{"id":3451,"date":"2019-03-22T06:27:54","date_gmt":"2019-03-22T13:27:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/?p=3451"},"modified":"2019-03-22T06:54:31","modified_gmt":"2019-03-22T13:54:31","slug":"the-bullet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/index.php\/2019\/03\/22\/the-bullet\/","title":{"rendered":"The Bullet"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Dan on a CSC Baja trip above the Rumarosa Grade.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

You might wonder why the first photo in a blog about the Royal Enfield Bullet is a CSC TT250.\u00a0 Let me explain.\u00a0 That guy in the photo above is good buddy Dan, with whom I’ve ridden in Baja a couple of times on the CSC trips (once on TT250s, and the other time on the RX3s). \u00a0 Dan is the only guy I know who owns an Enfield Bullet, and before I go into the good, the bad, and the ugly regarding my Bullet experience, I called him to get his take on the bike.\u00a0 Dan has owned his Bullet since 2013, it’s the fuel injected model (like the one I rode), and he has 7500 miles on it.\u00a0 Lest you think Dan doesn’t ride much, he owns several motorcycles, and that’s why he only has 7500 miles on his Enfield.<\/p>\n

Dan told me his Bullet has been trouble free, but he also told me he is fastidious in maintaining it and he is a conservative rider.\u00a0 Dan said things vibrate loose and you have to keep an eye on that, but his bike has never broken down, it’s never had any electrical issues (like the missing and stumbling Joe Gresh and I experienced on the entire Baja trip), and he likes the bike.\u00a0 That’s good input, and it’s what I hoped I would hear.<\/p>\n

For reasons I’ll explain later, I asked Dan about the rear sprocket and chain maintenance, and he laughed.\u00a0 “It’s the only thing I was going to mention,” Dan said. \u00a0 He replaced his rear sprocket at 7500 miles, and he is a fanatic about chain maintenance and lubrication. \u00a0 More on that in a bit, folks.<\/p>\n

Another bit of background up front.\u00a0 Royal Enfield North America was kind enough to lend Joe and I a Bullet.\u00a0 Our particular bike was a 2016 press bike that had been stored at a dealer for some time (not Southern California Motorcycles, but another Enfield dealer), and when we received it, it was in a state of extreme neglect. \u00a0 I won’t go into that in detail (you can read about it in a prior blog); I’ll just mention it again and touch on it a few times through this post.\u00a0 The Enfield Bullet is an old school bike and it requires maintenance; this one had essentially none and it put a damper on our trip.\u00a0 I wanted to love the bike and write great things about it; the condition of the bike made that difficult.<\/p>\n

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This is what a motorcycle is supposed to look like.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Joe Gresh on a Royal Enfield Bullet in Baja. \u00a0 Life is good.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

With that as a backdrop, let’s get into a detailed review.<\/p>\n

I think the Bullet is a beautiful motorcycle. \u00a0 It has a look I just love.\u00a0 It screams 1950s, it screams British, and I love the feel and sound of a big single.\u00a0 The black paint and chrome work for me.\u00a0 The pinstriping is superb, and I found a video that shows how Royal Enfield does it…<\/p>\n