Pete ponders a UCE manual after all

UPDATE: Pete Snidal now says he is considering producing an owner's manual for the new Royal Enfield Bullet motorcycles with the unit constructed engine (UCE).

Snidal told me he didn't think the new Royal Enfield would need a manual since it is not "a Do-It-Yourself" kind of motorcycle. Apparently he has changed his mind.

"Yes, I think I have," Snidal wrote to me. "It'll be a while, though, because I have to accumulate a mess of second-hand experience of the new model, and that will take time.

"I don't anticipate doing one that can be called a Workshop Manual, either. More an owner's manual, which I think is appropriate, due to the different nature of the bike and therefore the different nature of the folk to whom it will appeal."

Snidal is the author of owner's and workshop manuals for the classic Indian made Bullets. They enabled owners without great experience to do basic chores with confidence. While those Bullets needed and benefited from involved tending, the new UCE models are designed to minimize maintenance.

Enthusiasm for the new model seems to be a big part of the motivation for Snidal. He wrote on the Royal Enfield Yahoo message board to say:

"I've been looking at what I could find (and that's quite a bit!) on the new UCE, and I have to admit that I'm impressed. So impressed that I think I just may do a manual on it -- but I'm going to wait till the results are in from as many directions as I can muster... If I had the time/money/access, I'd LOVE to spend this summer intimate caress mode with a new UCE!"