[Randhawa]

@bradhey- I would like to know the answer to that too. RE has a instability issue with C5 and they might try whatever works to resolve it. Sometimes the problem is small but we think it's a bigger problem by ignoring smaller details.

For a while I have been thinking its the plastic bushing in the swing arm to blamed rather then the swing arm. Too much flex to start with these plastic bushes.

I am no expert in chassis dynamics and designing so hard to make out any difference between two swing arms but the other design as in the above picture might have something to do with how the load/stress is divided at the end.

[rahulya007]

Guys,

Apologies for posting this query here on a C500 thread..
@Randhawa - you have been amazing throughout this post with your findings and solutions and remedies on the issues as well.

I have recently booked an electra UCE and it is scheduled to b delivered in Oct this year. I purposely took this gap to avoid the delivery in rainy season. Slated to be delviered on Dassera. I have been following all the posts here on this thread and was astonished to find out so many flaws or issues with RE's flagship model. From what I read, these issues mentioned here are more pronounced with C500 injected bulls rather than the carbed ones. are these present in the Electra twinspark too ? I am hoping the answer to this question is negative and that will give me a huge relief.

A small review on the electra here would be great too..

Regards,
Rahul K

[djavalkar]

Hi,

Can we fit a rear seat on the Royal Enfield classic ? Do we need to change the old seat ? Is there a direct fit optional when we buy the bike ??

Rgds
Dhananjay

[EssYouWe]

Originally Posted by djavalkar

Hi,

Can we fit a rear seat on the Royal Enfield classic ? Do we need to change the old seat ? Is there a direct fit optional when we buy the bike ??

Rgds
Dhananjay

Hi Dhananjay,

The Classics come with a rear seat (separate from the front seat). As far as I know, there are no direct fit options in the market as of now.

You'll need to get it custom built. I can, however, confirm that the long single seat (Electra-style) has been seen on a Classic as well.

Originally Posted by rahulya007

Guys,

Apologies for posting this query here on a C500 thread..
@Randhawa - you have been amazing throughout this post with your findings and solutions and remedies on the issues as well.

I have recently booked an electra UCE and it is scheduled to b delivered in Oct this year. I purposely took this gap to avoid the delivery in rainy season. Slated to be delviered on Dassera. I have been following all the posts here on this thread and was astonished to find out so many flaws or issues with RE's flagship model. From what I read, these issues mentioned here are more pronounced with C500 injected bulls rather than the carbed ones. are these present in the Electra twinspark too ? I am hoping the answer to this question is negative and that will give me a huge relief.

A small review on the electra here would be great too..

Regards,
Rahul K

I own a Classic UCE 350 (the same engine as yours) and have faced absolutely no engine related issues other than tuning problems (which I blame on RE's mechs' incompetence).

The engine is definitely more reliable and somewhat easier to drive in the city. This is not because of the weight or anything which largely remains the same, but because of the improved rev-ability of the UCE mill.

You won't find the engine as refined or clean thumping as the CI. The sound won't be the same, it will sound more like an autorickshaw at first. But hang in there, it is a beautiful bike. Logic apparently never works in the case of Bullets.

You can go over my ownership thread to check out my experience with the UCE 350.

[rahulya007]

yes,

you can always retrofit a rear seat on the classic. It is a direct fitment over a couple of nuts and bolts and it is available in the same color as your classic. you can even fit or remove it yourself anytime with the help of couple of basic tools. cost what i have heard is around 1500 for the rear seat..
You are not required to replace the existing seat to get this fitted... hope this helps..!!

Regards,

Rahul.

[EssYouWe]

Originally Posted by rahulya007

it is available in the same color as your classic

cost what i have heard is around 1500 for the rear seat..

You are not required to replace the existing seat to get this fitted... hope this helps..!!

Green coloured Classics get a green coloured seat!!!

You get the seat free, no other seat is offered through the dealership. In fact your bike is delivered with it.

I think there is some confusion here. :

[rahulya007]

Originally Posted by EssYouWe

Green coloured Classics get a green coloured seat!!!

You get the seat free, no other seat is offered through the dealership. In fact your bike is delivered with it.

I think there is some confusion here. :

This means the dealers are not providing the seat free of cost even if it comes free from the RE factory...may be a means to cough up money...
I had seen a classic 350 being retro-fitted with a rear seat and hence commented..probably 500 might be coming with a rear seat factory fitted...
apologies if i have passed the wrong message..

[EssYouWe]

Okay! In such a case, yes the dealers are fleecing. I really want to know which dealer this was.

Either Classic comes with a rear seat and a saree guard.

[stnair]

Originally Posted by EssYouWe

..... it will sound more like an autorickshaw at first....

Sounds like an Autoriksha ? You are breaking my heart !

[Randhawa]

For all those thinking of alternatives to the single uncomfortable seat on classic. Although not a heart warming site. I took this picture way back in last year of a Classic 350 with the electra seat.

Export model Electra's have this seat but their mounting is a bit different. The export model G5 uses the Classic rear seat frame to mount the dual single piece seat which is more easy to fit on a classic without much modification.



@Rahul- I have not heard from any owner of a electra UCE of instability so cant comment much.

Some relief for you;
No black smoke issue or carbed UCE
Electra UCE or Classic 350/TBTS is not effected by the bad air filter box design
Oil leak from kick shaft lever if you are unlucky enough but easy job
Sprag clutch failure if backfires are a routine or not so brilliant starting also if the decomp not working properly for long can destruct the sprag bearing. Last time I heard the bearing was in the process of being procured by a different manufacturer.
Instability issue till now unheard off on Electra UCE, you have 19's all around

[EssYouWe]

Originally Posted by stnair

Sounds like an Autoriksha ? You are breaking my heart !

