Royal Enfield

Ok guys, I know the Royal Enfields from India aren't up to Japanese quality
etc but can anyone give me a fair and honest opinion of how these bikes are?

I can live with maintaining an 'old school' bike as I'm mechanically
competent but I wouldn't want a bike that's forever falling to bits or
needing constant maintenance.

I can also live with the low power output as long as it's competent at
100kph.

Are these things suitable for larger riders (I'm tall and heavy but no
'bubba')?

So, what's the verdict on these bikes? It looks to suit my style and a
desire not to jump back on a fast bike.

PS. I'm looking for a weekend bike and occaisonal daily rider.

Regards

 

In aus.motorcycles on Wed, 25 Jun 2008 20:51:20 +1000

When properly pre-delivered and reasonably well looked after they seem
to be fine. Saw one at MotoCiclio with the pipe bright blue from heat
- had been ridden from Canberra with the carb half off the manifold
and the choke all the way out to compensate. Been like that for a few
months apparently.

So they seem fairly tough even with really clueless owners.

I haven't had it up to that, but I'm told they should be fine at that
speed. IF a 250cc BMW can do 85kmh I think a 500cc Enfield can do
100.

Might be physically a bit small. You should ride one to see.

Zebee

 

Ride one , they can drag me over the limit and I hear with some
tinkering respond well to the usual fiddling

 

Never owned one so this is hearsay:

1. pushrods are different lengths ( all of them) and they are variably
case hardened on the tips so if one wears you might have problems
getting the right one to fit.
2. handles like a pregnant nun on a skateboard, c/o old tech
shocks/forks
3. too slow to actually get too badly out of shape as in 2.
4. 1950's technology built by the Indians... how bad can it be?
5. They get modern(ish) carbs and electrics (again built in India)
6. Fuel efficiency to a degree, but if you're really pagan buy a horse
or a second hand Honda C90
7. They Keep On Going - well yes they do, mebbes not as well as some
but they will stand abuse (see Honda C90)
8. with an open-face and goggles you can pretend to be Lawrence of
Arabia/Steve McQueen/The Red Baron.... er, yeah, ok.

I'd have one.
But then I like most bikes that are quirky, which is why I have a
Guzzi.
Some bikes you can live with, some you have to learn to live with.

Jeffles

 

I had the origional 350 , 500 and a 650 back in the days of being
younger , tuned they were excellent , the Indian one I am familiar with
and have ridden a little seems much the same , now it's old tech of
course but they are very cheap to run and certainly wont over power the
average rider .

 

Worth knowing that but if the worst happens it'd probably be best to get
some custom made, which shouldn't be that expensive.

Saw a review which mentioned that BUT, then again, it is an old suspension
design.

Could be a good thing depending on how you look at it.

Looking on the bright side, it shouldn't be that hard to fix.....assuming
not everything needs fixing. Hence me asking here.

The carbs are supposed to be quite modern....by comparison. Oh, and it has
an alternator rather than a generator.

Not fussed on the fuel economy as long as it's not running out the exhaust.

I once fixed an old 80 engine that hadn't run for 10 years. Bike had been
left on it's side in a paddock. Had it running in under a day.

I prefer full face helmets so as to avoid camel dung, sand, nasty Nazis,
bugs and such...

Interesting, my alternative is a Duke. OK OK that's not a Guzzi but it's
geographically similar.

Learning to live with a bike is one thing, having one force you to ride its'
way is another.

 

Or:
Gee, my brother bought one of those and he says it is a heap of shit

 

Did you use your mobile phone to reply to that post?

Alex V

 

I'm mechanically competent with experience on older engines, albeit not
motorcycles. I realise this is no Honda "get on it and ride forever" type
bike, it will need a higher level of maintenance and overall attention to
the bikes capabilities.

Typical mid-life crisis bike for me. Just want to get something to use on
the weekend and tinker with.

How early is "early", the bikes essentially been in production for 50+
years. If you mean the first imported Indian models, I heard of some issues
but usually from people who expected it to be a modern retro bike,

350, 500 or what? Which gearbox? Generally how did you find it?

 

You can tell he didn't because he managed to use some punctuation.

Without focusing on poncie, it must be hard to intentionally spell things
wrong for the sake of it than it is to get it right. There doesn't seem much
point in it...

 

It's like these wankers that use L8R, 2MORROW, PH@T and all these other
stupid kiddy-spellings; they actually take more keystrokes than just keying
the word in english!

 

I'd rather the 500 with LH shift 5 speed. I'd go electric start even though
I love the idea of a kick start (until it won't start).

Melbourne. There's a local agent for new bikes in the city but I believe he
doesn't stock them but rather buys them in on order. Of course, I've yet to
visit the shop and find out what the deal is.

 

In aus.motorcycles on Wed, 2 Jul 2008 19:35:16 +1000

The Electra still has a kick I believe.

He should have a demo. Moto Ciclio in Sydney definitely has a demo,
I've ridden it... He's selling a couple a month and doesn't seem to
have them back in the workshop except for routine servicing.

Zebee

 

Yeah but the Electra engine is a modern engine. I'd much rather the Classic
or Deluxe version, which also has a kick start.

Was just looking that the RoyalEnfield site as well as Eurobrit (in
Melbourne). May be worth a visit, IF I ever get some time off work.

 

What; LATE 50s?

 

It doesn't have the classic look of the older motor.

 

Agreed, the ancient engine looks best.

 

The Electra has longer service intervals but not much more power and not
really any better reliability.

+1 for the older engined bike looking better...


G-S

 

In aus.motorcycles on Thu, 03 Jul 2008 20:05:33 +1000

But still -2 for the brakes.

I regularly ride drum braked bikes. But the Enfield has smaller brakes
than either and the damn thing weighs a fair bit more[1] than the Yellow
Devil and has single sided twin leader. The Devil's double sided twin
is good enough for traffic these days you'd want to be very careful with
a 7" single sided TLS.

Zebee
- who has found a 10" 4LS can pull up 260kg of Guzzi surprisingly quickly
when applied with enough panic.

[1] I note with amusement they don't give the weight on the specs page
on the Oz site, but I somehow think it's more than the Devil's 120kg
wet....

 

Knobdoodle wrote...

Unless those mobiles that they target kids with have these words already
programmed into the predictive text database...

And yes, the phone that I use definately would require 4 or 5 extra keystrokes
just to enter 3 characters compared to its predictive text input.

I wonder if they took the saying, "why utilise big words when small iterations
would suffice?" too literally...