Re: Hero Impulse ownership experience



Well youll have to search it out. Sourcing one would take a lil time but its worth. Ask the local parts dealers etc, they might be acquainted with UNI, might bring it on order. Better to go to UNI than K&N I'd say.

Re: Hero Impulse ownership experience

Mine were noisy / loose at delivery; I tightened them the next day and in these 3000km have had to readjust many, many times again (as did the showroom, at servicing time). You might get 200km on a re-adjustment around Dehradun, but running fast on terrible link roads here around Manali, I see them loosen up much more quickly. Last time they got noisy again within 30km... so usually I'm just trying to live with it. Obviously a weak link in the bike. One local mechanic friend says these days, due to quality reductions in the bearings themselves, all Indian bikes are having trouble with them, naming the P220 in particular. This is seriously irritating.

Hero obviously wasn't sourcing very good components; I'm wondering whether I could get a set directly from NRB or one of the other bearing manufacturers that would be any better... Could probably source something abroad from whichever bike uses the same sizes. Hope it won't have to come to that, though. There are a few owners (even hard-riding enthusiast owners, two of whom have posted on this forum) who have NOT had this issue - so I suspect there were some bad batches of bearings that Hero used, and that there must be better ones available out there SOMEWHERE in the subcontinent.

re: filters, I agree with you. I never found K&N's very convincing from a standpoint of filtration effectiveness. I made my own foam element which seems to be working out pretty well so far and is cheap / easy to do. Some notes re: tuning and a very useful/simple trail-stand I made also, at: Replacing the KB-RTZ offroad specials - My Hero Impulse - Team-BHP



Good to be on xBhp (this is my first post, but there will be more).

Thanks,
-Eric

Re: Hero Impulse ownership experience

Over 12k on the odo, and recently I noticed that some links on my chain are jammed, tried regular lube, chain spray and now even WD40, but still some of the links are as stiff as morning glory

Anyone has any ideas abt it? Or is it time to change my chain?

On another subject, I am running on fully synthetic Agip engine oil, and it has made a GREAT difference in performance and mileage. I was looking for Motul, but it was not available in my area so I went with Agip, and so far I am loving it!

Every impulse owner MUST try fully synthetic oil at least once!

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Re: Centre Stand

Know this is an old thread, but just joined xBhp, and figure it is still a question for many Impulse owners:

I got this basic idea from someone else (something like this is available from a source abroad), but the simple/cheap deshi design/fabrication is mine. It works well, is considerably less work / weight than a center stand, less intrusive, won't decrease ground clearance at all, and collapses into something about a foot long and couple hundred grams that fits easily in a knapsack or tank bag (could probably mount it using flex clamps on the bike somewhere, too). Works on both front and rear wheels, depending on where you place it on the frame:




couple more photos at:
Replacing the KB-RTZ offroad specials - My Hero Impulse - Page 3 - Team-BHP see post #17

Regards,
Eric

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Seems like another case of poor Hero component quality - some of mine are tight at only 3000km! And I feel there's significant additional rolling resistance (frictional losses, really) on account of this tightness. Sprays won't help here, since the same o-rings that help prevent dirt getting in the joints also prevent oil from getting in. And obviously they are dry, if they're getting jammed up.

My proposed, though somewhat time-consuming solution:

Wash the chain thoroughly (kerosene brush, then pressure-wash), then use a hypodermic syringe/needle to inject some oil (sewing machine or other light oil) past the o-rings and right up into the joints on each link.

Incidentally, this also works for getting grease up into automotive balljoints, etc, that have rubber boots but don't come with grease nipples. Should work fine here on a chain. Might take an hour... so if an hour's worth more than what a new chain set costs, it might not work for you (for me, it's fine). Will post again here later on this topic (once I get time to do it).

