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I'm thinking of upgrading.
I've been looking at the Royal Enfield Bullets- the recent ones. Anyone have experience with them? They're in my price range and they look pretty sweet for a new bike.

Tom wrote:I'm thinking of upgrading.
I've been looking at the Royal Enfield Bullets- the recent ones. Anyone have experience with them? They're in my price range and they look pretty sweet for a new bike.

They're funny, I guess.

Buy an early 70s Honda CB350/500. It will do everything better than a "brand new" Royal Enfield at less cost and it will be more reliable. Or an 80s shaft drive kawasaki GPz 550.

Forgive me for the hijack, but does anyone have experience with triumphs? I'm thinking about the america, which apparently is the same bike as the Bonneville.

my nan's friend was a tester for royal enfields. he used to get 2-one for each of them and they used to bomb up and down the wolverhapmton road in the 20's!!
get one!

vockins wrote:

Tom wrote:I'm thinking of upgrading.
I've been looking at the Royal Enfield Bullets- the recent ones. Anyone have experience with them? They're in my price range and they look pretty sweet for a new bike.

They're funny, I guess.

Buy an early 70s Honda CB350/500. It will do everything better than a "brand new" Royal Enfield at less cost and it will be more reliable. Or an 80s shaft drive kawasaki GPz 550.

The Bullet looks good.
I cant image it being very reliable.
And 22 HP would make it a dog. How are you going to pillion anyone around?

I would go with the Honda...or maybe the new Triumph Speed Triple...oh wait that's me. I wish.

Good luck,
spoon

Never ridden an Enfield, but my mechanic swears by the old ones and rides his year-round.

Just got all new valve gear for my Commando and can't wait to get it ready for summer.

As for Triumphs, I love the new Speed Triple and wish I could afford one. Man, what a great looking machine. Same goes for the Daytona.

Who was it that bought the Buell last year? How's that goin'?

Everyone I know with an S3 loves it. That goes for most other Triumphs as well. I would prefer a Thruxton over the Bonne though, if you're going "modern classic" - and while on that tangent, I'd really love a Ducati Sport 1000.

By the way, going to http://www.triumph.com does not take you to the motorbike manufacture's website, but some of you boys might like it anyway.

The Enfield would just be cool to have. Not really reliable, not really super fast, not really easy to get parts for, but if it makes squishy inside, you should go for it. You don't see many of them around, and I for one am a big fan of weird, obscure bikes, even if they're slow and break down all the time.

Two friends of mine had a whole scheme of buing a few new Enfields, and documenting a cross country ride on them. I would love to do something like this. You know like - it's the journey, not the desitnation and all that.

I'm slightly weary of sports bikes, as I am on my way to owning my first motorcycle. I know that I want to get started on a cruiser, but I'm not into Harley Davidson or tasmanian devil tattooes, so I've found the triumph america to be a good introduction that I won't want to sell down the line. However, I'm very interested in what Moto Guzzi has to offer in the way of cruisers, but I was told they require more maintenance on a regular basis. Does anyone know this for a fact?

A friend in NY has a Guzzi Stone - loves it - and whenever we all go riding together it really impresses the shit out of everyone. For being such a big looking cruiser, it handles better than many sport bikes. Last time we all got together in NE Georgia, our local pal there had a hard time keeping up with him on a Gixxer. Granted, the guy is a really good rider to begin with, but everyone who's taken it out for a squirt comes back amazed (yes, amazed). It's just so perfectly balanced. He's put a lot of miles on it and has had no technical problems (from what I can remember). Great bike.

I don't know if they need more maintenance for a fact though - but a lot of stuff is really not that hard to do on your own with a few tools and a couple manuals.

Another friend has a California - huge bike, and he flogs it. Lots of sparks off the floorboards.

If you get an old Guzzi, be prepared to do some work on it. You know, it's Italian, that's to be expected.

I'm currently riding a Kawasaki Eliminator 125. Speed is not an issue.

I actually like my stupid little Kawaksaki a lot. It's light, I don't have to worry about it getting stolen (It could, but you know, I wouldn't worry about it). I can't really take it out on the highway though. I'm pretty big and I'm pushing it to all hell to get it to 60.


I'm also going to look into a couple of Moto Guzzi's. I'm planning on cutting out of work early to go to the motorcycle store. See what they got used.