81 or 82. Mine passed with just the rear working. As I'd fitted a foreign master cylinder without a brake light switch (or one I couldn't find, for some reason), it was all right.
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2003 Royal Enfield 500 Deluxe
- Thread starter Raymond
- Start date
Yesterday, I could feel the r/h foot-peg loose. Took a look and the nut was barely finger tight. Nuffin I could do in the supermarket car park so that became this morning's first job.
You can't get necessary access to the nut with the silencer in the way, so:
But at least removing the silencer - muffler if yer American - is an easy-peasy one minute job. Then able to tighten the foot-peg hanger. Oh, found the silencer clamp a bit loose too.
What conclusion should one reach? That the Bullet has an inbuilt tendency to increase it's entropy? To be fair, all old bikes have a degree of self-dismantling in their character. Just that the Bullet has loads of character.
I've said this before but going over the Nirvana Express* end-to-end, checking and tightening, is going to be a regular task. Heck, might even start to learn which spanner fits where if I do it often enough.
* No moniker for the RE has been settled on. But there' sommat Zen about calling such a slow bike an express. And indeed, this two-wheeled anomaly takes you to a place of oneness with the Universe quicker than any other 21st century bike. A state I recognise when I find meself giggling after ¼ mile.
You can't get necessary access to the nut with the silencer in the way, so:
But at least removing the silencer - muffler if yer American - is an easy-peasy one minute job. Then able to tighten the foot-peg hanger. Oh, found the silencer clamp a bit loose too.
What conclusion should one reach? That the Bullet has an inbuilt tendency to increase it's entropy? To be fair, all old bikes have a degree of self-dismantling in their character. Just that the Bullet has loads of character.
I've said this before but going over the Nirvana Express* end-to-end, checking and tightening, is going to be a regular task. Heck, might even start to learn which spanner fits where if I do it often enough.
* No moniker for the RE has been settled on. But there' sommat Zen about calling such a slow bike an express. And indeed, this two-wheeled anomaly takes you to a place of oneness with the Universe quicker than any other 21st century bike. A state I recognise when I find meself giggling after ¼ mile.
Yeah! Yeah! All that jiggling about mixes up your molecules with, like, the bike and the universe and stuff, man. And that oneness just makes you realise your place in the cosmic background microwave laughter - just a thought, maybe this bike is an Anglo-Indian Hippy?Most will just think the giggling is due to the vibration that loosens all your fasteners
I genuinely don't resent the annual MoT, I think no matter how you look at it, can't be a bad idea for an independent person with hopefully plenty of relevant experience to go over your bike and check the basic safety items are present and working.Wow! They really are thorough! Good for the safety of all I suppose.
Putterin' along a country road on an ol' thumper who's history dates back almost a century.... slow and steady with not a care in the world.... pure Zen.
For the past month, the Bullet has been sat with a mystery electrical problem while I have spent time playing with W800 and XS650. You switch the bike on and nada. But the past coupla days, Elliot has been on hand to assist. He is like a bulldog when it comes to finding an electrical fault - where I might get distracted and think I wonder if it might be this? Or this?, Elliot will stay closely focussed and follow the wiring step by step.
Told him IMO it was probably the fuse holder. So he checked voltage from battery - 12.83V. This goes straight to the fuse holder - confirmed. Output from fuse holder - still 12.83V. Then, with fuse holder removed, he checked the cable that runs from there to the ammeter - still 12.83V. Eh?
This is where things got weird. Lets recap - red cable from battery to fuse holder has full battery voltage. And with fuse holder removed, the onward cable still shows full battery voltage. Surely, zis cannot be, monsieur?
There was some head scratching, but in the meantime a lot of confirming connectivity through the ammeter, the ignition switch, the kill switch. All good. He was worried about a voltage drop on the ignition switch, so we pulled the switch out fer a look. One of the two wires was hanging on by a single strand. Went and made some coffee while Elliot shortened both wires and re-soldered it properly.
But plugging the fuse holder back soon showed what I suspected. This time, no connectivity. 0V. Fiddle a bit and it comes back to full voltage. Fair to conclude that the fuse holder is a piece of crap.
But what about the mystery voltage where none should be? Of course, our suspicion fell on the Boyer Power box - as well as acting as rec/reg, it has a capacitor and can be used to eliminate the battery. It has been, uhm, a confounding factor on previous occasions fault finding on the wee Bullet so I decided to make an investment - for fifteen pounds, have ordered a 4-wire single-phase rec/reg and will replace the Power box, eliminating all problems and doubts from that source.
