[Adrian II]

And you folks in the U.K. owe a lot of your (our) language to the French.

True. Besides Norman French (any relation of the guy who gave us American mustard?), the Germans too, or at least the Saxons. With the odd bit of Old Norse thrown in later on.

I cannot remember what carburetor and exhaust you have on this one, but if it's the stock lean-burn exhaust and carb, there's your explanation for the hotter running. The leaner mixture is meant to burn hotter and cleaner, in theory. This also accounts for the partial redesign of the engine. Lean burn needs a higher compression ratio than the iron barrel's, hence the beefed up bottom end to cope with the extra stress. The all-alloy cylinder and head combination also copes better with the resultant extra heat than just an alloy head on an iron barrel would do. The gear type oil pumps also have a higher capacity than the older reciprocating plunger design.

The unintended benefit of this is that you actually have quite a good platform for a nicely tuned Bullet engine, at least if you have one of the better quality crankpins fitted. This is more likely on a 2007/8/9 AVL Classic than a 2005 Electra-X. A freer-flowing exhaust and a performance carb with the correct jetting might actually cool things down a bit as well as giving you more zoom.

If you already DO have a properly set up performance carb and zorst fitted (that includes the down pipe as well as the muffler), and the thing is still getting too hot, something is wrong, I suggest.

A.

[mtrue77]

Interesting side note.  I just got back from a ride on the Janus Halcyon 250.  That's a CG250 inspired engine (I wouldn't know, but that's what they say at Janus.).  Approaching150 miles.  As soon as I pulled into the shed, i dropped in the candy thermometer to check the oil temp.  The thermometer climbed rapidly to 221, and then began to back off slowly.  That makes that 206 look pretty good, i think.  The Janus is about two years old, and has about 4100 miles on it.

[mtrue77]

Adrian ll,
Just read your note.  Thank you for that explanation.  I'm hoping to take it to the guys I bought it from in a few weeks for some consultation.  Everything is stock, except... this is the engine I destroyed a few years ago.  Rebuilt by these same guys with parts from Hitchcock.  I bought it in October 2008, though the label gives a date of manufacture of Jan 2009.

[Paul W]

And you folks in the U.K. owe a lot of your (our) language to the French.

When it comes to working on my Royal Enfield, a lot of the language I use often begins with “F”. 

We use wire mesh to keep the chickens in, though.