Electra on the road!

Forums

I think I've sorted out the Norton's starting. The key is just to hold the button in for a couple of seconds at a time - no more - and it starts reliably after 2 or 3 attempts hot or cold. I've just taken the little twin out for its first real (well 25 miles or so) run and it went very well and started first button push after stopping for petrol after 10 miles or so. So I'm very pleased.

It does seem rather under-geared (unless the speedo is reading very slow) as it seems to want to go everywhere in top gear, pulling lustily from an indicated 30 mph. And all the cars on the 50 limited road I was on were doing 40 according to my speedo.....

Brakes excellent, handling up to Norton (though maybe not Featherbed) standard. Gearchange a little clunky, clutch frees well enabling neutral at a standstill from either 1st or 2nd and with no slip. The engine is still rattly.....

It's very well balanced, always nice when you get your feet on the rests as soon as the wheels turn with no wobbling or feeling it's going to topple over.

In fact I was going to take the Bouzuki out but discovered I hadn't quite got the gear lever position right so needs a bit more fettling.

The Yam is going on ebay on Wednesday after I get the new MoT with a starting price of £1,700. I'm now looking for another project. I just missed an interesting pre-war 250 OK Supreme which is just the kind of thing I'd like.

Yes...

....they are under-geared, one tooth on the Gbox helps a lot. One of the first times I gave mine a razz through some local bends, I was always looking for 5th, us coyboys do love paying tunes on the Gbox! But no more gear to come! so up the gearing one tooth and it seems to cope very well.

Speedo gearing

Congratulations on getting the Electra on the road.

I've raised the gearing of my Navigator by taking a couple of teeth off the rear sprocket. Its made 50 - 55mph cruising more comfortable. For "around town" riding its hardly noticeable, but I have made some significant modifications to the engine that would help this.

The speedo, I have a 2:1 gearbox and 1600 speedo. Our lightweight guru, Andy S, wrote an article on speedo gearing. If memory serves, I think the article suggested that the bike should have a 19:10 gearbox. After reading this I took the bike for a spin with my cycling GPS device taped to the handlebars. Very close to the usual speed limits, about the width of the speedo needle out, reading slightly over up to about 50mph. Worth checking speedo and gearbox spec?

What tyres are you using? The guy who rebuilt my Navigator fitted Pirelli "City Demons". I find them very fussy with regard to pressure, even a pound or two under pressure spoils the bike. The front tyre only just fits under the mudguard.

Speedo Gearbox - Lightweights

Hi John, well remembered!
Yes, we would have had from new, a 19:10 ratio speedo gearbox on our 18" back wheel, allied to a Speedo head with a ratio of 1600.
That contrasts with a Dominator (or Commando) with a 19" rear wheel, using a 2:1 speedo gearbox and a speedo head with the same 1600 ratio.
Sadly, 19:10 speedo gearbox's are no longer available - if you have one, look after it!. You will find you can pop the seal off without too much trouble, clean it & add fresh grease to the gear & worm.
A 2:1 speedo gearbox will give a 5% error (in theory) - but my brain started to hurt when I tried to work out if it would read faster or slower..... :)

I have to confess.....

... I'm using the tyres it came with - rather old TT100 on the back, ribbed Avon SM on the front. I know new ones would be advisable but these seem fine on dry roads and my days of riding in the pouring rain are over. I have them at 28 psi front, 32 rear.

I'm not inclined to strip the primary drive yet again especially as the starter seems to be doing its stuff well. Are bigger gearbox sprockets available?

You can go up a tooth

Well done Ian. Your hard labours of winter now turning to miles of summer pleasure. The NOC list a 20 tooth sprocket. 5% difference.

These bikes always sound busy. Here in North Yorkshire with our proper hills it is a pleasure to pull up the gradients in top. So I keep to the standard 19 teeth gearbox sprocket.

I always thought the TT100 profile, a bit "trigonic" in profile, as they claimed in the day, not a suitable replacement for the bog standard 18 x 3.25, or was it 18 x 3.50. Not sure of correct rear profile.

