Royal Enfield Interceptor Owners

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Has anyone tried to get Interceptor parts through Archway (Sat Aug 2, 2003)

Has anyone tried to get Interceptor parts through Archway International Motorcycle Salvage in the U.S. If so, what do they carry.Their web address is www.archwayintl.com

They are listed as having Royal Enfield parts beside British and American makes.Your help would be appreciated my 68 RE needs some parts..

C/C

---Never heard of them, and judging by their website they sure don't specialize in older Brit bikes of any type. They are just a motorcycle salvage place, not that there's anything wrong with that.

For proper service, though, I'd try a specialist dealer. If you want a parts supplier in the U.S., you should try Avellino's. If you go to the Interceptor website, you'll find the phone number and address there in the part of the website devoted to Interceptor spares. I think it's in the "Pit." If you are looking for things like Amal or Lucas items common to almost all Brit bikes, you can get those from anyplace that caters to Nortons, Triumphs, etc.

Bob Cram

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A good place to get interceptor parts?. (Sat Aug 9, 2003)

hi all I have a 69 interceptor. Can anyone tell me a good place to get parts for it? Is there any online stores for them?

I am from tennessee and we have a dealer in near bristol but they dont deal with the interceptor. thanks for yalls help,

Harleyrider30

Yes Hitchcock's in England has most everything you need. If you have part #'s
you can check on line. Sometimes Domi Racer in Cincinatti has some parts. Good
luck

Bobby B 97 flhtc Calgary

Royal Enfield parts searher ; call sam avellino @781-284-5157

He's in the states,240 harris st. revere,mass. no web site but he's the guy that helped me obtain parts for my 67 750 .

He knows these machines too. tell him i referred you .

good luck. k smith

If you want to buy from someone in the U.S., which can save you a lot on
shipping costs, then try Avellino's Motorcycle Sales and Service in Revere
MA. Phone 781-284-5157. Sam Avellino runs the place, and his father was
into all types of RE in a big way for decades.

They've got a lot of stuff. Also check out the RE Interceptor website. The link is at this listserve's website. There's lots of people selling parts, many in the U.S.

Bob Cram

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How is the camshaft end play controlled (Mon Aug 11, 2003)

Art in Greer South Carolina writes...

How is the camshaft end play controlled on an S1? I have .025 and .035. First temptation is to move the cam bushing in a bit.

 

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Royal recovering from your recent accident (Thu Aug 14, 2003)

Royal, I am sure everyone would like to hear how you are recovering from your recent accident. Are you riding again?

When I ran off the road and hit a small tree 3 years ago it was months before I could ride again.

Madmax

Thanks for asking.

After a month (June) hooked up to machines at intensive care, you do loose some strength. Then I only did a couple of weeks on crutches. The head orthopedic surgeon said the leg (with full length titanium rod inserted in main left lower leg) had healed astonishingly well. So I started to walk normally.

The stomach and pipes have worked great the last six weeks. For some reason I lost hearing permanently on the left inner ear (nerve damage, no remedy), but I can cope with that.

I will be riding as soon as I got enough strength back (doing workouts and physio). Kickan did put the crank case halves together the other day on the kitchen table. REgards Royal

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Series of 6 articles about the Enfield/Albion gearbox (Sun Aug 17, 2003)

Many years ago Classic & Motorcycle Mechanics magazine published a series of 6 articles about the Enfield/Albion gearbox and clutch.

It said that one of the reasons why the clutch doesn't get enough lift is the over-long clutch operating rod which inevitably whips and binds within the gearbox mainshaft.

To make the clutch work more effectively they give the suggestion to cut the rod in two or three pieces, squarely refacing the ends, and slipping a suitable diameter ball bearing between the separate pieces.

Dont forget to harden the ends by heating till bright cherry red and dousing in cold water. I followed the suggestion and this surely helped to make my clutch soft and sweet. Along with buying new surflex plates, getting the sprocket and drum assembly covered with modern friction material, shaving some excess weight from the drum etc.

