Brrm brrm!

[brrm]

I will have bored many of you with this already, so this is just for personal diaryism, really.
On 12th April, I ordered a 500cc Royal Enfield Bullet motorcycle (much like this one) from F2 Motorcycles of Banbury. For the uninitiated, this is a 1950s British bike that continued to be built in Madras, India, after the Redditch factory closed.

I believe it will arrive at F2 around the 28th April, and I will get my grubby hands on it about two weeks later when Dave Angel, the proprietor, has done some preparatory work on it (rustproofing, fitting electronic ignition, fitting a different seat, etc). 12th May has never looked so far away.

Comments

[emperor]

What do they ride like compared to a more conventional machine?

[brrm.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure "a more conventional machine" is an easy definition to pin down. Closest to what is probably your definition is frodomorris' Suzuki Bandit 650 (now sold), as pillion. The most noticeable aspect is MUCH more power, but this is also delivered in a turbine-like fashion in the higher revs, rather than torquily at low revs. The bike I took my test on was a 125cc Yamaha single - which behaved in a similar manner to my father's singles I was used to, at low revs. Partway through the CBT, I discovered that there was considerably more 'go' in the 125, at revs which would make the old british singles fall apart. :-)
Brakes of course are similarly representative of an older machine - quite a bit less stopping power.
Royal Enfield are, however, updating things a little of late. They now produce something called the Electra X, which sports a lean-burn engine similar in character to the original, but with lower emissions and designed to be lower-maintenance and mildly more powerful. Plus other mod-cons like a 5-speed gearbox with the shift lever on the left (as with pretty much all modern bikes, though I am used to shifters on both sides on my father's collection).

Does that answer your question at all?

[frodomorris.livejournal.com]

What brrm said. My Bandit replacement though pulls like a tractor from idle, but is hardly conventional in any sense of the word, except it does have the usual number of wheels. If we take 'conventional machine' to be a Japanese four-cylinder commuter bike (500-650 cc), then this Enfield will pull better from low revs, but stop pulling a long time earlier than the Jap. I expect that the riding position is more upright too, which might make you feel more exposed at high speeds (although a lot of Jap commuters come in a naked - no fairing - version, which doesn't offer any wind protection either).