The Bullet: Mysteries & Myths -
Don't just love but get to know your bullet more

- by B. R. Gurunandan


Zen & the info for Bullet maintenance: Part 2 - ...& some info

Thumpers' speciality is not a wheelie-take-off; it is stability & poise! To the people who are impatiently tapping their spanners, waiting to get into silencer-stripping, carb-tuning, sprocket-changes, alternator-mods, and so on, hey! I hate a KLPD as much as you do, but heck, nothing worthwhile comes in an instant. And we are trying to get the first-timers to join us, not make them envy or admire us! So let us go the systematic route, by listing some more helpful ideas & things before we get oil on our hands.

Books & information
Whoever says India does not protect Intellectual Property, curb piracy, etc must try to get the workshop manual or a spare copy of the owner's manual ! Stonewall !!
And when you finally manage to get it, THEN you know what a KLPD REALLY is! The "statistics" gag applies in toto to these books - to be used like a drunkard uses a lamp-post: for support, NOT illumination!!! Because they haven't been seriously updated in donkey's years, they are often misleading. ( We shall clear up those hickups as we go along )

But see the positive side of this! Because of the inadequacy of these, you look further, and break into the vast, interesting world of motoring literature. The standard for years had been "AA Book of the Car" but now there is so much on the internet.
It really helps to start with the basics and principles and develop a systematic approach than get carried away by the glitz of mono-shocks, disc-brakes, CDI, turbo-chargers, radical-cams, and blow money doing things which don't improve the bike because the bottleneck was elsewhere. Oh, it impresses the snooties & ignoramuses alright, but heh ! is THAT what you want to do ?!!!
It is also a good idea to glance thru' any other vehicles' owner's manual and workshop manual that you can borrow from friends, etc. Many hints & tips are common, and exchanging experiences with the owners is not only interesting, but often throws up invaluable ideas & insights.

Tools
Depends on your interest & requirement. As usual, the list varies widely: from a plug-spanner, adjustable-wrench & screwdriver to an array more comprehensive than found in the smaller workshops. The best judge is the user.
If you had to borrow a big wrench from the neighbour every time you wanted to adjust chain tension, you would be wasting time as well as spoiling good relations with the neighbour!
On the other hand, if you go and buy a whole lot of special tools which you need only to change the floating-bush on the crankpin, well, that is overkill. Worse, all the neighbourhood mechanics will befriend you to borrow them off you!!!
So we'll list the tools here with some comments about their use on the Bullet, and leave it to the reader to decide whether he needs it or not.

Standard toolkit - consists of one metric & 5 AF/BS open-ended spanners, a plug-spanner & tommybar, and a screwdriver. Even if you don't plan to ever do any repairs yourself, don't lose them! And be sure to carry them on your long tours, out of city rides etc, because many mechanics have only Metric tools and will not be able to do jobs like tappet-adjustment, oil-change, or tightening of various nuts & bolts. If you let them use rickety adjustables or "near-enough" metrics, then you are going to end up with spoilt fastners, which will be difficult to turn next time.

Metric Spanners - there are some metric fastners on the Bullet, their number may be increasing. The air-filter holder, front-brake cable adjuster, grab-bar bolts, Battery terminal screws, have been metric for a long time. Mechanics often "convert" lost bolts to metric! So, sometime in leisure, checkout the fastners on your Bullet, and make sure you have the right spanners. Using adjustables in cramped places is quite frustrating, apart from damaging the bolt-heads.

Tubular Spanners - these are not strictly required, but it is the best investment you can make if you intend to do much work. Just try dismantling the cyl-head with & without them, you will know what I mean. There is no call for high-tech (high budget) snap-on-sockets & torque-wrench here, just plain tubular spanners.

Pliers - A loose-joint plier that opens wide to push in connectors, chain-link-lock, is convenient to have around. Same with a Locking-plier, also called mole-grip or vice-grip plier. A nose-plier is even more necessary. A wire-cutter+stripper is also useful when renewing frayed terminals.

Tubes and drifts - A lot of tube-pieces and a few bars are needed to remove and install the bearings in wheel-hubs, brake-drum, crankcase, etc, but they are in a mixedup state here, so if someone has the measurements, we can add it here. Or else that has to wait. (don't be tempted to use the tubular-spanners, they will get damaged!) Note that when the bearing is being fitted into a casing, the tube dia should be that of the outer race. If fitting onto a shaft, inner race. You can guess why?!