Also, ordered some old-worlde glass fuse holders. Elliot reckons these withstand the vibes from an old British single* better than a spade-type fuse holder. Certainly worth a try.
Next action when they arrive, try the bike again with new fuse holder. But I really will do another re-wire to tidy up/rationalise the electrics a bit.
As I thought all along, only a minor problem but I am still grateful to Elliot for his more logical thought process and fault finding.
Ah well, I bought this bike for tinkering. We had fun, I learned some more, Elliot's Mrs and mine had a great two days visiting garden centres and buying loads of plants.
* OK, so the Bullet comes out of a factory in Chennai but, well, it's still an old British single.
Told him IMO it was probably the fuse holder. So he checked voltage from battery - 12.83V. This goes straight to the fuse holder - confirmed. Output from fuse holder - still 12.83V. Then, with fuse holder removed, he checked the cable that runs from there to the ammeter - still 12.83V. Eh?
This is where things got weird. Lets recap - red cable from battery to fuse holder has full battery voltage. And with fuse holder removed, the onward cable still shows full battery voltage. Surely, zis cannot be, monsieur?
There was some head scratching, but in the meantime a lot of confirming connectivity through the ammeter, the ignition switch, the kill switch. All good. He was worried about a voltage drop on the ignition switch, so we pulled the switch out fer a look. One of the two wires was hanging on by a single strand. Went and made some coffee while Elliot shortened both wires and re-soldered it properly.
But plugging the fuse holder back soon showed what I suspected. This time, no connectivity. 0V. Fiddle a bit and it comes back to full voltage. Fair to conclude that the fuse holder is a piece of crap.
But what about the mystery voltage where none should be? Of course, our suspicion fell on the Boyer Power box - as well as acting as rec/reg, it has a capacitor and can be used to eliminate the battery. It has been, uhm, a confounding factor on previous occasions fault finding on the wee Bullet so I decided to make an investment - for fifteen pounds, have ordered a 4-wire single-phase rec/reg and will replace the Power box, eliminating all problems and doubts from that source.
Also, ordered some old-worlde glass fuse holders. Elliot reckons these withstand the vibes from an old British single* better than a spade-type fuse holder. Certainly worth a try.
Next action when they arrive, try the bike again with new fuse holder. But I really will do another re-wire to tidy up/rationalise the electrics a bit.
As I thought all along, only a minor problem but I am still grateful to Elliot for his more logical thought process and fault finding.
Ah well, I bought this bike for tinkering. We had fun, I learned some more, Elliot's Mrs and mine had a great two days visiting garden centres and buying loads of plants.
* OK, so the Bullet comes out of a factory in Chennai but, well, it's still an old British single.
Any progress is always good for the morale. A win is a win. Break out the Malt and have a wee dram.
It’s always something eh Raymond? Good bit of sleuthing, I hope this will sort out your electrical problems. 
So do I. But somehow . . . Anyways, all good fun and that bike still makes me laff out loud.
Said I really will do another rewire and tidy up?
With all the rain we're havin, spent part of yesterday in the garage fiddling abaht wiv the Bullet, making notes, thinking about connections, sketching wiring layouts. Quite therapeutic working on the bike while heavy rain drums on the roof, drips from the trees, forms puddles in the yard.
Let's see, rewired the bike to replace the AC headlamp circuit, remove unnecessary safety features, do away with starter motor & associated gubbins, fit a higher wattage alternator. Has worked fine but it's all a bit of a mess.
Tidying up the electrics carries its own satisfaction as a job, but should also be a great help with future fault-finding.
Bit of practice soldering won't hurt neither.
With all the rain we're havin, spent part of yesterday in the garage fiddling abaht wiv the Bullet, making notes, thinking about connections, sketching wiring layouts. Quite therapeutic working on the bike while heavy rain drums on the roof, drips from the trees, forms puddles in the yard.
Let's see, rewired the bike to replace the AC headlamp circuit, remove unnecessary safety features, do away with starter motor & associated gubbins, fit a higher wattage alternator. Has worked fine but it's all a bit of a mess.
Tidying up the electrics carries its own satisfaction as a job, but should also be a great help with future fault-finding.
