Hi all,

I have recently 'promoted' myself from a RX100 to a RE350cc and its been WOW! THe bike is a '92 standard 350cc. I got it off a garage and it was running smoothly then. Now being overly enthusiastic i wanted to push the bike to see how much rudeness it could take. So i did a impromptu trip from Chennai to Pondicherry the same week without any service. The ride was brilliant and the bike stopped only twice.

One was sudden and without any indication. I stopped the bike and after a couple of kicks (which i mastered after quite a few painful kickbacks) the bike started. The second time was when the choke cap just flew off. Fortunately it got wedged beteen some wires and i had to screw it back on.

Other than these two probs i didn't have any other major hiccups. Yeah the headlight front part kept falling off cause the vibration kept unscrewing the top screw. On the return trip i felt the tyre wobbling quiet a bit so i dint push the bike too much. Remember i never did any sort of tightening after reaching pondicherry which is a good 4 hours trip from chennai.

There are a few basic questions i need to clarify.
1. Why is there a neutral between each gear? my mech said if you are cruising on a highway you can just drop it in one of the neutrals and let inertia do the rest.

2. When i am i 4th gear and need to stop should i lower the gears all the way to the neutral just below the 1st gear?

3. How much does a good rear tyre cost? The wobbling i felt was cuz the rear tyre is worn out and is so smooth at the center that there is no grip at all.

4. There is an extra sound i hear from the engine. A metallic sound everytime i rev the bike or even during riding. My mech says its something called bore slapping and i need to get the engine serviced. Is he right and should i go in for a total overhauling which another RE expert estimated to be around Rs. 8000!

I am currently using the bike regularly and other than the 'bore-slapping' and bad rear tyre i don have any other problems. Somebody recommended JAF in chennai but the guy does a total overhauling by default.

I plan to spend around 3k each month to bring the bike to perfection. I want to spend around 15k to 'restore' the bike so if you RE experts can suggest changes either necessary or cosmetic i would appreciate it a lot. And also is army green a good color for RE. I seem to like it better than black and want it painted too.