ENFIELD BULLETS
For me, motorcycling started with the BSA A7 my dad had in the late 1950s, which was rebuilt it in the garage. Dad worked for BSA in the engineering department (not on bikes). I rode to infants’ school on the pillion seat, and the A7 did regular 300 mile round trips from Birmingham to Poole with my mum on the pillion; me, dog and luggage in the front of the sidecar and my little sister in the small back seat. I loved that bike.
Roll on to my 16th year. Wanting my own transport and not having any money, I rebuilt a Triumph Tina scooter – the Triumph factory was very helpful for spares. A year later I wanted a real bike and bought a C15 with tall handlebars. I passed my test on it and had a great summer, then sold it while at university.
Then came the mid-life crisis and a yearning for a bike. In 1999 I decided to take the plunge. So with Cherry, my wife, in tow (she likes bikes too and coincidently also had a Tina scooter) I went to look at firstly a BMW Funduro 650, then travelled across Northern Ireland to look at an Indian Enfield 500 in George Miller’s establishment. George used to race Royal Enfields and just stuck with selling them. After a test ride I thought, ‘What an ugly b****r’, and promptly bought it. It is possibly the last Bavanar imported Bullet sold in the UK. It is actually a 1995 model registered in 1999. They made the 500s in batches back then.
How does a modern Indian-built Enfield compare to the original big single from Redditch? Adrian Saunders has fettled and fine-tuned four different Bullets: two old and two nearly-new…
The Bullet arrived the following Thursday, and that was that. I was hooked. I joined the Royal Enfield Owners’ Club and got onto the internet looking for all things Bullet. Oh dear. I saw tales of woe regarding big ends failing at less than 20,000 miles. The internet also led me to an Indian gentleman who quite categorically said, ‘You don’t buy a Bullet, you buy a ready-assembled kit of parts.’ How true.
On my first ride out, the rubber breather pipe and rear number plate had gone missing (I found them) and the top rear suspension nut fell off! Some serious spannering was needed, I felt. I tightened everything to good effect. I’ve only had one nut come off in the last 17 years since the fettling. One rather inaccessible one I hadn’t tightened of course. Note to self duly made.
May 2000 saw the REOC Millennium Rally in Wigan. With a newly fitted rear carrier and panniers for camping gear I still had a great fear of wrecking the big end as I very sedately headed for the Belfast to Heysham ferry and down the A6 to Wigan. Great ride, very wet rally, and great ride home. I discovered that the breather pipe sounded like a demented duck at tickover and the bike has since been known as ‘Daffy’.
I acquired a Hitchcocks catalogue which in those days was just 10 pages including covers; the current one runs to 292 pages. OK, I thought, how can I improve this rather tame beast for riding two-up, fully loaded with camping gear? The first ‘improvement’ was a more open silencer plus bigger jets. A larger front sprocket was also fitted, but this changed the gear ratios and made town riding more difficult, so it was later removed.
The front wheel was also replaced as the original drum and brake plate were eccentric and the front brake really did nothing. I found that out on a trip down a mountain pass in the Scottish highlands. The general opinion is that the machinery used to make the original component was itself eccentric, as it was the original shipped from Royal Enfield in Redditch, and was completely worn out. However, Hitchcock’s modification to facilitate correct adjustment of the twin leading shoes works extremely well, and is even better with a very heavy duty cable. In addition, an electronic cycle speedo has replaced the useless analogue speedo.
The second round of improvements started with a Boyer electronic ignition. This was quickly removed as it seriously kicked back, started a fire in the carb, melted an internal O-ring which I’ve never found and caused the engine to basically not run. The Micarb was replaced by an Amal Monobloc with S&B air filter, both being easy to clean and service. An uprated headlamp unit and
bulb were also fitted for rare night rides. The right hand toolbox had to be replaced, and the one now fitted is from an ex-Indian Army Bullet. The brackets on top for a padlock are very neat, and a little different.
At this stage I was doing some pretty long rides, sometimes two-up, of perhaps 300 miles each way. At one point we weighed everything that the bike was carrying; we were up to the maximum legal payload of 172kg, and we looked like a travelling circus. The longest trip I’ve done was 1800 miles from Antrim to the Loire via the Dublin to Holyhead ferry and the Channel Tunnel. I discovered on that trip that the slight oil seep on the head may be porosity, as a French bike of very similar age was seeping as well.
