Rishi, sorry for the very late response. Did you buy the 2001 bullet?

The last leg...


The moment I took the bullet out of Bheem's garage, I rode it straight to Afroz bhai's garage, sadly the garage was closed for the day. I took the bull home and made another blunder by following what Bheem had said. He had told me to keep the engine on for a couple of hours so that the new rings set in... They call it cooling, I guess this should be done only on a new bore piston kit. It was a blunder because Bheem had also convinced me that bullet's engine oil should always be on the minimum level marking on the gauge. It was a mixture of blunders actually. I parked the bull in our compound and left the engine on for "cooling" as per Bheem's guidance (actually the engine was already hot as a molten rock) with the minimum oil level in it, and wrong delco positioning. Being it an air cooled engine I think companies do it with fans on, so that the engines don't get too hot, but I left it on where hardly the engine could get some air to cool down.

I came back to see the bull after 45 minutes, and I could feel the hot blaze from several feet away from the bull. I quickly turned the engine off and I couldn't even touch the fuel tank with bare hands, it was so damn hot. I guess I saved my bull from exploding into pieces from just minutes away. I had to wipe the fuel tank for several minutes with a wet cloth so that it cools down quickly from that blazing heat. It took couple of hours for the engine to cool down completely.

After this deadly incident, I didn't even wanted to crank up the engine without being under an expert's supervision.

Next morning I called up on Afroz bhai's number and told him what had happened last night. He said come and pick me up we'll get the bullet to garage. He was really upset seeing the bull that I let some stupid to work on it. The bullet refused to start, he did some change in the air fuel mixture and cranked the engine up and rode it slowly to the garage. Other than the delco being wrongly positioned, he suspected that the piston must also have been wrongly positioned. That meant, we have to open up the cylinder head once again.

I insisted just to position the delco correctly and see the results, if it doesn't work then we'll open up the cylinder, he agreed and worked on the delco's position first. It did no better, the engine was still struggling to stay alive.

Then we went on to the cylinder head and opened it up, thankfully Bheem had positioned the piston correctly. However, we gave the valves and the guide cover for phasing and de-carbonising. The valves and guide cover came in after a day. We fixed the bore-piston and valves in place. But, we were back to square one.

Afroz bhai then suggested on swapping the delco of his bullet with mine, and that was the last remedy in his mind. Hell yes� it worked wonders, there it was, the entire delco-set of my bullet was the damn culprit. The bullet sounded better, there was no jerking, there was no misfire, it just worked wonders.

We now had to get a new delco-set and we also decided to go for a new carburettor, just to avoid a new problem if any. It took a couple of days to source the delco-set from Hyderabad. The delco looked good, although it was not a genuine royal enfield made, but the points in it were of a very cheap quality. Afroz bhai put the brand new delco in place, we discarded those cheap quality points that came along with the delco and we put in the genuine points that I already had on the bull, but, we were not satisfied with the way the bullet sounded, there were misfires and we had to kick a lot to start the bull.

Afroz bhai had no other option than to call in the veteran, his father, Khan saab himself. I just wonder what is it with the bullets that it always requires the perfect spares and a perfect person for it to get repaired. Khan saab removed the delco set and then put it back in, just the way Afroz had put it, our naked eyes couldn't find any difference but the bullet was really happy with his treatment. One kick, and the bullet roared, it was so amazing to watch the old man work on the bullet. I took a trial ride and was more satisfied with the bullet's response. Finally a happy beginning...

So now, the delco, carburettor, rockers, gear plunger, kick paul, starter coil, piston rings (bore piston kit was already put in by the previous owner), and battery was all brand new on the bullet since I had switched four mechanics and found the expert and a genuine guy.

A couple of pics for your eyes:

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Along with my friend's Classic 350, a rear view:
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And happy me:
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A few of my learnings:

1. Never let an incompetent mechanic touch your bullet.
2. Turn the engine off only when it reaches the idle revving. Just to make sure you have not flooded the cylinder with unburnt fuel (this would cause starting problem).
3. Turn the engine off using only decomp, just to make sure no compression is left in the cylinder. If the ameter deflates, bring it to zero and then turn the key off. That's the confirmation of not leaving any compression.
4. While turning the engine on check if the compression is being built by kicking just a little bit (if the compression is not building up, your bullet wouldn't start). Once the ameter deflates, use decomp and release the compression and then kick to start.
5. If there's a reverse kick. Wait for a minute to let all the fumes come out of the airfilter. Anyways, it wouldn't start even if you kick immediately so better wait. And then check for compression, use decomp and release compression and then kick to start.


It's been two months now, the bullet is doing fine. Did 2000kms, and got my second periodic servicing done. My gear box work was pending so got the ball bearings and bush replaced. No grinding sound from the gear box now.

That's all folks. I'm loving it...