the service center only to find out that an o-ring was missing on the drain plug.

[ruchirtnt]

just a tip on how is the experience of CL500, i am confused between 350 & 500 and saw the desert storm500 yesterday and is completely smitten with it, since my running is not too much and i already have a thunderbird 350 going for a DS500 makes some logic to it

[Sutripta]

Originally Posted by Randhawa

Earlier it was a local sprag bearing. Now it's a Japanese bearing with a heavy duty design. Search the thread for the pictures. It applies to UCE 350/500 only. Timing issue was only with the avl/lb bikes which was later sorted out by a delay circuit.

So I take it that retarding ignition at startup was not implemented in the UCE's. My question would be why not. Being a digital system, would have been very easy to implement. Judging from the kickback on my TBTS, it is certainly not implemented on the 350.

Do you have any details of the 350 ignition system?

The new heavier sprag: same part # for both 500 and 350? Easily available? Cost?

Regards
Sutripta

[Randhawa]

Originally Posted by Sutripta

So I take it that retarding ignition at startup was not implemented in the UCE's. My question would be why not. Being a digital system, would have been very easy to implement. Judging from the kickback on my TBTS, it is certainly not implemented on the 350.

Do you have any details of the 350 ignition system?

The new heavier sprag: same part # for both 500 and 350? Easily available? Cost?

Regards
Sutripta

Don't mix the AVL/LB sprag issue with UCE. Although they shared the basic fundamental of sprag failure but reasons behind the failure are a bit different.

What sprag does is to stop the anti-clockwise rotation of the crank(to stop the rebound) and why it actually rebounds depends on timing and compression.

As on CI/AVL you had manual de-compression at TDC, if you got it wrong then rebound. While AVL had sprag to stop the rebound but too advance timing played it's part in sprag failure. Which RE sorted out with some circuit.

Now for the UCE sprag it again had the same failure but problem lied with improper tuning of the carb and auto de-compressor(not much to do with timing) which you can not do anything about it.

So RE got one of the beefiest sprag available in the market and not a single failure I have heard of the new updated sprag. Regardless if your engine is tuned well or not.

But if your engine is tuned well then the old sprag can last very long. I got the sprag replaced at 3k and now after 28k it's still going strong without missing even once in 25k.

For UCE 350;
If the auto de-comp is not working properly then you are bound to get some rebound and shorter life of the sprag if you have the old design sprag. So need to have the carb/timing and auto de-compressor working in a sync for a better life of a sprag(old design)

For UCE 500;
Only idling RPM and auto de-compressor needs to be in sync for a longer sprag life. Timing is permanent unless pulsar coils packs up or some DIYer claims to win over the TPS on throttle body.

UCE 350 has digital TCI ignition system
UCE 500 has electronic ignition system

If you don't have the symptoms of sprag failure yet and only the half rebound effect then you should get the Exhaust cam checked as the auto de-comp is installed on to the exhaust cam. Also get the timing and crab tuned.

Timing on a UCE 350 can easily be retarded or advanced by the TPS under the seat. It's on the LHS under the seat on UCE bikes excluding the TBTS but it could be in the same place on TBTS. One throttle cable is attached to it.

A year ago, sprag was 3k. Lately RE has increased the prices of the parts so don't know the actual price now. Same part no for all UCE bikes and mostly available at all the RE workshop. If you go for the new sprag then get it changed at RE workshop only because there is a washel which needs to be placed rightly. If torqued too much then it can seize the LHS 2x crank shaft ball bearing.

Old Sprag



New sprag

[ruchirtnt]

Has any of CL500 owner faced any trouble in terms of breakdown, i came to know from RE sales guy that if at all CL500 breaks down there are high chances that you need to take it to the RE service center for monitoring the issue via laptop or something wherein 350 can be handled easily by any local mechanic as well, if need be