I wonder how...

[dino3310]

the enfields are cool mate, that one of petej looks pretty hot, would be a cool project 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,& put some big B.M.W,s to shame.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.
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) 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

[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).

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) 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.