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Originally Posted by ArizonaJim It also does not have sleeve bearings on the big end of the connecting rod or on the crankshaft journals.
These bearings are all rolling element (ball or roller) bearings which do not require a great deal of oil to lubricate them. Actually, the oil is as much a coolant as it is a lubricant on rolling element bearings.
The use of rolling element bearings greatly reduces friction and heating that is common with sleeve style bearings.
As I understand it, these hydraulic valve lifters are made in the U.S.A. by a company who specializes in designing and building these. This was done because of the exceedingly small tolerances which are required for them to work correctly.
While I'm mentioning differences between the new 500cc UCE and the older 500cc engines, the oil pump now is a gerotor style gear pump driven by spur gears. This is a vast improvement over the worm drive used on some old models of the Royal Enfields (and BSA).
Unlike earlier reciprocating pumps, these gear pumps deliver a high pressure, large flow supply of oil. This was not needed for the rolling element rod and crankshaft bearings but it was needed to assure a constant supply of high pressure oil for the hydraulic valve lifters.
Based on my Engineering background I must say it is a greatly improved design over the old traditional Royal Enfield engines. |
Yup it has needle roller bearing on big end and also on the RHS crank shaft.
UCE does not have gerotor type pump but a trichodial pump which is more of a high volume(9 litres @2750RPM) then high pressure of 4.5 bars.
Yes it's far better then the older design used in RE previously.
Yes the manufacturer of the hydraulic tappets is the same company which manufactures the tappets for Harley Davidson. The same company has 1 in 1,00,000 failure rate of the tappet. Now that is some quality.
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Originally Posted by theMAG That stems from a lack of quality culture and a lot of pompousness in the company owing to utter lack of competition in their segments.
I called their company contact number mentioned on their website for an enquiry I had, and I cant be blamed for thinking I was speaking possibly to a low-key garage. |
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Originally Posted by Sutripta ^^^
We are digressing from the focus of this thread (as mentioned in the title) but I'd like to add one more paragraph.
The issue is not of design, but of manufacturing standards and product quality. And this has not changed over the decades. I'd say it is because RE management feels it is perfectly acceptable. After all people are queuing up to buy their bikes!
Regards
Sutripta |
I agree to you booth on this. Just few one to one with RE official from my experience. It dates back to my first year of ownership with all the main problems in the UCE encountered by me.
1. With the black smoke issue in the beginning- Three R&D RE guys and me having a chat about it. I sat listening to their crap for 15minutes with total silence and later asked why does it smokes black on startup. Rather then agreeing to it's mapping issue, I am told it's normal for a EFI bikes to emit black smoke.
My reply to them- Have I paid 1.25L for a petrol bike which pretends to be a diesel bike. I am greeted with silence after I tell them it's to do with mapping issue.
2. Rust at welding joints and touch up on paint with a brush 15 times on the engine bracket. Me talking to the top RE Quality head who is looking after the paint department, Sir could you have not changed the bracket rather then doing such a botchy job and how the hell you managed to do a quality OK before even shipping it out. I get a reply saying because it's a hand assembled bike and it's normal. He had the audacity to explain me in what microns is the paint applied. Then I ask him why there is no primer on the raw metal and why even striking the paint job with a wooden piece the paint comes off and the rust. I am again greeted by silence and then a question is put to me asking what is my profession.
3. I had the big end go on me at 350km only. I could hear the noise and drove lot of RE people crazy about it. I even recorded the noise easily audible but they could not hear it. I had to ride 6k before the piston started hammering the block into self destruction to convince them.
4. I told them about the crank shaft NRB quality problem that they need to source a better bearing but it took them 1.6years to admit and source one. Till now not fully implemented across all UCE. You have to make a special order if you want that German bearing and they still supply the crappy SKF NRB.
5. Told them about the Valve guide quality issue, rather it was the way it was being drilled across and problem associated with it. They still don't admit it.
6. Created fuss about the filter design problem on here and sent few mails at that time. Took them 1 year to give us the filter cover.
Had a chat with the ASM then who is now RSM about all the issues in first year of ownership. I am told that RE does not listen to them and they can't do anything. I am encouraged by him to write a review online and cry about it there. Which I did on here and within few weeks I get a call from RE engineer requesting unofficially to delete all the bad stuff I have reported about it. Later I found out that two chaps came to get the booking canceled at my RE dealership. I never obliged and they did started taking me seriously enough to get things going for me.
Above are just few of many incidents from my experience with RE and you lads have summarised it quite nicely, in-fact nailed it.
I just wish Triumph/Kawasaki/Yamaha comes out with some retro bikes under 700cc for Indian Market and see the tide change. Competition is what RE needs.
@Sutripta- Now getting back to what info I had promised to you-
CI/LB(ES) TCI upgrade to deal with sprag failure.
1. Before the TCI upgrade it had the delay circuit which was deleted upon the upgrade.
2. Timing was retarded from 10° at cold start to 5° at start up.
3. Timing climbed till 8° after start up/warming up with RPM below 1000.
4. After crossing 1000 RPM it was at 10°.
5. Max 22° at WOT.