A vernier-calipher, a micrometer, a set of feeler-gauges, a pitch-gauge would be great to have, but you would rarely need to use them! It may be more sensible to borrow a micrometer and "make" a few feelers that you need (ring-gap, points-gap, plug-gap) As for the vernier, machine-shops always have one. You are better off leaving it to the machinist. Many fits in the Bullet are not measured, but "felt". Any feeling of "play" is bad! How bad, it depends on the rider's tastes! I mean, seriously! Some can't stand the mechanical noise, some don't mind it at all! Well, I haven't yet come across any breakdown due to a loose piston or pin or even bearing! The Bullet engine happily chugs along with broken rings too! (Ask me how I know!)

A thread-locking solution, teflon gasket-sealant, pipe-sealant pastes, multipurpose-grease and petroleum-jelly are needed frequently. Shellac is needed only for the head-gasket and crankcase/gearbox gaskets, don't use it on other gaskets! Large adjustable wrench, files, hammer, hacksaw, sandpapers, vise, tube for leverage, etc, etc also fall into this "misc" categeory.

Tools for Electrics
First come a LOT of "jumpers"! Plain wire pieces will do in a crunch, but you can't really hunt loose-contacts with a loose-jumper! (Reminds you of a clean-boot-disk for AV?!!)
Meter-long wires, as thick as the battery-earthing wire,
with "crocodile-clips" on both ends(6)
with "crocodile-clips" on one end and bare wire on other(4)
with "crocodile-clips" on one end and multimeter-plugs on other(2)
with bare wire on one end and multimeter-plugs on other(2)
(you can also grip the multimeter-probes with "crocodile clips" instead of using special leads with plugs but I prefer minimum joints in a test-circuit)

Some old bulbs (with one filament blown, inside silvered, filament sagged, etc) with small wires soldered to the terminals, to be used for testing.

More sophisticated than the bulbs is the Multimeter. Now, nobody is going to lend you a high-tech Digital Multimeter costing Rs3000, or even a delicate analog one costing Rs300, to get it greasy and stained! So be wise and buy one! Analog is sufficient for most work. But again, take care about the terminals! Cheap socket/plugs in multimeter will cause as much frustration from loose contacts as wrong readings from cheap design! (Ask me how I know!)

A rugged 60-100 Watt soldering iron will be handy for renewing the connectors, repairing bulb-bases and sockets instead of replacing them, modifying wiring, etc.

A battery-hydrometer is a nice thing for determining the state of charge of cells in Battery, but you might prefer to do this at a friendly Battery-dealer's place.

A "Battery-Charger" is a must with the Bullet! The silly electric system of the Bullet does not charge the Battery if headlamps are used in traffic, and an external charger is one way of overcoming this problem. Don't buy this, you can easily use a "battery-eliminator" or assemble one quite easily. Good soldering practise :-) and we will go into the details later.

What about a strobe-lamp? Indeed, what about it!! To me, it seems like taking a Seiko Stopwatch on your morning jog. But all the same, I have been working on making one out of spoilt fluoroscent-lamps, fan-capacitors, a few diodes, etc, which works surprisingly well! If you have any interest in this sort of time-wasting, email me for the circuit and tips! Making a crude electronic tachometer is also within the scope of a determined Bulleteer!

Tools for Tyre-maintenance
Of late, the quality of tyre-valves has improved a lot, and we tend to forget this aspect of maintenance. But on a long tour through village-roads, etc, this is a very important thing! A puncture from a cattle-shoe-nail can cost you a day in a lonely place!

A good valve-core-remover is a must, and make sure it is long enough for your valve! The cheapo ones need to have the groove deepened with a hacksaw, or else you can't use them on an inflated tube.
A pump, either a small, foot-operated one, or the cheaper "double-pump" is needed for roadside tyre repairs. Don't believe that the truck-drivers will oblige you with their compressed-air.
A pair of tyre-levers can be made out of used bicycle-axles, but using them takes a bit of skill and patience! Take time off to observe the pro once, and especially note how the tyre beads are pushed into the rim-well on the side opposite to the valve. If you omit this simple point, you will never get the tyre off the rim! Don't wait till you have a blow-out on a country road, try this out at home one Sunday morning. A tube-patching kit as well as a spare-tube (what if the valve-neck tears out) is good to carry on the long tours.
The foot-operated pump comes with it's own pressure-gauge, but you can also get small plastic ones inexpensively. After a bit of experience, however, you will be able to tell the pressure by tapping the tyre with your finger!

