Speaking as a fan of the Electra-X engine, I would sort-of echo AzCal's recommendation, with a few words of caution;
1. Crinkly;
2. Exegesis;
3. Fallopian.
OK, for some more coherent(?) words, the improved design of the AVL engine used on the Electra-X won me over when I bought my first RE, the steel con-rod and the needle roller big-end were the key points, and ON PAPER they were a great improvement. Sadly the quality of the Indian steel crankpins could be very patchy, and owners would end up playing big-end roulette. Some failed at as little as 7,000 miles, others are still going strong after 40,000. Mine managed 17,000. What was meant to be a major improvement turned out to be, for some Electra-Xs, a major weakness.
Then we have the electric start sprag clutch failure issues, well documented and usually due to back-fire damage, and the UK importers rushed out a spark delay kit to go with the original TCI ignition black box to try and counteract this before coming out with a revised green TCI box.
Also there was a redesign of the valve train which actually was MORE fragile than the original tried and tested Bullet design, the cam followers off the old iron barrel engine were replaced with tappets with thinner stems and adjusters which were prone to jumping off the ends of the tappets. The tops could be easily damaged, and the tappet feet could snap off and cause mayhem in the timing chest.
I would also say the loss of the older Bullet's decompressor valve in the head was a retrograde step.
Just in case all this seems a bit odd coming from a professed fan of the model, I would want anyone taking one of these bikes on to go in with their eyes open and be prepared for a bit of work, in advance if necessary, because a well-sorted Electra-X or AVL Classic is a very rewarding motorcycle indeed. Buy one that has already gone bang and build it up they way it should have been built, and it's then tough enough to take some tuning, should you want to.
The crankshafts are rebuild-able, you can buy con-rods bored out to take a hardened outer track (the originals just have the caged needle roller assembly running directly in the big-end-eye, Japanese-style) as well as being supplied with a UK-made crankpin. There are several outfits I would trust in the UK to make a decent job of the rebuild, I don't know where you're located, Karl.
The sprag clutch can be avoided by simply dumping the whole electric start, or else you can modify the cylinder head to take the old Bullet's decompressor valve and give the sprag clutch an easier time on starting (and stopping) the engine.
You can adapt the old Bullet's cam followers/tappets/tappet adjusters to fit the AVL engine, another thing less to worry about.
The Electra-X was in production from 2004 to 2007, most of the last new examples were sold in the UK by 2008. The early ones seem to have been most prone to the big-end failures. The Electra-X was also imported into the USA but seems to have been replaced after a couple of years by the AVL Classic, which was imported until 2009. Chain adjustment front and rear is the same as the earlier models.
If all that seems like too much hard work, the final version of the iron barrel Bullets, the Sixty-5 (and also the 5 speed E/S Deluxe in the USA) is quite highly though of.
A.
Topic: Wanted Iron Barrel (Read 6990 times)