Unofficial Royal Enfield Community Forum
Royal Enfield Motorcycles => Bullet with the UCE engine => Topic started by: palace15 on August 15, 2011, 06:46:45 pm
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I go on this site regular www.horizonsunlimited.com and would appreciate the comments of someone more knowledgable than myself!
http://www.horizonsunlimited.com/hubb/other-bikes-tech/unit-constuction-royal-enfields-58596
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Cannot confirm or deny his allegations, but I have not heard of very many crankshaft problems in UCE engines. He is one guy out of a thousands that seems to have had a problem, so I don't think there is an epidemic arising.
As far as the advanced timing goes, I don't see reasons for him to allege that. What kind of problems is he having that could be traced to timing?
I wouldn't base a "Buy or Don't Buy" decision on one guy.
Bare
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It seems that the comments are based on the AVL model. One guy made reference to crankshaft assemblies available from Hitchcock's to address crankshaft issues but they don't list a crankshaft for the UCE, only the AVL. Ditto for the ignition timing. I would venture to guess that RE learned a few things on the AVL project that they applied when designing the UCE.
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Now that I think of it I think SSR would be the guy to ask on the subject. He is a tech guru on the UCE and if I'm not mistaken, he keeps up with the Indian forums.
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I would ignore this guys information. Not a reliable source.
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I would ignore this guys information. Not a reliable source.
+1. Sounds baseless and no reports here of that problem that I can remember.
Scott
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I´m astonished to hear about crankshaft problems, I have not heart about one in any forum I read during the last 2 years. He´s admitting, though, that this mistake shows up at around 10´ miles at his bike and several others. That could indicate that he´s talking actually about the AVL and not about the UCE, as there are only a few riders around who covered more that 10´miles.
I further doubt that the AVL crank and the UCE crank are identical. The ignition is different, that I know for sure, so the mentioned timing shift cannot happen in an UCE.
I read a bit in the mentioned forums and found out that all of the said crank failures happend to AVL Electras. All the riders talking about UCE failures haven´t got one, but an AVL. I think their comments are not well founded.
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I think that some of the confusion stems from the different proprietary names used in different markets. UCE in the U.S. vs. EFI in the U.K., AVL vs. Lean burn, classic, electra, etc. Wouldn't be the first time people have been comparing apples to oranges due to that.
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I´m astonished to hear about crankshaft problems, I have not heart about one in any forum I read during the last 2 years.
I don't know on which other forums you have visited but certainly you haven't visited enough on here to say you haven't read about the failure before. I had the big end go on mine at only 350km and I had mentioned it couple of times on here. Don't know how you missed it.
@palace15
I am on my third crank/barrel and second cylinder head to say I know enough to comment on it's reliability.
I was unfortunate to have the big end go on me which happened only once and I somehow feel it was some junk which passed through the filter or some metal shaving inside the engine which killed the big end bearing. All the other times It was only a NRB bearing which prompted a strip down rebuilt with new parts. RE has sourced a japanese bearing and its under trial at the moment. Two other bearings on the crank shaft has been updated recently for the export market UCE's with a japanese bearings and only the weakest link on a UCE remains(maybe) which is the crank shaft RHS NRB.
It's not like its bound to go dead on you but it has a chance to wear out quite fast if you do some hard riding and side effect of its failure is a bit of noisy engine and thats all to it. It might have been changed all ready by now on new UCE's as my info is couple of months old when they were testing the new NRB for the crank shaft. Don't confuse the big end bearing with the crank shaft bearing.
I can assure you the big end is overbuilt and it can take any kind of abuse you can through at it and so is the rest of the engine. Sprag has already been updated and if they have upgraded the NRB by now then UCE is a bullet proof engine for life.
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I don't know on which other forums you have visited but certainly you haven't visited enough on here to say you haven't read about the failure before. I had the big end go on mine at only 350km and I had mentioned it couple of times on here. Don't know how you missed it.
Only elefants do not forget. My ears are not nearly as big :-[
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These problems may also be a result of faulty use of silicon sealer on the right side cover. This is a pic of what I found: a 70% blockage of the after filter oil hole. If a plug found it's way to the crank??? This plug would have clogged the top end. When I took that apart, all was clear so I got lucky. This was dealer work, not mine:
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Only elefants do not forget. My ears are not nearly as big :-[
My ears aren't big enough either, I think it's the African elephant which has the biggest ear.
Anyways now you know who 1/1000 had the crank failure ;D
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Yeah the guy himself states his problems were with an "avl engine and 5 speed gearbox" rather than the new UCE.