Special Tools:
Valve-spring Compressor - This is a must if you intend to open the engine. Several types are available, but it is not justifiable to purchase a costly one because you will rarely use it. Luckily, it can be easily fabricated out of a piece of tube, a Mildsteel rod and a M10x50. Just invest in a good nut&bolt, which play a very important role here. Any small steel fabrication shop will make the rest of it out of scrap for maybe Rs 75.00 (Take the spring collar with you for size)

Sprocket Puller - Again, you can fabricate a crude one for a few rupees. Even if you do a lot of work, you will rarely need a true-blue puller for removing gears, sprockets, in a Bullet. The home-made one will suffice, and usually it won't even come to that.

Fork Valve-plate Spanner - This is a C-spanner made from sheet-steel, and you will never find any mechanic using it! They use a screw-driver and hammer, and if you are there and glaring, they may actually de-burr the edges before re-assembling. Waste of time! This spanner is definitely worth investing in....if you can find one! Again, not difficult to fabricate.

Clutchcase-oilseal-spanner - This requires a 10mm box spanner. May be different for different models. So take care.

Allen-key for steering-head - Above warning applies, just park your bike outside the toolshop, and try it out!

There are a host of special tools listed by RE for the Bullet, which you do NOT need! This is how you do without them:

Oil-seal spanner - Loose-joint plier opening wide, with a "packing-slider" to prevent pressure on the seals-tube will do the job.

Clutch-centre-extractor - Use the front-plate of the clutch itself with a big nut for "packing" on the shaft; screw in three of the retaining bolts, without the springs. A bit of caution here, tighten all screws a turn or two at a time, in a sequence. And the size of "packing" must be small enough that the bolts do not "bite" till they are in by atleast 5 turns. (Flames for asking the reason ! ) Tightening the bolts will pull the clutch assy off the shaft. OK, if you just LOVE special tools, you can fabricate a CCE easily out of a small disk with 4 holes, a nut welded to the center, and a matching 50mm ;ong bolt.

Oilpump-worm-spanner - Ordinary 3/4" or 19mm open-end spanner is fine. Left-hand-thread.

Gudgeon-pin-extractor - DON'T just hammer the pin out! This could distort the floating-bush because of the leverage! The pin is not a very tight fit, you can easily hold the piston (very firmly !) while your daughter taps out the pin with a punch & hammer.

Clutch-brake-bar - This is used for keeping the clutch from spinning when you turn the centre-nut on it. Now the purists are going to flame me for this, but I wedge the primary chain with a big rag and use the spark-plug-box-spanner on the nut.

Friends
You will often observe many Bullet-owners trying to be chum-my with the mechanic, hoping to get a better deal than his other customers. Reminds me of a lamb trying to be chum-my with the butcher. Well, maybe it works for some, but don't tell me about it! On the other hand, it pays to be friendly with the parts-dealer and machinist. As these guys are quite sick of dealing with mechanics who often drive petty bargains, often they are helpful to the riders who go directly to them, even though the business is one piece only. Not all are the same! So chose them with care. Find one that is interested in innovations and experiments, and willing to try out your ideas, not a pig-headed fellow who thinks he knows best and you should listen to whatever he says. You can get the failure-statistics of various brands, the problems and advantages of some modifications before doing them yourself, etc, if you find a good parts-dealer and machinist. The extra you pay by not bargaining with them is recovered manyfold in terms of information and ideas; time and money saved not doing doomed mods, etc. But you should be in a position to judge their claims! If they get the idea you are tamely "eating from their hands", they will be tempted to pull a fast one, & I won't blame them if they do !

I have never been snubbed by a Bullet owner I approached in any circumstance, and I haven't felt like snubbing one either. There is something intangible the Bullet-eers share, that you rarely see in the owners of other vehicles. No Bulleteer will ride by one in distress! We always stop and enquire if we could be of help whenever we see any broken down two-wheeler, especially a Bullet. So it is easy to take this camaraderie a step further and befriend some Bullet-eers in the neighbourhood. It is mutually beneficial to work together on the bikes, gang-up while buying parts, etc, although a Bullet-eer is rarely a "party-animal"
Sometimes the fastest way of diagonising a problem is substitution. This is where the mechanics score over you, because you can't have a coil, plug-lead, socket, battery, rectifier, switches, carb, everything in spare! Not to mention the special tools, spare cables, bulbs, etc. But between a group, it is no big deal. But be ruthless with the mean-minded & snooties, even one of these can scuttle a group soon.

By B. R. Gurunandan

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