The Bullet beat!
I recently came across the Bullet Riders blogs hosted by Royal Enfield (makers of Bullet bikes in india). I immediately created a blog (called Parking-spaces) formyself: http://www.royalenfield.com/rameshl1 . And quickly a lot of views just oozed out... (recapped here below):
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A childhood passion for the very heavy bullet bike, with its out of the world "thump"- the Bullet beat! I have travelled around the world. And seen bikes. Many bikes. Most of them probably better than our Bullet. But Bullet does something to me.. that none of these other bikes do. They may be better engineered, and with more contemporary technologies. But Bullets has a "soul" that these other bikes severly lack. They are just machines. But Bullet evokes a passion. A flame within. Reviving fond childhood memories of running behind a bullet. I was an Ideal Jawa kid. My dad had Jawa for a very long time. I liked that too. Even then.. Bullet was an aspiration.
As I grew, and could affford one, never thought that I was built for a Bullet. but was surprised when a colleague of mine, shorter and weighing lighter, got a Bullet. He convinced me that it is a breeze. Within a few months bought one. And guess what.. I loved the idea so much, that my wife presented me one! Can there be a better way of getting a bullet!? :-)
I always liked the bke to look different. From the time I got it 4 years back I regularly keep changing stuff. And sometimes rechange what I already changed. Like the seats, theone I now have the is the 3rd one. Changed the handle bar twice. Got complete front forks changed. Custom made silencers. Got two first. My son loved it. Calls them Nitros (after some flame throwing bikes in some cartoon series). So I got two more. All four functioning. Had to tell my mechanic to do something to ensure reasonable noise. Hate to be an annoying citizen!
I like chrome. Adds so much to the Bullet's charm. Got a lot of chroming done. Am now planning on getting chrome metal piece on teh tanks, with soem switches on it (probably extra lights, also to be installed). And some day, when I find a good mechanic-body-works place, I will convert mine toa chopper. Some day. Soon.
In the mean time I just enjoy my bike. Lovethe beat. Have slowly mastered the RPMs and pickup at which the beat is the maximum. Just for the beat I love slower moving traffic as you downshift and upshift often. The bullet beat occurs only at certain points in the path. And surely not in the steady cruising speeds.
One of my planned projects is to improve the bike's performance beyond its half hour running- when thebike begins to get rather un-bullet like. Teh sound gets a little off, the pck up gets off, the clutch & accelerator feels rather off.. probably due to the heat playing havoc with the basically-1950s-machine-design.
In the meantime. Will just enjoy the bike and teh experiecne of altering the bike. My kids love the bike. Kids in teh neighbourhood love it. Always nice to see people ogling at it- in traffic. And when parked.
An amazing bike. The Bullet! Like none other!
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A childhood passion for the very heavy bullet bike, with its out of the world "thump"- the Bullet beat! I have travelled around the world. And seen bikes. Many bikes. Most of them probably better than our Bullet. But Bullet does something to me.. that none of these other bikes do. They may be better engineered, and with more contemporary technologies. But Bullets has a "soul" that these other bikes severly lack. They are just machines. But Bullet evokes a passion. A flame within. Reviving fond childhood memories of running behind a bullet. I was an Ideal Jawa kid. My dad had Jawa for a very long time. I liked that too. Even then.. Bullet was an aspiration.
As I grew, and could affford one, never thought that I was built for a Bullet. but was surprised when a colleague of mine, shorter and weighing lighter, got a Bullet. He convinced me that it is a breeze. Within a few months bought one. And guess what.. I loved the idea so much, that my wife presented me one! Can there be a better way of getting a bullet!? :-)
I always liked the bke to look different. From the time I got it 4 years back I regularly keep changing stuff. And sometimes rechange what I already changed. Like the seats, theone I now have the is the 3rd one. Changed the handle bar twice. Got complete front forks changed. Custom made silencers. Got two first. My son loved it. Calls them Nitros (after some flame throwing bikes in some cartoon series). So I got two more. All four functioning. Had to tell my mechanic to do something to ensure reasonable noise. Hate to be an annoying citizen!
I like chrome. Adds so much to the Bullet's charm. Got a lot of chroming done. Am now planning on getting chrome metal piece on teh tanks, with soem switches on it (probably extra lights, also to be installed). And some day, when I find a good mechanic-body-works place, I will convert mine toa chopper. Some day. Soon.
In the mean time I just enjoy my bike. Lovethe beat. Have slowly mastered the RPMs and pickup at which the beat is the maximum. Just for the beat I love slower moving traffic as you downshift and upshift often. The bullet beat occurs only at certain points in the path. And surely not in the steady cruising speeds.
One of my planned projects is to improve the bike's performance beyond its half hour running- when thebike begins to get rather un-bullet like. Teh sound gets a little off, the pck up gets off, the clutch & accelerator feels rather off.. probably due to the heat playing havoc with the basically-1950s-machine-design.
In the meantime. Will just enjoy the bike and teh experiecne of altering the bike. My kids love the bike. Kids in teh neighbourhood love it. Always nice to see people ogling at it- in traffic. And when parked.
An amazing bike. The Bullet! Like none other!
posted by Ramesh L. at 1:21 AM
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