Bit of practice soldering won't hurt neither.
You should get a trophy for all that work!
That ought to make your bike much more reliable. Wiring really is my weakness. 
As part of rewiring, replacing the Boyer Power Box with a rec/reg and need to make a bracket.
In this company I always feel like the poor relation when it comes to fabrication. So, here's an innocent sheet of aluminium being worked on with hand tools:
Note the fully-stress relieved design. Okay so it's an odd shape, and how is that relevant?
There's four threaded holes on the Bullet's cross member, but I never trust meself to measure, mark and drill - the holes always end up in the wrong places. Honestly don't know why. So a put a sheet of A4 along the cross member and rubbed with a pencil to make a tracing of the holes, placed the tracing on the piece and marked with a hole punch.
Kind of worked, had to adjust one hole with a rat tail file but the bolts pass through into the frame so I'm gonna call the job a good 'un.
That's it mocked up. Next, look through me boxes of old hardware and find some decent M6 fasteners. Or if there's none, hell, might even invest in new.
In this company I always feel like the poor relation when it comes to fabrication. So, here's an innocent sheet of aluminium being worked on with hand tools:
Note the fully-stress relieved design. Okay so it's an odd shape, and how is that relevant?
There's four threaded holes on the Bullet's cross member, but I never trust meself to measure, mark and drill - the holes always end up in the wrong places. Honestly don't know why. So a put a sheet of A4 along the cross member and rubbed with a pencil to make a tracing of the holes, placed the tracing on the piece and marked with a hole punch.
Kind of worked, had to adjust one hole with a rat tail file but the bolts pass through into the frame so I'm gonna call the job a good 'un.
That's it mocked up. Next, look through me boxes of old hardware and find some decent M6 fasteners. Or if there's none, hell, might even invest in new.
Been playing with my crayons again, latest iteration of the wiring diagram.
That really is a very simplified wiring diagram. There's only six block connectors, which is done by doubling up some pairs of wires. I've tried out the daisy-chain way to group wires and it seems to work ok.
For example in the casquette area, the various pilot and instrument bulbs leads to a plethora of feeds and earths but by doubling up & daisy chaining, hoping to get away with just one 6-way connector. Like this:
That really is a very simplified wiring diagram. There's only six block connectors, which is done by doubling up some pairs of wires. I've tried out the daisy-chain way to group wires and it seems to work ok.
For example in the casquette area, the various pilot and instrument bulbs leads to a plethora of feeds and earths but by doubling up & daisy chaining, hoping to get away with just one 6-way connector. Like this:
boogerblaser
XS650 Member
That's a Beauty.
boogerblaser
XS650 Member
Do you use a center punch and a small pilot drill ?My kind of fabrication Raymond! Eyeball it and call ‘er good!
Yes, I traced the frame holes on a sheet of paper, placed on the alu sheet, used a centre punch to mark through, drilled with a 3mm bit then finished with 6.5 mm. And surprisingly, the holes ended up near enough where required. Tidied up with a small rat tail.
Okey dokey, time for that stoopid question.
As work continues apace on rewiring the Bullet - heck, if I do one wire a day it'll only take a month - it now seems a bit rash that I pulled all three wires off the headlamp. Wish I had took a photo first 'coz I don't know what damage I might do if I wire them up wrong. If the Main and Dipped wires are WWR, well we're back to when the bike failed MoT test due to beam pattern - that was just a matter of borrow a screwdriver, swap two wires over, Bob's yer uncle.
But with all three off, will there be a risk of blowing the bulb if I hook 'em up wrong, esp the Earth wire? That might be Ground in N America?
So is there any way to tell by looking which terminal is which? Is there a convention?
Can't see anything on the bulb holder . . .
As work continues apace on rewiring the Bullet - heck, if I do one wire a day it'll only take a month - it now seems a bit rash that I pulled all three wires off the headlamp. Wish I had took a photo first 'coz I don't know what damage I might do if I wire them up wrong. If the Main and Dipped wires are WWR, well we're back to when the bike failed MoT test due to beam pattern - that was just a matter of borrow a screwdriver, swap two wires over, Bob's yer uncle.
But with all three off, will there be a risk of blowing the bulb if I hook 'em up wrong, esp the Earth wire? That might be Ground in N America?
So is there any way to tell by looking which terminal is which? Is there a convention?
Can't see anything on the bulb holder . . .
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