Category: Royal Enfield

Pollen, politics, pundits, pistols, pasta, pizza, and more…

This is going to be one of those rambling, topic-hopping blogs that flits like a butterfly in a bed of flowers. You know, touching lightly on a variety of topics and then flitting to the next one for a pollen fix.

First up:  Do you have a favorite family restaurant?  We’ve got two.  One is Rancho Las Magueyes, a Mexican place right around the corner.  I know everyone there by their first name, and they all know Susie and me.  And my shooting buddies (we always have lunch there after a day on the range).  The other is an Italian restaurant.  It’s Di Pilla’s in Rosemead, and I’ve been going there for thirty years.  Susie and I always get a small pizza and a pasta dish, we share some of both while we’re there, and we’ll bring the rest home (it’s good for another two meals for both of us).  I was in Los Angeles last week to renew my passport and we stopped at Di Pilla’s for exactly what I described above (a small pizza with olives and mushrooms, and Dante’s angel hair pasta).  It’s just wonderful…the closest you’ll ever get to Heaven without a one-way ticket.  If you stop in there, tell Claudia Joe sent you.

Next topic…the Superbowl. I guess the game was okay. It used to be I would occasionally watch the Superbowl just for the halftime show and the commercials. I’m not much of a football fan (never have been), but the commercials and the halftime show used to make the 4-hour slog worthwhile. Not any more, though. At least not to me. I thought the halftime show was revolting, and if my kids were at home, I would have changed the channel. Is it me, or was it like going to a strip club? Maybe I’m just getting old. I don’t like twerking coming into my family room on a widescreen TV, and I didn’t understand a good 70% of the commercials. They weren’t clever or entertaining, and I wasn’t sure what most of them were advertising.  The commercial would end and I’d wonder: What was the product? Ah, there’s no maybe about it…I am getting old. But hell, even old people still buy stuff. After four long hours of Superbowl LIV, there’s nothing I’m going to purchase as a result of watching any of those commercials. Color me cranky, but I thought the whole thing was a stupid waste of my time.  That’s four hours I won’t get back.  It won’t happen again.

I do buy stuff, though. Lots of it. In fact, my new goal as a senior citizen is to make sure my outgo equals my income (I keep telling the kids if there’s anything left after I’m gone, it’s strictly the result of an computational error).  And to help me meet that goal, I think I’m buying a new motorcycle. One that has no fraud associated with freight and setup, as is typically encountered at most dealers. Maybe around the end of this month. Watch for more details. Before I do that, though, I want to get my TT250 running. I don’t ride as much as I should, and my TT250 carb gummed up from disuse. I’ll have to refer to my free CSC TT250 shop manual (why don’t all the manufacturers do that?) on how to clean the carburetor, but I’m not worried about the job. I hear the TT250 manual is pretty well written. I’m thinking I’ll get around to the TT250 this week or next.

More rambling, this time about Facebook and the endless supply of brainless memes that flow from its feed. I like Facebook and I like to keep up with my friends and my memories, like that photo above of good buddy Carl and me up on Glendora Ridge Road with the CSC 150 Baja Blaster I rode to Cabo and back. But the rest of the Facebook schtick…wow, it gets old fast. Is anyone else here tired of the mindless political ranting on Facebook?  Look, who I vote for is a decision I’ll make without any help from CNN, MSNBC, the NY Times, the Russians, or you.  It’s my vote, and all the breathless exhortations by Don Lemon, Anderson Cooper, and Sean Hannity will matter not one whit. It’s what happens in a free country. Mindlessly sharing memes on your Facebook feed (I know, there’s a lot of redundancy in that phrase) isn’t going to change a thing.  Folks, get a life. Grow up. Vote, and then move on. It’s what we do in America.

On to a new topic…I’m afraid this coronavirus business is going to get a lot worse before it gets better. I have good friends in China from my Chongqing and Riding China adventures. I recently wrote to one of them to see how things were going over there.  In a word, it’s bad. Real bad. The streets are deserted in China, no one is going out, companies are shutting down, travel is severely restricted, and the market is plummeting.  Their economy is tanking.  Approximately 2000 people a day are getting infected (and that number is likely going to increase).  I loved my time in China and I love the Chinese people.  I respect their engineering and manufacturing prowess. I hope things get better for them soon.

A happier topic…I’ve been spending more time on the range. If you didn’t see the 9mm cast bullet comparo, you might want to take a look at it. I’m going to start shooting the 9mm jacketed bullet series in another week or two. Jacketed bullets are frequently more accurate than cast bullets, so I’m excited about how that’s going to go. I was tremendously impressed with the Sig Scorpion and how it handled cast bullets. We’ll see if it brings home the bacon with jacketed bullets.

One of my shooting buddies is a California Corrections Officer, and he told me about their qualification course with the Mini 14 (the California Department of Corrections uses the Ruger Mini 14, one of my favorite rifles, as an issue weapon). They qualify with the B-21 target, and when I was at the target manufacturing operation where I buy all my targets I asked if they stocked that one. The guy behind the counter was surprised, and he told me the only folks who ever want that target are CDC officers. But they had it, and then it was my turn to be surprised. The B-21 target is huge. I’m going to have to make a bigger target stand for it. I’m thinking maybe our next informal milsurp match will be with it.  My objective is to shoot a higher score than my CDC buddy, and he’s real good.

And on that subject, we’re still toying with the idea of a postal match. You know, one where we specify the course of fire and the target design, you mail your targets to us, we score them, and there’s some kind of a prize for first, second, and third place. We’d make it for handguns only and spec the distance at 50 feet, and we’d make the prizes significant enough to bump up participation. Like maybe a Gear’d Hardware watch for first place, with a book and a T-shirt for second and third place. Let us know…if we did that, would you participate?

Last topic for today, folks:  Baja. Yes, Baja beckons. I aim to get down there sometime soon and then again later this year. Maybe stop in to see Baja John in Bahia de Los Angeles. See the whales in Scammon’s Lagoon. I’ll be on my motorcycle, and of course, I’ll be insured with BajaBound. Gresh will be along, maybe even on Zed now that his Kawi 900 resurrection has resumed. Whaddaya think?

2019: A Review and Wrap Up

This has been a fun year, and a fun year to be a blogger.  When we started ExhaustNotes 18 months ago, we had no idea we’d get the loyal following we have, the number of hits we’re getting, and the number of comments we would receive from you, our amazing readers.  In the past 18 months, we’ve published 572 blog posts (this is Blog No. 572), we’ve had something north of 200,000 page visits, and we’ve received 2,481 approved blog comments.  We actually had quite a few more comments, but the spam comments are filtered out and we’re not counting those.  And you spammers out there, thanks for all the biblical excerpts, the website optimization offers, the hairstyle stuff (seriously, you think Gresh or I need hairstyle products?), and the offers to manufacture stuff in and buy chotchkas from China.  You guys keep it coming, and our filters will keep bouncing it.  Hope springs eternal, I guess.

Our most commented upon post last year?  It was Joe Gresh’s blog on Bonnier and the demise of Motorcyclist magazine, which really raked in some zingers.  Nobody makes the written word come alive like Joe does, and that includes his opening line in that blog:  The distance from being read in the crapper and actually being in the crapper is a short one. According to Dealer News, Motorcyclist magazine crossed that span this week.

