The Royal Enfield, the RX3, the TT 250, and more…

So you’ve probably noticed I haven’t been riding too much lately.   You know how it goes…it gets cold, you have other things going on in your life, you want to send some lead downrange, and on and on it goes.

I needed to break that pattern, and there’s no better way to do that than to buy a motorcycle.   Yeah, I know…I already have two motorcycles (what has to be the world’s most well-traveled RX3, and a pristine, low miles TT 250). I like CSC motorcycles.  But you may recall that Uncle Joe Gresh and I road tested two Enfields last year and I fell in love with the 650 Interceptor.

I was primed to buy a Royal Enfield when I returned from Mexico, but the Enfield dealer in Glendale had done a God-awful job prepping the Bullet (I wouldn’t buy squat from those guys now), and the Enfield dealer in Brea was doing the normal bend-you-over-a-barrel, here-comes-the-setup-and-freight-charges routine.   Folks, I’ve worked in the industry, and I know what setup and freight costs actually are.  Trust me on this…they ain’t $1500.  So I didn’t buy an Enfield.

Then an amazing thing happened.  One of the few dealerships I trust picked up the Enfield line last week.  It’s Art Guilfoil’s Douglas Motorcycles in San Bernardino.  I asked Art what he could do for me on a new Enfield, I was shocked at how low the number was (don’t ask, because I won’t tell), and, well…

I’m picking up my new 650 Royal Enfield on Thursday, and to say I’m excited would be an understatement of immense proportions.  It was a tough call for me between the Enfield and the new CSC RX4, but truth be told, I love my RX3 and it checks all the boxes for what I want in an adventure touring motorcycle.  Arguably, the RX3 is the finest adventure touring motorcycle in the world if you’re going places other than the corner burger joint (for all the reasons I explained in my piece titled Why a 250?).  I know.  I’ve been to places other than the corner burger joint, and I’ve made most of those trips on an RX3.

So with my new Royal Enfield coming in, it begged the question:  What should I do with my RX3 and TT 250?  My first thought was that I’d sell them.   Then I got to thinking about the RX3.   I’ve done some miles on that thing, folks, and we’ve bonded.  Nope, I’m going to hang on to it.  Baja beckons, and all that.  The RX3 is perfect for poking around the peninsula.  And next, month, that’s where I’m headed.   Susie’s going with me, and we’ll share a Tequila or two with Baja John.  You can read about it here.

That leaves the TT 250.  Hey, I was involved in bringing the TT 250 to America, and it all started when I eyeballed the 150cc version on display in Zongshen headquarters.  It was a bit of an uphill struggle…you know, getting Zongshen to make a 250cc version, and then selling the idea in Azusa.  I got the powers that be to go along and then I was out of town when the prototypes arrived in California.   A couple of the CSC underlings didn’t like the bike, and I had to sell it in Azusa all over again.  But it worked out, and the TT 250 is one of CSC’s best selling motorcycles ever.  It should be…it is a hell of a bike for a stunningly low price.

With the Enfield coming in, I thought I would sell my TT 250.   Hell, it’s pristine, but because I don’t ride it too much, the carb gummed up on me.  I thought maybe I’d bring it to CSC and have them make it perfect again, and then another serendipitous thing occurred.  A few days ago, a post popped up on Facebook (why do I spend so much time on that moronic site?) from Revzilla, and what do you know, it was about doing your own maintenance on a CSC motorcycle.  In this case, it was the San Gabriel (a wonderful name for a motorcycle if ever there was one), and the guys from Revzilla said the CSC shop manuals were wonderful.  I thought that was great for a lot of different reasons, including the fact that, along with help from Gerry Edwards and the guys in the shop, I wrote many of the CSC manuals.  Then I realized…hey, I wrote the TT 250 manual.  I can fix my own carburetor.  I looked up the carb stuff and this afternoon I took mine apart, I cleaned the low and high speed jets, and now my TT 250 is running great.  There’s something uniquely satisfying about fixing your own motorcycle, and the Revzilla boys were right:  Those CSC manuals are amazing.  So are the motorcycles.  And so is the 650 Enfield.   I know, because I took one on what had to be the longest demo ride ever…all the way to Baja and back!