Arrey! Worry yourself you must not. That is true for only the loooong stock exhaust. Changing to a free-flowing one pretty much makes up for the first 2000 kms on the stock one.

PS: Your post reminded me of this Simon & Garfunkel number.

Originally Posted by Randhawa

For all those thinking of alternatives to the single uncomfortable seat on classic. Although not a heart warming site. I took this picture way back in last year of a Classic 350 with the electra seat.

Export model Electra's have this seat but their mounting is a bit different. The export model G5 uses the Classic rear seat frame to mount the dual single piece seat which is more easy to fit on a classic without much modification.



Instability issue till now unheard off on Electra UCE, you have 19's all around

Seems like a mounting was welded onto the frame for this one as well. As of now no easy solution to seating woes. The shops just don't have the sort of support for the new models. :(

[nasirkaka]

UPDATE: SEAT MODIFICATION

I was not very happy with the Stock front seat on my C5, which is almost flat, when we look at it from side profile. I kept shifting in the seat, but could never locate a sweet spot. So i decided to try and modify it.

Option 01:
was to get one of the aftermarket single seat, and try and fit it on to the C5. The issue is that the C5 frame does not support the mounting of the seats available in the market (Bangalore). Those seat's mounting details are made for the older RE bikes. The C5 frame falls short of ONE welded point.

The available options were, either to get a single seat from the market, and weld the joinery details to suit C5 mounting, OR to weld that ONE missing threaded stud on to the C5 frame. I decided against either of the options.

Option 02:
Rip the Stock seat of the C5 and modify (by adding and removing hard rubber and foam), to see if it feels better. I wen for this option.

Spent about 5 hours in Shivaji nagar at Rao's sear covers playing with the curves of the seat.

RESULT: the modified seat looks decent, feels comfortable than the stock, but i feel there is further scope to improve it. I guess this HAD to be a trial and error method. I have taken some pics of the seat in various stages of modification, shall post them soon for you all to have a look.

Now I am planning to remove the rexine cover, and shape the seat myself. Anyone interested in some DIY experimentation feel free to come and help. My C5 is on the operation table (well, only the seat).

Together we shall achieve what RE could not.

[Randhawa]

@Nasir- Well done mate, now some pictures please!

Who can tell what this part on the swing arm is for?. A bit of scary discovery




Well this piece of plastic is to protect the chain going wild jumping up and down on the swing arm and also protect the engine chamber from disastrous consequences(literally exploding).

For e.g. When the twin spark thunderbird was launched, at that time the plastic thing on the swing arm was not there or RE at that time had no idea what chain can do to a bike with this thing not present. Its from hearsay that I got to know that someone (RIP) died when the chain somehow overlapped the sprocket and broke the chamber, resulting in a accident in which a fellow biker lost his life and few others who sued RE due to the issue.

I can imagine people suing RE for the instability issue if any C5 crashes.

Well my advice to all UCE bikers is to keep an eye for the plastic bit on the swing arm and hope it stays there.


Plans for the Swing arm/ bush upgrade

As usual I have given up on RE for sorting out issues and I have taken the challenge to try sorting out the instability issue myself.

You can help yourself with the issue by just reducing the rear tyre pressure to 27/28 PSi on rear and 20Psi on front. The bike behaves a lot better but with only single rider.

People have reported improvement by going one size up on front tyre. So you can either change the front to 19 or swapping the front tyre to 100/90.
I am in favor for the later as going for 19 is expensive (fender Rs 1200, stays around Rs350 and the tyre+rim). Plus you can loose the agility of C5 with 19's but improved handling on long tours.

My thoughts on improving the swing arm is to copy the good old design of RD350 swing arm which has support in between the pivot pipe and the the two arms.

If you look at the C5 swing arm, you will notice there is no support provided to the swing arms. Leaving some amount of flex, this bike isn't light to say the least so the swing arm does need to be stiffen up.


Next is to remove the plastic bushes and replace it with the well behaved bushes from the Std 350 CI. I thought of Bronze bushes but later dropped the idea. Well the Std 350 bushes are stronger and still provide a bit of vibration control due to the rubber inside the bush.

Plastic bush at the moment Std 350 bush for the upgrade


To put the std 350 bushes on, I'll have to shim them a bit as they are few mm longer but that's easy to do. The big job is to get the metal plates cut out and the welding done. I am going in for 10gauge sheet as the swing arm tube
is around 14gauge.

Have found the perfect guy to do the job so all I need now is a day off to do the modification and keep my finger crossed that my hard work pays off.

[nasirkaka]

@ Randhawa:

I seriously think people like yourself should join the R&D at RE, so that we can have better bikes. Thats some discovery, and scary one too. Your analysis and proposed solution for the swing arm does make sense. Hope all goes well with the task at hand.

@Nasir- Well done mate, now some pictures please!

PICTURE OF SEAT MOFIFICATION: FIRST ATTEMPT:

Have attached the pics as a PDF. Do have a look.

Did further modification to the seat, shall share it in next PDF.

[jingaboysr]

@nasirkaka, nice detailed explanation mate.

Another question, do you feel any handling issues with the spring loaded seats? I myself am not too satisfied with my vintage looking spring loaded ones, and am thinking of going for the Electra one.