-Eric

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I know this goes way back and you've sold the bike by now, but really appreciate your technical acumen / knowledge base here, so:

1. Do you know for sure whether the stock 150cc Hero cylinder has enough thickness in the cast-iron sleeve to allow for that much overbore? 57 to 65mm is a pretty big increase. Incidentally, the Karizma also uses a 65 (65.5?) piston (which would be a lot cheaper than a Weisco), though would have to confirm whether the piston top to wrist-pin centerline dimension is the same.

2. Interesting that the markings on the cylinder top in your photo indicate that this is a Honda Brasil (Brazil) component. Wonder whether BBR is sourcing standard 150cc cylinders there and doing their own boring/sleeving, or whether it's an off-the-shelf component for a larger-displacement Brazil-market bike? If it's a stock off-the-shelf item, I'll bet they're a LOT cheaper in Brazil than what BBR is getting for them (and I want to find a friend in Brazil)...

3. Lastly, what did you end up with as a compression ratio (CR) - I'd calculated it'd be over 11:1 unless a cylinder shim or thicker head gaskets were used, which would be pretty high.

4.And how was power / economy affected with the kit installed?

Sorry for so many questions on a bike you don't own anymore... but on my Impulse I'm probably trying for exactly what you were on yours.

Many Thanks,
Eric

Re: Centre Stand

Thanks a lot for the suggestions abt the chain. I will get my mechanic to do it, hopefully he will do a honest job.

Regarding your suggestion for center stand, its a great idea for emergency/ travelling purpose, however if used constantly might bend the side stand outward and will cause the bike to lean more and more to the side.

But for the road where one does not have access to paddock stand, this idea is perfect!

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Re: Centre Stand

As per my experience I would place the three filters on the priority basis as :
on the basis of airflow rate
1) cotton gauze types [K&N]
2) foam type (UNI)
3) paper type (Stock usually)

based on filtration:
1) paper type
2) foam
3) cotton types

I made up an air filter for my car. It was a foam type tripple stage. It worked fine but dirt and debris i wiped off the intake snorkel made me switch back from foam types. Although they flowed nicely and rather than cleaning the second and third stage filters i started to replace them to avoid the dirt problem. Driving over 1000kms and taking frequent spark plug readings i realised everything was fine. But dirt somehow channels in through the foam. I also witnessed oil dampness and deposits in the intake plenum when i wiped it off with a cotton bud.

So paper filters are best in terms of air filtration but lowest in terms of air flow rate. So one who needs air flow and that little
extra out of their engines can go
for cotton or foam types but
who need their engines to be
safe from dirt and debris shall
opt for paper types.

Testing over the air flow bench the pressure differentials between the three air filters was the most in paper type thus restricting air flow and was least on case of cotton types thus allowing higher flow. The differentials in psi turned out to be 7.5psi for paper filters and least for k&n 6.3psi atleast 14% more airflow than paper ones. Foam type lie in between the k&n and paper types. So if you need the 0.14% better airflow, than the K&N is hands down the best filter. But dirt and grime will enter too and that holds me back from using it and sticking to stock paper type filters.


Conventional the best !!.
Kerosene does the cleaning perfectly. I used WD40 but i doubt it eats out the O-rings...not good and usable as a chain cleaner.

Re: Hero Impulse ownership experience

i use chain lube spray after a pressure wash it costs around 150rs


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Re: Hero Impulse ownership experience

There are a bunch of idiots who thinks fz is better than impulse. I dont know why, maybe no one has ever ridden an impulse. Or maybe some personal reasons like "not tall enough to ride". Today got involved in an arguement and I couldnt find a good reason to choose fz. That idiot whose took fz's side said that fz is far more better than impulse. He owned a rx-z for almost 8 years and hes 34 years old. So I couldnt argue much. Anyway I still was firm with my stance. Talking about speed, the acceleration figures show a minute difference between fz and impulse that you will barely notice. But nothing will come close to impulse flickability or ride comfort. And I dont think that fz's engine is more refined that impulse's. Because in fz, you could feel vibrations in higher rpms. In impulse you barely get nimble vibrations at redline. The point is, fz looks beefy and impulse doesnt look that much appealing because of fit and finish. Fz carves corners. Impulse carves fair amount of corners, but tackles potholes also where fz lacks. Fz is more good at falling while hard breaking while impulse somehow manages the breaking with the kind of grippy ceat tyres. And talking about fuel economy,well in most cases fz gives around 32kmpl while the impulse gives around 40kmpl. The lame thing about impulse is,
1.hero honda splitted and became hero motocorp which made bad impression on everyone
2. Everyone thought like "Impulse was hero's experiment". So hesitated to buy it.
3. Hero stopped production.

