RE BULLET TIDY-UP ....................................
Roger Slater couldn’t believe the bad press that Indian Enfields attract in America. To discover the truth he just had to buy one. And then… well, who can resist a little bit of fettling?
Roger Slater couldn’t believe the bad press that Indian Enfields attract in America. To discover the truth he just had to buy one. And then… well, who can resist a little bit of fettling?
For my sins I felt I had to get myself a ‘modern’, Indian-made Royal Enfield. Why on earth would I deliberately do that to myself, you might ask? Several reasons (excuses) really. Top of the list is anno domini senectus. I was born in 1936 so you can work out the sordid detail for yourself. With the exception of my lovely Norton Easy-Two, I am no longer capable of cocking my right leg over the back to get on/off any of the bikes in the shed. The Enfield ticks that box nicely.
Second, I am curious to see whether all the bad press the Indian-made Enfields have received over here in the USA is valid. Thirdly, I wanted a real 1950s retro bike, not a make-believe so-called ‘retro’ crotch-rocket currently on offer by every man and his dog.
Aware of the media hatchet job on the Enfield, I was not going to dive into the deep end with a brand new one. A low mileage example at half the new price seemed the way to go – in case I could not get on with it. Searches on Fleebay found a few suitable candidates but they were usually 3000 miles away, nothing within tyre-kicking distance. Suddenly one popped up which was ‘only’
350 miles away in Montana. It was described as a 2011 Classic 500, with only 633 miles on the clock, as new condition with panniers and screen. I had to have it. The current Enfields are light years away from the ones we were inflicted with when my brother and I imported them into UK in the 1970s. The paintwork is first class and fully up to any modern standard. Chrome is splattered all over it and of a tolerable standard, but the pre-chrome metal polishing is somewhat slapdash. Fuel injection works a treat, electronic ignition and petrol tap, nice low single seat: it really is an eye-catcher. The all-alloy unit construction motor looks the part, is nicely done and completely incontinence-free. So I got my genuine antique 1950s experience but with just a bit of discreet modern technology to garnish the whole affair.
Time for my first ride. Oh joy, I can easily swing my leg over the back. Despite being vertically challenged, I can plant both feet on the deck while seated. What a luxury: just press the starter button to have the engine fire up at once. No fiddling with this, that and t’other, plus a long-winded kickstart procedure. Just press a magic button. With its fuel injection, the bike simply sits there idling from cold with the throttle closed. It will sit there going duff duff duff until it runs out of fuel. How nice is that?
The clutch action is light with no clunk into first gear. Off we go!
I always wanted to say this: ‘All the control fell readily to hand,’ as the Blue ’Un and the Green ’Un testers used to say. First gear is low enough to pull stumps on the back forty, so second is called for within a few feet. What a lovely gearbox. Is this new five speeder? Click click click – fifth gear selected. Oh nice, lovely smooth vibration-free engine. Light steering, but the suspension is much too hard over the frost heaves. The brakes are much the same as they all were in the 1950s, not quite adequate for modern traffic, especially the rear. Acceleration is leisurely, no crotch rocket here, as is fitting for a gentleman’s tourer. Exhaust note is a very nice, easy on the ear basso profundo. So far so good, but wait – there’s more.
Out onto some open, traffic-free lanes and it’s time to get a bit of a move on. At 55mph the bars started to vibrate. At 60 the vibration was pronounced, mainly at the handlebars. At that same speed the pleasantly light steering at lower speeds started to come unstuck. The plot tended toward mild, twitchy instability. Push on to 70mph and the Bullet is now definitely lacking in directional stability. Nothing unsafe about it, just felt like it needed more trail in the steering geometry.