Paulus

Hi Paulus and everyone
We have three Series II interceptors (2 69's and one 70) and a spare engine and I had a series II (-70) in the early 70's. My recollection from all these are that the rod in question was articulated (as described below), when we first got them, suggesting that's how they came from the factory.

Have the rest of the late 60's owners the same setup? So I guess it's the way to go.
Royal.

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Speedodrive (17 August, 2003)

Does anyone know the right ratio for a kmh speedo drive on the interceptor II? With the one I have now the speedometer shows 70 km when it is in fact 70 mph....
Paulus

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Brake rod clearance (Sun Aug 17, 2003)

Hi there, I am trying fit new toga mufflers on my 66 750. The muffler interferes with the rod. Did the stock units have a cut away for this? Does anyone have a 66 with the togas that can send a clear picture of how they fit on your bike?

I'm assuming that the rod must be bent to clear. I noticed a 66 in the file photos that is hard to make out how they cleared the units.

Thanks Bobby B

I remember that the guy who manages the www.oregonvintage.com site, or maybe it's .org, has a 66. You can likely find some pictures there or ask him, and he can send you some.

Bob Cram

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Oil pressure. (Sun Aug 17, 2003)

Hi Royal.. good to have you back after this awfull accident. I hope all the parts are growing together well...

Some time ago we had a discussion about oil pressure, but as far as i remember we never included the oil used.

As this was a very hot summer over here with plus 30 celsius temperatures the 20/50 oil in my interceptor II got very thin and oil pressure worried me. I have a warning light that is on when pressure drops below 10 psi. With a cold start all was fine, after 10 minutes it lights up when idling, after 30 min. on the highway the light was on below 2500 rpm and above 3500 again. (my theory is that at low rpm
the pump just doesnt give enough pressure, but at speed the centrifugal force throws the oil faster out of the (worn) bigends than the pump can deliver ????)

Still.. the temperature on the oil in the cranckcase hardly ever gets above 85 degrees celcius.. Anyhow.. before spending money on new big ends I tried a somewhat thicker oil (Penrite 25/60) and see.. oil pressure is back all the
time! Can it be this simple?

Paulus

Hi Paulus
Yes thanks, they sure are.
About the oil viscosity etc. Adding to your question. What's the general use and experience, if any, of additives like STP and Wynns?
REgards
Royal

Hi Royal,
Just to add to the oil debate; I have used Penrite 20/60 for some time with good results although it rarely gets past 30 centigrade in the UK(!). I don't check pressure as it can be misleading but stripping after a good mileage showed little wear. I did put Active8 in the 'box which has run well (as well as an Albion ever does that is).

Penrite also do a 40/70 which I use in the Bullet and that is ridden nearly flat out when I go for a blast with some friends all on singles. It has performed faultlessly so far!

Not so the Interceptor which recently went clank when the big-end feed oil seal came out of the timing cover and was chewed up by the oil pump gears. An oversight by the factory was not to fit a circlip to prevent this occurrence (as per Triumph/Norton) and I have rectified this by drilling the oil seal housing with a small bit and wiring through outboard of the seal. I understand this failure is not unknown and needs only half an hour's work to prevent for ever such a catastrophic occurrence.

Dave Hollyman

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Interceptor Rally Discussions!! (Tue Aug 19, 2003)

Dear Royal,
I am sending this as an open letter so if it has arrived in the wrong place I apologise! I hope you are healing well and getting ready for the great Interceptor experiance once again. A friend of mine has just brought a Series II back from Stateside to the UK and he's like a kid with a new computer game. I'll get him on the web site as soon as he has it running.

The suggestion has been mooted that we should have a Rally, and I want to light
the fire under this idea.

First of all, where? It would be nice to suggest Britain but I realise that I live on an island that is far from being the middle of the planet, so to speak; also, most input on the web site seems to come from the USA. Therefore I suggest somewhere in the States as the first International Interceptor Rally Site.

As all visitors need to transport their bikes, perhaps not too far from the coast (Texas, Florida?) but of course we might get a deal with someone like North West Airlines to ship bikes as well as the owners (good old Pan Am used to do this for Daytona competitors). Also it ideally would be somewhere that our partners could find other entertainment when they are bored with bike talk!