I should say this. If impulse was manufactured by yamaha. Then everyone would have died for an impulse. Several fz owners have ridden my bike and told me they regret about thier choice now. However I dont regret about my choice...does anyone in this group has any regrets for getting an impulse?
And please comment on my point of view here...
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Re: Hero Impulse ownership experience

we all know hero impulse is a first indian on off road bike correct me if i am wrong
let us think its a limited edition bike and enjoy the ride and for fz owners who doesnt respect the bikes tell them you are not a real biker
a real biker feels the bike and respect every bike
because i think every bike has its own specialty

and for the on off road bike lovers
just type ktm 500exc on youtube and watch the amazing videos
ktm 500exc is my dream bike
everyone please share your dream bikes and imagine we all having fun on our dream bikes one day

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Re: Hero Impulse ownership experience

Very unlikely that any mechanic is willingly going to do something unfamiliar, like giving a hypodermic injection behind your o-rings, which will take him an hour or more to do vs. the fifteen seconds he'd normally take to slop oil all over the chain externally. IMO, this is going to be strictly a DIY thing. But if I'm wrong, you should be sharing your mechanic's contact details with any and all.
Re: the stand, yeah, sorry, I wasn't really thinking of people who need a center stand for city parking lots, etc (I'm pretty rural :-) ). Your side stand is tough and will not bend, but at any rate, my design does nothing towards making the bike stand upright, and would be an incredible hassle to set it "constantly". It is strictly an emergency type thing that allows you to change tyres, etc, when you need to (and hopefully, punctures will not occur more than a few times a year...).

Thanks for your notes here. You seem to be one of the thread's current guru's. Amazing to see flow-bench figures and solid technical data here! In truth, not all paper, not all foam is created equal. There are types of filter paper that flow better than others. There are types of foam that filter better. There are dual-stage (dual density) foam filters that both flow and filter well (i.e., CRF's Only - Honda 2005 CRF250X Twin Air PowerFlow Air Filter System Product Review as one example). One thing to remember about any foam is that (like the cotton types) it needs to be oiled to work properly. Most local mechanics here don't do that. When I've done so on various machines, I never have observed dirt getting past them.

Filters don't need to be "tight" to work well. On my old modified KB's, I made my own filter canister using a piece of PVC pipe, and stuffed it with an oiled (plastic-type) five-rupee kitchen scrubber, and did not see ANY dirt further on in the intake tract getting in, despite the very free-flowing coarse mesh. Old oil-bath air filters (like the one in our Jeep Marshal), as well as old Indian Rajdoot motorcycles also used metal or synthetic oiled "wire" meshes that were extremely effective, from what I've seen.

What I CAN say for sure is that the Impulse's particular paper filter seems to be EXTREMELY restrictive. As delivered, with the perfectly clean, new paper filter installed, the bike was running so rich at Manali that it was actually misfiring, and the sparkplug was absolutely BLACK. I changed to a #117 main jet and removed the airbox snorkel to get it to run right up here. Ran to Ladakh and back like that and it was still rich at points. Later, I put the foam element in as described in the tBhp thread - and it flowed so much better that the mixture ended up WAY lean and I had to go back to the stock #132 jet. And even with that, the plug is still rather white. I'm not talking flowbench numbers, just some real-world tuning notes here. The foam flows a LOT better than Hero's paper piece. And correspondingly re-jetted, you're undoubtedly going to see more power. Will let you know if I see any dirt in the intake tract, but I don't expect it.

