Royal Enfield motorbike - why would anyone buy one?

It was indeed. Pling Boot and all that.

 

I'd rather have a bike that costs twice as much (that's highly debatable)
and drinks more fuel but that will go all day as fast as you like without
missing a beat, is beautifully engineered and can be relied upon day after
day with hardly a thought, than some slow, wobbly, rattly piece of crap
which comes with a free "fall-apart-while-u-ride" feature as part of the
deal.

Because they can't afford anything else?

 

Hmm on reflection, maybe buying a Royal Enfield is more about choosing
to be
an *individual*. Choosing to stand out from the crowd.

....And not a VICTIM. A victim of The Media, of motorbike mag reviews,
of marketing
budgets, mass produced plastic and logos, and of multi-national
corporate brand names.

I mean why NOT make a deliberately "bad" buying decision?
After all it's your money and it's a free country here in the UK.

You see most of us have our buying decisions MADE FOR US by our
"reasons".
It's almost as is we have no choice of our own to step outside of
"reasonable-ness".
It's like... if you add up the total of your individual past
experiences, including all the
conversations you've had in the past, all the opinions you've formed
and expressed...
and all the reviews you've read in the press... and all the
peer-pressure and concerns about looking good... If you add ALL that up
and then follow it, you will have your buying
decisions made for you. You see you aren't really "free" at all. You
are being controlled.
Controlled by your reasons.

So why not step outside of your past and your computer-like logic -
that clunky suit
of armour that you wonder around in that protects you from truly living
life and just do
something a bit crazy... Like buy an Enfield!


....Am I getting warm yet?

But in any case, let's face it they've still got to be a LOT more
reliable than the machines
my grand father drove. And he got by.

I dunno, maybe the risk of occassional break down is part of the
adventure?


Ship
Shiperton Henethe

 

Using the patented Mavis Beacon "Hunt&Peck" Technique, Champ

I'm not really sure that an Enfield can be described as a 'consumer
durable', TBH.

It's really more of a 'consumable'.


--
Wicked Uncle Nigel - Podium Placed Ducati Race Engineer As featured in
Performance Bikes

WS* GHPOTHUF#24 APOSTLE#14 DLC#1 COFF#20 BOTAFOT#150 HYPO#0(KoTL) IbW#41
SBS#39 OMF#6 Enfield 500 Curry House Racer "The Basmati Rice Burner",
Honda GL1000K2 (On its hols) Kawasaki ZN1300 Voyager "Oh, Oh, It's so big"
Suzuki TS250 "The Africa Single" Yamaha Vmax Honda ST1100 wiv trailer

 

The people I know in the U.S. who have bought them have done so purely
for nostalgia's sake. Most have been guys who own a modern motorcycle
(or several) as well as having owned more than a few vintage 1950's,
1960's, and/or 1970's British twins over the years. While you can
find old British tumpers (single cylinder 4-stroke bikes) here in the
U.S., they are exceedingly rare as compared to the sheer numbers of
older twins that can be easily sourced. Then too, the thumpers we do
find are typically the BSA Victor 441 and the later BSA B50, neither of
which are very appreciated in the U.S.

Also, there are a number of old bike enthusiasts who never had the
opportunity to own one of these old British-designed machines from new,
and the Indan (now back to Royal, at least in the U.S.) Enfield
provides that opportunity for those folks.

They buy them, and they ride them on weekends, on back roads, at a
relaxed, sightseeing pace, for the throwback experience of a motorcycle
that ISN'T perfect by modern engineering standards, one that allows you
to drift back to a simpler, slower time in motorcycling history. It
wouldn't be the same on a Suzuki Marauder 250.

When you buy a new, lightweight, affordable Japanese (and now, even
Korean or Chinese) motorcycle, you are likely to get a seamless, quiet,
low effort, low maintenence machine that requires little to no user
adjustments or input other than simply throwing a leg over the thing
and riding it. You're not likely to learn much about motorcycle
mechanics by owning it, and often the bikes are put together in such a
way as to be quite discouraging to work on ... like an engine bay in a
car with a sticker that says "No User Serviceable Parts Herein."

Some people want to add the relaxing, puttering about feeling of
adjusting this and fettling that and even re-engineering some small
parts (fender stays that crack from vibration, exhaust mufflers that
tend to self-loosen, etc) themselves. For them, the bike is more than
just transportation or an anonymous point A to point B appliance, but
it represents a hobby, and an outlet for their own creativity. Some
people build choppers, some people bolt extra chrome to their bikes,
some people bolt frame sliders and titanium exhaust systems onto their
bikes. Different strokes for different folks.