When? I would venture to suggest April-May, September-October for many obvious
reasons, and a period of a week with a possible option to stay longer.

We would need a package including transportation, motel (reasonable range say,
from Red Roof/Motel 6 to Ramada), and at least one Dinner/Dance (or more!) with perhaps a parade and a run or two.

How? Deals from Motels, Airlines etc. and even sponsorship should be possible,
with the local town's officials and police involved. Right now Airlines should
be very interested and if they want us to say "Thanks to Del/US/North Airlines"
publically then of course we would, wouldn't we!

Another idea; involve the local Radio/TV stations. We could promote ourselves
with maybe spokesmen from different countries as helping in bringing nations
together which should please the politicians in the US right now!

Publicity should be straightforward and use clubs and of course the REOC
magazine, "The Gun". To this end we would need agents in each major area and I
should like to volunteer to be the British representative.

Basically we need a committee based in the US with say a dedicated e-mail
address for all we foreigners to use. It would need a Chairman, Secretary and a
Treasurer for starters.

Money. All this would need some financing, of course and so here is a suggestion. Entering such an Event would require a fee; given a properly run fund I would be willing to pay the Entry Fee in advance. If others did the same this would generate instant cash to start the ball rolling.

Details like Concours awards and back-up vehicles (in the extremely unlikely
event of an Interceptor breaking down) can be worked out later but again
sponsorship deals are usually the best way to go.

OK, now we need some volunteers to step right up! First the committee. We can
all e-mail in our ideas but a group of Three Just Men/Women to get things away
is the #1 requirement.

Over to you!!

Dave Hollyman

Great idea.
It's always been on the wall that we should do this.
Over the years there have been a lot of interceptor owners dropping in. I agree, that it appears as if the US is the main spot for the interceptor owners. After all, I believe the model was also targeted for the US (all that chrome).

I'm happy to be on the committee for this. As you might appreciate, keeping the web site going already takes a lot of time. I am however in a position of communication between all and will provide a special page on the committee, contact details, minutes or tabled ideas etc. on the web.

To maximize attendance, I believe we should pick an area closest to the most interceptor owners. Further, maybe we should pick an area on average closest to the 20 most active US owners. Also, it might be best to have most of the committee from that area.

Having said that, I also think we should have one rep. from each country with more than 2 Interceptor owners. Like Sweden, Finland, Germany, Holland and Australia, to mention some of the countries that have been showing up with owners. I think we would have volunteers from there already. In some cases, even if the owner is unlikely to make the trip, for some reason, he or she might still be interested and prepared to step up and assist. Not everyone of the interceptor owners is active on this discussion group.

If we think this is something worth doing, I'll put the call out to all those who have passed through the web or who have at least registered in this discussion group.
Once we get started, for all the exchanges of ideas and questions, I suggest that this discussion group might become a bit snowed under if we use it as a communication vehicle. It might detract visitors from exchanging interceptor questions, and also unnecessarily drop into a lot of peoples e-mail boxes.

So the first question will be: Do you want to get a monthly update about this planned event (those who say yes will be placed in an e- mail group) The second question: Are you willing to assist in organising this event. (you will initially be included in the e-mail group with the early discussions).

Once we have the committee and countries reps. selected we can start looking at the logistics and details of putting it together. We should also look at sponsors and media coverage (Classic Bike, et al) One challenge would be to appeal to someone (India?) to recommence the manufacture of the interceptor (why not, when we have the media coverage).

Down the line, it might be an idea to look at donating excess proceeds to a worthy cause, partnering with a sponsor for running the event (administration reasons, liability etc.) But that's all just details.
REgards
Royal

Oh David

When I mentioned other countries, I failed to mention UK, I guess because it's a given!. Maybe you can canvas the Redditch event organisers and we could have some reps. of them attend as well.

There might also be some material and memorabilia that could be included for our Rally. Just one final thing, I strongly believe we keep it an Interceptor event. There will be strong commercial interests who might want to wedge in and before you know it it's a RE Madras event, leaving the Interceptor again in obscurity.

