Bhilai to Pune bike ride: Impressions of my Royal Enfield Shotgun 650

The bike feels lively when above 60 Kmph, and there is more than enough power in the engine that you would never feel short of it on a pull of the throttle.

BHPian Aryan.M recently shared this with other enthusiasts:

Prelude:
My father has been a car enthusiast and has been a part of this forum for quite a while. Even since childhood, I had a liking for cars; bikes never really amused me as much. Till now, I had only driven bikes on a few short trips during college from Pune to Lavasa, Tamhini Ghats, and the bikes that I rode were RE Hunter 350 and Yamaha R15 owned by my friends. But this all changed after I completed my Bachelor’s degree and started working. Being in a city like Pune, I got to see a lot of beautiful-looking and sounding bikes. One that stood out to me was the RE Continental GT 650. That sculpted tank and the twin exhaust system are just amazing. Coincidentally, there was a Mr. Clean edition in my apartment’s parking lot, right next to my parking space. Seeing it every day after work just made me smitten like a kid. That’s when I started looking into bikes, especially GT, and after a while, decided that I wanted to own a bike as well. When I first told my parents, it was an outright no. After some time, they were ready to let me get a 350CC bike, but I had my eyes on the Continental GT. After discussing it with my parents for quite a while, I finally got the green light.

Decision Making:
Initially, I did not even consider any other 650; GT was the one that I wanted. My father did insist a lot on looking at the other bikes with the same 650CC engine. Super Meteor was a little too “comfortable/relaxed” for my liking. Interceptor has the same engine and exhaust as GT, but out of the two, the sculpted tank of GT is what made it a clear winner for me. Shotgun was fairly new to the market, so I had not given it much thought.

My father insisted on getting the Shotgun over GT as it has better riding posture and bigger disc brakes. As I was busy with office work, I was not able to take a test drive of these bikes for a couple of weeks. When I finally got some time, I went to the nearest RE showroom. Unfortunately, they did not have GT available for a test drive. I hesitantly tried out the Shotgun. This would be the first time I would be riding a 650CC bike.

It was only a short ride, just a couple of kilometers, but I was in love with the engine. The feeling of having that much power at your command was just unparalleled.

I did enjoy the seating posture of SG, but until I rode the GT myself, I would not be able to let go of that unconditional bias that I had for GT.

A few days later, at a different RE showroom, I was able to take a test ride of the GT.
Despite driving it on a pretty well-maintained part of the highway passing through Pune, I did experience some shoulder and ankle pain in just a 10-minute ride. And even driving through small potholes did transfer a lot of jerk up to my shoulders.

It was only after that ride that I started leaning more towards the Shotgun. I am a tall guy on the heavier side, so the seating posture of GT would definitely be a problem for me.
I rode the Shotgun as well on the same road, and it took the potholes very smoothly with only the rear suspension being slightly stiff.

I discussed the pricing of both the bikes with the sales rep, took a print of the cost sheet, and came home to discuss my experience and my decision of going with the Shotgun. I was ready for the “I told you so” from my father, and as soon as I mentioned my experience with GT, there it was “Maine toh bola hi tha”.

I started doing some research about the SG, and the single-seater/ bobber look of it started growing on me. In just a few days, I decided to book the Shotgun in Stencil White, but due to some documentation issues, I could not get the bike in Pune.

The other options were:
1. Buy it in Bhilai (my hometown), when I would be there for Diwali holidays
2. Buy it in Chandrapur (where my father is currently employed).
After some discussion, we decided to buy it in Chandrapur, as the time for getting it delivered and getting all the documentation done in Bhilai would be cutting it very close with my leaves at work.
My father booked the SG and did all the documentation for the bike. The bike was delivered on 16th September.
Now the hurdle was bringing the bike to Pune. No transporter was ready to send the bike to Pune. After some discussion, it was finally decided that I would ride the bike back to Pune, so my father had to drive it for ~500 kms and get its first servicing done.
He has a post detailing the experience.
( https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/motor...ml#post5844141 )
( https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/motor...ml#post5851013 )

The Ride to Pune:
Seeing that my father was enjoying the bike and had forgotten about his car while he had the Shotgun, I made a proposal that he could keep the bike for now, and I could take his XUV 700 back to Pune.

Unfortunately, the request was denied.
(It was obviously worth a shot )

To prepare for the ride, I bought some gear:
- RE Full Face Helmet
- Rynox Storm Evo 3 gloves
- Clan Stealth Shoes
- Edyell C8 Bluetooth Headset for listening to some music on the long ride.

