I wonder how...

[Taz]

a Royal Enfeild Bullet would go as an adventure bike?? With minor mods of course. I reckon they'd be able to go most places my 525 could but maybe not at the same pace. You could easily scrambler-ise one I'm sure. Might sell the Guzzi and try it?......... Hmmmm.

[.chris]

a Royal Enfeild Bullet would go as an adventure bike?? With minor mods of course. I reckon they'd be able to go most places my 525 could but maybe not at the same pace. You could easily scrambler-ise one I'm sure. Might sell the Guzzi and try it?......... Hmmmm.

I considered that too, my friends dad had one, I took it for a quick ride and soon gave up on that idea, they are pretty tame bikes.
Not much going on in the engine department. On the bright side they do have a nice low center of gravity and you can easily reach the ground.

I think I am going to stick to the *find a cheap R80/R100 GS/Basic* plan.

[Taz]

:)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hmZJ_3UCxOE&feature=related


And this one. I liked the bit at magnetic hill (around the 6 min mark) :lol:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8689F_cDllE

[.chris]

:)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hmZJ_3UCxOE&feature=related

rivercrossings with low slung exhausts, they must be rentals.

[Night Falcon]

Hoooody CT 110....go anywhere.....do anything.....oily rag only for fuel......and you can take your mail wid char :wari:

[Motu]

We used to take our British singles everywhere off road....places I wouldn't take a dirt bike today.Low compression and big heavy flywheels gave traction without wheelspin,and a manual advance lever was a help too.Weight and ground clearance are the only problems.

[Ixion]

What the BMW-perverting gentleman said. I've ridden off road on big singles.They work pretty well, Usually the 350 was better than the 500, lighter . You need to gear them well down, and like B-P-G says, you really really need a manual A&R (mind you that goes for the road, too- worst days work ever the AAR) .

Need to think of them in a trials-like context, not Moto-X EDIT: I had a B40, that was really good off road, cos it was a 350 based on a 250, not a 500.

[Motu]

The heavy flywheels are seriously good in slippery stuff,just the same as a 2 stroke trials bike.First time I took my B31 into a paddock as a 16 year old I was sitting still spinning up the back wheel...one hand,looking down at the back wheel spitting out grass,choice.Then I shut the throttle - and the bike took off!!! Same approach at a climb as a 2 stroke trials bike - hit it hard,then shut the throttle as you go up....the heavy flywheels just carry you up with no wheelspin.If you need to apply power,retard the ign so the power impulse is less.Just like Sammy on GOV132.Pity my TLR200 doesn't do it like that.

[Taz]

I just like the look of them and people the world over seem to take them to places that they were never designed to go. 22bhp wouldn't get ya any speedin tickets either. Wonder if I could live with one on a long ride around the country? Did I mention cheap parts?

[Motu]

Are you one of those boring people who takes bikes where they are supposed to go? That's the whole point of going off road...to push some shit box to where it shouldn't be!

[PeteJ]

Here's mine - a 2003 350 with the electronic ignition (huuuuge advantage) rebuilt with bolt-ons in 2007, together with a couple of the other semi-adventure bikes from the shed:

http://i141.photobucket.com/albums/r78/PJay_2007/AdvBikesdiving.jpg

They'd just all been out spearfishing.

Goes well. Even manages farm tracks, despite it still having road gearing.

Here it is with its housemate, the GT6, that it wants to mate with and make sidecars.

http://i141.photobucket.com/albums/r78/PJay_2007/BulletandGT6.jpg

Note the English rego plate, specially adapted so no-one posts us speeding tickets. There are other reasons they don't, of course...

[Cary]

See, most people buy a bike to make the riding easier........ :shifty:

You'd get the 'Real Man' award for doing 42nd/Fishers Track on one thats for sure.

Saw the ad for one in Kiwi Rider and thought to myself now that would make an interesting bike to own.

[Padmei]

When I was looking for my first 'adult' bike I looked at them.
They were very cool - not particular intimidating to ride & the amount of classic looking accessories you could buy really cheap was astounding.

I test rode a 500 up in Auckland. I kept pushing down the gearlever further into 4th gear to slow down for the first 10mins:pinch:

I looked up the guy who does Enfield tours in India. He, then, used to buythem, strip off all the crap bits (including cheap chrome) & replace with better bits, tour for a year then bring them over here & flick them off.
They were going for not a lot less than a new one but he insisted they would be a better bike. He was even going to make up a cafe racer model for me however I went with a very cheap GB400 instead.

