"Made Like a Gun, Goes Like a Bullet!"
So after my slightly smug dissertation on India's traffic system (or rather on it's decentralised lack of coherence), i felt that it was time to get on the road and eat my words!
So first in Pushkar, and then in Udaipur for Dad's 63rd Birthday, i hired a Royal Enfield Bullet, and took to the hills. Royal Enfield was originally a British marque that made motorcycles and lawnmowers. They were associated with the Smalls Arms factory in Enfield, hence their name and motto - "Made like a Gun, Goes Like a Bullet!". Through a confusing series of licensing agreements, Enfield' Bullets were also manufactured in India from 1956, and the marque of "Royal Enfield" was bought by the Indian manufacturing company in 1995. Thus the Enfield Bullet, at 75 years, is the longest consecutively made motorcycle of all time!
To test the virtues of this bike, i first had to find a willing and cheap hirer in who had one available in the colours that i liked. I managed to get this solid chrome, black and red model in Pushkar for 350 Rupees per day. Petrol was another 350 Rs, which brings the grand total for a day in Aus dollars to around $16. It even came with a helmet! I clipped it around the back railing, and the clasp promptly broke as i went over a large mound in the road. Glad i wasn't wearing it! A few day's later in Udaipur Dad and I hired two more classic Bullets in Black and Gold. Both bikes were probably about 10-15 years old, and were fine examples of the classic Bullet production.
One result of making a motorcycle the same way for 75 years, is that it can be left behind by other standards and developments in manufacturing. As a result the Bullet has a long standing quirk of having the rear brake pedal under your left foot, while the gear shift pedal is not only under your right foot, but is also upside down! I.e. to get to first you go Up, the Down for 2-3-4th Gear. The Bullet gearbox also has a "unique" feature of a "quick neutral" lever behind your right heel, so that you can shift straight into Neutral from any gear (except first). Got all that? It took me about 20 minutes and several hair-raising experiences to get the hang of it. It's one thing to discuss Indian traffic from the backseat of a Rickshaw - it's a whole different thing to experience it on the road, as a motorcyclist no less. One thing that India and Australia definitely share is that Motorcycles are low on the food chain! The main problem i had with the gear box was that it totally messed with my emergency reactions. So when on a narrow stretch of road a Jeep came barreling towards me, overtaking a bus and on my side of the road, i tried to hit the brakes, but only ended up shifting into 2nd gear! I managed to pull off the road and out of the way thankfully. And that's to say nothing of the fucking holy fucking cows which go where they please! At least they move slower than the Goats.. But i digress.
While riding, i was considering how to review a pre-loved hire bike ridden in foreign territory. Hire bikes classically have quirks all of their own that come from riders (like me) trashing the shit out of them and then returning them. Hahaha the pleasure of hire riding. So i thought i would just make some comments about a few factors that matter the most when motorcycling. Comfort would be a big one, Power another, Handling is definitely important, as is Colour Scheme, Exhaust Note and Hot-ness factors. That's the important stuff I reckon.Then there's things like reliability, braking, durability. Boring buyers lists really.
So, the Bullet! 350cc in a whopping great 4-stroke single cylinder. To start from the start, straight off the bat i found it difficult to get started. Did that make sense? I've only ridden one other bike that requires a manual kickstart before, so it took me fucking ages to get the hang of kicking the Bullet into life - finding the compression stroke, pushing all the way through, tickling the fuel lines. Dad was having a field day watching me lose my shit when i couldn't restart the damn thing after taking it back to the hotel to gloat. Then comes along a local guy, who started it with one smooth roar! Bastard! The exhaust note was superb - a really solid sledgehammer thump that rattled the whole bike while in neutral, and bit chunks off the tarmac in motion. Having mainly ridden a V-twin in Australia, i really noticed the difference in rhythm of the single cylinder. Acceleration was also different - it lagged behind the throttle a bit - so that when you went to open it up on a straight it kind of took it's time responding. But when it did, it started roaring along, putting me in mind of a big graceful elephant picking up speed slowly but surely and settling into this kind of loping gallop at 60km/p/h. The top speed that i had both Bullet's up to was around 80km/p/h, but it was hard to tell for sure as the speedo's didn't really work. It probably could have comfortably gone a bit further, maybe to 120km or so, but the conditions really were too sketchy to try that. I was already half blinded at 80 by the streaming tears of true joy - speed tears!
So the Bullet definitely has Power - most of the time it was really comfortable cruising along in second, tackling steep hills, slow traffic, fast straights etc without missing a beat. And it was really easy to sit on - i could definitely see a long journey on one of these being a treat. Nice upright position, easily graspable bars. So the major flaw of the Bullet would have to be it's handling. With a cast iron block engine and a tube steel frame that comes in at over two meters long, it was pretty hard to make the thing dance, so to speak. On one set of corners, i tried really hard to get the Bullet to lean over, but what with the delayed acceleration, and the upright position, it wasn't having a bar of it. In Pushkar, Dad and I did however take the bike way off the beaten track down a series of rocky dirt roads to a hidden Shiva temple, and it's a bit of a miracle that we managed to get back out again - i guess the best way to explain the Bullet's handling is that if you just point it in a straight line and keep steady on the handle bars, it could probably tackle just about anything (slowly). So that's a plus. Aim straight and shoot carefully so to speak.
All up I found the Bullet a treat to ride. For the next stage of my explorations of this classic bike i'm going to ride from Delhi (crazy traffic central) to Rishikesh (hippie yoga mum central) and back over a week. I'll let you know how it goes!
Oh and the final test - Hotness! I'll let you be the judge...