Amusingly one poster has decided on the basis of that thread to go and buy an iron bullet thinking they will be more reliable than a UCE. Go figure.
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The source of that information - "Oldbmw" - is one of the luddites from the UK forum. There seems to be a general prejudice over there against the new bikes, based on, well, on the fact that they are new! It's the same kind of sour bikesnob nonsense you find in many "kickstart clubs" here in UK - if it isn't ancient, dripping oil, and made in UK well back in the last century, it isn't a "real motorbike".
You can see these sorry old fools clustered together at the local bike night meetings, gradually having to move back from the spreading lake of oil from underneath their sagging machines.
They rarely condescend to speak to anyone with a "foreign" bike, and genuinely believe that they are the last bastion of a past golden age of motorcycling. Which they are of course. The rest of us are too busy enjoying this golden age of motorcycling to give much of a damn.
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The source of that information - "Oldbmw" - is one of the luddites from the UK forum. There seems to be a general prejudice over there against the new bikes, based on, well, on the fact that they are new! It's the same kind of sour bikesnob nonsense you find in many "kickstart clubs" here in UK - if it isn't ancient, dripping oil, and made in UK well back in the last century, it isn't a "real motorbike".
You can see these sorry old fools clustered together at the local bike night meetings, gradually having to move back from the spreading lake of oil from underneath their sagging machines.
They rarely condescend to speak to anyone with a "foreign" bike, and genuinely believe that they are the last bastion of a past golden age of motorcycling. Which they are of course. The rest of us are too busy enjoying this golden age of motorcycling to give much of a damn.
I found this a most amusing post, how very true! I do have a bit of a passion for 'old Brit' iron but do see the qualities of newer machines, the main thing against newer bikes are the electrics(fault codes etc), and in the case of the UCE classic is the price for gods sake............£5k........
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Four grand for the B5, which stylisticly is even closer to "old brit". And you´re correct in the assumtion that the bike´s biggest weakness is certainly the electrics and wiring, not mechanical issues.
We´ve got a lot of these luddites in Germany, too. The german RE-Forum, which is otherwise quite substantial and active, is full of them. My first postings there litterally were just blown away by several "specialists" who are of the opinion that the UCEs are just devil´s bike - as simple as that - and their owners, consequently, worse than any crotch rocketeer.
The main thing they complained about constantly was the price. I agree that you have to pay more than for most japanese competitors, but to run a Bullet is, due to low part prices and a user-friendly construction allowing to do many things on your own, very cheap. On the other hand: it´s almost always the case that there are cheaper products from far east, no matter what we´re talking about. But if you follow this philosphy you´ll end up with a chinese scooter you can throw away when the tyres are worn. Greetings
Maturin
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With regard to modern bullet electrics, there are issues with them, but compared to the esoteric vagaries of the 1950s/1960s lucas electrics which would work every second tuesday on a full moon so long as you did not have baked beans for breakfast the new bullets are the epitome of electrical reliability.
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The source of that information - "Oldbmw" - is one of the luddites from the UK forum. There seems to be a general prejudice over there against the new bikes, based on, well, on the fact that they are new! It's the same kind of sour bikesnob nonsense you find in many "kickstart clubs" here in UK - if it isn't ancient, dripping oil, and made in UK well back in the last century, it isn't a "real motorbike".
The rest of us are too busy enjoying this golden age of motorcycling to give much of a damn.
Well put Will.
Such people are everywhere across all continents. I have run into some Indians (from India) living here in US saying the same thing about my G5 :D ! They have no personal experience riding an EFI and are just plain jealous that the bike does not drip oil and starts with the push of a button or in one kick ;D ! Fortunately there number is few and vast majority of people are more than happy to see and enjoy the new bike.
This is the Golden age of RE - the best of old and new rolled into a black G5.
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If you own or have recently owned an old Brit bike, then you can remember what the Good Olde Days were really like. Hey weren't so great when you're battling all the things, generally from Lucas and crappy gaskets, that keep you off the road and in the garage a lot, You can REALLY appreciate the new Enfields. Kick starting is fine,sometimes, but when was the last time you lamented not having a crank on your car? I use my kick starter about half the time and it usually works quite nicely, but if it doesn't start in three or four kicks, the next kick is with the thumb. I don't need a drip pan under the bike any more. But, the really good part is remembering how well the old Brit bikes worked, when they did. It's a Matchless feeling that no other modern bike is ever going to touch.
Bare
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Is it a Matchless feeling or a Superior feeling? The (Black) Shadow knows! ;)