New Royal Enfield has old-time appeal

People used to buy Royal Enfield Bullet motorcycles because they were the motorcycle that "they forgot to stop making." The Bullet from India was little changed from the circa-1955 Bullet from Britain.

So why do people buy the newest Royal Enfield motorcycles, with fuel injection, electric start, disk brake and unit constructed engine?

Turns out, the reasons haven't changed a bit. Jason Giacchino, contributing editor at the Motorcycle-USA web site, illustrates this with a story about his friend "Charlie." Charlie went out and bought a new Royal Enfield G5. Why?

As Charlie tells it:

“I’ve always been drawn to the look and simplicity of 1950s motorcycles but got tired of barely getting to the end of the driveway before something would break. I’ve been meaning to replace my Velocette for a few years now but imagined I would do so with an equally ratty Norton or Triumph. When I found out about this brand new 2009, I knew it was time.”

Giacchino took the G5 Classic for a brief cruise around the block and found it to ride pretty much as he expected "for a machine designed to reproduce the ergonomics and experience of motoring back in the 1950s."

He concludes:

"Charlie and I said goodbye and I realized while pulling away that there was some definite logic behind his reasoning. It’s tough to argue against the charms of yesteryear when combined with the reliability of today. To him the Royal Enfield was more about recapturing a moment of his past without all of the associated hassle that accompanied the real thing."

Read the full story here.