Other ExNotes blogs that drew comments big time are our blogs on what constitutes the perfect bike, what the motorcycle industry needs to do to grow the market, dream bikes, and of course, the gun stuff.  Keep your thoughts coming, folks.  It’s what we enjoy the most.

Our most frequently visited blog post last year?  Far and away, it was our piece on Mini 14 Marksmanship.  Somehow that post got picked up by a service that suggests sites to people when they open their cell phones, and we were getting in excess of 10,000 hits a day for a few days on that one.  Go figure.  There must be a lot of people out there who want to shoot their Mini 14 rifles better.  Glad to be of help, folks.

We’ve stepped on a few toes along the way.  Some folks got their noses bent out of shape because we do gun stuff.  Hey, let us know if you want your money back.  One guy went away all butthurt because Google ads popped up mentioning President Trump and mortgage deals that I guess our President helped along.   Hey, whatever.  We don’t control the popups, and the Internet’s artificial intelligence does funny things with what it reads on the blog…I mentioned using my Casio’s backlight to help find my way to the latrine at night, and since that blog I’ve been getting an unending stream (no pun intended) of prostate treatment popups.  I may click on a few of them.  When you get your artificially-inseminated Google-driven popups, we’d like you to click on them, too.  It makes money flow.  To us.  It’s what keeps us on the air, you know.

We did a lot of travel this year, but not as many motorcycle trips as we wanted.   The Royal Enfields we took through Baja were fun, and we had a great story on that ride published in Motorcycle Classics.  I really enjoyed riding and writing about the Genuine G400c.  Joe did a great series on his Yamaha EnduroFest adventure, and he’s had articles published in Motorcycle.com.  Joe did another series on motorized bicycles and it was a hoot.

Joe and I both did shorter moto trips this past year, and we both want to get more riding in next year.  Gresh and I are going to do a moto trip to Baja in 2020, and we may get to visit with Baja John in Bahia de Los Angeles (that dude likes Baja so much he moved there).  On any of the Mexico trips, we for sure will be insured with BajaBound Insurance, the best insurance there is for travel in Mexico.  More good travel stuff?  We published Destinations, a compendium of the travel stories appearing in Motorcycle Classics magazine, and it’s doing very well (thank you).

More plans?   Gresh will be pouring more concrete, and I’ll be spending more time at the West End Gun Club.  Joe is planning to maybe pick up the Zed resurrection again, and I’m pretty sure he’ll get that bike on the road within the next 12 months.   We’ve got the upcoming 9mm comparo I mentioned yesterday, and for sure more gun articles.  Good buddy Gonzo asked us to ride in the 2020 Three Flags Classic, and I’d like to make a go of that one this coming year (I was disappointed in myself for not riding that great event in 2019, but the circumstances just weren’t right).  I think I’m going to write Tales of the Gun as a book and offer it for sale here on ExNotes, and maybe Joe Gresh will do the same with his collection of moto articles (and when he does, you can bet I’ll buy the first copy).  We’ll be doing more product reviews, including movie and book reviews.  I’m going to get on my bicycle more, and we may have some info on electric bicycles, too.   You’ll read all about it right here.

So it’s a wrap for 2019.   Susie bought a bottle of Gentleman Jack for me, and I’m going to pour a shot and watch 2020 roll in later tonight.  To all of you, our best wishes for a happy and healthy 2020.  Ride safe, ride often, and keep your powder dry.

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The real deal…a Genuine motorcycle!

Yours truly and the Genuine G400c, patrolling the mean streets of San Francisco!

This is one of those blogs for which I could have used any of several titles.   The Real Deal got the nod, as this is indeed the real deal…a genuine (pardon the pun) motorcycle.   Another contender was The Streets of San Francisco, like that Karl Malden and Michael Douglas show 30 years ago.  And yet another was We Are Living In Interesting Times (read on, and you’ll see what I mean).

Anyway, enough of the trip down memory lane and alternative blog titles. I made a few memories of my own yesterday, riding around downtown San Francisco around good buddy Lunchbox’s San Francisco Scooter Centre.   Barry is the guy who owns and runs the dealership, but Lunchbox is the guy in charge.   He’s about a year old now (I’ve known him since he was a pup), and he’s a cool 82 lbs.    After checking in with Lunchbox, I visited with Barry for a bit.  I always like coming up here.  I like Lunchbox, I like the city, I like the San Francisco Scooter Centre, and I like Barry.

Lunchbox, the man in charge. He’s cool. He lets Barry think he’s the guy running the San Francisco Scooter Centre, but Lunchbox is the one really calling the shots.
Good buddy Barry and the Genuine G400c motorcycle.

Barry and I had a great taco lunch downtown, we talked about the motorcycle market, and we swapped stories about a couple of our other common interests.  Then it was time to get on the G400c.  Barry tossed me the keys and the bike’s registration, and told me to have fun.   Being a guy who aims to please, I did as I was told.  It was easy on the Genuine.

So let me tell you about the Genuine G400c. The first thing I noticed was that it’s a motorcycle.  A real motorcycle.  Tear drop gas tank (where the gas actually goes), a tach and speedo that look like a tach and speedo should, and a long, low, flat seat (good for moving around on when necessary, carrying a passenger, and strapping on soft luggage for longer trips).  Wire wheels.  Chrome fenders.    Chrome handlebars that put the controls in comfortable reach.   It all came together the way it should.   Yessiree, this is a motorcycle that is visually appealing.  None of that Ricky Racer, low bar face on the tank, angry Ninja insect, or giraffesque ADV wannabe silliness or styling.  This is a motorcycle that looks like a motorcycle should.

The next thing I noticed was that the G400c was easy to throw a leg over.  It’s been a while since I’ve been on a bike where I could say that.   I’ll say more on this in a bit.

And another thing I noticed was that the bike sounds like a motorcycle. A real motorcycle.   A Genuine motorcycle.  I like that, too.  I had my big Nikon with me (the D810) and I grabbed a video of the startup sequence…

This bike sounds good.  It has a nice, deep, throaty rumble.   The skyscrapers I darted between in downtown San Francisco amplified the exhaust note, and the reverberations were intoxicating.  There’s something undeniably cool about riding a nimble, throaty motorcycle in a city.  It would have been cool to grab more video of myself riding around San Francisco, but I’m not as talented as Joe Gresh in that regard and besides, I was having too much fun.  You can have a great ride or you can make a great video.  Unless you’re Joe Gresh, you can’t do both at the same time.

So back to that nimble thing.  You’re reading something written by a guy who thinks that somewhere in the 1970s and the 1980s the wheels came off the wagon here in the US with regard to motorcycle size and complexity, and until very recently, things have continued to get nuttier as the years have gone by and advertising guys (who are supposed to be creative people) kept defaulting to bigger has to be better.  My thoughts are in synch with most of the rest of the motorcycle world (not the aforementioned advertising gurus) in that I think a 250cc is the perfect size.   A 400cc single is even better, especially if it comes in a 250cc-sized package, and that’s what the G400c is.

