The Royal Enfield Bullet Blog

The following is an excerpt from Robert Pirsig's Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance (Part I, Chapter 2). I'm still working through the book but this one anecdote stirred me to repost it here. I have had many similar experiences which I hate to admit having had, they weren't necessarily anything to do with motorcycles, either, but the essence of those experiences is thus:

We were on a little six-and-one-half-horsepower cycle, way overloaded with luggage and way underloaded with common sense. The machine could do only about forty-five miles per hour wide open against a moderate head wind. It was no touring bike. We reached a large lake in the North Woods the first night and tented amid rainstorms that lasted all night long. I forgot to dig a trench around the tent and at about two in the morning a stream of water came in and soaked both sleeping bags. The next morning we were soggy and depressed and hadn't had much sleep, but I thought that if we just got riding the rain would let up after a while. No such luck. By ten o'clock the sky was so dark all the cars had their headlights on. And then it really came down.

We were wearing the ponchos which had served as a tent the night before. Now they spread out like sails and slowed our speed to thirty miles an hour wide open. The water on the road became two inches deep. Lightning bolts came crashing down all around us. I remember a woman's face looking astonished at us from the window of a passing car, wondering what in earth we were doing on a motorcycle in this weather. I'm sure I couldn't have told her.

The cycle slowed down to twenty-five, then twenty. Then it started missing, coughing and popping and sputtering until, barely moving at five or six miles an hour, we found an old run-down filling station by some cutover timberland and pulled in.

At the time, like John, I hadn't bothered to learn much about motorcycle maintenance. I remember holding my poncho over my head to keep the rain from the tank and rocking the cycle between my legs. Gas seemed to be sloshing around inside. I looked at the plugs, and looked at the points, and looked at the carburetor, and pumped the kick starter until I was exhausted.

We went into the filling station, which was also a combination beer joint and restaurant, and had a meal of burned-up steak. Then I went back out and tried it again. Chris kept asking questions that started to anger me because he didn't see how serious it was. Finally I saw it was no use, gave it up, and my anger at him disappeared. I explained to him as carefully as I could that it was all over. We weren't going anywhere by cycle on this vacation. Chris suggested things to do like check the gas, which I had done, and find a mechanic. But there weren't any mechanics. Just cutover pine trees and brush and rain.

I sat in the grass with him at the shoulder of the road, defeated, staring into the trees and underbrush. I answered all of Chris's questions patiently and in time they became fewer and fewer. And then Chris finally understood that our cycle trip was really over and began to cry. He was eight then, I think.

We hitchhiked back to our own city and rented a trailer and put it on our car and came up and got the cycle, and hauled it back to our own city and then started out all over again by car. But it wasn't the same. And we didn't really enjoy ourselves much.

Two weeks after the vacation was over, one evening after work, I removed the carburetor to see what was wrong but still couldn't find anything. To clean off the grease before replacing it, I turned the stopcock on the tank for a little gas. Nothing came out. The tank was out of gas. I couldn't believe it. I can still hardly believe it.

I've added two new sections, Maintenance Tips, and Projects.

The first entry in Maintenance tips has been taken from the Bulletech forum, where serious questions about Bullet maintenance and modification get serious answers. I liked the post because of its Zen approach to maintaining the motorcycle, and it procedes with the premise that the Bullet is of sufficiently simple technology to be best tuned using the ear, the eye, and the heart. The author shall remain anonymous.

The first entry under Projects describes the replacement of the OEM muffler (the one that is stock in the US) with one that is similar (or the same) as the one that was stock in the 50s in the UK. The article covers in detail the proceedure of rejetting and tuning your carburetor once the new muffler is attached. Attaching a new muffler will almost always require some attention to the carburetor, as that is the device that sets the air/fuel mixture being pumped into the engine during operation.

The second article was written by James Lonano, a Bullet rider and maintainer in the US.

I hope they are of use to the Bullet owners of the world.

Now for one other thing.

I'm setting up at least three more sections on the Bullet Blog: Bullets Around the World (pictures and short descriptions of Bullet rider's bikes from anywhere and everywhere), Bullet owner websites (links to websites about individual Bullets), and a section on Rides Around the World (ride stories from around the world).

Please do submit something for any of the sections I have. My goal is to make the Bullet Blog a large, fun, and USEFUL site for Bulleteers everywhere.

