In the aftermath….

Technorati Tags: royal enfield,endfield,british motorcycle,south africa,triumph,bonneville,T100

Well as some of you might have seen I have not posted an entry for sometime now.

Well in the aftermath of the official Royal Enfield dealer disappearing, I have been a bit subdued about the whole Enfield thing. Sorry guys I am human after all. I was just bummed about the whole thing. I wrote a post about buy an officially imported bike and now I will have to resort to importing one if I decide to buy a “new” C5…

I confess I have since looked at the Triumph Bonneville T100 as an alternative. But please don’t subject me to a public stoning at mid day…it is after all a British bike. Although the Triumphs are more powerful I feel they lack the charm of an Enfield. The styling IMO is less stylish than that of an Enfield. Take the seats for instance. The split solo and pillion seat on the Enfield is just Classic (excuse the pun). I must tell you, I have this image in my mind of one particular Enfield I saw in the showroom last year. It is problem the one that I should get (if I can find it) as it has been branded in my memory. It sums up the bike and its heritage in one look. Here it is ….. what do you think?

Close up of the fuel tank

Shot of the bike in the background

Fuel tank on its own

Best seen in real life.

I have not been totally removed from Enfields over the past few months. I have a friend who has one. I was in his neighbourhood for business recently. He invited me around to his place to see if we could start it. He had not ridden it for awhile and thought it best to tick the engine over. Well we certainly tried to get it going but could not get it to run for more that a few seconds. Turns out there was a build up in the carb. Hopefully the next time I am there I can hear it running. Trying to start the bike made me long for one of my own. Even if it is to run to the shops and back on a Sunday.

So the quest is on again…..

Until next time….. cheers!

Who moved my Royal Enfield showroom

At the end of October 2009 the Royal Enfield showroom in Johannesburg "moved" out of the centre that they were in. I expected that they would to another location. Unfortunately this was not the case. When I called the guy he told me they were selling the bikes over the Internet for now.

This unfrtunately meant that one could not go for a test ride on a saturday morning anymore as the bikes were now in storage. So the next time I would ride an Enfield would be when I eventually bought one.

Earlier this year I tried to visit their website, www.royalenfieldsa.co.za. It was gone! I now knew what was happening, they were slowing closing down.

This was confirmed this last week when I was looking for second hand Enfields (not many in SA) on the Net. I found an advert on a website that read Seller: Dealer Description: Closing down sale. There was the bike that I had test ridden a few months back at almost half price.

Just my luck, the bike I want at half price, brand new (800 km) and I can't afford it at this moment. Normally when you see a bike at half price the first question is usually "what's wrong with it?". In this case you know where it is coming from.

Well the bottomline seems to be that there won't be an authorised Royal Enfield dealer in South Africa. That is if no one else is picking up the dealership.

License to ride: Part 2

Well I have just got back from my Christmas holiday at the coast. I had such a good holiday I did not even have time to update my blog.

The most important update to make is that just before my holiday started I got my learners license. As I was holidaying with my folks, I had the opportunity to ride my Ol' Man's bike. The Ol' Man said I should get a trip in every day but it did not happen. Too busy enjoying my holiday. I regret it now as I am back home and bikeless.

Ok, the next milestone!!! To get my full license. Hopefully in the next few months. It really depends on when I can get an appointment. This is relatively difficult as there is a backlog in the system....

Anyway I can legally ride bikes now....