I don’t know the Genuine’s weight.  I could find it in a few seconds with a Google search, but I don’t need to.  I know what I need to know from my ride, and that’s this: The G400c is light and it’s nimble, and that’s all the spec I need.   Hell, you can’t trust what most of the manufacturers tell you about their bikes’ weights, anyway.  And even if you could believe their numbers, what really matters is where a bike’s center of gravity is located.   Make it too high, and a motorcycle will feel unwieldy regardless of its weight.  Make it low, though, and a bike becomes flickable, agile, nimble, and just plain fun to ride.   That’s what this machine is.   I had fun splitting lanes and braaapping around downtown San Francisco.  The G400c is perfect for that, but that’s not the only arena in which I see it excelling.  I think the G400c would be a great bike for a Baja ride, too.  Someday.  We’ll see.

Next up:  Seat height.  It’s the same story here, folks.  Like I said earlier, I could throw my leg over the seat without having to take a yoga class or do any stretching exercises, and you know what?  That’s a good feeling.  The saddle is low enough to make getting on and off the bike easy, and that’s decidedly not the case for a lot of motorcycles these days.

You might ask about suspension travel.  When I was younger and dumber, I used to pour over the spec sheets you’d see in the motorcycle magazines, and then I realized that unless you plan to ride motocross, the only thing a ton of suspension travel does for a street bike is make thing way too tall.   The G400c seat height was just where I needed it to be.   And on that suspension travel topic, I’ll let you in on a little secret:  Even though our taxes in California (and San Francisco in particular) are among the highest in the world, we still have lousy streets with lots of potholes and rough sections.  The G400c was fine being flung around in the city, sloppy streets and road surfaces notwithstanding.  It soaked it all up without a whimper.  I’d like to buttonhole our politicians someday and ask them:  Exactly where does all that tax money go?  In the meantime, though, I know the suspension on the G400c gets the job done.

Mean streets? Bring ’em on. The G400c was just plain fun riding around San Francisco.  It’s a comfortable, right-sized motorcycle.

I didn’t take the G400c on the freeway, although Barry invited me to do so.  Nope, the freeways are typically a mess in San Francisco, and I figured (correctly, as I experienced on the drive out of San Francisco later in the day) I could actually get more miles in and reach higher top speeds on the city streets.  And I did.  Until this guy you see in the photo caught up with me, lit me up, and started casting dirty looks my way.  Then he got in front of me.  Point taken, Officer.  I rode a bit more like a normal person after that.

Another view from the cockpit. I like the instrument layout. It’s what a motorcycle is supposed to look like.

Okay, let’s not ignore the 800-lb gorilla in the room:  The G400c is manufactured in China.   As many of you know, I know a little bit about Chinese motorcycles and I played a tangential role in making the case for Chinese quality when CSC Motorcycles started importing the Zongshen RX3 back in 2015.   You might have trepidations about buying a Chinese motorcycle, and it’s almost a certainty you know people who badmouth Chinese products.   My advice when you hear the inevitable anti-China mush is to remember that God loves stupid people (because He sure made a lot of them).   Yeah, they’ve got their stories about their buddy who worked at a dealer 10 years ago and he told them…well, you get the idea.  Folks, these people just don’t know.

I know a little bit about this topic, I think.  Maybe more than most of the weenies posting opinions on Facebook and the motorcycle forums.

My advice is to blow these weenies off, get yourself to a dealer, and see for yourself.  I know a little bit about quality and manufacturing, I’ve been in several Chinese manufacturing plants, and I’m here to tell you that Chinese motorcycle quality is as good as or better than anything that’s out there.   Consider this:  Automobile and motorcycle companies like BMW, Vespa, Honda, Suzuki, and many others have components, major subassemblies, engines, and complete motorcycles manufactured in China.  These world-class companies wouldn’t be doing that if the quality was low.

You might have a concern about the G400c being a new bike, that is to say, one that doesn’t have a track record.  Actually, that’s not the case.  This motorcycle has been rolling around China for a good three years now (I saw them when I rode across China on the RX3 a few years ago).  The G400c is manufactured for Genuine by Shineray (it’s pronounced Shin-yu-way), and in China, they have been selling two versions of the bike for several years (a street version and an adventure-touring-styled version).   The riding in China is way tougher than it is here.   We tend to use our motorcycles as toys.  In China, motorcycles are work horses.  They are ridden hard and put away wet.

Another thing that’s nice about the G400c motor is that it’s a Honda clone.  The concept (but not the engine) here is the same as the Honda CG clone motors that power the CSC and Janus bikes…an engine based on a Honda design built for an environment where folks don’t take care of their bikes.  It’s a different Honda motor design, but it’s a proven design.  It’s a strong, torquey, fuel injected single.

The G400c’s braking is good.  It’s a single disk in front, and a drum in the rear.   A lot of folks will be grasping their chest and convulsing at the thought of a drum brake in back, but it works, and it works for me.   Again, don’t let some kid writing a magazine article (or worse, someone posting an opinion on Facebook) tell you that you have to have a disk brake in back.   Drum brakes have worked fine for decades.  It’s one of the things keeping the cost down on this bike, and it’s a reasonable tradeoff.  Like it said, it works for me.

What I don’t know yet is the parts availability question, nor do I know about the availability of a shop manual.   Those are fair questions to ask a dealer.  I didn’t, mostly because I was focused on the riding.

Genuine states the top speed is over 80 mph.  I’ve ridden bikes with the same engine in China and I saw indicated speeds on city streets over 90 mph and the bike still had more left (and at that point I thought to myself “Whoa, Bucko…what am I doing here?”).   I think the top end is more than adequate for any real world needs.  And on that note, this is another area in which you hear the keyboard commandos espouse things like “Ah need a bike made in ‘Merica that can do at least a hunnert twenty miles per hour or I’ll get run over…”   You do, huh?  Hey, I rode across China, I’ve been up and down Baja a bunch of times, I circumnavigated the Andes Mountains in Colombia, and I’ve ridden all over the US.  And I did all of this on 250cc motorcycles.  Motorcycles made in China, to be specific.   But what do I know?

You might ask:  Are there any negatives?  I guess to play magazine road test writer I have to find something, and on the G400c it might be that some of the details could be more finely finished.  Maybe the handlebar switchgear castings could be polished a little more, things like that.   Barry told me the bike I rode is one of the very earliest ones to arrive in America, and that Genuine is sweating the cosmetic details like this.  But these are minor points.   The next question would be:   Would I recommend buying this bike?  To that question, the answer is yes.  They retail at about $4600, and with all the fees they go out the door at a notch above $5700.  Barry is one of the few honest dealers I know in that he doesn’t treat setup and freight as a major profit center.  Here’s how he has the bikes priced…

The G400c pricing sheet at the San Francisco Scooter Centre. Freight and setup are honest numbers here, which isn’t the case at many other dealers.

We are living in interesting times.  Just a few years ago the small motorcycle landscape in the US was pretty barren, and what few bikes were out there carried stupid-high prices and obscene dealer freight and setup fees.  Our choices in recent decades have been outrageously tall, fat, and heavy motorcycles with prices in the stratosphere.  Today, the moto menu before us is interesting and intriguing, and it’s rooted in the real world.   There’s the CSC Motorcycles line with several 250cc selections and soon, the 450cc RX4.   There the Janus line of magnificently-handcrafted contemporary classics.   There’s Royal Enfield, with their 400cc Himalayan, 500cc Classic, and soon-to-be-released 650cc Interceptor (at an incredible $5795).   I’ve ridden nearly all of these motorcycles (I haven’t caught a ride on the Himalayan yet, but that’s coming up), and I’ve ridden many of them through Baja (you can read about our Enfield Baja trip, the Janus Baja trip, and any of several CSC Baja trips).  And now, there’s another great bike in the mix:   The Genuine 400c.   For the first time in a long time, we have choices.  Good choices that won’t break the bank.  Life is good, folks.

