Its an honor to be able to talk to people like you.
Your spot on about the RE boys. And you seem to have a wealth of exp. and info on these engines. You and Ace are now my official Bullet Gurus.
To be honest. Till they came out with the UCE.
Most Indians look at the RE Bullet as a bike with an agricultural motor in it.
Hold on the Agricultural motors are actually more advanced.
The only people who buy bullets in India are guys like me who are too big or too fat to ride the other bikes they sell here. The largest and most powerful being a 14 BHP 220cc.
But trust me its not like this everywhere in India.
On the last project I did which was figure out why the gear boxes of the Formula JK cars where blowing up and then fixing them.
My Boss actually gave me a car and said now lets see you blow up this one.
And we tried everything including downshifting from 5th into 1st at the end of the straight. Something you wouldn't try even with an original Hewland Gear Box.
Part of the reason why the gear boxes failed to start with is not religious or cultural.
Its more an attitude of cover your arse and fear.
In this particular case the guy assembling the gear boxes. Didnt want to point out the manufacturing defects and tolerance issues because his boss was responsible for quality control and making the parts to start with.
Nobody wants to break anything or point out a weak link because it makes the next guy who works with you look bad. And thats probably the guy who writes your appraisal report. So when things go wrong. Its always the drivers fault. Or somebody else.
I know that surprised look all too well and run into it on a daily basis on almost every project.
Like the time I was commissioning the country first Dyno. And they hadn't got it to work because they had installed it the wrong way round. And spinning the rollers in the wrong direction.
The only way to short circuit this culture of cover up. And dont break anything is to call in an outside consultant. Who really isnt bothered about who he pisses off or gets into trouble by pointing out flaws and defects.
Which is probably the role you played.
And probably why the new bikes are so good.
Maybe one of these days when we get chatting on I can tell you some interesting stories about RE.
BTW there seem to be a lot of little holes all over the engine which are now blocked off. I wonder what they are for.
Must be for either checking oil pressure or flow or maybe they had thoughts off using an oil cooler.
Your right about the oil loosing its ability to lubricate on air cooled motors, due to the heat.
We have the same problem with our High Output Tubro builds. Even on Liquid cooled engines.
Shifting to a fully synth. Gives you that added margin of safety by a good 20-30 Deg C. Which is all you need in most cases.
Ive asked my guy at Motul to send me the flash point numbers and other Tech Data for all their oils. I have all the data for their two stroke oils which is what I work with most of the time.
Will post it up as soon as I get it.
My problem here is a different one. I want to change to 300V after my first service but the dealer wont let me run anything but the mineral oil because the factory recommends it. What the bikes come with is not a Semi Syth in my book.
Its their cheapest Mineral Grade. (Will wait for data from Motul to confirm it)
Their first oil to be Semi or Techno Syth is the 5100 (Ive posted the right number / name above).
Ive requested my friends at motul to speak to RE so that they allow customers to run fully synthetic if they want to.
Anyway I dont plan to return to the dealer for anything once all the problems with the new bike are sorted out. A few parts where defective from day one. And still not in stock.
Spares is big problem.
None are available right now.
They refused to sell me a barrel for my big bore effort, and they refused to sell me a head so I could start work on the flow bench.
Any idea whats the largest size piston you can run while retaining the stock studs and mounting points. Or what the wall thickness is on the stock liner.