New Royal Enfield Petrol engine cut-away pictures

[Stuart]

I thought these might be of interest to some even though it's of the petrol engine. Took the pictures at the Stafford show.

[taildraggin]

Interesting.

The clutch seems to be improved, but it looks like a sprag clutch is buried in there for the starter. I bought my donor bike with a fistful of metal in the primary from one of those, luckily w/o damaging anything. This one looks like it would drop the metal into the crankcase(?). I'd much prefer a bendix gear.

They retained the 'wet' alternator, which I am not fond of, either. I suppose it works, but...

It would have been nice to make the rocker boxes less modern. It doesn't look too bad, otherwise. That one has a kickstarter; I haven't seen any pictures of the UCE with one, before. The FI unit looks interesting, too.

As a diesel bike conversion, it seems we still have the frame, but lose the gearboxes, if you can find a 4 speed.

Thanks for posting them.

- Charlie

[Diesel Dave]

I think this bike has the potential to be a really economical bike.

My 500 petrol would do 90mpg is std form, it has the combination of an effecient drive train combined with a low reving motor that has good gas flow at low rpm. It's easy to sneer at older technologies but a wet chain primary is one of the most effecient systems out there, replace this with a dry belt and watch the difference in economy.

Rear drive is a different matter as gritty chains are not too effecient, add a cover and an oiling system and it's impossible to beat, petrol Enfields traditionaly breathe oil mist onto the chain from the heavy breathing crankcase.

So add the fuel injection system and I reakon this will hit over 100mpg easy and possibly higher. In terms of running costs, in the UK diesel fuel costs about 10% more than petrol so the gap will actually be very narrow. For example the new Honda Innova 125 will happily do 60mph and return 160mpg so this costs less to run than a diesel Enfield (eg hatz IB40) that can match the speed and returns 170mpg. Longevity however is another issue.

As for the looks - compare it closely with the short lived 'big head' bullet and it's surprising how close it is. The real limitation for petrol Enfields is their limited cooling ability, ride one at 70 and it will just get hotter and hotter and that's how I dropped an exhaust valve seat.

This is where my diesel Enfield wins all the time - ride it flat out all day long and nowerdays this is between 50-55mph, not far off the sustainable petrol enfield figure of 60mph.

[andrewaust]

Good pics mate! Looks like some new design with a touch of old tech as well.