[Jr.]

Does anyone have an opinion on the life of
 a stock 500 Bullet engine that has regular oil changes ,
routine maintenance and is driven as Enfields were
meant to be . Of course it all depends on how she is taken care of but
In a best case scenario what could one hope to get out of
the stock  engine.Had a nice 120 mile ride to the lake this weekend,
hoping for many more.Stopped by the river ,here comes the Police,
the officer gets out of his car walks up and says...........man thats a
cool looking bike, my dads got an old honda etc.........true story.Whips out his
camera phone and starts taking pictures to show his dad.
Jr.

[Rick O'Shea]

Good question Jr. I've got a Sixty-5 Iron barrel I've put 13,000 on so far. I'm shooting for well.........as far as it will go. It's my daily ride. These bikes seem to like regular exercise

[Rosetap]

I've heard figures of between 10,000 and 30,000 miles between rebuilds.  

With a good supply of piston rings, oil pumps, and valves?  I dunno, 100,000?

[The Garbone]

My guess is that it will last as long as the big end and other bearings.  All the other bits are pretty easy to replace as needed.   My 07 has almost 9k miles on is and is going strong. I am sure there are other Iron lungers out there with many more than that.  

This calls for a poll...

[GreenMachine]

i'm over 8k on a 06 iron all stock except for the exhaust..i figured if it blows i'll get in touch with ace re. fireballing it...

[Chuck D]

My '06 Sixty-5 had 23,524 before the Fireball rebuild and it was running like a champ. 1,500+ since then. 
Chuck.

[nigelogston@gmail.com]

How about 100,000 x 3 around the clock (with rebuilds)    See "Bullet Wanderlust " thread on UCE site posted Apr 6, South America travelogue, last paragraph of text (neat pics too)  Nigel

[Ice]

 One of our forum brothers in India ( darth sid ? ) has a family heirloom  Bullet with well over 100,000 miles on it.

[Rick O'Shea]

My '06 Sixty-5 had 23,524 before the Fireball rebuild and it was running like a champ.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    That's what I'm talking about...........Joe

[ace.cafe]

It depend alot on the individual bike. Some last longer than others.

It's helpful to understand the engineering concepts behind engines from that era.
They were built with the idea that the owner would take them apart and replace things as needed, as time went on.
Engines built in the 50s and 60s were not built to run for 100k miles without attending to them. They were made with replaceable parts inside them, and were intended to have these wear items renewed from time to time, and that would give a long life to the engine.
They were never intended to conform to what people expect out of an engine today.

It was fully expected that they would be torn down for de-coking and valve jobs and rings and bearings and seals periodically. That was the way things were back then.
And assuming there were no catastrophic failures, this form of maintenance could allow the engine to last almost forever. It would just get rebuilt from time to time.

An owner back in the 50s would think nothing of doing these things. It was expected.
But, as time went on, things changed.  This type of engine maintenance procedure is all but forgotten. Nobody knows how to do it anymore.

Today's world is "Buy it, ride it, and throw it away when it's done".
That's not the way it used to be.

[mustangdave]

Ace...some of us are still of that mind set...I'm not a 100% certified tear it apart mechanic...But I'm still a quick study. What I can't do I turn over to  "trusted" professional. By the way...the Air Can arrived yesterday...anything specific i need to know before I install it?

[UncleErnie]

You have to provide your own air.

[t120rbullet]

A guy named John who used to come to the Rally on the River every year had over 80K on his stock Enfield.
He used to ride it from Baltimore to Steelville Mo. every year for about 5 years.
A few years back he was riding it from Baltimore to Las Vegas for the rally and was going to stop in Steelville on the way back and we heard he blew it up out in the desert someplace.
Haven't seen him since.
Here's a pic of him and the bike,
  

[ace.cafe]

Ace...some of us are still of that mind set...I'm not a 100% certified tear it apart mechanic...But I'm still a quick study. What I can't do I turn over to  "trusted" professional. By the way...the Air Can arrived yesterday...anything specific i need to know before I install it?

You take off the existing stock airbox completely.
Take off the bottom wing nut from the canister and remove the bracket.
The bracket for the canister bolts to the same frame lug bolt that the old airbox mount bolted to. You might have to tweak the bracket a little, to get the canister to sit level, but it shouldn't require much tweaking. The frame lug positions vary a small bit from bike to bike.
Then put the stud on the bottom of the canister back into the hole in the bracket that it came out of when you removed it.
Then just stretch/push the connector hose  over the carb mouth, and tighten the clamp.
Put the wing nut back on the bottom.
Tweak/twist/bend as necessary to get the thing to sit as level as you can get it.
Put the dry-transfer ACE sticker on it where you like it.

To change filters, just remove the canister, and take off the wing nut and hex nut, and it comes off the bottom.
There should be no need to ever take off the top. The wing nut on the top just holds the lid on.
All the maintenance activity is done on the bottom only.
Spare filters are available at AutoZone for about $5 in the Spectre Performance products section of the store.

[Lahti35]

You have to provide your own air.

Is that still free?