[Adrian II]

Head came from the eBay store of our hosts in Texas, right here in USA. It was a bit of an impulse buy but as soon as I saw it I knew I'd be kicking myself later if I didn't grab it, if only, as the ad suggested, as man cave sculpture.

That's what our man said!

I bought mine from Watsonian-Squire over ten years ago when they were the UK importers for Royal Enfield. Hitchcocks' are listing them for £295.00 before shipping and any import duty (or VAT this side of the Atlantic).

A.

[MagnusMaximus]

Hey guys, I’ve been slowly accumulating parts and my AVL is almost ready for the road. A kid who just turned 1, plus working way too much, another move, and a new (old) house that needs a thousand things, means funds and time for the poor AVL have been lacking.

I decided to go with the VM32 carb because it looks better and should perform better than a 29mm cv, and my existing carb was so varnished that I despaired of getting it clean; the icing on the cake is that the VM32 could be had from Niche Cycle in a kit with a big k&N filter.

Problem is, the supplied cable is for an Iron barrel, which, to my surprise, is very different from my stock item. Mine has a single throttle cable and exits the throttle twistgrip housing with an L-bend ferrule with integrated adjustment. Mine also has integrated adjustment on the carb end for the Bs-29. Obviously hooking the new cable to the new carb was straightforward, but the twistgrip is another affair altogether. Should I find a split ferrule a la iron barrel? (will that work with my 2008-era Minda controls?) Or do I need the L-ferrule type cable. Will the Indian home market cable do the job? It looks right on both ends.

Old-style cable: https://m.ebay.com/itm/Royal-Enfield-Bullet-Throttle-Control-Cable-4-Speed-Brand-New/122014192427?epid=1673618216&hash=item1c689cd32b:g:OfwAAOSwwpdW5pwF

My stock cable: https://m.ebay.com/itm/GENUINE-ROYAL-ENFIELD-THROTTLE-CABLE-MACHISMO-350-500cc-540069-B-DSTRADERS-US/273201265284?hash=item3f9c107a84:g:nHgAAOSw6T9ayipe

“Electra 5S cable” that looks right: https://m.ebay.com/itm/ROYAL-ENFIELD-5-SPEED-THROTTLE-CABLE-145713B/163030131973?hash=item25f55a6505:g:AjcAAOSwDFBaN7BJ

Second issue: what’s the best way to remove that pesky hot tube from the exhaust? Whoever welded mine seems to have been dedicated to making sure it could survive a nuclear apocalypse. I spent about an hour grinding with a stone in my electric drill and still have plenty of weld to be seen, and a tube totally fixed in place.

[tooseevee]

Hey guys,
Second issue: what’s the best way to remove that pesky hot tube from the exhaust? Whoever welded mine seems to have been dedicated to making sure it could survive a nuclear apocalypse. I spent about an hour grinding with a stone in my electric drill and still have plenty of weld to be seen, and a tube totally fixed in place.

            I pretty much used up two Dremel cutting wheels cutting the welds loose on mine. Slowly, slowly, catchee monkey.

            Keep at it with any weapons you have. It's an evil, strangling thing - all it's good for is getting rid of.     

[Philbomoog]

Rather than trying to cut the welds, I just cut 1/2 inch off the end of the pipe. The whole hot tube, welds included just slid out. Make sure you have enough play in the silencer position first.

[MagnusMaximus]

Rather than trying to cut the welds, I just cut 1/2 inch off the end of the pipe. The whole hot tube, welds included just slid out. Make sure you have enough play in the silencer position first.

This is what I ended up doing. I didn’t want to cut my pipe unnecessarily but no amount of grinding or carbide cutters seemed to be accomplishing anything, so I used a cutoff wheel and it worked well.

[MagnusMaximus]

Can anyone comment on the necessity of the strut or support that runs between the top of the engine ( just above the carb) to the frame where the rear tank bolt is located? The darn thing is right in the way and is making it next to impossible for me to run a fuel line between the petcock and the VM32. It’s also ugly. I’d love to ditch it, but if it plays some important role in damping vibes or preventing metal fatigue or rigidity or something like that then obviously it should stay.

Thanks!

[MagnusMaximus]

As she sits. (Yeah I know my garage could use a cleanup!) Still haven’t figured out how to install the rear lycett solo seat springs either. The brackets were straightforward enough but it seems that the springs themselves will require nuts to be fished inside them somehow. Anyone got a closeup pic or helpful advice?

[Arizoni]

Can anyone comment on the necessity of the strut or support that runs between the top of the engine ( just above the carb) to the frame where the rear tank bolt is located? The darn thing is right in the way and is making it next to impossible for me to run a fuel line between the petcock and the VM32. It’s also ugly. I’d love to ditch it, but if it plays some important role in damping vibes or preventing metal fatigue or rigidity or something like that then obviously it should stay.

Thanks!

That is the "head steady".

It is a required part that must be left in place unless you want to have a bad case of extreme engine vibration, bad enough to shake the whole motorcycle.

Not only will the engine shake the frame but the loads thru the lower engine mounts will be much higher than they are designed for which can lead to a cracked frame.

What it really does is, the engine has a tendency to rock back and forth in a forward/backward direction.  The head steady at the top of the cylinder keeps this from happening.

This "head steady" is notoriously weak on the RE and because of the high stresses it has when the engine is running it will break.  When it does the rider gets the idea his engine has developed a bad case if imbalance.

IMO, you will just need to figure out a way of working around it.

[MagnusMaximus]

That’s exactly what I  was afraid of, Jim. Thanks for the info. I think I’ll try to find some thinner fuel line, I spent an hour yesterday swearing at the heavy black stuff.

[longstrokeclassic]

An aftermarket head steady of tubular rather than flat design would give you slightly more room to play with unless the locknut gets in the way, then it’ll probably be worse!

[Adrian II]

+1 to Arizoni, you do need that head steady. Having had two of them break on my AVL hybrid I made my own from 1/4" steel strip. Ha!

You can mount it either side of the engine, though you may have to play with longer bolts and spacers for it to clear everything. Don't forget you can also get 90° angle adaptors to fit the ¼" BSP petcock if this makes routing the fuel line easier, and stainless steel braided PTFE fuel hose is slimmer than the nitrile rubber stuff.

A.

[tooseevee]

As she sits. (Yeah I know my garage could use a cleanup!) Still haven’t figured out how to install the rear lycett solo seat springs either. The brackets were straightforward enough but it seems that the springs themselves will require nuts to be fished inside them somehow. Anyone got a closeup pic or helpful advice?

            I had the "Lycette" seat on my '08 for a couple years. Yes, you must put nuts and washers on both ends of the springs. It's very fiddley and a Royal PITA to get the lower nuts started, but you just hafta do it. Once the nuts are started you can easily tighten them with an open end.

             I replaced it with a little lower seat to get a bit more flat-footed on the ground. Anybody want it?