These long trips caused my (not the bike’s) rear end to object after 50 miles, so I invested in an American Chief leather saddle, and made a rear pillion pad from the back part of a dual seat. Now 120 miles without stopping is no problem. I do revert to dual seat when carrying Cherry plus camping gear as I’m sure the rear sub-frames would be under far too much strain. I had one break once when the loaded panniers were on board. It does funny things to the handling.
After briefly playing with a Triumph 5TA and a Norton Model 19 I decided I would like a Redditch-built Royal Enfield Model G. Good ones are hard to find, and I couldn’t.
So into the garage came a 1955 G2 Bullet. That’s the one with the frame produced for two years only, before the final all-welded frame appeared in 1956. What a great little bike. The engine was smooth and sweet apart from rattling rockers. It would cruise two-up at 50mph no problem, motor up to 60 for a while, and it handled it great. The 2ls front brakes and the small, six-inch rear brake meant that stopping was not as crisp as I would like, and other improvements were called for. Fitting a new, correct, dynamo and converting the electrics to 12 Volts improved things a lot for those rare night rides. Fork bushes and seals were changed, and the brakes were cleaned and adjusted.
Shortly after this another Bullet made it into the stable. After many years Cherry passed her test. She isn’t very tall, with short legs and small hands, and after looking around and finding nothing suitable, an article appeared in RealClassic from Rowena who was testing an Electra-X. We consulted Rowena on how stiff the clutch was. A positive response led us to visit the Edinburgh Royal Enfield dealer while on a tour of the Scottish borders. It appeared that the Electra-X would be suitable and not too powerful at 25bhp. Once home, one was ordered and duly arrived.
We transferred some of the excess baggage from my Bullet to the Electra, adding a rear carrier, panniers and top box so we were set for two-bike touring. The Electra’s pulse-valve oiling system, apart from being a con, did something very strange on one occasion. Cherry disappeared in a cloud of white smoke at a roundabout. I thought I’d better investigate. Oh dear, where has all the oil gone? Trip home via RAC trailer.
The oil was found to be filling the pulse-valve pipes and associated gubbins plus the primary chaincase. It took three days to clean it all out, and the distributor told me it was caused by a blocked rubber one-way valve in the timing case. I vowed that if it happened again an old fashioned breather pipe would be fitted.
I rode the Electra 700 miles to the Cotswolds and back, and it was a great bike to ride. However, after several thousand miles, Cherry decided that it was too heavy for her. She had dropped it at junctions four times, and it was duly sold.
Then in early 2016, fate kicked in. A couple of people were interested in buying the 350 Bullet, which wasn’t getting out very much. Hitchcocks were advertising a rather rare and not cheap 1960 Big Head Bullet for sale, described as being in excellent physical and riding nick. It had been compared to a Bullet Classic EFI by a bike magazine, possibly because they were both rated at 27bhp. The Big Head Bullet was described as a being ‘lazier’ than the EFI; more on this shortly.
A few days later we passed by Mr Hitchcocks’ establishment and popped in for a look. A short ride and I decided to think about it. Three days later I bought the Big Head Bullet, and suddenly realised that it was originally registered two months before the MoT cut-off date. So it will need to be tested, which is a pain. Taxed and insured it was duly transported to Northern Ireland, and I sold the 350 Bullet a week later.
After a little fettling, a good look over and a short ride, I decided to take the BHB on a hundred mile VMCC run. That was a real eyeopener! Compared with the performance from the 22bhp Indian Bullet, the BHB is a totally different beast. The engine does appear lazy, until you open the throttle. Then it takes off. It simply needs throttle and more revs. Even compared with a standard Redditch 500 Bullet, let alone the Indian Bullet, the BHB has higher compression piston, taller cams, bigger carb and jets, bigger inlet valve in a new head with better gas flow, hence the increase in power and revs.
