Ownership experience approved.

Re: Bullet Electra Twinspark (UCE)

Hi,
I have been facing the same problem here.
I had bought my Electra TS last June and have clocked around 6K. I have been planning to go on long rides but I have not been able to get any reviews of the bike performance till date on long runs.

I have refitted the bull with a short Bottle Silencer from RE. The thump has increased and so has the power. In addition to that i am running my engine on iridium sparks (both primary and secondary).

As far as performance goes i have been able to rev my bike to 110 KMPH once. But did not hold on as the road ran out . Occasionally i can hear the tappet sound increasing, but after some time it dies out. I have still not able to figure out what was the cause . Once I had met a guy who was having a CL 350 and for his bike the tappet noise was a constant thing which he did not seem to mind.

Apart from the Occasional Tappet noise, I have a bit of stability issues which is not much noticeable till i take off both my hands from the handle bar while riding. Apart from these i have not anything unusual yet.

Also, it would have been a great help if someone out there is using K&N on their UCE bull could give the details on the same.

Atul

Yogesh, Congrats on your new motorcycle. Its something I am interested in too!
But can you tell me what the difference is in the engine that you have talked about in your initial post in this thread?

hi.. i am also planing to buy electra TS.. so could i go ahead....?

my new re twinspark bull

i bought a RE electra on april 6th ... its was a 3 months wait... begged and pleaded the RE showroom guy to give it to me asap(actual waiting period was 5 months) told him i am not getting sleep.
finally he was ok if i can pay full cash.. right away sir .. and got it on april 6th evening took it straight to temple, did pooja and rode back home happily the relation ship between me and my bike has just begun and i am already happy about the fact that i own a bullet and getting even happier when people give the stare when i am on road with my new bride ...

i have done 200kms till now.. 300kms to go for my first service.. my office just 2 kms away from my home.. so a lot of pointless roaming to push the odo... enjoying the sheer power of 350cc beast... truly a highway beast.. its smooth when ridden on highways, she doesn likes to be an traffic packed road..the gears sound like you are hitting here with a hammer but its a hugie and guess nothing wrong with it.. the chain sound is also clearly audible... i am controlling my nerves to keep her under 50 ... ...
just waiting for the running period... will update after my first service ....

happy thumping

High Speeds

Hi,
It is almost a year now after my post here. Till now i have ridden my bike nearly upto 13K kms and have been extremely happy.
During my last 3 rides I have constantly ridden at speeds touchin 90-110 KMPH and held on to that for about 15-20 mins before an obstruction comes up.
And now the down side I am facing now...
> I can feel the handle vibrate if i let it go loosely but somehow it doesn't effect me at high speeds. I have failed to explain the same to the service center numerous time and they have also not been able to do anything about it.
> Off late i have been noticing that my engine oil level is slipping down unnaturally as if it is getting burned along with the fuel. On my last 500 KM trip I had checked the engine oil level to be above the top mark and a day after the trip i checked it and found that it had sunk near to the min level. I am not able to figure this out since there is no oil leakage from engine nor white smoke exhaust.
Taking the bull for servicing this weekend. Will check and keep posted here.

The bull is back....

Picked up my electra from the ASC.
Yesterday I had called them up and got a very bad news. They told me that they have to replace the piston head and cylinder block. The total bill came to a whopping 8K. I told them that I had pointed out my problems in the last free service itself and nothing was done to it. I called up chennai also and registered the issue with them to address it as a quality issue.
Moral of the story is that you have to respect the machine and treat it with care. It is not some fill it and forget kind of bike. I was a bit negligent on my part too due to my ignorance.
So folks if you see a drastic and unnatural drop in your engine oil level (check the oil level when the engine is cold) then please do visit the ASC and point it out. If they still do not do anything call up Chennai and ask them for a solution.
My bull will have to be under 50 KMPH for the first 500 kms now.
The bike feels new and more responsive than earlier. Hope my mileage issues will also get resolved now.