I've got the chain lube spray, but as the original inquirer above observed and I also noted, there is no way of getting WD-40 or chain spray lube or anything else behind the o-rings; they are designed to SEAL and they do SEAL, from either direction. That's good if there's oil inside, because it makes the chain almost maintenance-free; but it's bad when it gets dry in there, because it's well nigh impossible to get fresh oil back of any kind in there (hence the syringe/needle injection idea).

IMO, really depends what you want in a bike. My father-in-law has an FZ on which I've spent quite a lot of time riding in the hills of the Northeast. It's smooth, powerful for a 150 (even with a pillion it pulled really well uphill), and a well-built bike. Also better geared (for road use) than the Impulse (which has too big a 1-2 gap). Always felt the FZ's fat rear tyre was actually was all about looks, and never found the road-handling that confidence-inspiring (vs the Impulse, which I find great on-road), but that's maybe just me. If I lived in a city and/or did most of my riding on good roads, I'd have probably gone for an FZ. Nice machine. And plentiful spare parts supply for years to come (which the Impulse, being discontinued, will not enjoy). And a better resale value, now that the Impulse line is dead.

But I ride on terribly broken, rough, unpaved roads daily and am over six feet tall, so for me the Impulse just made sense. It's a decent bike, but not without its faults. I've even heard from a Hero insider (privately) that quality control is down since Honda made its exit - and that is clearly evident in the Impulse's lacking paint quality and rusting chromed bits, etc. Quite bad really. Do I ever regret buying it? Yes: 1) every time the steering cones loosen (again) and the front end is clunking around (again) shortly after adjusting for the umpteenth time and the showroom knows nothing about how to resolve it; 2) when I meet a guy (see my latest Tbhp post) who's modified hish old Fiero with a good suspension / pipe / etc, and can absolutely run away from me on both the best and worst of roads. 3) When I ride my own old modified KB125 on bad roads and realize how nicely it handles and how effortless / fun it is to ride fast, and how responsive it is, and think how much better a bike the Impulse would've been if it weighed about 30kg less (it weighs more than my DR350, and has less than half the power - quite sad).

Thing is, there's no perfect bike. And nothing else perfect under heaven. So till I'm THERE, I try to find what works acceptably for me here, and live with the imperfections / compromises.

I keep hearing that repeated everywhere, but actually, around 20+ years ago Bajaj produced / marketed something in India called the Endura, actually (according to foreign-market designation) a KE100 - Kawasaki's longest-running bike of any kind anywhere worldwide, with over 30 years of production (starting out as the G-series) with minimal changes. Great little dual-purpose street/trail "enduro" bike, but a failure in the Indian market, probably for some of the same reasons the Impulse failed. You still could find a few around a decade ago, think they're all gone now... have seen them in Nepal also. Before that BSA sold some little 50/80cc two-stroke street/trail bikes in India that actually had rear monoshocks! Cool little bikes that people actually raced back in the day. Saw one in Bangalore way back, and have found photos of others in web searches.

Anyway, Hero marketeers probably wanted everyone to forget the fact that any earlier attempts at introducing an on/off-road bike in India failed... and then they went and added another failure. This is the one that they COULD have made a success, if they'd not been such a traditional company. The bike needed a 200+cc engine and fine quality finishing to take away market share from adventure-seeker-tourer buyers of Royal Enfields. They could've done it. But didn't. And now, though it's sorely needed / desired in the market, we'll probably have to wait another 15 years till some daring company decides to try once again to introduce "India's first dual-purpose bike". Terrible track record here.

-Regards,
Eric

Re: Hero Impulse ownership experience

Yamaha wr250r...smtn I like to own someday for some weekend offroad actions

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Re: Centre Stand

Fantastic reading your posts on both web-sites , really loved them all .

