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Thumper Diaries

About the blog

This blog is to be a diary of our activities and the trials and tribulations of owning a Royal Enfield Bullet 500. Your comments are welcome but there is a spam filter.
I hate spam.

For spares and such, I normally go to Hitchcocks Motorcycles

For a complete log (linked index) of all the posts in this blog, go here: Diary log

Thumper’s New Home

Maintenance Posted by exilePosted on Mon, March 17, 2014 22:00:17

No, I haven’t sold him. I’ve built him a new home. Or, rather more to the point, I’ve rebuilt and insulated the shed that he lives in. It’s insulated all round, including the new roof, and it looks great inside.
I need to get a solid floor down to be absolutely done with it but for now, the old shed is looking like a palace inside. Big neon tubes under the ceiling give me some light to work by and I intend to build a workbench at the far end of the shed. I need to get some electricity in there too. At the moment I’m using a very long extension lead.

This is a job I’ve been intending to do for years. I always wanted a workshop and having Thumper to look after just made that all the more imperative.

The whole job has taken some time and not a small amount of money but hey, you can’t take it with you and I reckon it’s well worth the investment. I’m looking forward to getting my larger power tools in there and really getting something done.

Welcome home Thumper.



Oh, Bugger!

Maintenance Posted by exilePosted on Sat, February 22, 2014 23:45:06

It was all going so well. Then Thumper wouldn’t tick over properly and he just didn’t sound healthy. Deciding that I needed to adjust the tickover I began playing with the air screw and throttle stop on the carburettor. No matter what I did, I couldn’t get him to run properly. Finally, I decided that the carburettor would have to come off and be looked at.
Then I found this:


The intake manifold rubber is split open. It has been on the bike since new and, according to advice I have received, this is a common problem.
It doesn’t explain why the engine is running rich though. I would have thought it would be running lean due to the false intake of air so I may have to strip the carburettor and move the fuel needle down a tad to get my fuel right. Time will tell, but right now I have to replace the manifold hose.

Quick update:
Nice sunny day today, so.. as the carburettor was out anyway, I moved the stop on the main jet needle to a leaner setting just for the hell of it. Not a difficult job but you need a steady hand! It may solve the rich running…



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