Check out our related Genuine G400c and San Francisco Scooter Centre posts!

Genuine’s G400c
The San Francisco Scooter Centre

Dream Bike: 1978 Triumph Bonneville

This is a blog I did for CSC a year or so ago, and it’s one I thought I would run again here.   We haven’t done a Dream Bikes blog in a while, and it’s time.

It’s raining, it’s cold here in southern California, and those two conditions are enough to keep me indoors today. I’ve been straightening things up here in the home office, and I came across a Triumph brochure from 1978. I bought a new Bonneville that year and as I type this, I realize that was a cool 40 years ago. Wowee. Surprisingly, the brochure scanned well, so much so that even the fine print is still readable…

Triumph had two 750 twins back then. One was the twin-carb Bonneville, and the other was the single-carb model (I think they called it the Tiger). The Bonneville came in brown or black and the Tiger came in blue or red (you can see the color palette in the third photo above). I liked the red and my dealer (in Fort Worth) swapped the tank from a Tiger onto my Bonneville. I loved that bike, and I covered a lot of miles in Texas on it. I used to ride with a friend and fellow engineer at General Dynamics named Sam back in the F-16 days (he had a Yamaha 500cc TT model, which was another outstanding bike back in the day). I wish I still had that Bonneville.

After I sold the Bonneville, I turned right around and bought a ’79 Electra-Glide Classic. There’s a brochure buried around here somewhere on that one, and if I come across it I’ll see how it scans. The Harley had a lot of issues, but it’s another one I enjoyed owning and riding, and it’s another I wish I still owned.

So there you have it.   That ’78 Bonneville is a bike I still have dreams about, and they were made all the more poignant by the Royal Enfield Interceptor I rode in Baja last month.  You can read about the Enfield Interceptor and our Baja adventures here.

Want to read more pieces like this?  Check out our other Dream Bikes here!

Riding India on an Enfield

I came across my new good buddy Chris Alves’ photo essay about a ride across India on a Royal Enfield a day or two ago and I was impressed.   Imagine that…a 3,000-mile ride across India on a Royal Enfield.  That’s a bucket list ride for me.  You can get to Chris’ photo essay by clicking here.  Folks, this one is worth your time.

Royal Enfield 650cc Twin Road Test

When I saw the first photographs of Royal Enfield’s new 650 twin the bike seemed perfect. 650 vertical twins have owned the sweet-spot of cool long before McQueen bashed them around the desert and they are still an ideal size and configuration for all around use. Unfortunately the latest vertical twin offerings from other motorcycle manufacturers have sprouted slow-moving tumorous pistons, lost their summer beach-bodies and become uselessly complex. The whole situation kind of put me on edge. I was actually a bit angry: “Royal Enfield better not screw this up,” I mumbled to my cat.

I liked the new Interceptor 650 so much I was going to get really pissed off at Royal Enfield if the bike was crude and uninspiring. Luckily for everyone involved, the Interceptor, or INT, or Cartridge, or Clip or whatever legal BS we are supposed to use, is a great bike. It’s hard to judge long-term quality without the requisite passage of time but from what I can see the 650 is well and truly the Nads.

In the video I rave about the frame, because it is noticeably well-finished. I couldn’t get over the thing. All the component parts of the RE 650 appear to be designed not only with function in mind but also with an eye toward aesthetics. This is a motorcycle that will look just as good dismantled as it does assembled, like how a Norton 750 looks good in pieces on your cycle bench. Thanks, whoever is responsible for this.

The 650 Royal Enfield engine feels peppy and it breathes well. The bike pulls hard right up until the rev limiter cuts in at 7500 RPM. It feels like a happy engine if you know what I mean. Sitting upright I saw an indicated 115 mph in 5th gear at redline and 6th gear dropped the top end to 110. I think if I didn’t have 75 pounds of touring garbage flapping in the breeze and made myself really small I could have gotten 120 mph in high gear.

The fuel injection on my 650 delivered its tiny spurts of fuel precisely and in a timely fashion. I could not imagine it working any better. On the highway the thing got an amazing 70 miles per gallon. Fuel injection is one of the few modern advances that I think are useful on a motorcycle. Handling was a non-issue: The bike tracked well and the suspension is good enough for me.

The shifting is slick and effortless and if I wasn’t running out of old Cycle magazine issues from the 1970’s to steal complimentary phrases from I’d go on about the transmission for hours. I’d really like to take this bike apart and see what makes it so good.

The brakes were not super powerful. I never felt like the bike wouldn’t stop but I’ve gotten used to incredibly powerful brakes on other bikes. It’s not a deal killer for me because this is a multi-purpose motorcycle, not a race bike. I didn’t care for the Royal Enfield’s anti-lock brake system but in their defense I don’t like anybody’s anti-lock brake system. I’ll have to yank the fuse or defeat the system somehow when I get mine.

Yes, I would actually buy one of these motorcycles if moto-journalism paid in something more fungible than “Likes.” I’m not sure what they will actually sell for yet but it will be less than the other guys. If they make a high-pipe scrambler version all bets are off.

Some motorcycles play much larger than their spec sheets would indicate. The Royal Enfield is one of them. It’s such a joy to travel on a simple, lightweight motorcycle and the pleasing burble exiting from the 650’s exhaust system is music to anyone who rode a Honda twin from the 1970s. The 650 is a bike built to ride and it’s nice to look at parked in the garage.

I’m afraid motorcycle riders have become trapped in the American Dream of bigger is better and more plastic is better. The road grows dimmer and further from their nerve endings in the cause of comfort and technology. Stop now. You can easily find a more powerful motorcycle or find a faster one but you’ll play hell finding a better looking motorcycle than the Royal Enfield 650. And you won’t find one that’s more fun to ride on the street.

If you’d like to read the rest of our recent Royal Enfield Baja adventure ride posts, here are the links…

BajaBound on Royal Enfield
18 Again
The Bullet Hits Home
We’re Off
We’re Off 2
Snapshot
Tecate
San Quintin
Royal Enfield 650cc Twin: First Real Ride
The Plucky Bullet
Guerrero Negro
Ballenos
Whales
The Bullet in Baja
A Funny Thing
No One Goes Hungry
Day 7 and a Wake Up
The Bullet
The Bullet: Take 2
The Interceptor

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Baja: A 7-day Itinerary

Daily destinations for a 7-day, relaxed whale watching Baja itinerary.

Good buddy Peter asked me to post a map of our recent Royal Enfield adventure ride to see the whales in Baja.  That was a great suggestion, and it also provides an opportunity to suggest a great 7-day itinerary to see the whales in Baja.  This was a relaxed ride of approximately 200 miles per day, and a full day off the bikes in Guerrero Negro on the day we saw the whales.  One thing I want to mention up front:  If you’re taking a motor vehicle into Mexico, you must insure the vehicle with a Mexican insurance policy.  We insure with BajaBound, and that’s who we always recommend.

