RE: I will never look at another bike

I began this blog off by detailing where my love for bikes started. Over the years I have drooled over several different bikes, Yamaha's, BMW's etc... But there was a point where I came across a specific bike that had so much more that a pretty face. It had history. Now I am a nostalgic kind of guy. Antique furniture, classic cars and now classic (styled) bikes. I have never longed over any other bike since I became aquainted with Enfields.

I mentioned that I first came across the Royal Enfields on a visit to Bangalore, India. I spoke about one of our drivers owning an Enfield. I was sure I had a photo of the bike somewhere. I finally found it. To my disappointment it is not such a good shot. However it takes me back to that day that he showed us the bike and started it. It took him several attempts to get it going. No electric start on this one. I realise now why it had such an effect on me and why I fell in love with it. I notice now the shortened silencer on the exhaust. We were in the parking basement, so the acoustics were great and it sounded fantastic. That "small" bike roared into life and stood there popping as it idled, You know how the bike idles and for a split second you think it has stalled but it suddenly springs to life again. I love it. Well here it is....

License to ride

As mentioned before, I have never owned my own bike. Therefore it will come as no surprise that I do not actually possess a motorbike license. I have had a learners once before, but did not convert it into the full blown license. How silly. When my Dad bought his bike we obtained our learner's together and shortly after that he went for his practical test and got his license. He encouraged me to follow suite but I was afraid that I might drop his bike during the test. So eventually the learner's expired.

In preparation for the purchase of my Enfield, I have booked my learner's test for 4th Dec. I will then book for my license test sometime next year. I was chatting to a salesman at one of the local bike shops the other day. He recommended that I got for training as the testers try and trick you into failing. Fancy that.

Talking about the license to ride here is something that happened to me many years ago. One school holiday I was spending sometime at a friends place on the outskirts of town. He had a Yamaha RZ 50. His place was halfway to where my girlfriend lived. So the one day my buddy had to go work at the local steakhouse and he said I could use his bike to go pay the girlfriend a visit. So off I went. Now you have to understand I was riding down a country road. On a quiet open stretch of the road, from behind a bush, like something out of a movie, out stepped a traffic officer. Wearing his khaki uniform. He casually walked out into the middle of the road and raised his hand, signalling me to pull over. Can you imagine my disbelief at the situation. In the middle of nowhere. Bugger just my luck I thought. Besides the fact that I was nipping myself. He asked me for my license to which I replied I had left it at home. Fortunately at the time it was not compulsory to carry one's license. So he asked me what code it was which was an easy question to answer. He then let me go. Whew!!!! Oops all this while the tap had been open and the bike had flooded a bit. I could not kick start it so I had to push start it. But he did not take that as significant. In retrospect I was pretty calm under the circumstances. I still have this image in my mind off this dude walking out from behind the bush. Still tickles me from time to time.

These days they would throw the book at me if I was caught riding without a license. Hence me not wasting anytime to get a learner's.

Let us hope the test is as painless as it was the last time. Wish me luck ;-)

To what extent does one go?

One of the main barriers to purchasing an Enfield is cost. Now Enfields are not that expensive when compared to other bikes. But you see I own 3 cars at this point, one of which is a Toyota Land Cruiser, 80 series. The Cruiser costs money to run and probably is a good idea to offload it. However it needs some TLC and it is not a sellers market at this point. Therefore I am going to loose some serious money if I sell. And truth be told I would like to keep her. She is beautiful to drive and....sorry this is supposed to be about the bike.... DON'T FORGET THE BIKE!!!

Okay back to the bike... Basically I would like to buy the bike cash and without having to sell any cars. Not asking much!

But here's the point. There is an official Royal Enfield importer in South Africa and then there are some not so official importer(s). Obviously prices differ between the two, the one drastically cheaper than the other. You know which one is which right? It seems that the unofficial agent brings in models sold in India. From what I hear this person gets several people together that wish to purchase an Enfield and buys them in India, puts them in a container and ships them to South Africa. The buyers supposedly split the freight costs. Now I know that in South Africa you cannot legally import second hand cars. I am assuming that this does not apply to motorbikes. Just checked, seems not to be a problem, and in fact there are no import duties on motorcycles of this kind.