Here are a number of techniques covered for tuning and repair that will be of great assistence when you are far afield and have to do some work or other, say timing, or some carburator adjustment or other. A tool (or even a part) is often what we can contrive (cf Robert Pirsig, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance). That contrivance and your own ears are the ultimate art ...

From Bulletech:

Maintenance
I will tell you a story about Bullet maintenance. My way to do it.

First I take my Bullet out, where it can have fresh air and breathe properly. Then I stay still, listening to my heart. Yes, can you hear it? Thumping about 100 times per minute, sometimes less, sometimes more, it depends, but something like that. That's how the Bullet should thump too.

I start the engine.

Then I kneel down and listen to the engine sound. I can hear how the piston goes up and down and if everything is in a good condition, it doesn't need anything but riding. If not, I start to figure out what the reason is. By thinking and with some help from the voices out there in the world, I can get a idea what to do.

Points

If I want to check the points, I will take a small piece of plastic from a curdled milk can. Then I look if there is a peak in the points. If so I clean it away by sandpaper, then using alcohol (in the only way that it should be used) by wiping the points with it. Then I check the point gap using that piece of plastic can. The thickness of it is just somewhere between zero and one millimeter. Suitable for points, also suitable for the gap between alternator rotor and stator, for the spark plug ... Actually it is about 0,5 mm and with points it needs to be a little bit too tight for the gap to have about 0,4 mm (I have checked it).

Timing

Then the timing. To adjust it I loosen the back plate so that it can be turned while the engine is running. I find that point, where the engine idles the best, then from this point I take it so much backwards that the sound of the engine starts to be low-voiced, but is still running
well. No equipments needed, just listening. The final tuning I make after having a good test ride while listening to the sound and feeling the run.

After the run my timing is a bit too early -- but it will be fixed soon.

This is one of the most biggest questions which has been discussed here ever I believe, at the same time one which has maybe become my distinctive mark because the only way I do any adjustments to my bike is by feeling the results without any equipments.

So, you need to find that fastest idling point, but then you have to take it a bit backwards to get the ignition a little bit later -- you can hear how the engine sound will change to be deeper.

Then you have take a ride, to some road where there are some hills, then it's easier. During that ride you have to listen the engine to get an idea if it's pinging. You have to ride in the way where the engine has quite a lot load, like when you carry a passenger or other heavy things on a hilly road with high gear selected. Just don't exaggerate too much.

Then change the position of the points plate so that the bike starts to ping in those hills.

You can hear that better if you turn your head a bit sideways while riding. It can be heard with a helmet also -- I use a helmet because we have that kind of law, but my helmet is not an integral type, it's open type, and with that I can hear the pinging.

Now, when you have found exactly that point where it starts to ping, then take it back a little bit, just a little so that the pinging ends but not any more, just that tiny amount.

And there it is, your adjusting is complete.

Using those hills with a load takes into account the action of those weights behind the plate.

Of course it's best if you are listening to the engine every time when riding for other reasons too, then you can hear always if it needs some adjusting. And always carry some tools with you.

Valves

The valve adjustment is made by tightening/loosing the pushrods I will make it if I hear too much noise from there or I have difficulties to start the engine. I make it after the engine has been cooling about one hour after riding, so the warmth of all parts are just suitable enough for my purposes. I find the point where both pushrods are in their lowest position by looking at them and feeling them with my fingers. Well, that is where the ammeter needle comes to the center position from left.

I make the pushrods so tight that I can turn them around by my fingers, but they are still so tight that there is one point where the turning is difficult. They are maybe bowed a little.

Carb

For the carburator, when the engine is idling and warm, turn the throttle stop screw to have the revs as low as possible. Then find a suitable position for the (pilot) mix screw, the position where the engine runs fastest and then one very small amount back so that I can hear a tiny change in the thumping of the engine.

Then I turn the idle speed so that it is thumping like my heart.

Then my Bullet is in a good condition to run again.

That was all I had in my mind about Bullet maintenance now, I hope it gave some ideas to somebody else and if somebody will give me some advices about what I'm doing wrong, I will also be grateful.

But what I wanted to say was simply that listening to the Bullet sound is always more fruitful than some measurements.

Because we have the only original Indian made Bullets and ... beware the copies!!!

Now I'm empty!

Keep on thumping

Well it seems the blogging service I use is polluting The Bullet Blog with pop-up advertisements. I'm really sorry about that. They are embedding code somehow in the html that causes the popups to occur -- I think.

I'm going to work on remedying this ugliness.