Royal Enfields and BSA

[Voltaire]

Experience BMW who are the now the agents for Royal Enfield brought a 350 and 500 to the VCC yesterday and gave an informative talk on them.
They are opening a Royal Enfield only shop on BPR soon.
The 350 sells for just under 6K, build quality looks ok.
I rode a 500 last year for 3 weeks in India two up and thought they were pretty good fun to tootle around the back roads on.
According to the brochure the 350 has 19 HP, the 500 27 and the Continental Cafe Racer a staggering 29.
I won't be rushing out to buy one but I do like the T shirt I won knowing how they came to be in India in the first place.


Mahindra has bought the BSA rights and apparently Jawa too.
I think they have left the BSA a bit late to catch the Baby Boomer nostalgia wave.
The Rocket Three name is now associated with 500KGs of ugly metal, but a Gold Star would be nice...

[Motu]

I remember when the first Indian Enfields appeared here, in some old shop/villa in Eden Terrace in the late '70's. After spending the '70's riding worn out British singles from the '50's, it was tempting to get a brand new one that hadn't been through 20 owners. But they were $3,000, a shit load of money back then for a slow old bike that needed a strip and rebuild before going on the road. You couldn't get go fast parts for them anyway, so just kept on riding my old BSA singles.

The Goldstar name was tacked on the B50, then on something else...Gilera? later on. I hate to think what will end up with the Goldstar badge - will they please just let the name alone.

[AllanB]

Casbolts in Christchurch are now also Enfield agents. They have been getting a fair bit of interest.

[Mike.Gayner]

I think you'd have to be out of your mind to spend $10k on one of the 500s. Such a piece of crap for the money. However, the 350 would be a fun little learner bike for $6k.

The quality of these bikes is absolutely apalling however. Plenty of stories online of JUST HOW BAD the current RE range is.