Of course, all the detractors of the Royal Enfield are right - it is
NOT a good value, it is NOT a well-engineered product by the standards
of the day, it is NOT your best bet for reliable, everyday 2-wheeled
transportation. Duh.

Luckily, we live in a society where we have the choice of buying the
anti-septic goodness of the latest hands-off product of Japanese
engineering (get your Honda Insight right here, step right up!) if
that's what tickles our fancy, or buying something that's obsolete
right out of the box, and has already been so for 35 years.

Next time, you should ask about Urals.

 

Boat anchor. No, rewind. It would cause an oil slick.



Regards,

Simonm.

 

I am *so* enjoying this thread.

See your Ural. Raise you a Cossack+chair...

Regards,

Simonm.

 

Anyone care to comment about how *thrifty* these things are in practice
compared to 'modern' 500cc bikes?

Do the Enfields really to 60-70 MPG... and how does that compare?

In a previous life, I had a new Yamaha 750cc (SuperTenere) it had a
very smooth engine
and was great fun to ride, plus highly visible in traffic. But I never
got much more
than 30-40 MPG and (just for the record) it became *horrendously*
expensive to maintain
in parts... and it got nicked in any case much to my bank manager's
relief!


Ship
Shiperton Henethe

 

"...are among the world's oldest extant mountain ranges"

S

 

I already have enough non-sensible things. Series III land rover, sierra
4x4...

 

Most bikes only need the odd top-up of oil every couple of thousand
miles, if that.

--
_______
..'_/_|_\_'. Ace (brucedotrogers a.t rochedotcom)
\`\ | /`/ GSX-R1000K3
`\\ | //' BOTAFOT#3, SbS#2, UKRMMA#13, DFV#8, SKA#2, IBB#10
`\|/`
`

 

<cough>

 

He was asking about 'modern' bikes.

--
_______
..'_/_|_\_'. Ace (brucedotrogers a.t rochedotcom)
\`\ | /`/ GSX-R1000K3
`\\ | //' BOTAFOT#3, SbS#2, UKRMMA#13, DFV#8, SKA#2, IBB#10
`\|/`
`

 

He was talking about petrol, petroleum spirit, gasoline, gas,
global warming, and green-house gas pollutants.

And you know it.

Ship
Shiperton Henethe

 

Stop entering daft competitions.

It makes a lousy spares box too.

You could use one to hold the gate open though. Just.

With a gallon of tit thrown over it, it'd be perfect.


--
Beav

VN 750
Zed 1000
OMF# 19

 

That'd be the crowd of riders on decent bikes that you set out with and who
are now disappearing into the distance, I take it?

I'll be a victim if means I get where I'm going and get back again on the
same bike.

Give us a reason *to* make a deliberately bad decision.

But Enfields aren't free. Nearly, but not quite.

Like "I want reliability, speed, comfort, all my fingers and toes as opposed
to hope, slowness, white knuckle and tingly feet" you mean?

I find it reasonable to be controlled by my reasons. Why else would I buy
food that nourishes me, rather than just tastes good or looks good? It must
be my unreasonableness and ability to be controlled.
..

^^^^^^
wander
around in that protects you from truly living

Living life means riding a motorcycle, not sitting at the side of the road
looking at a broken down one.

and just do

That's not crazy, that's just plain stupid.

I should hope so, there's a fucking heatwave going on out there in the real
world.

They aren't. They're the same thing. Maybe when I'm your grandad, I'll ride
a shite old Enfield. too, but I doubt it.

It can be in the right circumstances, but what ARE the right circumstances?


--
Beav

VN 750
Zed 1000
OMF# 19

 

No bike uses fuel when it's sat at the side of the road awaiting pick-up.

When they're running, they may do.

Not as expensive as an Enfield. They cost around 3 grand and last about 5
minutes. Replace them at that time interval gets expensive quite quickly.

Your bank managers feeling really mean that much to you? Personally, I
couldn't give a **** if mine had a heart attack when he looks at what I
spend. They're nosy cunts anyway.

--
Beav

VN 750
Zed 1000
OMF# 19

 

8,500 on my Zed so far and it's not used a drop.


--
Beav

VN 750
Zed 1000
OMF# 19

 

WGAF about that stuff?


--
Beav

VN 750
Zed 1000
OMF# 19

 

You can hop, skip and dance all you like in an attempt to justify your
untenable position. The fact remains - you took on a shite bike and your
attempt to sell it, while laudable, remains pointless.

Shoot yourself, shoot yourself now; it's the decent thing to do.