ROYAL ENFIELD MOTORCYCLE

ROYAL ENFIELD  BULLET AND THUNDERBIRD PROBLEMS

If you own a Royal Enfield then one of your best friends might be a mechanic , if you don't have make one.

Unlike a 100 cc bike that just demands petrol , and occasionally fancy oils . and that doesn't even care that you care for it or not . It demands nothing a does all that you want . just start the motor and head out .

A Royal Enfield might not be such a good buddy.You might have to pamper , love and cuddle the beast  to keep it running .Even after all that if not satisfied he might just refuse to move .It demands affection to pet a royal Enfield .

Whatever problems the bike throws at you the joy of solving those might make you an true   Royal Enfielder .

Royal Enfield maintenance

Bullet is very well known for its heavy maintenance requirement, frequent tune up and adjustments. Many issues regarding the quality and Manufacturing defects have been ignored by the company since a long time. Some area in the bike require serious improvements like the braking department. To stop a beast with such a mass and torque the front 280 mm disc and the rear drum seem to be in effective in providing sufficient stopping power. The wear and tear for the friction lining is quite frequent and doesn’t last for a good amount of time. A rear disc is badly needed in all the models as standard.

Another area where the Enfield needs improvement is in electrics , the entire wiring system on the bike feels cheap and un reliable frequent loose contact of the switches is very common among the riders and  quality of switch gear also seems to be low which don’t offer a good feedback when pressed . The ignition system (TCI) has also been complained about for its failures.

 Royal Enfield UCE Engine

The new unit construction engine houses the gearbox inside the engine casing unlike the older CI engine, that doesn’t make the gear box smooth and slick, occasional jamming and difficulty in upshift is observed while noise and vibration at high rpm is prominent. Due to the issues in the clutch gear shifts sometimes seem to be difficult.

The Engine depending on the air for its cooling needs suffers occasional over heating while moving through heavy traffic and continuous rides at low speed .this leads to the serious rise in temperature in the engine, the seals and gasket employed on the engine harden up and fail which leads to the leaking of the engine oil from the cylinder head through the rocker covers.

Other small issues are part of life of the bullet rider, The slacking of the chain, loss of the tension in the primary chain, rudder of the swing arm, noise from the valve mechanism, de carburizing of the engine, frequent wear in the almost all the bearing employed on the bike, make maintenance a daily affair in the life of the Royal Enfield owner. & helping solve this issues make a mechanic your one of the best friend.

Royal Enfield ENGINE Overheating

 Royal enfield 350 cc or 500 cc single cylinder engine is above the limit size for an air cooling unit. While other manufactures adopting liquid cooling system for the displacements more than 200 cc, helping them utilize higher compression ratio and thus extract more power from smaller unit.

The unit on the Enfield gets a distinct look from the cooling fins provided on the engine , which would rather spoiled if liquid system was being installed , and an entire redesign of the engine would lead loss of identity to the bike . Ride on open roads provides enough flow to keep the cool and maintains a good working temperature. Constant rides at low speed heats up the lot and Air cooling system fails to deliver optimum performance.

Many problems are followed by this overheating issue. The rocker cover gasket, which is continuously in contact with the cylinder head and hot engine oil pumped to the rockers hardens after certain period of time and losses it properties thus oils flows out of the cover. If let unnoticed the engine oil level may fall and may lead to serious problems in the engine.

 Royal Enfield ENGINE Knocking

Due to overheating if temperature of the unburnt mixture exceeds the self-ignition temperature of the fuel and remains at or above this temperature during this preflame   reaction (ignition lag) spontaneous ignition or auto ignition occurs this leads to knock . Knocking very dangerous phenomenon which might damage the piston and bore. Might also lead to damage to the valve, the large vibration due to knocking may cause high stress in the structural members on the bike. The pressure pulse due to the knock leads to vibrate the entire combustion chamber , affecting the geometry of the engine .

Combustion process is also affected due the rise in temperature. The charge is not properly burnt and carbon deposits form over the piston and valves