REgards Royal

Royal, If you don't mind my 2 cents worth...

Since the Interceptor got its' inception with the early 500 twin, Meteor Minor, et.al., why not open the Rally for all RE overhead valve twins that resulted in the final development of the top of the line?

That would preclude an RE Madras event yet shed light on the popularity of great twins like the Interceptor. Just a thought. Rick We will have a Redditch Royal Enfield rally in Chicago in Feb. Date is around Valentines day. Exxact date to be announced around the end of the year. I will post it here.

Everyone is invited to crash the Vincent Owner's banquet on Saturday night.

Rick Lefauve

I like the idea of allowing the Meteors, Constellations etc., and the Rickmans of course.

Re location, I'd also suggest trying to find a place with some great roads in the vicinity. There's a place near Suches, Georgia called TWO (for Two Wheels Only) that is a resort that caters to bikers and biker events; not too far north of Atlanta. It has camping and cabins if I remember correctly.

It normally opens just on the weekend, but for a special event they might open up other dates. The roads around Suches and up into North Carolina are the best I've ever been on in my life. Atlanta also has a large international airport.

Anybody on the list from that area? Another thought. For guys who can't afford to ship bikes, maybe other bikes could be acceptable if it was an RE owner wanting to attend. That way, somebody flying in from across the world could rent a bike and still come.

Bob Cram

Would it be an exception to allow Rickman's ? I thought these were "Rickman Interceptors" I can forgive you fine Canadian fellows all the hard feelings about the black out and such, but gosh, when is a Rickman framed Series II not an Interceptor?

I think if I go re-read Royal's site he may specifically include this last variant of of beloved English built 750 twins.

RickL

I like the idea of a central location so no one has to drive over 1500 miles to get to the site. Glenn

Royal, I've just been to a rally with hundreds of RE twins (Redditch Revisited). Great; lots of my friends locally have various twins from early Meteors to late Connies. Very nice. But very few have Interceptors.

We have a web site for Interceptors only; I want a Rally for Interceptors only. I would not go to the expense and trouble of crossing the Atlantic just for an Enfield event. But I would love to see (and hear!) a large gathering of the mighty 750s.

So I'm sorry chaps, we must stick to just one machine. As far as I'm concerned if it has an Interceptor engine then it's welcome, if not then it isn't. Of course that includes all specials like the Rickman, or the Clymer 'Indian' badged models or even one-offs but they must have a 750 or nothing.

The original advertising from '69 said "..... not everyone can have one. There aren't enough to go round. The man that has one has something different." I couldn't have put it better myself.

Dave Hollyman

So any frame (for instance a Bullet) with an Interceptor engine is welcome?

Glenn

I'd like to propose "Old Bedford Village" in Bedford Pennsylvania as a site for our Interceptor rally. It's located at the junction of Interstate 99 and the Pennsylvania turnpike.

Easy access for our Canadian friends and a straight shot from the east coast seaports of Baltimore and New York for those who plan on shipping or flying their bikes over to the USA.

"Old Bedford Village" is a village comprising of about 40 log buildings representing the period of 1750 to 1850 complete with blacksmith shop, gunsmith, weavers, candlemaker etc. Very, very picturesque.

Although closed to traffic, an exception would be made for an Interceptor rally and, there would be no charge to participants. There are about 7 hotels/ B&Bs within 1 mile of 'Old Bedford Village'.

Bedford county is rural and has 13 covered bridges to visit, that would make a great ride out for us all. Gettysburg, the site of the famous American civil war battle, is only about an hour and a half away along Rt.30 the Lincoln Highway. Lots of interesting roadside places to stop at along the way.

Regards to all,

Roger.

Guys, I see the two points. Interceptors Only, vs. a historical lineage. On the Internet the number of people who can participate are in the millions. If this discussion group and the web site were to cater for anything but Interceptors we would very quickly be drowned by the majority of non-Interceptor discussions and items, loosing our identity.

