[Pond Snail]

Hello Fellow forum members,

Thought I should introduce myself, my name is John and I am from Somerset, owner of a 2007 Electra X, currently doing all those little jobs that seem to come with a new, well new to me, motorcycle...

I am new to the Royal Enfield fold, previous motorcycles being MZ's, a couple of BMW's, a glorious Norton Commando and a couple of not so glorious mopeds, in the days they had pedals!  .

I brought my Electra X a couple of years ago, I did some initial work, then had to leave it for a while, now slowly working to get it back on the road.

Work carried out thus far; front brake system rebuilt with a stainless steal braided hose, some so and so electrical gremlins found and put right, mainly down to the not so great quality of the wiring!, rear brake shoes renewed, a pair of natty stainless steal rear wheel adjusting cams with a quarter inch square hole to use a socket bar `for adjustment, front forks tightened up in casquette to stop fluid from leaking out, new seat fitted which required 2 new brackets to be made and fitted, a few more things that escape me for now!.....

Hope I have posted this in the correct section.

Look forward to sharing in the community, hopefully I can make a contribution and not just ask questions!...

Best regards,
John 

[Adrian II]

Hello and welcome from near the New Forest in the UK, good to see another Electra-X, I'm on my second, not including an Electra-X Classic hybrid engine special in a Redditch frame. Speaking of Redditch that style of set suits it well.

As yours is a later model it will hopefully be spared the woes suffered by some of the 2005 models...

A.

[tooseevee]

Hello Fellow forum members,

Thought I should introduce myself, my name is John and I am from Somerset, owner of a 2007 Electra X, currently doing all those little jobs that seem to come with a new, well new to me, motorcycle...

I am new to the Royal Enfield fold, previous motorcycles being MZ's, a couple of BMW's, a glorious Norton Commando and a couple of not so glorious mopeds, in the days they had pedals!  .

Best regards,
John 

            Welcome friend and enter.

             Nice looking bike. Good luck with it.

             Lots of good info here, some of it priceless.

              A friend of mine in the '60s named Billy Battey rode a Norton Commando back and forth to Browne & Sharp where we both worked. He wore a white helmet with black Viking horns bolted to it. I hated him 

[tooseevee]

Hello and welcome from near the New Forest in the UK, good to see another Electra-X, I'm on my second, not including an Electra-X Classic hybrid engine special in a Redditch frame. Speaking of Redditch that style of set suits it well.

As yours is a later model it will hopefully be spared the woes suffered by some of the 2005 models...

A.

           Adrian,

                If you zoom in on John's bike (an Electra) you will see that short straight section within the curve that we've been talking about whereas

                 My OEM pipe (the double wall) on my Classic is one smooth mathematical curve the whole way.

                 The pipe I got is for John's Electra and for whatever reason is different than the OEM pipe on the Classic.

                  Now let's never mention it again

               

[Bilgemaster]

Welcome Aboard! And the previous bikes you mention tick all my boxes too. Had a ex-police Commando when I lived over there, sure, but for some reason I've always been and remain inordinately fond of those ugly duckling '70s MZ TS-250s once popular with learners restricted to 250s yonder, seeing as how you could get a brand new one for under 400 quid or a used one for a round at the pub. I'd probably still give one a good home if a well-priced one crossed my path, especially in blue, but sadly over here in the States they're rare enough as to be considered somehow "collectible", and priced accordingly. Behold! Quite possibly the only silencer longer than a stock Bullet's...



By the bye, though I can't be sure, the drive chain in your photo looks like it might be adjusted a wee bit on the tight side. Better a bit loose than too tight--I think you'll want about a ½ inch easy upward and downward play in it to minimize strain on the drive train.

[heloego]

   Welcome Snail!   

Nice to have another help liven up this section.   Nice looking ride, my friend!
Any chance for a close-up pic of your snails? The ones on the bike, please. 

[Paul W]

Hi Pond Snail and welcome!