Peter

Tyre pressures

Ian, the tyre pressures you are using seem rather high, 18 - 20psi front and 30psi rear would nearer the recommendation for those tyres.

I've always liked TT100s

having used them for many years on Commandos. I'm not sure about pressures as the original specs are for much harder tyres than modern ones. The figures I quote were given to me by Avon (I think) for a Velo Venom some years ago. The Electra does seem very stable with these although they do transmit a lot of what may be termed euphemistically "road irregularities".

I may try knocking off a couple of psi both ends.

Re gearbox sprocket, my search capabilities must be failing me as I didn't see the 20 tooth item. I may well wait until the end of the year as I'm loath to strip it all down again now it's a motorcycle rather than a garage ornament. On the positive side, the X seals from Simply Bearings on the gearchange and kickstart together with the O rings recommended by Peter mean the gearbox is leak free.

I must say I was pleasantly surprised by the low - mid speed pulling of the engine as I'd understood they were rather more peaky - this probably applies more to the Jubilee.

Gearing

If you don't want to disturb the primary drive then the easiest way to change the gearing would be to change the sprocket on the rear wheel.

Steel plate sprockets are readily available. Its a straightforward job to make them fit. I would have liked to use an aluminium sprocket but could not find one.

Thanks John...

... but to raise the gearing I'd need a smaller sprocket and as the sprocket and brake drum are in one piece like the big twins etc (although different chain pitch) it would be hard to fit a smaller sprocket. I wonder whether a 1 tooth extra crankshaft sprocket would fit - assuming I could get one.

Hi Ian, as a fellow Electra…

Hi Ian, as a fellow Electra owner I appreciate why you don't want to disturb the starter and primary side once you have got it working well but if you change your mind the NOC spares club have 20 tooth later gearbox sprockets available - part number 048263A at a very sensible price of £13.95. That is one tooth up from the standard Electra 19 tooth sprocket so will certainly drop the revs at cruising speed. I haven't tried that myself so cant comment on the effect on performance although I remember a thread a good few years ago where an Electra owner said that he had done this and it made for more relaxed cruising with not too much loss of acceleration and hill climbing performance. If you do go down that route please let us know how it goes and I might do the same if it is a success! Enjoy a much under rated, great middle weight bike! Nick

Ooops!

Forgot the Electra uses the Dominator rear hub! Could always fit an FB rear hub? Easy to change the gearing with the bolted on sprocket.

I would investigate fitting a bolted on sprocket to the Dominator brake drum as well. There must be plenty oy drums with worn out sprockets out there.

I've fitted a Royal (Indian) Enfield rear hub. I had to machine the sprocket teeth off it and fit a bolted on sprocket. I've gone for two less teeth, the bike feels like three less would be okay.

Four reasons for fitting the RE hub; its properly QD, a brake that can actually contribute to the breaking effort and a straight line between pedal and lever.

The fourth reason is the built in drive line shock absorber. What a difference that has made! The one in the clutch works but the addition of one in the back wheel is very noticeable. Probably because it has far more resilient rubbers than a properly assembled clutch shock absorber.

Nick Clarke

Nick if you read these threads you will see that I have already commented on the 20T Gbox-good stuff.

I just....

... made a quick calculation of overall ratios using 19 and 20 tooth sprockets. Top is 5.72:1 dropping to 5.434; bottom is 15.4 dropping to 14.63. For comparison, my ES2 was 4.66 and 13.84 respectively. Interestingly, bottom gears are similar ratios between the 2 bikes as the Electra is clearly a closer ratio box.

It does seem worth going for the 20 tooth and as there are only 3 in stock I think I'll get one just in case there's a rush on.

Hi Al, thanks for that, I've…

Hi Al, thanks for that, I've just read back and seen it - I should have checked earlier! Was it you who provided that advice some years ago?

Possibly

Possibly, mine has been on 20T for many years, and considering the poor performance of the engine due to a well worn barrel and rings. It performs quite well 20T recommended.

Norton Owners Club