15K Kms on my Royal Enfield classic Chrome 500

     It has been a long time since I wrote about my motorcycle drive, The Royal Enfield Classic 500. The last thing I wrote was about the feeling after riding 500Kms. The thing is it took very little time to reach that mile stone. However, the present mile stone of 15K Kms has taken a very, very long time considering the amount of distances and places bikers cover in their journey. But, the drive still feels fresh and every day the drive is new. The adrenaline rush is still the same. The grunt on the bike is still the same. 

     The lockdown gave me the opportunity to drive the bike like I would have dreamt of driving in the Himalayas. Working for a company which cannot afford a lockdown, gave me the opportunity of taking the beast to the sea, and boy, did I take him to the sea, I took him to the ocean. It was like I wasted 20 odd years by waiting on the bike. Waiting on the reason that the bike is so bulky, so heavy. What a journey it has been. I never felt so comfortable on any bike I have driven to date. Even on bikes which are supposed to be comfortable, I have been the opposite. There is a joy when I drive the bike which cannot be expressed, explained. 

     In my (very) younger days, I always thought that going "fast" is what is biking about. Oh, boy, was I wrong. Cruising at a constant speed is what is biking about. It is more about the journey than the destination. Yes, I can hear you, the bottom line is all it matters. But, whenever anybody wants to reason out the causes for the bottom line, then you always try to remember the journey, However, alas, you dont remember much, because all your efforts were on the destination. 

     Newton's laws of motions have been now constrained to the things visible to the naked eye and comprehensible to the naked eye. And when that man told that "Eveybody moves(likes to move) in a straight line and in uniform motion", he knew what he was talking about. There is a certain joy in cruising, There is a certain joy in constant velocity. There is a certain joy in not creating an opposing force, there is a joy in blending. The joy of driving.... 

     The bike is as good as it was bought. It has the same sheen in its chrome finish. In fact the company has now brought the same chrome finish for its 350cc lines of bikes, which was exclusive to the 500cc for all these years. A fresh wash and the bike starts gleaming. It is like it is grinning with its mouth wide open, ear to ear. It is like an invitation to start a new journey. It is like there is no end. It is like you can make the same journey, provided you decide that what matters is the journey and not the destination. It is like.....

First 500 Kms on a Royal Enfield Classic chrome 500

1. The weight is well balanced with a very low CG
2. The seat height is OK. Can be reduced, if  possible with foot rests placed a little ahead, Might be a design disaster but can be tried?
3. The handle bar should be rotated a bit towards the driver's side to allow a little slack in the arms. On sitting at the sweet position on the front seat, the arms are fully stretched out.
4. Vehicle steering lock on the side adds to the retro feel of the bike. I remember the same setup on my old bicycle.
5. The look of the tires is good and road grip is good on asphalted roads(Not yet driven on any muddy roads)
6. The cables positioning and routing can be looked into. They are too naked to my liking. Yes it does add to the retro look, but this is one aspect which can be given a modern touch
7. The front brakes are good. The rear brake's travel is too high(To be reduce by adjusting). The seat height, the front foot rest pedal and the brake lever travel and positioning do not match. The sitting posture is totally disturbed when I try to brake hard as I have to move forward on my seat.
8. Waiting for fuel pump to start, on every ignition switch off and start, is a negative in heavy traffic. Be ready for a lot of honking if you wait for the last second before turning on the ignition key.
9. The feel you get the moment you turn the throttle to put the traffic behind you is in-expressible.
10. The sound of he horn is appropriate though I have used it only once in the first 500 Kms.
11. Mileage is approx 30 Km/litre driven only in city conditions(smooth rides in the morning with heavy traffic driving in the evening)
12. Have a good watch with vibration resistance. Be careful with your smart watches.
13. Nothing can beat the comfort of an open face helmet on a bullet. Yes lots of dust attack your face, but, a pair of aviators can be the ultimate style statement, which will also protect your eyes(Go for glasses which can be used both in the day and night). Couple these two accessories with a good cotton jacket(Not the ones they sell at RE with all the nylon nets and all, you are not a formula 1 racer, well if you are then you are on the wrong blog...he he...) and of course good pair of boots(Again don't overdo it), Liberation.........
14. The petrol reserve indicator is finicky. It gets switched on at occasional intervals when you brake all of a sudden which makes all the fuel in the tank to move to one side. It is a good indicator when your bike is exactly on a horizontal surface. Whatever be careful with the quantity of fuel and the distance you have travelled. Better to keep a record.
15. The default lengthy muffler is good, but, I am a fan of the swept back silencer(Which is still the photo of the classic 500 on the official website)
16. The rear view mirrors, my God, are a tragedy. They vibrate like crazy. In the night, a two wheeler behind you will appear like a four wheeler.
17. The engine and the muffler heats up quite quick. Be careful with your leg wear.
18. PLEASE dont change the default mufflers. The city is already polluted with sound and exhaust, please don't add to it. RIDE the bullet, don't SHOW it.
19. No grip bar on the right. Very bad design considering Indian women's pillion etiquette.
20. No hook for hanging a cover or a bag. It is criminal to not provide one. All the bikes have one.
21. Remember the tires are not tubeless ones.
22. Don't give it for a wash to your local cleaning fellow, There is a great possibility that you might damage few wires.