From the red deserts of India,
Mad Love
RUIN
 |
| mmm chrome |
So first in Pushkar, and then in Udaipur for Dad's 63rd Birthday, i hired a Royal Enfield Bullet, and took to the hills. Royal Enfield was originally a British marque that made motorcycles and lawnmowers. They were associated with the Smalls Arms factory in Enfield, hence their name and motto - "Made like a Gun, Goes Like a Bullet!". Through a confusing series of licensing agreements, Enfield' Bullets were also manufactured in India from 1956, and the marque of "Royal Enfield" was bought by the Indian manufacturing company in 1995. Thus the Enfield Bullet, at 75 years, is the longest consecutively made motorcycle of all time!
To test the virtues of this bike, i first had to find a willing and cheap hirer in who had one available in the colours that i liked. I managed to get this solid chrome, black and red model in Pushkar for 350 Rupees per day. Petrol was another 350 Rs, which brings the grand total for a day in Aus dollars to around $16. It even came with a helmet! I clipped it around the back railing, and the clasp promptly broke as i went over a large mound in the road. Glad i wasn't wearing it! A few day's later in Udaipur Dad and I hired two more classic Bullets in Black and Gold. Both bikes were probably about 10-15 years old, and were fine examples of the classic Bullet production.
 |
| Yep they still make em like they used to. Old dog and old bike. heheh |
One result of making a motorcycle the same way for 75 years, is that it can be left behind by other standards and developments in manufacturing. As a result the Bullet has a long standing quirk of having the rear brake pedal under your left foot, while the gear shift pedal is not only under your right foot, but is also upside down! I.e. to get to first you go Up, the Down for 2-3-4th Gear. The Bullet gearbox also has a "unique" feature of a "quick neutral" lever behind your right heel, so that you can shift straight into Neutral from any gear (except first). Got all that? It took me about 20 minutes and several hair-raising experiences to get the hang of it. It's one thing to discuss Indian traffic from the backseat of a Rickshaw - it's a whole different thing to experience it on the road, as a motorcyclist no less. One thing that India and Australia definitely share is that Motorcycles are low on the food chain! The main problem i had with the gear box was that it totally messed with my emergency reactions. So when on a narrow stretch of road a Jeep came barreling towards me, overtaking a bus and on my side of the road, i tried to hit the brakes, but only ended up shifting into 2nd gear! I managed to pull off the road and out of the way thankfully. And that's to say nothing of the fucking holy fucking cows which go where they please! At least they move slower than the Goats.. But i digress.
 |
| Tight corner.. |
While riding, i was considering how to review a pre-loved hire bike ridden in foreign territory. Hire bikes classically have quirks all of their own that come from riders (like me) trashing the shit out of them and then returning them. Hahaha the pleasure of hire riding. So i thought i would just make some comments about a few factors that matter the most when motorcycling. Comfort would be a big one, Power another, Handling is definitely important, as is Colour Scheme, Exhaust Note and Hot-ness factors. That's the important stuff I reckon.Then there's things like reliability, braking, durability. Boring buyers lists really.
 |
| Get that landscape out of the way! |
So, the Bullet! 350cc in a whopping great 4-stroke single cylinder. To start from the start, straight off the bat i found it difficult to get started. Did that make sense? I've only ridden one other bike that requires a manual kickstart before, so it took me fucking ages to get the hang of kicking the Bullet into life - finding the compression stroke, pushing all the way through, tickling the fuel lines. Dad was having a field day watching me lose my shit when i couldn't restart the damn thing after taking it back to the hotel to gloat. Then comes along a local guy, who started it with one smooth roar! Bastard! The exhaust note was superb - a really solid sledgehammer thump that rattled the whole bike while in neutral, and bit chunks off the tarmac in motion. Having mainly ridden a V-twin in Australia, i really noticed the difference in rhythm of the single cylinder. Acceleration was also different - it lagged behind the throttle a bit - so that when you went to open it up on a straight it kind of took it's time responding. But when it did, it started roaring along, putting me in mind of a big graceful elephant picking up speed slowly but surely and settling into this kind of loping gallop at 60km/p/h. The top speed that i had both Bullet's up to was around 80km/p/h, but it was hard to tell for sure as the speedo's didn't really work. It probably could have comfortably gone a bit further, maybe to 120km or so, but the conditions really were too sketchy to try that. I was already half blinded at 80 by the streaming tears of true joy - speed tears!
 |
| Rooooooooaad! |
So the Bullet definitely has Power - most of the time it was really comfortable cruising along in second, tackling steep hills, slow traffic, fast straights etc without missing a beat. And it was really easy to sit on - i could definitely see a long journey on one of these being a treat. Nice upright position, easily graspable bars. So the major flaw of the Bullet would have to be it's handling. With a cast iron block engine and a tube steel frame that comes in at over two meters long, it was pretty hard to make the thing dance, so to speak. On one set of corners, i tried really hard to get the Bullet to lean over, but what with the delayed acceleration, and the upright position, it wasn't having a bar of it. In Pushkar, Dad and I did however take the bike way off the beaten track down a series of rocky dirt roads to a hidden Shiva temple, and it's a bit of a miracle that we managed to get back out again - i guess the best way to explain the Bullet's handling is that if you just point it in a straight line and keep steady on the handle bars, it could probably tackle just about anything (slowly). So that's a plus. Aim straight and shoot carefully so to speak.
All up I found the Bullet a treat to ride. For the next stage of my explorations of this classic bike i'm going to ride from Delhi (crazy traffic central) to Rishikesh (hippie yoga mum central) and back over a week. I'll let you know how it goes!
Oh and the final test - Hotness! I'll let you be the judge...
From the red deserts of India,
Mad Love
RUIN
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