Day 1:  The Los Angeles Basin to Tecate (170 miles)

The 170-mile distance I reference here is taking the 15 or the 5 south from the Los Angeles area.   When you get down to the San Diego area, just find California 94 off the freeway, stay on it for about 25 miles heading east, and make a right on 188 for the 2-mile hop to Tecate.

Rolling into Tecate, Mexico!

You can make Tecate in about three hours if there’s no traffic.  It’s an easy run and it gives you time to process into Mexico by picking up a visitor’s card, you can change U.S. currency into pesos, and you have time to explore Tecate a bit.  An alternative route is to head south by riding over Mt. San Jacinto into Idyllwild and then take country roads through California down to Tecate, but you’ll need a full day if you do this and you would get into Tecate much later.

Jonathan and Pablo at Amores. It’s world class dining in downtown Tecate, and it is amazing.

My advice for a Tecate hotel is either the El Dorado or the Hacienda (you get to either by running straight into Tecate and turning right on Boulevard Benito Juarez.   If you are with your significant other, you might consider the Amores Restaurante for dinner (it’s world class fine dining and it is superb).  If you want something simpler, go for Tacos Dumas, a short walk from the Hacienda Hotel.   There’s also a great Chinese restaurant across the street from the Hacienda (there are a lot of great Chinese restaurants in Mexico).

Day 2:  Tecate to San Quintin (180 miles)

Day 2 starts with breakfast at 8:00 a.m. at the Malinalli Sabores Autóctonos restaurant.  It’s in the same building as the Hacienda Hotel, and as explained to us by Jonathan (the head chef at the Amores restaurant) it’s the best breakfast in Tecate.  I think it’s the best breakfast anywhere, and with their exotic buffet featuring different Mexican regional cuisines, it will start your day right.

Maria, one of the friendly folks who took care of us in the Malinalli Sabores Autóctonos restaurant.

After breakfast, head east on Boulevard Benito Juarez, turn right when you see the sign for the wine country, and stay on that road (it becomes Mexico Highway 3) to Ensenada.   It’s Mexico’s Ruta del Vino, and the scenery and the vineyards are grand.

On Mexico’s Ruta del Vino headed for Ensenada!

After 70 miles of glorious wine country, you’ll hit Mexico Highway 1 just north of Ensenada.  Turn left, hug the Pacific, and skirt through Ensenada (one of Baja’s larger cities).  After Ensenada, you’ll pass through several small towns and then the road becomes the Antiqua Ruta del Vino, or Baja’s old wine country.   The scenery is impressive.   Stay on that road; you’ll pass through many small agricultural towns as you continue south through Baja.  San Quintin is the destination on this second day of our Baja journey.  There are lots of hotel options in San Quintin; my favorite is the Old Mill Hotel.  Watch for the Old Mill Hotel sign, and make a right when you see it to reach San Quintin Bay and the hotel 4 miles to the west.  Staying here is a tradition for Baja travelers.

When heading south in San Quintin, watch for the sign pointing to the Old Mill Hotel.
Lucy, the lovely young lady who brought us beer and dinner at the Eucalipto restaurant.

There are two great restaurants on either side of the Old Mill, and the Old Mill now has its own restaurant, the Eucalipto.   Good buddy Javier is the owner and head chef, and the cuisine is fabulous.   You’ll get a free beer when you check into the hotel.   Ask for a Modelo Negra; it’s superb.

Day 3:  San Quintin to Guerrero Negro (264 miles)

This is the long stretch, and it starts with a run south from San Quintin through Los Pinos, and then roughly 20 miles along a roller coaster road skirting the Pacific.  Then it’s a climb into the hills, a Mexican military checkpoint, and you’ll arrive in El Rosario.  Top off at the Pemex in El Rosario, and if you’re hungry, you might have a late breakfast or an early lunch at Mama Espinoza’s (try the chicken burritos; they’re awesome).  After that the Transpeninsular Highway climbs into the Valle de los Cirios and the desolation that is Baja. You’ll see several varieties of plant life that grow in Baja and no place else on Earth (including the Dr.-Suess-like cirio and the mighty Cardon cactus).

A Royal Enfield Interceptor 650, the first one to enter Mexico, parked near a giant Cardon cactus in Baja’s Valle de Los Cirios.

It gets even better when you enter the Catavina boulder fields.  The area around Catavina is a magnificent region with stunning scenes.   There’s a hotel on the right side of the road that seems to change ownership every time I’m down that way.  The food is good (but a little on the pricey side); the trick is to get there before any tour buses arrive.   A new Los Pinos 7-11 type store recently opened across the street from the hotel and it looks like they’re putting gas pumps in, which is a good thing.  For now, though, if you’re on a bike we advise filling up from the guys selling gasolina out of cans.  It’s 110 miles to the next gas station, and most bikes don’t hold enough fuel to make the entire 231-mile run from the Pemex in El Rosario all the way to Guerrero Negro.

You’ll want to fill up in Catavina if you’re on a motorcycle.  Photo by Baja John.

After the Catavina boulder fields, it’s a run through Baja’s Pacific coastal plains to Parallelo 28, the border between Baja and Baja Sur (the two states comprising the Baja peninsula).  There’s an immigration checkpoint there where you might have to produce your visitor’s form, but usually the Mexican immigration folks just wave you through.   Make a right turn off the Transpeninsular Highway, and head on in to Guerrero Negro.

Joe Gresh riding through the Catavina boulder fields on a Royal Enfield Bullet.
A gray whale skeleton as you make the right turn heading into Guerrero Negro.  Good times ahead!

There are plenty of hotels in Guerrero Negro.  I’ve stayed at the Hotel San Ignacio (no restaurant), Malarrimo’s (one of the best restaurants in Guerrero Negro), the Hotel Don Gus (they have a good restaurant), and the Hotel Los Corrales.   They’re all good.  The real attraction here, though, is whale watching, and that’s the topic for Day 4 of our 7-day Baja adventure.

My KLR 650 parked in front of Malarrimo’s in Guerrero Negro. It’s a decent hotel and they have a great restaurant.  It’s on the right as you enter Guerrero Negro.

Day 4:   Whale Watching in Guerrero Negro (0 miles).

Day 4 is a day off the bikes and a day devoted to whale watching.   I always have breakfast at Malarimmo’s when I’m in Guerrero Negro.  For whale watching, we’ve used Malarimmo’s and Laguna Baja’s tour service; both are great.  They have morning and afternoon tours.  Folks ask if the whale watching is better in the morning or the afternoon.  I’ve found both are awesome (and both are just under $50 per person).  The whale watching tours are only available January through March because that’s when the California gray whale herd is in Scammon’s Lagoon.  You’ll be out on the boat for roughly three hours, so you’ll want to use the bathroom before you go.  You can expect a genuine life-altering experience when you visit with the whales.  You might think I’m exaggerating, but I am not.  Bring a camera.  No one will believe what you tell them about this experience unless you have pictures.

Up close and personal with a California gray whale in Scammon’s Lagoon. It is an experience like no other.

After seeing the whales, look for a fish taco van parked on northern side of the road.  That’s my good buddy Tony’s Tacos El Muelle truck.   Tony makes the best fish tacos on the planet.  Yeah, I know, that’s another strong statement, but I know what I’m talking about here.

Tony, fish taco chef extraordinaire.  Tell Tony Joe sent you.