Part 1: Ownership experience of Royal Enfield Bullet classic chrome 500

It has always been a dream to own a Bullet. Since the first time I rode a bullet while I was around 20 years of age, the feel stuck with me. It has been with me ever since. I always turned around on hearing the thump. For various people it is just awe or a longing. For me it has been a long wait to own my very own bullet. And then there came an opportunity to to buy one at my work place itself. One of the colleagues wanted to sell his classic 500 black. Was given a test drive at the end of the day. Looked at the bike and was very clear that it was not maintained well. Lots of loose wires taped all along and I did not like the look on my colleague's face while he was showing it to me. I just saw it in his eyes. It is like snatching away a kid's favorite toy by wringing it out of his hands. Immediately gave up the idea of buying it. But the other people around were forcing me to buy it. Then I understood that he owed money and he was in urgent need of it. I just told every body of them that the bike would definitely be sold and truly, within that week, the bike was sold.

Discussion was going on in the home with wifey and my son about owning one. I already owned a Bajaj pulsar 150 Dtsi and I definitely loved it. My son, as is obvious is a KTM kinda bike fanboy. But, everybody agreed on one thing, that is a new bike is to be bought. After a lot of discussion and convincing it was decided unanimously to go for a bullet. But the biggest question was which style.

Next day visited HSR enterprises on Dr. Rajkumar road. For bike enthusiasts, This road plays host to all the bike manufacturers in India. If you start from one end of the road and reach the end of it, you would have visited the showrooms of all the manufacturers of bikes in India. This road also has all the service centers of their respective brands. So, now you know.

After entering into the showroom, there was not a single smiling face. It was as though royal enfield motors had gone bankrupt and all the people working in the showroom will be relieved of their duties that very day. There was one color of every variant on display. Wifey initially liked the Thunderbird, but seeing the amount of time I spent at the classic version, she also changed her mind. Now, we asked whether we could see the other color variants. And, you know what we were shown, Lo and Behold, the website of Royal enfield on a 15" Laptop. We wanted bike that big and we are being shown the variants on a puny laptop. Maybe this worked out before the present Internet generation, but at this time, this strategy, is totally lacklustre.

Wifey insisted that we have to see how the classic chrome looks in other color variants. So we went to the jayanagar showroom. Here the staff were a lot better. The sales rep took us to a cellar where plenty of bullets were stocked and explained the pros and cons of all the variants and the properties of various paints being used. Here we decided that the graphite variant was less flashy and was subdued though there was a generous amount of chrome.

Decided on the Bullet classic 500 chrome edition, the graphite variant. Was asked to pay an advance of INR 5,000/- which was done immediately. Now, the sales tech asked me when would i like to buy the bike and what would be the mode of payment I clearly told him I would pay by cash/cheque. Then immediately he started to make a flurry of phone calls to various people regarding the availability of the bike in that color. I interrupted him after about 3 calls and told him that I am not having the time to listen to all this enquiry thingy and requested him to call me once he found out that a bike is available. I told him to take his own time and not continue the flurry of calls. Here, I would like to make a note. There is no concept of checking up the inventory at various showrooms. They don't have a centralized inventory. Bikes are hand made, that doesn't mean that sales also have to be done the old fashioned way, that too, after royal enfield gave profit among all the endeavours of Eicher. The more interesting thing would be what the sales rep wrote on his copy of my advance receipt. This will be revealed, if you still have the time and patience. All this happened on 23/10


And I am not alone. See a post on Team BHP regarding the same.