The Royal Enfield Bullet and Other Bullet related Links!
60kph: All India Bullet Club
http://www.60kph.com
Eastern Bulls: Calcutta Bullet Club
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/easternbulls
Inddie Thumpers: Mumbai Bullet Club
http://www.inddiethumpers.com
Madras Bulls: Chennai Bullet Club
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/madrasbulls
Road Shakers: Pune Bullet Club
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Roadshakers
http://www.roadshakers.com/
Road Survivors: Chandigarh Bullet Club
http://www.roadsurvivorschd.com
Royal Beasts: Delhi Bullet Club
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/royalbeasts
The Wanderers: Hyderabad Bullet Club
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Wanderers-Hyderabad
Royal Bengal Cruisers
http://www.rbcruisers.com/
http://bonigv.tripod.com/
Zen And The Art of Motorcycle Maintenance > The complete Ebook , available free ONLINE!
Sunday, May 07, 2006
Saturday, January 07, 2006
Pleasure for riding Freaks!
Pleasure for riding FREAKS!!
The pleasure is when you finish your day ride, and reach in one piece. You the smallest vehicle on the road, and you survived.
The pleasure is when you take off your wristwatch, and see a band of untanned skin.
The pleasure is when your motorcycle and you move as one single united form. Whatever shape the road takes, whichever end of the compass it leads to.
The pleasure is when you use your hands, arms, thighs,
knees and feet to steer.
The pleasure is when you take off your riding jacket for a break, and feel the breeze dry your sweat.
The pleasure is when you sing to yourself on an empty road. You are the world’s best rock star.
The pleasure is when your rear wheel slides, and you bring it back, when the front wheel lifts, and you take your time bringing it back.
The pleasure is when you cut through air, at 50 kph or 100.
The pleasure is when you reach a place you never been
before, and someone you never seen before asks you for a ride. And comes back grinning.
The pleasure is when you wave to village kids, and they wave back.
The pleasure is when you almost, almost fall. But dont
The pleasure is when you fight the wind, and win.
The pleasure is when you get up that narrow path for the
view you never forget.
The pleasure is when you view the world at an angle.
The pleasure is when you eat bugs at 90 kph.
The pleasure is when you look at a dust-streaked face in the mirror after a 500 km ride, and don't want to wash up.
The pleasure is when your pillion moves with you.
The pleasure is when you can see the petrol after a top-up.
The pleasure is when your throttle hand has calluses.
The pleasure is when you jump a speedbreaker.
The pleasure is when you stop to help push a stranded car to the side of the road.
The pleasure is when you stop at the smallest of towns, and somebody asks you technical specifications.
The pleasure is when your book of roadmaps gets dog-eared, rain-splashed, tea-stained.
The pleasure is when you give a stranger a lift.
The pleasure is when you have battle-scars.
The pleasure is when you can feel the cool morning and the
hot afternoon, the light rain and the damp fog.
The pleasure is when you leave four-wheeler traffic
standing in a jam.
The pleasure is when you aren’t lulled by an air-conditioner.
The pleasure is when you are free. Open. Independent.
Liberated.
RIDING - Credits for writing this excellent piece - vivsham@rediffmail.com
Ride safe, Ride far , Ride often!
The pleasure is when you finish your day ride, and reach in one piece. You the smallest vehicle on the road, and you survived.
The pleasure is when you take off your wristwatch, and see a band of untanned skin.
The pleasure is when your motorcycle and you move as one single united form. Whatever shape the road takes, whichever end of the compass it leads to.
The pleasure is when you use your hands, arms, thighs,
knees and feet to steer.
The pleasure is when you take off your riding jacket for a break, and feel the breeze dry your sweat.
The pleasure is when you sing to yourself on an empty road. You are the world’s best rock star.
The pleasure is when your rear wheel slides, and you bring it back, when the front wheel lifts, and you take your time bringing it back.
The pleasure is when you cut through air, at 50 kph or 100.
The pleasure is when you reach a place you never been
before, and someone you never seen before asks you for a ride. And comes back grinning.
The pleasure is when you wave to village kids, and they wave back.
The pleasure is when you almost, almost fall. But dont
The pleasure is when you fight the wind, and win.
The pleasure is when you get up that narrow path for the
view you never forget.
The pleasure is when you view the world at an angle.
The pleasure is when you eat bugs at 90 kph.
The pleasure is when you look at a dust-streaked face in the mirror after a 500 km ride, and don't want to wash up.
The pleasure is when your pillion moves with you.
The pleasure is when you can see the petrol after a top-up.
The pleasure is when your throttle hand has calluses.