For dinner in Guerrero Negro, there are lots of options.  The Hotel Don Gus has a great restaurant, Malarimmo’s is great, and we most recently tried the San Remedio (off the main drag on a dirt road in Guerrero Negro) and it, too, was awesome.

Restaurante San Remedio in Guerrero Negro. It was authentic,and you will very likely be the only non-local guest.
Brianda, who served us dinner at the San Remedio.
Corvina grilled with olive oil and garlic at the San Remedio. It was 135 pesos, or about $7 US, including soup.

Day 5:  Guerrero Negro to San Quintin (264 miles)

You might wonder:  Are there other ways to head back north in addition to the way we came down?  The short answer is yes, but the roads are sketchy and I’ve seldom felt a need to take a different route.  My advice is to just go back the way you came down, and stop and smell the roses along the way.  There’s plenty to see. Take photos of the things you missed.   Enjoy the ride.

Joe Gresh feeling his oats on the ride north out of Guerrero Negro.
Photographing a cirio plant in the Valle de los Cirios.
Gresh spotted an unusual (and abandoned) geodesic dome in the desert north of Catavina on the way south and he said he wanted to stop there on the return leg north. So we did!
More artwork framed our test Enfield from the geodesic dome’s interior. Gresh had the idea to grab this photo.  He’s better at this than I am.

On the return leg of this adventure, you can stay at the Old Mill Hotel again.  Yeah, it’s my favorite.   There are other hotels in the San Quintin area, including the much larger and more modern Misione Santa Ines (which also has a great restaurant).  There’s also Jardin’s, which Baja John told us about but I haven’t visited yet. One of these days I’m going to spend two or three days in and around San Quintin.  It’s a cool area.

A bleu cheese salad at the Eucalipto. It was exquisite.

The Old Mill’s Eucalipto isn’t open every morning for breakfast, but that’s okay because there are lots of good places to eat once you get back on the Transpeninsular Highway heading north.  If you want to pick one of the great breakfast spots, just look for any restaurante with a whole bunch of cars parked in front (the locals know what they are doing).  If you’ve never had chilequiles, give this Mexican breakfast specialty a try.

Day 6:  San Quintin to Tecate (180 miles)

This is the same ride we took on the way south, and my guidance is the same:  Stop, smell the poppies, and grab a few photos along the way.  If you can hold out for a great lunch, I have two suggestions.  One is the Los Veleros in Ensenada, which is in the Hotel Coronado building as you ride along the coast.  The other is Naranjo’s along the Ruta del Vino (Highway 3) back into Tecate.

The Naranjo’s dining room along the Ruta del Vino. It’s on the left as you head north to Tecate, and you’ll have to watch for it or you’ll miss one of the best restaurants in all of Mexico.
Yours truly in the LA Cetto tasting room. I’m wearing my R Heroes USA workshirt, a top-quality item I’ve been wearing on every adventure ride for 10 years!

I always like to stop at the L.A. Cetto vineyard on the way home (rather than on the first part of the ride).   I’ll pick up one bottle of wine (and for me, that’s either a Malbec or a Cabernet).  I’d like to be able to take more home, but it’s tough to do that on a motorcycle, and you’re only allowed to bring one bottle back into the United States.  Rules is rules, you know.

If you had dinner at Tecate’s Amores on the way down, you might want to try a street taco restaurante on this, your second night in Tecate.  We like Tacos Dumas, just up the street from the Hacienda Hotel.  It’s awesome.

For an authentic experience, try Tecate’s Tacos Dumas restaurante.  Life doesn’t get any better than this.

Day 7:  The Ride Home (168 miles)

This is an easy run, and for me, it starts with a breakfast at Malinalli Sabores Autóctonos in Tecate (yeah, I love that place).   After that, it’s a quick stop at the Mexican immigration office to return your tourist visa (don’t skip this step; you need to check out of Mexico and simply crossing back into the US won’t do that).  If you’re in a car, you’ve got to get into the long line waiting to get back across the US border.   If you’re on a bike, go a block or two east of the street you took into Mexico, turn left, and look for the US border crossing.   There’s a break in the K-barriers guiding the automobile line, and you can go right to the head of the line.  I’ve never had a problem doing this, even though it feels like I’m doing something wrong.

And folks, there you have it: Seven glorious days of the best riding on the planet.  I’m ready to go again.

If you’d like to read the rest of our recent Royal Enfield Baja adventure ride posts, here are the links…

BajaBound on Royal Enfield
18 Again
The Bullet Hits Home
We’re Off
We’re Off 2
Snapshot
Tecate
San Quintin
Royal Enfield 650cc Twin: First Real Ride
The Plucky Bullet
Guerrero Negro
Ballenos
Whales
The Bullet in Baja
A Funny Thing
No One Goes Hungry
Day 7 and a Wake Up
The Bullet
The Bullet: Take 2
The Interceptor

One more thing…if you like what you see here, don’t forget to sign up for our blog update email notifications!  We’re having our next drawing for one of our moto adventure books in just a few days, and getting on the email list gets you in the running!

Catching up…

So…I’ve been back from Baja for a few days now and I’m just starting to get back into the groove of life in So Cal again.  I had one more short video of our whale watching day I thought I’d share…

Good buddy Greg and I thought we’d head out to the range yesterday.  The creek was still flowing pretty well from all of our So Cal rains and we made it across, only to find out that the range was still closed.   We could have shot as full members, but we didn’t bring target stands with us thinking that the range would be open and they’d be available.  Greg commented that he should have video recorded our turning the Subaru into an amphibious vehicle, and then we realized we’d soon have another opportunity…we had to get back across that creek…

That’s it for now.  We have two or three more posts from the Baja trip we’ll be adding in the next few days…one focused on the dining, one on not panicking when bikes break down, and one on our itinerary (as good buddy Peter requested).   This trip was a bit more relaxed than usual, in that we did about 200 miles per day and we took a full day in Guerrero Negro, and that worked out well.

Later, my friends.  Stay tuned!

The Interceptor

The Interceptor in Baja’s wine country along the Antigua Ruta del Vino south of Ensenada.  I think the Enfield is a perfect motorcycle.   I thoroughly enjoyed our Baja ride on it, and I’m planning to buy one for myself.  The spirit of the British vertical twin is alive and well in this fine machine.  I’ll point out a few nits in this article, but folks, trust me on this:  This is an amazing motorcycle.

When I was a teenager and LBJ was in the White House,  my standard against which all motorcycles were judged was the 1965 Triumph Bonneville. To me, that represented the ultimate motorcycle, and to this day, it’s what I think of when people start talking about the perfect motorcycle.   It’s what came to mind when Royal Enfield announced the 650 Interceptor.  I think 650 cubic centimeters is a good size for a motorcycle. I think a British vertical twin is the perfect vehicle (to borrow a phrase from good buddy Melissa Pierson).   And I know that Baja is the best place on the planet for a motorcycle trip.  That’s why I wanted to get the new Enfield and ride it through Baja.  The perfect bike on the perfect ride.  I predicted it would be a great trip.  I was right.

Originally, we wanted to get two Interceptors, but they weren’t available. Enfield countered with an offer of two 500cc singles. Okay, we thought, that would do, and we realized it was a gutsy move on Enfield’s part to lend the bikes to us. Then that same dealer we’ve been so disappointed in couldn’t seem to get around to getting the bikes ready for us, and the plan shifted to an Interceptor and a Bullet. Even better, thought Gresh and I, and we were off, headed south into Baja.  The two different bikes would make for an interesting contrast.