Had to replace them since the oil seal rings on the piston were fried and the oil was pumping into the chamber but no white smoke was seen. The fried seal had run for long and the wall cylinder block had become uneven resulting in a loose fit.

Still no idea why this had happened. Had kept the bike under required speed limits during run in period and problems had become noticeable after 8000 Kms

bullet twinspark uce report

I bought my UCE Electra 16 months ago back in April 2010. I have 18k kilometers on odo right now. I've done a few long rides within the state. My experience with the bike has been mixed ever since I bought it. For one thing, I always felt that I received a defective piece.

For the first 8000km there was a constant ticking noise from the engine that the mechanics at the showroom ignored feigning not to hear anything abnormal. Other mechanics blamed the new technology. Some tried half measures, adjusting clutch plates, adjusting chain tension, one even adjusted what he claimed to have been "tappets" and gave up asking me to keep riding and hope for the best.

I then consulted a company trained twinspark mechanic who wasn't a showroom guy who took 3 days with the bike and with some luck was able to reduce the ticking to almost silence. It's still there but is only mild compared to the racket it was before. He told me to exchange the bike in case it was under warranty and unfortunately the warranty had expired.

I've lost count of the number of times I've visited the mechanics with my bike with various little glitches like this. Wobbling handle, jarring vibrations, battery drains, wet starts, spark plug issues, morning kickstart issues, engine oil leaks. But the mechanic I am consulting lately has been helpful and has been able to restore the bike to good condition and gotten rid of most issues.


The latest issue is rough jerks, like the bike's hit reserve, that happens every time I switch to the next higher gear and when the top speed of that gear is reached. If I throttle up too fast the engine dies. It feels like something is causing the power to be lost and is dragging down the bike. I have to constantly clutch - accelerate - clutch - accelerate to keep the bike going. This problem has persisted long and the mechanic has tried various things - cleaning the carb, the air-filter, fixing a possible air-lock in the tank's cap, a loose clutch cable etc. But it never went away. I've been riding this way for the last 1000 km. If possible I will upload a video of this behavior so some of you guys can examine and suggest a possible solution. Going to take the bike in for another checkup tomorrow.

In spite of all that I somehow have learnt to like the bike. I commute nearly 50km everyday to work and back and the mileage has been reasonable. It's just dropped down with the latest issue to almost 33kmpl. I've gotten to nearly 50kmpl on the highways and around 42kmpl riding within the city. That was about 2 months ago. I've not done any major modifications on it, except once in the hope of hearing a beat when I put in the Indore silencer. I removed it after riding with it for 5k km since I hated the noise. Back to the stock silencer now, which has been cut short a little to produce a slightly muffled but sweet beat.

I'm not a bike expert, far from it, but I'm looking to learn everyday. Has anyone heard of/seen the UCE service manual? It would be very helpful to get my hands on one and learn things myself instead of blindly trusting my mechanic. Apologies for any misnomers or incorrect mechanical jargon.

Electra 5s

hi guys,

i just got my new electra 5s delivered to me.
the bike looks good but i somehow don't like the firing..exhaust firing.. i want a louder n a clearer note from the exhaust. could you pls. recommend the type of exhaust i should go in for?
i've heard about indore, stock & goldstar silencers. which is loudest & the best??
also pls. give me your opinion on the cons of installing one of these silencers..

thanks much..

appreciate a quick response...

thanks

hi yogesh,

i just got my new electra 5s delivered to me.
the bike looks good but i somehow don't like the firing..exhaust firing.. i want a louder n a clearer note from the exhaust. could you pls. recommend the type of exhaust i should go in for?
i've heard about indore, stock & goldstar silencers. which is loudest & the best??
also pls. give me your opinion on the cons of installing one of these silencers..

thanks much..

^Hi,
Can u pls post a detailed breakup of OTR price?
Thanks!

Try a goldie with baffles or glass wool, its available with sans classic parts delhi, PM me if u want his contact

..TBTS