[Jeep]

Well said, four tire. My 1996 M800 is actually a piece of crap but I love driving it since I have spent a lot of time and money in sprucing it up

[dwaraka]

Originally Posted by renamo

nice... so the bullet is for people over 100Kg... good one... in effect it does the job of a heavy duty tractor (again commonly used in India) which is = farm equipment

How many would like to be over 100Kg? pls vote

There is a reason bullets are called "enfield oilfields"

There is nothing like some bullet bashing.. I know lots of bullet riders, and all of them take it sportingly.. so be nice and dont start beating me up..

Renamo,

Bullet is not only for heavy weight champions over 100 kgs. It can fit even people weighing under 65kgs. I weigh only 63 kgs and own a 500 cc bullet weighing 180 kgs. unladen.

In fact, Bangalore Bulleteers - Royal Knights engage in serious off-roading on bullets, such as slush drive, rock climbing, stream crossing. Recently, did off-roading on Sholay Hills, Ramanagara, Mysore Road.

Why am I saying all these? It's the man and machine partnership.

Dwarak

[dwaraka]

Originally Posted by Steeroid

I will not own a Bullet, but I rode one on my last visit home and the unhurried thump was very different from the almost manic scream from my RD. The RD urges you to go faster and faster, while the Bullet seems to lull the rider into a more sedate state of mind. Its a very different feeling, though its not something I'd like to live with. On the other hand, I guess the Bullet is better and more composed for city riding.

Other than that I found the gearshift and brakes on the wrong sides a pain and sometimes very dangerous. Its a very quirky bike - I had to get my friend to start it for me as I didnt want to screw up my back. Its got too many quirks to be a practical alternative to any other bike. If you ride ONLY the Bullet I guess you'll live with the quirks.



I agree. Except that its not a bike with a great history BEHIND - you'd say that if it has evolved from the original, which is not the case with the Bullet. The Bullet IS history, not a bike with history behind it.

Also agree that a lot of Bullet owners refuse to acknowledge the advantages of other bikes. But then its one of a kind, there is no comparison to the Bullet because it belongs to another age.

steeroid,

Bullet is history, but still in currency. where as RD is a history altogether. Why still people like RD? The power, speed and handling capabilities.

Bullet may move sedatively at the hands of driver. But driver has to push it with ease. Bullet has a cruise speed. At 100 kmph, bull is smooth sail, where as the new bikes including RDs scream lot.

Recently, I did 600 kms ride. I noticed, no bikes could overtake bullet and that too very smooth. Japanese bikes, shudder at 80+ kmph., which is not the case with Bull.

Dwarak

[Sankar]

@Dwarak, All jap bikes need not shudder or wobble at 80kmph. Depends on how good the rolling frame is set up. And there are some Bullets which shake it's tail at the same speed. It all depends on how well any machine is maintained. But due to the inherent weight bullet is more stable.

Every bike has a cruising speed. Bullet feels relaxed coz of it's long stroke, lower rpm, lesser stressed engine. RD is meant to scream, but will definitely burble along with ease at 100kmph. The tag RD means "Race Derived"

[ac 427]

any one who wants to know 'why bullet' should see MY BULLET.

its a ARMY BULLET. matt green, its not been painted since god knows how many years. . . it sounds like machine guns firing. . (trust me on this one there are loud bikes and then there is my bullet) and it literally goes like a bullet.

i have got envious looks from every one from a Rx 100 rider to a V-ROD rider. . .

my current bullet is the reason why you should own bullets.
its loud, its brash, its uncouth, its rude, its in your face, its very very very handsome, its troublesome. . . in the end its very involving.

cheers.

[throttleking]

I read all posts in this thread, read about bullet can not do this, can not do that, cant speed up, cant go fast, cant do offroading / cornering, weak breaking and all....

my honest suggestion to those who believe Bullet can not perform cetain things, please meet our fellow riders who will show how to do that on Bullet, right from wheelys, doughnuts, burnouts and what not.

with due respect to all the riders / bikers or just bike owners (of any bike) my opinion : you dont buy a bullet just for commuting from one place to another.

Note : no offence to other bike owners.

i would keep on talking about Bullet all day, but just to sum it up i am posting an article written by one of fellow rider. hope you will like it...
-----------------------------------------------------------------------

Whats bigger than a Bullet?

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.

[Sankar]

Nice post throttleking. It's the old world charm & character.

Plus you missed one point. There is no other motorcycle in India which unite the riders the way Bullet does.

[throttleking]

Originally Posted by Sankar

Nice post throttleking. It's the old world charm & character.

Plus you missed one point. There is no other motorcycle in India which unite the riders the way Bullet does.

you are right, i agree with you...we have largest community of RE riders in the country...

[manish7]

Originally Posted by throttleking

There's just one thing that's bigger than the Bullet. It's the pride of owning one.

Perfect!!! I think it's aptly put!

[kph]

Originally Posted by throttleking

...

Great one throttleking. Nice read.

[Twister_In]

Originally Posted by throttleking

Whats bigger than a Bullet?

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.

-----

There's just one thing that's bigger than the Bullet. It's the pride of owning one.

Great information, thanks for sharing.
There is so much in this Forum to learn.

[agbenny]

I hope I can take this thread as why any RE bike instead of just Bullet!

I recently got my TBTS, and needless to say It's a great head turner. To my surprise people who are aged about 35 are asking much about the bike and the young chaps in Apaches, Pulsars and Avengers are just looking at it with much jealous.

If you want to know why an RE bike or a Bullet, just drive it. I have driven all the bikes almost, nothing gives me the pleasure as this TBTS. If you want a bike just to travel everyday do not even thing about any RE bikes, if you really like bikes, and enjoy every trip you make - certainly RE bikes are way ahead of other bikes.

The real pride of owning it can not be expressed in words or comparable with mileage, weight or any other drawbacks.

I feel the same new technology which we can expect in next gen Bullet and other products of RE will answer many questions in other bike owners raise.

[hollywoodhogan]

agbenny, am happy for you that you own an re thunderbird. the tbts engine was specifically built to merge the traditional bullet with todays' requirement of performance, pollution & noise norms.

it would have been easy in fact for re to come out with a dohc engine that revs to 9000 rpm etc. but that would mean the end of re. todays' market is about being unique, being different, being exclusive.

so like the harley, re has to use history, tradition, emotion and passion to survive in the market. so whats the v-rod to harley, its the tbts for re. and like the v-rod engine the tbts engine will soon become the standard engine platform for future re vehicles.

the 500cc uce engine is already being exported. so it wont be long before it makes it to the indian market. one thing is for sure, the cast iron block is on its last few laps. better snap up one soon.

can you hear the thump??

[shapra]

My reasons:

1) I love the sound & ride of a Bullet.
2) Posing. I dont know how many people agree, but this bike has a big "show-off" quotient.
3) It is easier to get into "elite" groups of like-minded people. With other bikes, there is no such brotherhood. Although, there seems to be some of that with Yezdi's and most certainly with superbikes.
4) Most Bullet riders seem to ride better than those crazed kamikaze artistes on their 100+ CC bikes trying to crash into your bike/car/auto/bus.

[rangan]

why bullet?
hmmm..
my reasons:
1) sounds good
2) is not the ordinary run-of-the-mill 100/150 cc bike
3) it turns heads on the road
4) not the easiest of bike to ride (especially the ones with gears on the right!!)
5) symbol of a rebel (atleast in my case)
my dad dint want me to buy one.