It’s a funny thing; we thought the story would focus primarily on the newer bike (the Interceptor), but the Bullet proved to be a fun and interesting motorcycle (like Gresh mentioned in his blog below). Don’t get me wrong; the Interceptor is an amazing machine. In fact, I’d say it was perfect. But it was almost too good (and I’ll get to that further along in this post).

Back in the day when I was a youngster dreaming about owning a Triumph Bonneville, I only knew one guy who rode an original Royal Enfield twin.  That was Ricky Stang, a guy I knew in high school (go Vikings). Everyone else who rode was either on a Triumph or a Honda. Ricky had this amazing Enfield 750 with an all-chrome gas tank.  He was (and still is) a cool guy.   How cool, you might wonder?  Well, he bought a Mustang car and modified the emblems by chopping off the M and the U, so his car said STANG (Ricky’s last name). That’s how we rolled back in the ‘60s.

Okay, back to the main attraction: The 2019 Royal Enfield Interceptor. Let’s start with the basics. It’s a 650cc vertical twin, just like my dream bike, the ’65 Triumph Bonneville. The Enfield brochure (downloadable on the Internet) puts the “kerb” weight at 202 kg (that’s 445 lbs; the ’65 Bonneville was 363 lbs), the wheelbase at 1400mm (that’s 55 inches, just like the ’65 Bonneville), and the horsepower at 47 (the ’65 Bonneville had 50). The new Enfield has a 6-speed transmission (the ’65 Bonneville had a 4-speed).  Hmm, the right displacement and the right dimensions.  The Enfield weighed a bit more, but the ’65 Bonneville didn’t have disk brakes front and rear, ABS, electric start, turn signals, an oil cooler, or catalytic converters.

The Enfield engine is magnificent. It is very torquey, and on our Baja foray I never felt like I was undergunned. The exhaust note is perfect (it sounds like a real motorcycle).  The engine is extremely smooth. It didn’t seem to care what gear I was in; I could just roll on the throttle and the bike responded. In fact, a lot of times I’d be riding along thinking I was in 6th gear only to discover that the bike was in 5th or even 4th. It is that smooth.  And a lot of times while climbing mountains in Baja’s Valle de los Cirios, I didn’t have to bother downshifting.   Twist and go.  Cool.  We had the bike weighed down with lots of gear on our Baja trip; the Enfield didn’t seem to care.  The engine is a 4-valve per cylinder, single overhead cam design, but the Enfield folks somehow managed to pull off the styling such that it looks a lot like the original overhead valve Enfield design of the 1960s (kudos for that).   It is a good-looking and brilliantly-performing motor.

Perhaps the best-looking engine in the business, this SOHC, 4-valves-per-cylinder motor strongly resembles the 1960s Enfield OHV motor. The left side engine cases make it look like a non-unit-construction engine. Well done, Enfield!

The bike never felt heavy to me.  The Enfield carries its weight low and it felt light and quick everywhere.  Yeah, on paper it’s 80 lbs heavier than the ’65 Bonneville.  It didn’t feel like it, though.  It feels good.

Enfield’s spec sheet says the bike is air-and-oil cooled, and there’s a non-obtrusive oil cooler mounted on the frame downtubes.   The engine looks perfect. It’s nicely finned and you can see the thing.  The exhaust system is a work of art.  The mufflers are nicely shaped megaphones and brilliantly plated, and the exhaust header curvature is perfect.  (Why is the word “perfect” emerging so frequently in this report?)   I’m guessing the headers are a “pipe in a pipe” arrangement, as the pipes exhibited no heat discoloration.   The clamps securing the exhaust headers to the cylinder head are neatly finned gizmos, just like Triumph had in the ’60s.   Both sides of the engine have beautiful cases.   Gresh commented that the engine’s left side cases were fashioned to make it look like the bike had separate engine and transmission cases, as Enfield had in days of yore.   The Enfield guys got it right.  I am impressed.

A magnificent exhaust system.  The curvature of the pipes and the upswept cans are perfect.
If we had any, Gresh and I could comb our hair in those engine cases.

Gresh mentioned in an earlier blog that he reached 115 mph in 5th gear and 110 mph in 6th, confirming that 6th is really an overdrive. I never took the bike over 80; it would do it, I just didn’t want to. I found the bike stable at any speed. Fuel economy is outstanding. When we took delivery of the bike, it had 847 miles on the odometer and Joe measured 60 mpg on the first tank.  On our last tank, with another 1300 miles on the bike, it returned 70 mpg.  It never used any oil on our trip.

The headlight is a big chrome affair, just like Triumph (and basically all the British manufacturers) used to do.  The beam was good, too.   It lit up the street nicely.

The bike has a single disk in front and another in the rear.  Both are ABS equipped.  There’s no provision that we could see to turn the ABS off.   Joe slammed the rear brake on a dirt road, and you could see where the ABS activated on and off in the bike’s track.   The brakes are good.  I never used them hard enough to activate the ABS feature, and that was okay by me.

The fuel tank is nicely contoured with a teardrop shape (it looks like a motorcycle gas tank should).  Fuel capacity is 13.7 liters (that converts to 3.6 gallons).    The tank emblems are gorgeous, although there was a very slight curvature mismatch where the leading edge of the emblem interfaced with the tank.   That’s my inner motojournalist kicking in.  I had to find something negative to say about the bike, and folks, this is one of very few nits I had with the bike.  Yeah, I’m being picky.  The gas cap is of the locking variety (it unlocks with the ignition key), and the cap is not hinged on the tank.  You take it completely off when refilling.   The bike ran equally well on regular or premium, and we mostly ran on regular because that’s all we could get once we went further into Baja.

The badging is magnificent.  No funky cheap decals here.
Picky, picky, picky…there’s a slight curvature mismatch at the front of the tank emblems. It was consistent on both sides of the tank.

Here’s another nit:  Joe and I both felt the left side of the bike is crowded around the footpeg.  The gearshift is a little too close (I guess it could be adjusted upward, and I’d like the lever to be a little longer).   The extensions for the kickstand and the centerstand extend far enough outside the bike and they are close enough to the footpeg that putting your foot down is a bit challenging.  I didn’t like that all of that stuff (the gearshift, the footpeg, the kickstand extension, and the centerstand extension) stuck as far out as they did, and I had to think about where I put my foot down more than I do on other motorcycles.  On the plus side, shifting was slick and effortless, there was no clunking, and the bike almost changed gears telepathically (it was that smooth).  Getting the kickstand down was easy with the long extension, and pulling the bike up on the centerstand was also easy.  Enfield provides a nice handhold on the left side of the bike for that purpose.

Things are crowded on the left side of the bike, and I had to be careful putting my left foot down.
The shift lever was a little too low and a little too close to the left footpeg.

I’d call the instrumentation perfect (ah, there’s that word again).  As I mentioned in one of the first blogs we did on the Interceptor, Enfield captured the essence of the big old Smiths instruments that used to adorn British bikes back in the ’60s.   The bike has a digital, bar-based fuel gage in the left pod, an analog speedo and tach, high beam and turn signal indicators, an ABS light, and an odometer and two tripmeters.  Stated differently, it has all the good stuff you need and none of the stuff you don’t.  The tripmeter reset was a pushbutton between the speedo and tach.  I found the tripmeter reset a little hard to actuate, but I haven’t been hitting the gym lately.