70mph with Cherry riding pillion was no
problem. A subsequent short ride impressed us further. There is a two mile, steep hill climb on the M2 out of Belfast; the BHB handled it easily, cruising up it at 60mph at half throttle. I was also impressed by the Smiths chronometric speedo. The real test came a few weeks later with a trip to County Fermanagh, two-up with panniers. I’m a stickler for maintenance and servicing before a longer trip. The oil, oil filter and oil feed cork seal were all changed, involving taking off the timing case to free the cork seal. Hopefully the little tool I made will work next time. The cork seal method really has stood the test of time, going from the 1930s until around 2004. The clutch was rather stiff and extensive servicing and a change to softer clutch springs helped a lot. It’s still not as smooth as I would like it, so further work may be needed.
Ready for the off. The 100 mile ride on Friday was exhilarating, helped by rather bouncy roads. Then it all went wrong for a while. The bike got soaked after we arrived at the hotel, but was subsequently put under cover. Next day, as I got it out, I was aware that the front brake seemed very sharp. I thought it had cleared, but 200 yards from the hotel, slowing for a mini-roundabout, the front brake locked solid. Cherry cannoned into my back, the front wheel went AWoL and we fell off.
Fortunately neither bike nor us were seriously hurt: a bent footrest and a few bruises. The brake had servo’d on due to water in the twin drums. I’ve had it happen on the Indian Bullet, but the 2ls brake produces a rather different sensation. The bike was rideable and the brake gradually got better as it dried out. Once home it transpired that the brake shoes had little or no chamfer on them. They do now!
Apart from that incident, and a need to adjust the Hagon rear shocks, the 337 mile round trip showed us we love this bike. The petrol tank, the same as a Constellation tank, is a whole gallon larger than the Indian Bullet, which makes looking for fuel less worrying on long trips.
So how to improve the BHB? I’m not a fanatic for originality. I want a functional bike for two-up, loaded riding, and for it to pass the MoT. If we want to use it for touring, I may well convert the electrics to 12 Volt, but that is not going to be cheap. I’d love to improve the twin front brakes, but have no idea how. I wonder if Mr Hitchcock could consider some form of conversion? I could always fit a disc brake, again not cheap and certainly not original. I do know someone with a Constellation who has done this, for obvious reasons. And I have now fitted a mirror so I can see behind me.
One thing I don’t like is the later fitted breather system which directs oil back into the top of the oil tank. Unfortunately it also directs moisture along with the oil mist producing a creamy emulsion. It may well come off, replaced by a pipe to direct the oil mist to the chain. One small item was changed to improve the clutch. The small clutch pad runs directly on the clutch pressure plate and can cause drag. A clutch pad with tiny roller bearings as fitted to later Indian bullets helps a lot, and both the Indian and Big Head Bullets now have this fitted.
So how have our four Bullets compared to each other? The design of the Bullet goes back to the 1930s, though the first Bullet as we know them arrived in 1948. All of our bikes have been easy to work on. They are similar but different; there is a lot of commonality in design and maintenance, and spares are cheap and plentiful. While I’ve done a number of improvements over the years, I’m very much an ‘If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it’ person. They certainly do the job I want, and my improvements have been for functionality given the load I ask them to sometimes carry.
Regular maintenance is essential, and I change oil, filter and feed plug cork seal every 1000 miles, using 20/50 from a local garage. It’s a pity, though, that the Indian Bullet does not have a drain plug in the side of the oil tank like the 350 and BHB. Makes life so much easier. The large mirrors on the Indian Bullet, which some people hate, are excellent. On modern roads, being able to see is a life saver. But I really don’t like the heavy duty clutch springs sold for Bullets. In my experience they don’t cure clutch slip; they cause serious drag.
My original fears over the big end (says he, tempting fate), have been unfounded. The 500 Indian Bullet is approaching 38,000 miles. I suspect that people who have big end problems are probably riding them too hard, and on motorways. I’m not into speed with Bullets. My experience shows that they will cruise and handle well at 55mph fully loaded, keeping up with most traffic on normal roads.
Finally, a note to those people who love the ‘retro styling’ of modern Bullets. The Bullet is NOT retro styled. It never changed! Even now: 1948 to 2016. 68 years ain’t bad, and it’s still going.