Let us compare some prices to illustrate the point... I will choose the new Bullet Classic (C5) as a benchmark. The Classic has just been released in India (http://www.royalenfield.com/Motorcycles/classic-500.aspx). In India it costs RS 125 000 to Rs 140 000 which converted to Rands is between R 20 000 and R23 000. Now in South Africa it goes for R69 500. So give or take a couple of grand for the cost of freight, the bike costs you about double at the official importer. As a side note the cost of the same bike in the US is $6395 which is about R 50 000.

Okay the temptation is to buy the bike through the unofficial importer just based on price. However this is not the route for me. I will buy it from the official importer!!!

I don't not think the importer is trying to rip us off. The RoyalEnfield SA (www.royalenfieldsa.co.za) has a showroom with several models, if not all of them. From my recent discussions with the guys there, these bikes are not fastest movers in terms of sales. We will all agree that there is a specific type of person that buys an Enfield and they are not found on every street corner. So they have to cover their costs of having stock standing on the floor, they have to pay rent and they have one or two bikes that are demo's. I am sure the scale of economies will come into play here, the more they sell the more competative their prices can be. So support them, BUY OFFICIAL!!!

There are several other advantages of buying official. Firstly is the after sales service. If I buy a bike and have a problem with it I have a local warranty. However if I buy a parallel import and have problem I probably will have no way of taking advantage of the 2 year warranty given on the new EFI bikes. I am sure that Royal Enfield SA will be understandably less than willing to help an unofficial bike. The other side of the coin is the problems one has trying to register a parallel import. I have heard that several people have had problems concerning this.

I noticed on the Royal Enfield website they mention the cons to privately importing a bike into your country (http://www.royalenfield.com/privateimports.aspx). There is also the point that the models sold in India are different to the rest of the world.

When I buy my Royal Enfield, I would like to build up a relationship with the guys, especially the mechanic. Therefore the Official Royal Enfield is a lifestyle choice. I would like to be able to grab a cup of coffee on a Saturday morning at the showroom, go for a Sunday ride with the Enfield Club and perhaps go on the organised road trips. I would not want to be shunned as an unoffical Enfield owner.

Just in my opinion.....

FNB Whiskey Festival

I just read on the internet (so it must be true ;-o ) that the FNB South African Whiskey festival is giving away a Royal Enfield again......

So now what are my chances of winning it, I live in South Africa (tick), I drink whiskey (tick), I am actually wanting to buy a Royal Enfield (tick), the festival falls on my birthday (tick)...... the stars are all aligned. It must be a possiblity....

Chances are that someone not even vaguely interested in Royal Enfields will win the bike and those that are scraping every spare copper and silver coin together to buy one will lose out. How is that for positive. Okay so here is the deal...without a hook in the water you ain't going to catch a fish. So I will be there to enjoy some fine whiskey and if lady luck lays her eyes on me, maybe my dream of owning a Royal Enfiled will come to fruition without me having to donate a kidney...

In the beginning...

Well there is a beginning to every story. Now I do not mean to bore anyone to death. I am sure there are plenty people that will identify with my story (and maybe give me some advice).

Okay it started long ago in the garden of Eden when ol' Adam said to Eve, Babe you for me.....oops too far back. However it did lay the foundation for the dilemma I find myself in...LOL. WOMAN seriously play a part in this story. Wouldn't want it any other way but there has to be a catch... See I am sidetracked already.

I am one of those guys who loves bikes. Although I do have a healthy repsect for them and excessive speed. Okay maybe I can say that now and it probably was not always the case. I was young and restless at one time. Inspite of my love for bikes I have never owned one!!! When I was in my teens my Ol' Lady (yes I am allowed to call her that) forbid me to buy a bike, to the extent she stopped me short of handing over the cash to a buddy of mine for his Honda MBX 50. Needless to say that was the closest I ever got to purchasing a bike. What my Ol' Lady did not realise or probably did not want to admit was that even though I did not own a bike I still rode them.

My buddies Ol' Man had a Suzuki GSX 1100 which we used to ride when he was out of town, I used to ride this other guy's Yamaha RZ 125, etc, etc, etc. Probably the most fun I had on a bike in my teen years was a Suzuki B120 (I might be wrong on the make and model). This other school buddy had made this bike from two B120's. It was not fast but if I rememberit had a fair amount of torque. I remember riding it through the veld (grasslands). We had some much fun on this bike. I don't even think it was legally on the road but it was in good nick.