The pleasure is when you jump a speedbreaker.
The pleasure is when you stop to help push a stranded car to the side of the road.
The pleasure is when you stop at the smallest of towns, and somebody asks you technical specifications.
The pleasure is when your book of roadmaps gets dog-eared, rain-splashed, tea-stained.
The pleasure is when you give a stranger a lift.
The pleasure is when you have battle-scars.
The pleasure is when you can feel the cool morning and the
hot afternoon, the light rain and the damp fog.
The pleasure is when you leave four-wheeler traffic
standing in a jam.
The pleasure is when you aren’t lulled by an air-conditioner.
The pleasure is when you are free. Open. Independent.
Liberated.
RIDING - Credits for writing this excellent piece - vivsham@rediffmail.com
Ride safe, Ride far , Ride often!
Why Ride?
Hope this piece excites you too.. !
Nothing can beat, bunking the office for a ride
Nothing can beat, when you plan an early morning start but start at 8.30
Nothing can beat, when u apply sun burn on arms but forget the face
Nothing can beat, when u ride in full riding gears and people see you with curiosity
Nothing can beat, when u touch the highway and your frustration gets blown away by hot summer wind.
Nothing can beat, when u stop for a cold Lassi after that
Nothing can beat, when rear wheel goes flat at 90kph and nothing happens to you
Nothing can beat, when u ride more than 100 kms in one go
Nothing can beat, when u stop for water and some unknown person offers you a chilled Pepsi
Nothing can beat, first sight of mountains after doing 250 kms hot summer ride
Nothing can beat, when you start riding on Ghats with one eye on road and second on beautiful landscape
Nothing can beat, when you stop for a lunch at 5.00 in the evening
Nothing can beat, when you reach your planned destination without any hitch
Nothing can beat, when you look for a accommodation and find no hotels
Nothing can beat, when you miss your camping gears
Nothing can beat, when you offer bottle of whisky to PWD caretaker and he opens a VIP room
Nothing can beat, when you saw a beautiful girl sitting on your bike
Nothing can beat, when she gives you a pleasant smile
Nothing can beat, chilled beer under the stars and watching full moon rising from ‘Choordhar’ peaks
Nothing can beat, peaceful sleep
Nothing can beat, coming back from unknown routes with no traffic
Nothing can beat, riding on bad stretches
Nothing can beat, when locals say its only 2 kms bad stretches but it's actually 14 kms
Nothing can beat, when some one show you a shortcut and you saves 40 kms
Nothing can beat, when you find routes more beautiful than your imagination
Nothing can beat, when you decide to comeback again
Nothing can beat, when you reach home and your wife welcomes you and your kids search your bag
Nothing can beat Himachal Pradesh
Nothing can beat, A Lonely Ride
Nothing can beat, ROYAL ENFIELD BULLET
(courtesy : http://bike.rediffblogs.com)
Nothing can beat, bunking the office for a ride
Nothing can beat, when you plan an early morning start but start at 8.30
Nothing can beat, when u apply sun burn on arms but forget the face
Nothing can beat, when u ride in full riding gears and people see you with curiosity
Nothing can beat, when u touch the highway and your frustration gets blown away by hot summer wind.
Nothing can beat, when u stop for a cold Lassi after that
Nothing can beat, when rear wheel goes flat at 90kph and nothing happens to you
Nothing can beat, when u ride more than 100 kms in one go
Nothing can beat, when u stop for water and some unknown person offers you a chilled Pepsi
Nothing can beat, first sight of mountains after doing 250 kms hot summer ride
Nothing can beat, when you start riding on Ghats with one eye on road and second on beautiful landscape
Nothing can beat, when you stop for a lunch at 5.00 in the evening
Nothing can beat, when you reach your planned destination without any hitch
Nothing can beat, when you look for a accommodation and find no hotels
Nothing can beat, when you miss your camping gears
Nothing can beat, when you offer bottle of whisky to PWD caretaker and he opens a VIP room
Nothing can beat, when you saw a beautiful girl sitting on your bike
Nothing can beat, when she gives you a pleasant smile
Nothing can beat, chilled beer under the stars and watching full moon rising from ‘Choordhar’ peaks
Nothing can beat, peaceful sleep
Nothing can beat, coming back from unknown routes with no traffic
Nothing can beat, riding on bad stretches
Nothing can beat, when locals say its only 2 kms bad stretches but it's actually 14 kms
Nothing can beat, when some one show you a shortcut and you saves 40 kms
Nothing can beat, when you find routes more beautiful than your imagination
Nothing can beat, when you decide to comeback again
Nothing can beat, when you reach home and your wife welcomes you and your kids search your bag
Nothing can beat Himachal Pradesh
Nothing can beat, A Lonely Ride
Nothing can beat, ROYAL ENFIELD BULLET
(courtesy : http://bike.rediffblogs.com)
Why a Bullet
A great article for those interested in the Enfield Bullet ! Check out when time permits.