I’m in North Nottinghamshire, 300 yards from Yorkshire and a mile from my home county of Derbyshire. My 350 Electra is the same colour as yours but is kickstart only, right hand drive.

[Boxerman]

Hi, My Electra is of the EFI persuasion and I was also an MZ aficionado back in the 80's - 90's.

Frank

[Adrian II]

Now let's never mention it again

Duly noted, tooseevee. 

John, in case you're wondering what that is about, the US market also had a bike called the AVL Classic, I'll explain in a PM.

A.

[Pond Snail]

Thank you one and all, what a lovely welcome  ,

Heloego, why of course  , I shall take a photo on the snail adjusters later on and post it, I brought them off ebay, and have found them much easier to adjust than the original ones, although must admit that given time, I am sure the originals would of been just fine.

Yes, well spotted Bilgemaster  , the final drive chain was indeed too tight, correctly adjusted now, at the time the photo was taken, the Electra X was just put back together to move the bike, now adjusted nicely with the above mentioned snails  , although I have yet to check for wheel alignment, which shall be done shortly.

The 250 MZ's were very good motorcycles, quality alloy, the best air filtration I have, in my very limited experience, seen on a motorcycle, I very much enjoyed my MZ's  , lol that beautiful ultra long silencer, designed, originally, by the late very great Walter Kaaden  .

White helmet and horns  , ha ha, brilliant  .

I have to do it, mention it again Tooseevee  , a very odd thing with the exhaust pipe on my bike, the lower run is just a bit too low, it fowls the rear brake foot leaver, enough so the footplate of the lever is about an inch and a half below the foot rest, which puts the foot at a ridiculously sharp downward angle when applying the rear brake!!, I have no idea where the exhaust came from, and cannot afford to replace it, so I altered the footbrake lever to give clearance on the pipe, whilst the footplate sits level with the footrest, much nicer now  .

Adrian II, woes suffered by some of the 2005 models?, although mine is a later model, are there any specific things I need to check out before the Electra X goes on the road?, any weak points to look for?... he asks oh so innocently  ...  ..

The New Forest  , some beautiful countryside you have there Adrian II  .

John 

[Adrian II]

Very early Electra-Xs had some poor crankpin hardening, big-end failures around the 15-17,000 mile mark were quite common. I have post-mortem pictures. Still not a bad as the alloy con-rod on an iron barrel/classic Bullet snapping and taking out the crankcases! Later versions of the Electra-X have been getting much higher mileages.

You exhaust pipe is probably one of Hitchcocks's, I refer to my PM.

A.

[Pond Snail]

Thanks Adrian, I hope than my bike is past the failures and will be able to do a few miles before any serious work is needed, although it has about 17000 on the clock now  ......

Ouch!!, blown crankcases, the stuff of absolute nightmares  ..

John 

[Adrian II]

Ouch!!, blown crankcases, the stuff of absolute nightmares  ..

John 

True, I have never seen an Electra-X get THAT bad. The problems with the classic/iron barrel 500 Bullets come, I understand, when you tune them and start giving them some serious stick. This was already a problem in Redditch Bullet days. Steel con-rod conversion kits are available now to prevent this, but at least the Electra-X already has a steel con-rod. 

A.

[Pond Snail]

Yes, nothing worse than over tuning an engine, sadly the way of so many British motorcycles from the classic period, and not just by owners, the factory's kept enlarging and tuning many a perfectly good and reliable engine to the point of utter unreliability....

Good to know the Electra X's have steel conrods  .

John  .

[Pond Snail]

Just for tooseevee  , here is a photo of the right hand side of my bike, showing the exhaust pipe, I have had to alter the foot-brake pedal, as the exhaust pipe sits a shade too low, the horizontal run, thus not allowing the brake pedal to be adjusted any higher, the foot plate part of the lever was a full one and a half inches lower than the top of the footrest rubber!, so I simply extended the brake pedal to be level with the footrest.

OK, the bike is in a state of undress, but it's getting there  ,

John