Generally I will continue to keep both the web site and this discussion group "Interceptor only." However, I don't this can be said about a Rally. No matter how Big the event and venue, compared to the Internet, it's still only so many that will come.

Maybe I'm wrong, but it might be naive to expect a huge contingent of Interceptors (like more than a hundred). Imagine just a dozen or so Interceptors turning up. We could however still maintain 80% Focus on the Interceptor.

Maybe I'm contradicting myself, but following the feedback and some thinking, there might be a middle way. Let's start by saying it's not a general Redditch Royal Enfield Event, but at the same time let's remember the ancestry.

A) Let's say If the event is an Interceptor Rally, the media coverage and stories focus on Interceptor, invitations to public and owners are for Interceptors. A Concourse De'Elegance is arranged with prices and judging of Interceptors. This event would have different classes, Factory Standard Interceptors, Series I and Series II and custom built Interceptors. Note, the other, more open Royal Enfield Rallies, are often marketing exercises for distributors of price competitive retro sales of new-classic bikes, where the genuinely classic stuff is sometimes overrun by all the "new" stuff.

B) The Rickman, as well as any (American) Indian Interceptors (see photos web site) are also simply custom Interceptors in the context of the Rally. They are factory custom (Rickman factory). In my book, it's the Engine that makes an Interceptor what it is, and not the Norton Front End or the Girling shockies or the Lucas stuff. Drawing a parallel, no matter how much else you customise, if a bike has a Harley Engine, it's a Harley, right.

C) At the same time, we invite UK Built Royal Enfields since the first built Enfield was made. In contrast to the Interceptor Classics, that will make up the separate Veteran Historic Section. Where we might arrange classes based on who's coming. In my mind, the Royal Enfield made many great bikes, and the Interceptor was the final UK production, the end result a real performance classic worth taking a real good note of. That's could be the message of the rally.

D) Another idea is to take the opportunity to in conjuntion hold (what we here in Australia call) a swap meet. A market on the side, where people could sell or swap spareparts of all types of classic bikes. That would bring more people.

E) As far as attending. All attending owners (with bike or not) might register for a special badge or something. We might even organise some real cool T-shirts. If they cannot bring their Interceptor or Royal Enfield, I don't care if they come on a Honda Scooter, but IT stays in the general car park!

F) Finally I think the "Two Wheels Only" proposal sounded quite exciting.

Those were my thoughts, sorry if I'm long winded.

REgards

Royal

Royal, I can see you are a born Diplomat!! Just what we need. But before any serious decisions are made we must have a Committee.

You would obviously be one; we need at least two others and whilst I want to be involved in this I think it best that the others should come from North America. So, can we have some volunteers please?

We need a Treasurer to open an account and deal with the finance; and a Secretary to note decisions and make sure everyone is kept informed (you, or dare I suggest Kickan?) as well as at least one other to be a leader/chairperson. Then suggestions can be reviewed and decisions made.

We can then go forward! Cheers,

Dave Hollyman

PS I sent a picture of my Series II on song at the meeting at Montlhery in France; one of the original 1970 Bol D'or competing Rickmans was there, and I might be able to get the owner to bring that! DH

Roger Tht sounds like a great place! The web site http://www.oldbedfordvillage.com Has a lot of details. REgards Royal

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Help-on frame#70679 engine#yb16595 (Wednesday 20 August,2003)

.Patrick is trying to figure out the exact year for his interceptor
MKI. If you can help-frame#70679 engine#yb16595

Without checking further, I would say that it is a 1965 model year. There
are quite a number of Interceptors around in that range of numbers.

. gREgg

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Oil cooler question.

Royal,
I am just rebuilding the engine and inside the oil filter tower there is a tube
that fits over the hollow stud. It is internally tapered at one end. The
question is, which way up is the taper, top or bottom?
Thanks guys!
Dave

Hi Dave
Let's look at the exploded view of the Series II (I assume it is you have) on the picture at
http://www.ozemate.com/interceptor/me6.htm
we see the wholw setup, using the numbers there, which part do say is tapered?
REgards
Royal

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