Might explain why guys like me still ride the Bullet Inspite of all the negatives that naysayers can shoot at it,,,....
What’s bigger than the Bullet? - Swami Ashwinananda Friday, November 07, 2003
Seemingly innocent question, teenaged boy on a bicycle, small dusty village on NH 45. And considering I was on an RE 500, I smiled confidently and replied ‘nothing else in the country’! Little did I know I was being set up to be knocked down. The young chap had been strolling around my bike as I enjoyed the customary ‘chai’ at a local tea shop, his casual air of disinterest thinly concealing the gleam of admiration in his eyes. My answer was met with a disdainful smirk. ‘I saw a foreigner on a Yamaha last week. That was much bigger. He told me they’re going to make it in India. 1200 cc, and it was sooo (he stretched his arms out as far as they would go) big. When I'm old enough, that’s what I’m going to ride’. He gave my bike one last look out of the corner of his eye, then pedaled away nonchalantly on his creaky bicycle. Many kilometers down the road, and alone with my thoughts on the highway, I pondered his question. It was the classic mental pivot. Both ridiculously simplistic and unbelievably deep at the same time.
‘What’s bigger than the Bullet?’
In the old days, people bought a Bullet not because of displacement, size or weight, but for very different reasons. It was the ‘Raja Gadi’. The choice of real men. At least that was the picture Bullet advertising painted then, and a vivid and colourful picture it was, best viewed with the ‘Bullet meri jaan’ jingle playing in your head.
Then about 15 years ago, the Jap Bike wars started. First there were the hundreds, then later the one-tens, the one-fifties, the one-seventy-fives… each claiming to deliver more power and ‘better mileage’, if that’s even possible at the same time, than the other. Buzz boxes abounded, tiddlers screamed manically on every street, and on another road far from where these marketing, R&D and advertising wars were being fought, the Grand Daddy of them all chugged steadily towards the brink of oblivion.
Recently though, there seems to be have been a revival of sorts, at first glance, rather heartening to a die-hard British motorcycle enthusiast like me. It seems as though more people are waking up from their Jap drone-induced stupor, and noticing that there was always a bike that was ‘bigger’ than the plastic clad Jappos available in the country.
Suddenly, one sees many young, macho, iron pumping, testosterone charged, leather clad gentlemen on Bullets. Not just the new-fangled ones, but some even on bikes a tad older than they are. Heartened by this turn of events, I accosted one recently, and asked him why he had chosen to ride a Bullet. My eager curiosity was met by a flat and fake-accented answer. ‘Who wants to buy a 180 cc when there’s a 535 cc available maan. It’s the biggest bike in India!’
I smiled thinly, shook his hand, and walked away thinking to myself ‘maybe the Bullet did manage to stop before it got all the way to oblivion. But it’s probably just standing there teetering at the brink.’
There’s a reason for my pessimism. Viewed from the cubic capacity perspective, the BHP perspective, the wheelbase and weight perspective, the ‘sheer size’ perspective or the advertising budget perspective, there will soon be many, many contenders to the position of Biggest Motorcycle in India. Which means that our testosterone-charged gentleman would buy one of them the moment it shows up on the market (attractively priced I might add). Just as soon, I presume, as he’d use an opportunity to take his shirt off and flex his tattooed muscles.
People today seem to be buying the Bullet for reasons like machismo (pun unintended), attitude, power and freedom. All the wrong reasons if you ask me. Because they’re all easily re-created, duplicated, and maybe even outdone by competition. Just like the 100cc Japs stopped the Bullet in its tracks 15 years ago, we’ll soon have 250, 350 and maybe even 750 and 1200cc Japs shooting the Bullet down again with weapons like cubic capacity, cruiser styling, fatter tyres, more chrome, and more jeans-leather-and-scantily-clad-women advertising --- all of which are in vogue now.
So what is it that will keep the Bullet competitive through the waves of onslaught from bikes that cater to the changing fancies of fickle Indian motorcyclists? What does the Bullet have going for it that no other manufacturer can hope to match no matter how much money he spends on research, development, space-age materials and nubile models?
I think the answer can be summed up in one word. Character.