About o-ring chains , the factory lube inside the links is synthetic grease , not oil . That grease is formulated to last the lifetime of the chain , and it does - if the chain is treated right . I don't feel oil would last in there much long . The other problem is the risk of poking up the rubber o-rings with the sharp needle . Remember if even one of those rings break off , you most probably shall have to throw away the chain . You may try it if the links already are so badly frozen that you are ready to throw it away any-ways .

About the "treated right" part , most ASC's even have no clue , let alone local mechanics . I have seen them wire brushing these chains in solvent . I have seen under-aged boys at the ASCs pressure washing the chain with very high-pressure water jets then drying it with pressurised air . Many mechanics smear grease on them , like they used to with conventional chains .
The whole idea to maintaining these chains is to keep the o-rings intact and supple , so that the factory lube is kept in , undiluted and uncontaminated . And dirt , water etc are kept out of the links and the lube . They are never to be pressure washed/dried or brushed with vigour or stiff brushes or immersed in solvents etc .
Cleaning should be done regularly and rust , dirt and sand which can abrade the o-rings , should not be allowed to accumulate . Gently brush off all loose dirt with a dry soft toothbrush , then with an almost-dry kerosene soaked toothbrush and wipe , then apply some light oil all over it ( like a light engine oil ) , finally wiping the chain and almost all the applied oil off with a soft clean cloth . Grease or oily chain shall capture dirt - bad for the rings . Inside the links , it needs no lubrication - ever .

Re: Centre Stand

Yes, "ready to throw it away" is probably the point we're at, if links are badly binding and creating resistance in the driveline - but I can see where there's cause for the concerns you cited re: my innovation. Anyway, I'll try it and let everyone know whether it works or not.

Anyway, the chain has indeed been pressure-washed at both the ASC and a reputable independent shop, so that might be the source of the problem. I hadn't honestly thought the pressure would get past the o-rings, but I was probably wrong (I saw it happen on a friend's diver watch a few months ago, now that I think about it).

I believe your cleaning procedure is the best and most fool-proof, and will follow that in the future.

Do you have any thoughts on chain lubrication for extremely dusty / gritty conditions? Most of these commercial chain sprays, etc, are pretty sticky and tend to actually hold/attract dirt, which would seem to only accelerate chain / sprocket wear. But a totally dry chain is probably not going to do any better. One local mechanic here (he turns wrenches traveling with lot of the Enfield tour groups to Ladakh) actually does recommend running it dry, or else with just a bit of light oil (WD-40 or sewing machine). Seems to make sense to me. I toured on an XL600 in the U.S. once and did about 8,000km without ever oiling or having to adjust the 0-ring chain.

Thanks,
-Eric

Re: Centre Stand

If you are going to try it on your old chain , use pre-heated EP90 gear oil with a very thin (insulin) syringe .
During pressure wash , the force of water deforms the o-rings just enough to let it contaminate or even wash away the sealed factory lube . Pressure washing motorcycles is totally un-necessary anyways and bike manufacturer says not to in the owner's manuals . But ASCs are constrained by time .
I don't prefer WD40 for it also contains a thin solvent which may seep past the rings and dilute / contaminate the factory lube . And yes most aerosol chain-sprays are like that - suitable for city use only . Motul makes separate ones for city and off-road use .
Yes , for very dusty or sandy conditions running the chain almost dry or with a very light lubricant like sewing machine oil ( well wiped off , few hours after application ) is great idea . I say "almost dry" because fully dry rubber o-rings abrade from friction , gets heated and brittle and breaks . Or better still , fabricate a full chain-case cover . A o-ring chain , once cleaned and lightly oiled and encased in a full cover is going to last for ages . But nowadays we gotta to look trick ... so

Re: Hero Impulse ownership experience

Great. Lemme know how that foam filter shapes out to be. Which jet size comes in handy. Will be a good help.!