As an adventure bike I reckon they'd perform really well

I saw a Enfield today in fact with a Cosy sidechair attached. A classic:D

I would suggest to anyone looking out there looking at older BMWs to reassess their needs.They are extremely expensive to buy parts & working on them is best left to a mechanic. There are a great deal of older Japanese bikes that are just as if not more attractive & better value for money. Steer clear I say:nono:

[Box'a'bits]

I would suggest to anyone looking out there looking at older BMWs to reassess their needs.They are extremely expensive to buy parts & working on them is best left to a mechanic. There are a great deal of older Japanese bikes that are just as if not more attractive & better value for money. Steer clear I say:nono:
Not shy of being contraversial are you. Yes older airhead BMWs are becoming expensive, because there is good demand for them (especially the GS's & G/Ss), & they are becoming rarer. Demand is a function of their rep for longevity. And for the older road models, some fads for converting to cafe racers. And you can still get parts for them, but generally I would go to a specialist parts dealer for these. Say Motobins or Motorworks in the UK. I don't really thinks parts for them are expensive. Very easy to work on.

Getting back on topic, Andy did you see Chanderjeets bikes over on Advrider? Especially the one he has converted for d.s purposes.

[Taz]

Getting back on topic, Andy did you see Chanderjeets bikes over on Advrider? Especially the one he has converted for d.s purposes.

I'll take a look. Thanks.

[dino3310]

the enfields are cool mate, that one of petej looks pretty hot, would be a cool project :Punk: for a 500

[thepom]

That enfield does look the mutts......

[PeteJ]

PS if we do another Fletcher Bay weekend, I'll ride the Enfield down from the BoI, rather than the DR650, and you can see what a ball the thing is.

Takes 4 1/4 hours Russell to Auckland, but there are some vehicles it can pass and I've never yet needed to get down to 2nd gear on a sealed road hill...

And it has both suspension and a sprung saddle, so the hours in the saddle are comfortable.

OK, I was lying about the last bit - it's about the same comfort as a crap seat over really good suspension.

There are manufacturers in India, England, and the US who make an astonishing range of stuff for the Enfields, including full enduro or trials or offroad kits. Hitchcocks in the UK stock most of it, and the main RE importers in the US do, too. Can take any of the old motors out to 535cc by bolting stuff on, to get maybe 25hp. Whatever you do, you will not end up with as much power, reliability, or functionality as any 2nd-hand japper adv bike, but that's not the point.

What you will have is every ride being an achievement, and that is fun. Actually, Fun.

[Taz]

Very nice PeteJ. That's definately the style I was thinking of. Do you reckon 350 or 500 better?

[PeteJ]

Well, I have owned a 500 as well, so I have an informed opinion.

There's not a hell of a lot of difference. The 500 definitely plugs away a bit better, but the 350 is livelier on gravel. (Do be aware that the performance, if measured by a clock, will be about that of a GL145, but that's not the point. I've seen you riding, that's all.)

They're both near as dammit the same weight.

There are more 500s around, and most are fully NZ compliant to current standards; I did this 350 just because I managed to get it, with 32km on the clock and 4 years old (yeah - an unwanted raffle prize that lived under a house for 4 years), very, very cheaply.

On balance, I'd go for the 500. The same parts will bolt to each.

NB the very latest Enfields have a much different mechanical layout from the pre-2009 bikes (though still a pushrod single), and I suspect that the chassis might be a little different, too.

[alane]

Have done a bit of adventure rideing on my yamaha xv1000 over the years.Gatecrashed a Mike Britton ride here in taranaki once,:shifty:& put some big B.M.W,s to shame.:niceone:Have allso done most of the 2010 dusty butt track on it.
Will admitt --do,es have its limitations --i.e. lack of ground clearance ,wieght etc.But low revs,low centre of gravity & high torque get,s the power to the ground verry well.A heap of fun on a gravel road.:ride:
:mobile: ALANE

[rogerh]

Have allso done most of the 2010 dusty butt track on it.


Did ya do the carricktown track on it? (Where I got lost following ya:D) Would it have coped with the road up to the church?

Never really tried that sort of thing on that sort of bike, but I would be keen to give it a crack. Better than some of the stupid enduro shit I try on my beast at times :D

[PeteJ]

Well, if we're threadjacking to this extent, I recall my hill country farmer brother-in-law in the 1970s using a nipple-pink Vespa 90 as his farm bike. It was OK on any track, but struggled a bit going up the steep sidlings (would go down anything...).

How did it come to be the farm bike? Well, the CT2 got drowned in a creek, and Nippy was his wife's old transport at teacher's college. Obvious, really.