To me, the Bullet stands for simplicity. A design that worked well not because it changed to incorporate every new discovery at NASA, but because the folks that designed it 50 years ago got everything right the first time. And then didn’t try to fix things that weren’t broke. It’s a bike that has built a reputation for being reliable, simple to work with, comfortable to be with, and lasts a whole lifetime… which is definitely a whole lifetime longer than the Japs, who outdate their throwaway models before one has even paid the second EMI. The most interesting thing is that over the years, this unglamorous but truly solid reputation has rubbed off on people that ride the Bullet too. The result, when one looks closely, is a bond between an individual and his Bullet, where one is but the mirror of the other.
To some folks like me who’ve wanted a Bullet since we were kids, it was the persona of these people that inspired the choice of a motorcycle more than the intrinsic value of the motorcycle itself. They were simple people, responsible people, strong people (not just in body) and they were people you could trust and rely on. I for one just bought into the quiet pride, solidity and soft spoken yet powerful image of Bullet riders I saw as a child, only to realize much later that these were the qualities of the bike itself.
In this day where people are realizing it’s better to step back from technology and glamour sometimes and fly subsonic rather than supersonic, I hope that people soon learn to appreciate and aspire to own the Bullet for what it is. A piece of machinery that has lived, served, rewarded and stood by its owners long enough to develop a character of its own. A motorcycle that has reached that point in evolution where its value cannot be measured in cubic centimeters, kilometres per hour or pounds per square inch. And a brand that speaks volumes for its owner for a lifetime… always saying just the same old good things.
If I had encountered my cyclist friend on the way back, I would have stopped him on his creaky bicycle and given him the answer I should have given him in the first place.
There’s just one thing that’s bigger than the Bullet. It’s the pride of owning one.
=======================================================================================================
Eliminator will get eliminated by a bigger, faster, Eliminator. A new Terminator will overcome the pulse of the Pulsar. The Shogun will be overshadowed by the Ronin, the RX 135 by the ZXR, and so on. But the Bullet will remain Bullet. For it is not a reality. It is a dream.
Dreams are of many types – pleasant, painful, enjoyable, scary, exciting, new, old and many more. Bullet is all this and much more! It is the closest any bike comes to being all things to all people. Being all things to all people is impossible. A theory. That is what Bullet is. A theory. And people love theories. All people love theories. Especially if they sound so good. And nobody can deny (even my 100 year old grandmother does not deny) that no other bike in the world sounds like Bullet.
Credits for writing this piece : Swami Ashwinananda (from the RE website) & Dilip Bam
Might explain why guys like me still ride the Bullet Inspite of all the negatives that naysayers can shoot at it,,,....
What’s bigger than the Bullet? - Swami Ashwinananda Friday, November 07, 2003
Seemingly innocent question, teenaged boy on a bicycle, small dusty village on NH 45. And considering I was on an RE 500, I smiled confidently and replied ‘nothing else in the country’! Little did I know I was being set up to be knocked down. The young chap had been strolling around my bike as I enjoyed the customary ‘chai’ at a local tea shop, his casual air of disinterest thinly concealing the gleam of admiration in his eyes. My answer was met with a disdainful smirk. ‘I saw a foreigner on a Yamaha last week. That was much bigger. He told me they’re going to make it in India. 1200 cc, and it was sooo (he stretched his arms out as far as they would go) big. When I'm old enough, that’s what I’m going to ride’. He gave my bike one last look out of the corner of his eye, then pedaled away nonchalantly on his creaky bicycle. Many kilometers down the road, and alone with my thoughts on the highway, I pondered his question. It was the classic mental pivot. Both ridiculously simplistic and unbelievably deep at the same time.
‘What’s bigger than the Bullet?’
In the old days, people bought a Bullet not because of displacement, size or weight, but for very different reasons. It was the ‘Raja Gadi’. The choice of real men. At least that was the picture Bullet advertising painted then, and a vivid and colourful picture it was, best viewed with the ‘Bullet meri jaan’ jingle playing in your head.
Then about 15 years ago, the Jap Bike wars started. First there were the hundreds, then later the one-tens, the one-fifties, the one-seventy-fives… each claiming to deliver more power and ‘better mileage’, if that’s even possible at the same time, than the other. Buzz boxes abounded, tiddlers screamed manically on every street, and on another road far from where these marketing, R&D and advertising wars were being fought, the Grand Daddy of them all chugged steadily towards the brink of oblivion.
Recently though, there seems to be have been a revival of sorts, at first glance, rather heartening to a die-hard British motorcycle enthusiast like me. It seems as though more people are waking up from their Jap drone-induced stupor, and noticing that there was always a bike that was ‘bigger’ than the plastic clad Jappos available in the country.