I had planned to go till Jalna, and based on the time I reach there, I would decide if I wanted to continue driving and reach Pune the same day or take a halt in Aurangabad.

I left Chandrapur on the day of Dussehra at around 6 a.m. Took the NH930 to Warora.

Photos taken at Warora:

Warora to Wadki was just a single-lane road through villages. From Wadki, I took NH 361B till Kalamb.

After crossing Kalamb, it was the first time I saw a 4-lane highway on this trip, NH361 up till Yevatmal. I took a short break near Yevatmal and clicked some more photos.

On the way from Kalamb to Yevatmal:

Yevatmal to Shelu Bazar was on single-lane state highways SH212 & 210.
At this point, I was starting to get a little tired and getting a bit sore sitting on the seat for so long as I was not used to it. I started taking a break at around every hour or when I needed to refuel as I was not used to riding for this long.

The road from Shelu Bazar to Jalna was on NH 753C which was a single-lane highway throughout and passed a bunch of villages on the way. Even though it was a single-lane road, the road itself was very well maintained and I was very comfortably cruising at around 80-100 Kmph, only having to slow down when passing through the villages.

I reached Mehkar at around 3:30 PM and had my lunch there at a restaurant next to the highway. During lunch, I decided it would be better to take a halt at Aurangabad and booked a hotel room online.

Just as I was getting ready to head out after lunch, it started raining heavily. I decided to wait it out in the restaurant as I did not have any rain cover for my bag or even myself. Luckily, it only lasted for around 15 minutes, after which I headed out to Jalna. I reached Jalna at around 6:30 PM.

The road from Jalna to Aurangabad was a 4-lane highway but the road had significantly more traffic which was only made worse by the Visarjana processions. It was also getting dark now and a major shortfall of the SG came to light (or lack thereof, for that matter). The headlights that RE provides are very weak for highways and I could barely see the road especially with the lights from oncoming traffic. This made me drive at around 35~40 Kmph as I was not at all confident in driving faster even though the roads were decent enough. Because of my slow pace, I ended up reaching my hotel at around 8:15 PM.

The next morning, I had my breakfast and was ready for an exciting ride as I knew that the road to Pune was a 4-lane highway. But to my disappointment, the road was not at all maintained properly; the top layer had worn down and had rough patches scattered throughout. Driving a car with decent suspensions would be okay, but riding a bike on that road was not at all enjoyable as I had hoped.

I started to relax a bit once I crossed Shirur and headed towards Ranjangaon as this road was pretty familiar to me. My office is in Ranjangaon, so I knew the road onwards fairly well and could drive pretty confidently knowing where I can speed up and where I would have to slow down for rough patches. I took a 10-minute break near my office to get Nimbu Pani at a restaurant near my office as I wanted to get home and have lunch in the comfort of my home.

Overall Experience:
The bike feels lively when above 60 Kmph, and there is more than enough power in the engine that you would never feel short of it on a pull of the throttle. At the time of writing this post, I have taken the bike out for a few trips since then, and the discomfort that I had while driving for long has gone away. I only experienced that on the first day.

I have yet not been able to use the sixth gear due to road conditions and traffic both. And I will definitely not risk going that fast unless I can get on a good highway.

Shortfalls:
The major shortfall that I felt is the stock headlight. Before going on my second trip, I got Maddog Alpha aux lights fitted on the bike.

The second thing I feel could be better is the rear suspension. Some friends have said that it does get better as it opens up, but I am not sure how much time it needs to do that as the bike has clocked little over 2200Kms now. Would appreciate if anyone has any suggestions for the suspension, whether they should be upgraded or if anything else can be done to make it better.

Changes I plan on doing:
- Aftermarket Exhausts: The stock exhaust note feels a little soft below 60Kmph. Once you pull the throttle to go above 60, you can hear the engine thump and come to life.
- Navigation System: Although it does come with the RE Tripper Pod installed by default, it fells a little lacking when it comes to some successive turns or complicated roundabouts in the city, something with the road being displayed instead of just the next direction would be nice. (This is not very high on my priority list, but just a thought that I might need to look into in the future)
- Aux Lights: As mentioned earlier, the stock headlights are not very good. (Have gotten Maddog Alpha installed at the time of writing this post)

As it is my first post, would appreciate any feedback you guys have to offer.

That’s all for this post.
Ride Safe.

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