@diffuser, congrats on the new thumper.
It sure would be one of the last few cast iron classics to be rolled out of the showroom.

The starting troubles would ease out once you get used to the routine. ( Not sure if Electra 5s has decomp lever)
Gurunandan's website, xbhp, teambhp etc has a lot of tips on how to do it the best way.
You may also browse for pete snidal's tips.( he is the authority).

Happy thumping

Congratulations , finally you bought it

About the clutch , avoid holding it for longer periods. Its not that difficult to shift down to "N" every time. Riding in bumper to bumper traffic will be a little hectic though.

Congrats dude !!! You have a beauty in your hands

Thanks buddy. I will mind it, but the gear is getting a little hard lately, and I need to switch a lot between 1 & 2 before I get the N. Problem wasn't there on the first day. It's that and the bumper-2-bumber traffic where I am using the clutch, albeit minimally.

diffuser, there is a tweak you can do there -- the neutral finder. When you are in 1st and want to go into neutral, keep your heal on the neutral finder. Use the toe and you would reach neutral right away.
The key is to keep the neutral finder held down when you are pressing down. This way, you wont reach 2nd.

It's one day and the bike had done 200+ km already. Took out for a lazy Saturday morning spin to the twin city Cuttack and cruised along the scenic river road. The bike was performing flawlessly and I was shifting gears as specified in the manual. A problem that I faced was the front wheel squeaking at slow speeds, more so when applying the disc brake. Later that day, service center fellow told me it was just the brake pads setting in and should go away. Also notice little oil streaks along the enclosing along the rear brake lever. Maybe a gasket change required. Also got the hang of kickstarting the bike...was giving throttle at the wrong point of the kick.

Come Sunday and I am having a really bad day. First, I couldn't take the bike for a early morning ride. Then in the evening, I lock the front wheel with a chain and forget taking that out, resulting in a broken speedo cable. Felt really sad and shouted on my girlfriend coz she was nagging me at the time. The bike is resenting this and the gears are becoming hard to change, specially when coming to neutral. I am going easy on the ES and going for the kick if the bike doesn't start at one touch of the switch.

Can someone (yamt/ desideep/prajwal/niks) please confirm if I should not hold the clutch lever for more than 5 seconds? Read it on some forum. It's really hard to do that when engaging neutral standing in a traffic signal.

Congrats Diffuser911... awesome ride u got out there.... keep it going.

The bike is looking really cool. Riding the Bullet on longish cruses is almost like medutation enjoy your new ride @Diffuser. About the clutch it can get a lil tempramental in bumper to bumper traffic when it is new but it will settle it. And soon the gears should slot in to place easilly.

the gearshifting will take some time, but if you keep to it, you can practise, and soon enough you will find neutral without getting too troubled.

Congrats on a great bike, and you can keep the clutch pressed, but not for higher than 30 seconds or so...

Get the oil filter changed at the first service at 500 kms, they generally just change the oil. Any grinded metal particles will also get removed.

And dont stress on the thump.. Let the engine feel unstressed. Even if it means shifting a lil higher than normal, That would be better than the engine knocking or going thump thump thump...

Thanks YamT...You had been most helpful in making my decision. I am really liking the change in my attitude towards motorcycling since I got this beauty.

I am trying to use minimal clutch in traffic and try moving in the first gear only. Got the broken speedo cable replaced today and set me back by 200. I will need to change my job soon.

Congo buddy. please post some more pics of your ride.

You re welcome bro. And you'll be used to that clutch in no time at all. The bullet feels such a practical motorcycle no! Once you get one and get used to some of it's charecteristics you'll start feeling how easy it is to ride a bullet compared to other kinds of bikes. And don't worry Bullet parts like clucth and brake cables and are priced resonably it won't break a bank. And yes I am eyeing the classic 350 very closely I might just buy it. Once a bulleteer always a bulleteer the void left selling my Electra is just too much to bear.

Today while starting up the bike in the morning a very funny thing happened. I pumped the kick a few times with the engine kill switch on before going for the startup kick. With the choke on, I kicked and got a loud bang like a Diwali cracker (small one) from the muffler. The second kick started the bike but I still don't know why the misfiring was there.