Perfect instrumentation, in my opinion.  The chrome crossbar is a little cheesy.

The horn on this bike is loud. It sounds like a European automobile horn.  I liked that.

On the bodywork, everything looks great.  The tank, as mentioned above, is is nicely shaped and the metalflake tangerine color is stunning.  The Interceptor’s fenders are nicely shaped, a bit abbreviated (which I like), silver in color, and plastic, all of which is fine by me.  The bike has a deep gloss black tubular double downtube frame, and that answers the mail nicely for a refined and classic Britbike look.  The seat is long, not overly cushy, flat, and comfortable (it has a cable-actuated release accessible under the right body panel).  The side covers work, too.  I like that they are black.  It fits the overall look nicely.

The handlebar switchgear is the same as the Bullet, which is the same as the CSC motorcycles, which is the same as 90% of the motorcycles sold today.  Somewhere, there’s a single factory making handlebar switchgear for everyone.  My guess is that factory has a Chongqing zip code.  It all works nicely.  The turn signals are not self-cancelling.   The clutch and front brake levers (forgive me, Joe Gresh) fell easily to hand and were light to operate.  One more minor nit:  Joe noticed that the front brake left was shaped such that it had a minor drag against the right handlebar switchgear housing, and that this slight drag prevented the brake lever from returning all the way to the forward position (you could touch the front brake lever with your fingers to make it go all the forward).  We probably could have adjusted that interference out by repositioning the front brake lever on the handlebar, but we did not.  It’s a nit that will almost certainly be gone when the bikes go into production for the US market.  Joe liked the handlebar crossbar; I thought it was the only thing on the bike that looked cheap.   I think it would have been better if it was an integral part of the handlebar, as Janus does on their Gryffin model and CSC does on the TT250.

Standard switchgear on the left handlebar.
Standard switchgear on the right handlebar, too.
There was a slight bit of interference between the switchgear housing and the front brake lever in the area denoted by the yellow arrow.

The front suspension is not adjustable, and if you have been following the ExNotes Enfield Baja blog, you know that’s okay by me.  The rear suspension is adjustable for preload.  As delivered to us, the rear shocks were set to a medium position.   Our bike, being a preproduction prototype, did not have a tool kit, so there was no spanner to make any rear shock adjustments.   You can see from some of our photos that we had the Interceptor loaded heavily with our gear and soft luggage, and I managed to bottom out the rear suspension a couple of times.  No big deal.  Suspension travel is about what’s needed on a street bike.   The wheels are 18-inchers  front and rear.

Silver fenders, unpainted wire wheels, and Pirelli tires. It all came together for a crisp, responsive, good-looking motorcycle.
The rear carries 130/70-18 tires. The bike rides and handles well.

Our Enfield benefactor told us that officially the bike is to be known as the 650 INT, as the Interceptor name had some issues.  I’m guessing that’s because a certain other motorcycle uses that name today (hint: that motorcycle is usually red).   Ah, whatever.  It seems to me that Enfield of yore (in the UK Enfield days) used the Interceptor name long before you met those nicest people on a…well, you know.  And then, of course, there was the Ford Interceptor, the name the Blue Oval guys stuck on their police cruisers.  So I thought I might help Enfield by suggesting a few other names.  My first idea was that maybe they could call this bike the Kool Long Range 650 to honor our 1300-mile Baja adventure and the bike’s displacement, but that would abbreviate to KLR 650, and…well, you know.  Another idea was that because the bike has electric starting and it is such a smooth ride, we could call it the Electra-Glide, but…well, you know.   And then, because it is so well balanced and tractable with its torquey motor, we might call it the Go Slow, but that becomes GS, and I think someone is already using those initials.   The tank badges are kind of gold in color and shaped like a wing, so maybe Gold Wing would work (is that already taken?).  Maybe, because of where the bike is manufactured, we could just call it the Indian.  What’s that?  That name is already taken, too?  It’s tough, I guess, naming a new bike.

Overall, I am extremely impressed with the new Royal Enfield 650 Interceptor.   So much so, that I’m going to buy one if (as I mentioned in an earlier blog) I can convince the dealer that I’m not stupid and I’m not subsidizing their freight and setup fantasies.   At first blush, one of the dealers told me freight and setup on this bike would be $1200.  Uh huh.   Look, I know that you can ship a bike anywhere in the lower 48 states for something around $350 (and that’s a max number; if you’re shipping it to a closer state it’s a lot less, and if you’re shipping several, the rates drop even more).   Setup on this bike probably involves installing the mirrors, maybe the handlebars, and the front wheel, and all that should take under an hour.  I don’t know why the dealers persist in this gouge-the-customer-for-freight-and-setup larceny.  Well, I take that back. I do know. I just don’t like it, and I won’t pay it.   A realistic freight and setup cost (to the dealer) is most likely below $350, and with a reasonable profit that number would go a little higher.  But not $1200.  No way, no how.

Okay, off the soapbox and back to the bike.   I think the Enfield 650 is one of the best motorcycles I’ve ever ridden.  It’s light, it’s smooth, it’s fast, it handles well, it gets good fuel economy, and the fit and finish are world class.  It’s almost too good, in that maybe it doesn’t have the character or personality of the Bullet, or a 1965 Triumph Bonneville.  But that’s a trade I’d make.  Enfield hit a home run with the Interceptor.  I think it’s perfect.

 

The Bullet: Take 2

Everything Joe Berk has written about the Bullet’s shaky performance on our Baja tour is true, but like our President’s spokeswoman has said, there are alternative facts in addition to real facts.

The first alternative fact is that motorcycle reliability is highly over-rated. For me, being broken down on the side of the road with the Bullet is much more preferable to gliding by silently on a plastic-encased, soulless appliance. Some of the funniest, most enjoyable times on our ride were when the Bullet did something strange requiring me and Berk to use our brains and not just our wallets. Besides, most of the Bullet’s issues were easily resolved with a hammer or by burning some sage (except for the chain and sprocket wearing out), and we were back on the road in a matter of minutes.

Another fact I dispute is the 70 miles-per-hour top speed of the Bullet. I swear I saw 80 miles per hour plus on the run down California’s busy Highway 15 and we were staying with traffic just fine. The Bullet may have gone even faster but I was in no mood to tuck in. Anyway, if you want speed a used Suzuki ‘Busa will set you back 3 to 5 thousand dollars and you’ll have all the speed you can stand.

The bike was a bit bent up in the rear. Not knowing the history we didn’t know if it had been dropped at some point or if the factory jigs put a twist into the operation from Day One. The Bullet’s steel kickstand was easy to bend so I offered to straighten out the rear frame but Berk felt we might just cause other problems in the process. I’m guessing other Bullets are not so crooked.

Even though the exciting new Royal Enfield 650 was supposed to be our focus on this Baja trip, the Bullet dominated the conversation and our thoughts. Good or bad, that’s a sign of an interesting motorcycle. Do I like the Bullet better than the new 650? Oh, hell no! I love the 650 and would buy one, but if you prefer the Bullet with all its faults you’re my kind of motorcyclist.