In later years I rode a lot less, so I would not regard myself as a seasoned motorcyclist but I can ride a bike. While I was studying I needed a car and could not afford a bike at the same time and I suppose I forgot about it for a awhile.

Years later, after I had been married for about 4 years the itch started again. I was interested in a Yamaha YZF 600 Thundercat. I thought it was a stunning bike in blue and it was not superbike status, so I thought it would be easier to pitch to the wife. At the time that I was looking around I happened to go into a BMW showroom. I looked at the 650GS and was impressed not only by the specs, the potential after sales service but also by the price. Cheaper than the YZF. So I was convinced it had to be a BMW. That weekend I was relaying the BMW salesman's pitch to my Ol' Man who seemed very interested as he was in the same boat as me, the Ol' Lady did not want to hear about bikes. My Ol' Man had been trying all my years at home to get a bike. I even remember him saying one day ( I think was 12 at the time), "Honey we going into town today, you can have anything you want..." My Mom's response was short and sharp, "you are not getting a bike".

So my Ol' Man was always keen to chat about bikes. Unbeknown to me my mom had softened her stance, as my Ol' Man was in the process of retiring and she had decided that he could buy himself a bike as a retirement gift to himself. Yup I did the whole sales pitch and my dad bought the bike a few weeks later. Unfortunately that blew my chances of getting one, as my wife turned around and said, "oh well, no need for you to get a bike, because you can ride your dad's".

Riding my dad's bike was not the same as riding my own This was my Dad's pride and joy, his retirement gift. The one he had been wanting to get for 20 years. I am sure my Dad would disagree with my perspective on it but I did not want to be the one to drop his bike. So I rode some, but it was not the same.

Several years went by, and I occasionally bought the bike magazine, drooled over the new superbikes and dreamed about owning a Harley. Always knowing it was out of reach.

In 2006 I went to India on a business trip. I spent about 3 weeks there. Now for those of you have not been to India or know little about its traffic situation, let me tell you. Plenty of traffic. It goes with out saying that there are lots bikes there. Mostly 125's. When you are walking beside the roads you hear this constant humming of traffic. One day while, stnading on the pavement alongside a main road in Bangalore, I heard a motorcycle that stood out in the buzzing traffic. There it was, a dude looking cool as hell (Bollywood style) on this red and chrome Royal Enfield. Wow is all I can say. I spent the rest of my stay searching for other examples of this bike. While in the office I searched the web for as much info as I could find on the bike, the whole Enfield history, etc. It turned out that one of our drivers owned one. He proudly showed me his bike. Needless to say I was in love with this bike.

Once back in South Africa I found a company importing them and was eager to visit their show room but alas I never made it. Probably for several reasons, mainly not to disappoint myself (as I knew the wife's view).

Well my folks retired to the coast and we visit them every year. My wife loves going on the bike with my Ol' Man. They go for a trip that takes them 4 hours sometimes. They stop for breakfast, coffee and check out the scenery. So I asked my wife how come she loves going on the bike but I cannot buy one. Does want her own bike? No she prefers to ride pillion. I ask again why is she against me buying a bike. Safety is the answer. "One day you can get one, but not now". I understand the safety aspect. South Africa is not the safest when it comes to riding a bike in traffic. The car drivers are not "bike aware". Although I have to say that there are some silly bikers as well. Both statisicts do not help my cause.

Subsquently it turns out that the company importing the Enfields was not an official agent here in SA and another company secured the agency. They set up a showroom close to where I live. So I was eager to go visit but I put it out of my mind. Then a guy I work with bought a Bullet Electra and I was edgy again but still put it out of my mind. My folks came to visit earlier this year and my Ol' Man had read an article in the newspaper about the Enfields. We decided on the Saturday that the two of us would go check out the showroom. Alas it turned out that we could not make it. Probably best....... except 2 weeks ago I gave in.... I had this urge to go to the showroom. I decided I would go on the Saturday. I checked out the Enfield website and saw they had released the new EFI motors and there it was the bike of my dreams the Bullet Classic C5. I was not sure if my local showroom would have it. The next day, all excited I visited the showroom. They had the new Bullet. I test rode the bullet and the Electra.... oh man I am in trouble now....I cannot get the bike out of my mind.... The wife was out that Saturday and asked me what I had done that day, I was supposed to be studying for an exam. "Honey, you do not want to know". Then I told her... "I suppose you want to buy a bike now.....". YES, of course!!!!!

And so begins the quest....