[tri boy]

Underated bikes, are the cast barrel 500 Enfields. A riding buddy holed his crankcase on a rock about 35kms out of Leh in nthern India. It seized, cooled down, we poured oil into the bore, patched the hole with rag n tape and added oil.
Got us to Leh, where we patched the crankcase with a cut up jam tin and Indian Aralldite. Rode it to the Kardung La and then back to Delhi via some pretty nasty tracks/slips and mountain passes.
The bike handled everything, with only carb adjustments and sensible maintainance required to handle the alttude change up to 18,000ft.

I on the otherhand got Delhi Belly and mild allitude sickness, causing wet farts nearly every second day.
The Enield survived, my muckers didn't.

[PeteJ]

Yeah, they're dry sump with the oil tank cast with the crankcase. So, depending where you hole a case, it can even improve "performance" by evening out crankcase pressure (found that with my '51 350 Bullet classic racer...which machine I've owned for ...ahem ahem ...years and was timed at 96 mph in a Classic Register sprint in the mid 1980s).

[Padmei]

was timed at 96 mph in a Classic Register sprint in the mid 1980s).

:woohoo: Go you good thing

[PeteJ]

OK, so you're firing up my boasting, huh? I've won maybe 60 races on it, and bagged the Hugh Anderson Trophy at NZCMRR big February meeting one year, too.

Yeah, I have my reasons for liking the Royal Oilfields. (In connection with which, modern gasket compounds do wonders.)

[alane]

[QUOTE=rogerh;1129758612]Did ya do the carricktown track on it? (Where I got lost following ya:D) Would it have coped with the road up to the church



Nope---never did those,but yea,I guess it would do both those,but "pushing the envelope" a bit,especially ground clearance & steep downhill.

[Padmei]

OK, so you're firing up my boasting, huh? I've won maybe 60 races on it, and bagged the Hugh Anderson Trophy at NZCMRR big February meeting one year, too.

Yeah, I have my reasons for liking the Royal Oilfields. (In connection with which, modern gasket compounds do wonders.)

I reckon youre talking crap without some action pics!!

[NordieBoy]

I reckon youre talking crap without some action pics!!

We'd even settle for some of him on the bike.

[Crisis management]

I reckon youre talking crap without some action pics!!

Being of generous nature, I'm going to assume this comment is meant in a light hearted manner, unfortunately that is not particulary clear to anyone reading it, you may like to sort that out?



Knowing Pete, I suspect he feels no need to prove anything to you.

[Padmei]

Being of generous nature, I'm going to assume this comment is meant in a light hearted manner, unfortunately that is not particulary clear to anyone reading it, you may like to sort that out?



Knowing Pete, I suspect he feels no need to prove anything to you.

Many apologies to anyone taking offense to this or 99% of my posts. It was meant to be light hearted & a prod for him to post pics of the enfield in action.

Being the internet, it is common to be misinterpreted without the facial & body language cues evident in real-life conversation. It is bit of an insight into the world of a person with aspbergers.

I will endeavour to use similies where appropriate:innocent:

[Taz]

aspbergers.

:

Snake Burgers??

[Crisis management]

It was meant to be light hearted & a prod for him to post pics of the enfield in action.


Thanks Padmei, lost in translation is a term that could have been coined for the net.

[Taz]

Snake Burgers??

On a plane.

[NordieBoy]

On a plane.

There was a movie about that.
What was it called again?

[PeteJ]

1988:

http://i141.photobucket.com/albums/r78/PJay_2007/RE1988.jpg

1998:

http://i141.photobucket.com/albums/r78/PJay_2007/RE1998.jpg

1998 results:

http://i141.photobucket.com/albums/r78/PJay_2007/RE1998results.jpg

Sorry about the quality of the pics: they're scanned from framed ones behind glass.

This is an RE thread, so I won't post pics of racing on TR TZ and RD Yamahas (here and Aus), CB Hondas of various sorts (here and Aus, gravel and seal surfaces), Manx Nortons (here and Aus, Featherbed and Garden Gate), Ariel (seal and gravel), Kawasakis or Suzukis. I hope I'll be forgiven for this lack.

[NordieBoy]

This is an RE thread, so I won't post pics of racing on TR TZ and RD Yamahas (here and Aus), CB Hondas of various sorts (here and Aus, gravel and seal surfaces), Manx Nortons (here and Aus, Featherbed and Garden Gate), Ariel (seal and gravel), Kawasakis or Suzukis. I hope I'll be forgiven for this lack.

Without pics.......... :D

[PeteJ]

Too many albums....arf arf arf.

[Taz]

There was a movie about that.
What was it called again?

You're thinking of "spiders on a glider" I think?

[Taz]

Nice pics PeteJ. I used to race with one of those FFM M6 helmets in the early to mid nineties also.