I have been a proud owner of a Royal Enfield Bullet for a little over 3 years now and do enjoy an occasional long tour.
Often I used to find myself discussing about my love for my bike with friends of mine over and over and how they (my friends) could do a lot better for themselves on tours and on city roads by moving to a Bullet ( I do want to mention here that I also own a 2003 Pulsar – 150 CC, which was my first bike)
On thinking over the matter again and again I came up with the following reasons for recommending this bike to everyone :
Strong – Royal Enfield Bullet is a powerful machine with the biggest engine around on all the Indian bikes. One can easily cruise at 70 – 80 Kmph without even feeling a slightest glitch or pinch that the engine is being pushed – which is a very normal situation with any other small engine bikes – They start smoking as soon as you hit 70-80kmph.
Safest Bike on Indian Roads – By far Royal Enfield manufactures the safest of bikes on the Indian Roads. The reason which make it the safest are :
Wide Spanned and Strong Crash Bar (One can install the crash bar for the pillion rider as well)
Protruding Foot Rest – Footrest always protrude the sides of the bike so just in case of an accident or fall your leg and foot don’t bear the brunt and the footrest definitely add the extra cushion with a very comfortable sitting posture. .
Heavy and Safe : RE is the most stable bike at any of the speeds [Upto 110 Kms]. With the introduction of Disc Breaks the safety standards have only increased
Brotherhood – There is a special camaraderie between Royal Enfield owners. Means how often do you see Pulsar or for that matter Karizma owners coming together and riding out? And in fact have you actually ever noticed other bike owners come together and start riding in a formation, without actually sharing a common destination and without pre planning it.
It always seems the new age bikes are always trying to edge each other out…be it the race to the next red light or just the sheer enthusiasm of overtaking another biker who doesn’t even realize that the race is on!
Royal Enfield has the maximum number of clubs dedicated towards touring in India.
Longevity – I have not seen any of the other bikes lasting through the decades. Whereas you can easily discover 1950’s – 1960’s Bullets still thumping strong.
Maneuvering – Maneuvering on the Delhi Roads has been a cake walk. I agree the bike is heavy and you need to have some strength in case you get off balance but Bullet is still a dream to handle. The handle allows almost 70-80% of rotation which makes it easier to cut through a heavily jammed road.
Comfortable Tourer : I must say I have been blown away with the posture a Royal Enfield provides the rider even with the company fitted normal seats. I hardly think that there is any other bike which comes close to the comfort levels offered by Royal Enfield. Then there is always an option to explore other seating options like Spring Seats/Longer Back rest for the rider among other things.
Sound – Thump and the beat..Need I say more?
However, there are still a few things, if improved, will the bike much more desirable For example :
Better Customer Service : Customer service with the authorized service centers still remains questionable and I think I have suffered a lot on their hands. Imagine an authorized dealer not cleaning bike’s carburetor when the average servicing bill comes upto Rs 1500 per service (Without any spare parts)
Bigger Petrol Tank : Smaller fuel capacity always hurts on the long rides specially when your other non RE biker friends don’t need to fill up.
Slightly Cheaper Spare Parts : I must say that RE spare parts are really really expensive compared to the other bikes but once you are experienced a little you always know where to grab on that extra crash and air filter from.
Better Headlights : A good headlight goes a long way to help you on the lonely and long stretches while riding long and I so wish that RE provided us with good stock headlights. There is always the need to install that extra piece of lighting equipment on the bike but it also means that those extra resources will make sure the life out of the battery is snatched out.
Grease Monkey – You will have to have some sort of mechanical competency to manage this bike on long tours. As small as ‘A fuse’ damage could leave you in a spot and without help for miles and it’s not easy to drag this 180Kg bike. So better how those nuts and bolts have been put together. By the way this is one of the highlight of owning a Bullet
I would like to end it by saying “Royal Enfield is for those who hate plastic spaceships ”
Do let me know what do you guys think? and if I have forgotten to mention anything
by- Aristo Bhupal
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