Suddenly, one sees many young, macho, iron pumping, testosterone charged, leather clad gentlemen on Bullets. Not just the new-fangled ones, but some even on bikes a tad older than they are. Heartened by this turn of events, I accosted one recently, and asked him why he had chosen to ride a Bullet. My eager curiosity was met by a flat and fake-accented answer. ‘Who wants to buy a 180 cc when there’s a 535 cc available maan. It’s the biggest bike in India!’
I smiled thinly, shook his hand, and walked away thinking to myself ‘maybe the Bullet did manage to stop before it got all the way to oblivion. But it’s probably just standing there teetering at the brink.’
There’s a reason for my pessimism. Viewed from the cubic capacity perspective, the BHP perspective, the wheelbase and weight perspective, the ‘sheer size’ perspective or the advertising budget perspective, there will soon be many, many contenders to the position of Biggest Motorcycle in India. Which means that our testosterone-charged gentleman would buy one of them the moment it shows up on the market (attractively priced I might add). Just as soon, I presume, as he’d use an opportunity to take his shirt off and flex his tattooed muscles.
People today seem to be buying the Bullet for reasons like machismo (pun unintended), attitude, power and freedom. All the wrong reasons if you ask me. Because they’re all easily re-created, duplicated, and maybe even outdone by competition. Just like the 100cc Japs stopped the Bullet in its tracks 15 years ago, we’ll soon have 250, 350 and maybe even 750 and 1200cc Japs shooting the Bullet down again with weapons like cubic capacity, cruiser styling, fatter tyres, more chrome, and more jeans-leather-and-scantily-clad-women advertising --- all of which are in vogue now.
So what is it that will keep the Bullet competitive through the waves of onslaught from bikes that cater to the changing fancies of fickle Indian motorcyclists? What does the Bullet have going for it that no other manufacturer can hope to match no matter how much money he spends on research, development, space-age materials and nubile models?
I think the answer can be summed up in one word. Character.
To me, the Bullet stands for simplicity. A design that worked well not because it changed to incorporate every new discovery at NASA, but because the folks that designed it 50 years ago got everything right the first time. And then didn’t try to fix things that weren’t broke. It’s a bike that has built a reputation for being reliable, simple to work with, comfortable to be with, and lasts a whole lifetime… which is definitely a whole lifetime longer than the Japs, who outdate their throwaway models before one has even paid the second EMI. The most interesting thing is that over the years, this unglamorous but truly solid reputation has rubbed off on people that ride the Bullet too. The result, when one looks closely, is a bond between an individual and his Bullet, where one is but the mirror of the other.
To some folks like me who’ve wanted a Bullet since we were kids, it was the persona of these people that inspired the choice of a motorcycle more than the intrinsic value of the motorcycle itself. They were simple people, responsible people, strong people (not just in body) and they were people you could trust and rely on. I for one just bought into the quiet pride, solidity and soft spoken yet powerful image of Bullet riders I saw as a child, only to realize much later that these were the qualities of the bike itself.
In this day where people are realizing it’s better to step back from technology and glamour sometimes and fly subsonic rather than supersonic, I hope that people soon learn to appreciate and aspire to own the Bullet for what it is. A piece of machinery that has lived, served, rewarded and stood by its owners long enough to develop a character of its own. A motorcycle that has reached that point in evolution where its value cannot be measured in cubic centimeters, kilometres per hour or pounds per square inch. And a brand that speaks volumes for its owner for a lifetime… always saying just the same old good things.
If I had encountered my cyclist friend on the way back, I would have stopped him on his creaky bicycle and given him the answer I should have given him in the first place.
There’s just one thing that’s bigger than the Bullet. It’s the pride of owning one.
=======================================================================================================
Eliminator will get eliminated by a bigger, faster, Eliminator. A new Terminator will overcome the pulse of the Pulsar. The Shogun will be overshadowed by the Ronin, the RX 135 by the ZXR, and so on. But the Bullet will remain Bullet. For it is not a reality. It is a dream.
Dreams are of many types – pleasant, painful, enjoyable, scary, exciting, new, old and many more. Bullet is all this and much more! It is the closest any bike comes to being all things to all people. Being all things to all people is impossible. A theory. That is what Bullet is. A theory. And people love theories. All people love theories. Especially if they sound so good. And nobody can deny (even my 100 year old grandmother does not deny) that no other bike in the world sounds like Bullet.
Credits for writing this piece : Swami Ashwinananda (from the RE website) & Dilip Bam
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)