Greetings from Sunny South Africa.
After 11 years of waiting I am the proud owner of a Bullet 500, and have been using the past few weekends to sort out minor niggly issues such as the brake and indicator lights.
According to the papers it is a 2007, but the VIN plate says 2002. That being said, it has the later type crankcase breather from the top of the case with the return going into the timing cover (?), so the jury is still out on that one.
The only mod I have done so far is the 'Australian Fix' for the breather, by turning the pipe around.
Since I got her the idling has been a bit high to my liking and after adjusting it yesterday, when stationary and twisting the throttle, upon release as the RPM drops there was a knocking sound, which then dies down and the engine returns to idle.
I then adjusted the points and timing this afternoon, with the knocking being reduced, but still there. I suspected the ES was maybe shot and took off the primary cover to check for loose bits, but all good in that respect.
After putting everything back I started her up again, and the knocking was gone - bear in mind that you could feel it through the handle bars - which made me wonder if maybe it was pre-detonation.
I suspect that with the time taken to test and adjust the idling etc., with all the stationary idling there is a hot spot that causes pre-detonation, which is why it only happens when the engine gets warm. The time taken to refill and put back the primary allowed the engine to cool down again, of course this is speculation.
I took her for a test drive and listened over the valve clatter as well as revved a bit when stopping to test, but no more knocking.
Am I correct on my guess as to the cause of the knocking and the 'fix' or can something else be causing it?