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THEY'RE OLD...
Royal Enfields are crap bikes until you learn how to ride them. To do this you'll need to understand what they are. It starts with understanding that they've undergone amongst the least development of any motor vehicle in the world since their introduction by the British half a century ago. Similar to the Austin 1000s you see driving around, made in India with the same blueprint as that designed by the now defunct British company 50 years ago! The funny thing is you'll see these cars and bikes still being used by the government. For example I saw a number of the cars at the national secretariat building in Delhi and throughout Ladakh and Hiamchal Pradesh with 'Government Vehicle' etc written on them. Chinese spies will be quite confident in delivering a crushing victory seeing such old technology! The feeling will only be reinforced when the spies see that Royal Enfields are still being used by the army!!!!! This bike is a pig compared to basically anything remotely modern that the army should be using. It's not even an off road bike! The US army uses I think diesel KLR 650s, a very capable machine even in petrol form. Quite why the Indian military doesnt have these considering the terrible terrain they must cover (otherwise known as Indian roads), let alone when they go offroad, beats me! They should just get an old 1980s one and copy that in their manufacturing plants rather than copying a roadbike from the damn 1950s!
Maybe they have a sly plan though which has worked perfectly on me and the Chinese spies. They probably do have super wicked off road machines but want us all to think they're using s***ty old technology! IT'S A TRAAAAAP!
ON DIRT
So, on with how to ride this pack horse, this beast of burden with an attitude problem that is a Royal Enfield. I'll focus on off road riding as that's mostly what we did and what this bike isn't designed for. First up, as discussed earlier it has a heel and toe gear lever which means you need boots with a flexible ankle. Really there are no complex instructions for how to ride it on dirt, which makes sense because this is a steam power era machine. Basically, keep the power on. It takes a while to accelerate so it's best to grow some balls and smash it through the potholes on the way up the mountain, trusting that the machine will work it all out. I started doing this after getting sick and tired of dodging around basically the entire road surface on mountain climbs, or slowing down terminally to gently ease through bumps. This just makes a ride painfully slow, plain painful due to the extra manhandling to stay upright at low speeds and causes dizziness and disorientation by the bumps taking their full effect because the suspension only soaks them up above a certain speed.
So as I was saying, just wind her up and f***ing nail it. Don't be afraid, you'll be surprised at what kinda ruts and holes she can smooth out for you. Due to the speed making the suspension actually do some work you'll find the ride more comfortable, also helped by the ride taking a shorter time. You'll also enjoy not having to pick a dainty route zigzagging across the road everywhere. It's satisfying seeing the machine take a pounding, feeling it struggle beneath you but win again and again as you fly over the surface. Yes, you'll have to ignore the Border Roads Organisation's (BRO) sign saying "this is a highway, not a runway". Particularly when it comes to the really big potholes which you should try to jump, at least with the front wheel. If you see them early enough you should, believe it or not, be able to accelerate a bit, yank the handlebars and get the front wheel across without going down into the hole. Due to your speed and the suspension, the back wheel will just work itself out.
It's a really nice feeling actually when you can treat the bike so roughly and it responds with a feeling of stability and rugged unstoppableness. Don't get the impression that I'm riding really fast here, it is surely one of the oldest 500cc engine designs still being manufactured, and a damn heavy bike. I think actually its weight and low centre of gravity though make it easier to feel confident riding it on rough roads, it's nice and stable. I'd say I was doing a max of 80 on dirt, probably 40 in rough sections... Where less confident riders were doing half that.
WATER
As a member of Adventure Rideres Sunny Coast I did a number of river crossings. Here like most people I started off very tentative, feet on the ground getting wet as I inched through the water. I was surprised to see others just wind up the throttle and power through, wondering how they didn't fall over. I've begun to reach that stage myself. On the few shallow water crossings on this trip, through glacial melt, I did it without putting my feet down for the most part and just put the throttle on and trusted the bike. It's a great feeling sitting there and have it struggle through underneath you. Here are a couple of water crossing videos from the trip. They probably don't look like much but on the bike it was bouncing and making lots of noise, good fun! I think my response of accelerating through water, bumps, ruts and dirt sums up how to ride this bike and also how my riding skills have improved lately.
ON ROAD
This is a road bike, so you probably shouldn't do all of the above. In support of this notion is the fact that the right fork seal broke, and the speedo and neutral light stopped working before the end of the trip! Then again, it's the most popular bike in this part of the world! There are literally 1000s of bikers in Ladakh and most are on Enfields. The bike of course performs fine on road and I was able to cruise at 90km/h comfortably. One thing I could never really get comfortable with though was cornering on hairpins. I had a lot of practice with this, but they're often quite challenging in this part of the world, being on steep hills so you've got to manage the throttle well if going uphill to avoid a stall. Just give it heaps and ride the clutch :-) I had a couple of close calls lowsiding it so was afraid to really lean it over after that, making the hairpins often a bit of a wobbly experience. I'm sure with a bit more practice and trying to keep up with the faster Kiwis I would have gotten over my fears of it sliding out from under me.
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Piyush Gupta Amazing......too good.....
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