Sometimes you lose sense of time. When the balmy wind hits your face you stop glancing at your watch. There is something in the heavy thump of a piston, in the way it cranks out power from the red-hot cylinder block. The road might stretch out to the horizon; the trees might rush by you faster than a freight train, but the heady vibration from the machine that you sit on shows the world where you stand.
I always loved bikes though I still can’t ride a bicycle. But from the time I started riding an Enfield, my life changed.
There are bikes and then there are Royal Enfields. Yesterday, a Royal Enfield fan told me: “Every Enfield rider knows that the bike is an underpowered shit. But it has an attitude.” I wouldn’t second him, but I can tell you there are always two ways to reach a destination. To me, how you reach it, is more important! Of course, any Japanese bike, which has decent amount of power, can kill an Enfield in a quarter mile drag. But that’s not the reason why among a few others, I ride an Enfield.
Here is an excerpt from Wikipedia: (“Royal Enfield was the brand of the Enfield Cycle Company, an English engineering company. Most famous for producing motorcycles, they also produced bicycles, lawnmowers, stationary engines, and even rifle parts for the Royal Small Arms Factory in Enfield. This legacy of weapons manufacture is reflected in the logo, a cannon, and their motto ‘Made like a gun, goes like a bullet’. It also enabled the use of the brand name Royal Enfield from 1890. And now Royal Enfield is considered as the oldest motorcycle company in the world still in production and Bullet is the longest production run around model.) See, legacy matters…
The bike survived two World Wars. During the Second World War, the Flying Flea aka the Airborne, a ligther version of the Bullet was para-dropped behind enemy lines with British troops. Hmm…I find this exciting—something like travelling back in time and feeling like a paratrooper while negotiating Delhi traffic in circa 2008.
Then there is the question of feeling good while riding. This is relative. But after coming back home, dog tired after a tiring day at office, this is the only bike I feel like taking out for a spin. And after 5 minutes on it, there is usually a huge grin plastered all over my face. Why? Well, you got to ride it. All I can say is that there is difference between having sex and making love. Haw…
