AgentX
Over 1,000 Posts
Hey, all-
First post after some silent sponging here. American, living in India and riding my first bike, a 2010 Royal Enfield 350. Newer-style engine, pretty reliable, frankly kinda boring, not importable to the US. (And tops out at 110kph, so I don't think it'd be too useful anyhow, except as an urban run-about, which is most of what it does now...still, over here, it's fire-breathing king of the road compared to most other vehicles.)
Nearly everyone here is on two wheels, so as crazy as the driving is, I figured if grandma with 5 grandkids on her scooter in bare feet can survive, I should be fine, too. It's been fun and educational...I consider the roads here to be a sort of kinetic Darwinism.
And bikes are super-cheap, as is mechanical and custom work of all kinds (if of often-suspect quality) so this is an opportunity to try something cool.
To that end, I just picked this up:
1977 Army model Royal Enfield Bullet 350. Not running at the moment.
Plan is now to rebuild into into a hot-rod street-trackerish thing, then upon return to the US someday, go full cafe with an upgraded engine (there's a 535cc "fireball" setup I will run) and the right ergonomics.
Will keep the bike's heritage in mind at all times; I don't think I'm in danger of ever making it too refined-looking, heh, and I don't want to take it too far from the basic look, just strip it down to its essence and renew it a bit, show what's lurking under all the heavy accessories now on it. It's earned too many scars to be made particularly clean and neat at this point, and frankly, I like having machinery I don't worry about dings and scratches on.
Not going too wild on the engine now, given the quality of Indian-made internals and engineering on something like this. (Plus, I can go too fast for conditions too easily on a stock 350 as-is!) Just a bigger carb, new 5-speed transmission, free-er exhaust, etc. Maybe rearsets depending on how the ergos work out with choice of new seat and bar. Definitely going to replace the front wheel with a double-leading shoe brake, because the stock single-sided drums are insanely weak. My Indian mechanic already thinks I'm weird, but at least he's willing to work without understanding why I want things the way I want.
I am going to keep all original parts on-hand in case I ever want to do a more respectful restoration of it to its original state. But for now, it's going to be my first real experience with customizing a motor vehicle. I look forward to asking a ton of stupid questions. Wish me luck...
AX
First post after some silent sponging here. American, living in India and riding my first bike, a 2010 Royal Enfield 350. Newer-style engine, pretty reliable, frankly kinda boring, not importable to the US. (And tops out at 110kph, so I don't think it'd be too useful anyhow, except as an urban run-about, which is most of what it does now...still, over here, it's fire-breathing king of the road compared to most other vehicles.)
Nearly everyone here is on two wheels, so as crazy as the driving is, I figured if grandma with 5 grandkids on her scooter in bare feet can survive, I should be fine, too. It's been fun and educational...I consider the roads here to be a sort of kinetic Darwinism.
And bikes are super-cheap, as is mechanical and custom work of all kinds (if of often-suspect quality) so this is an opportunity to try something cool.
To that end, I just picked this up:
1977 Army model Royal Enfield Bullet 350. Not running at the moment.
Plan is now to rebuild into into a hot-rod street-trackerish thing, then upon return to the US someday, go full cafe with an upgraded engine (there's a 535cc "fireball" setup I will run) and the right ergonomics.
Will keep the bike's heritage in mind at all times; I don't think I'm in danger of ever making it too refined-looking, heh, and I don't want to take it too far from the basic look, just strip it down to its essence and renew it a bit, show what's lurking under all the heavy accessories now on it. It's earned too many scars to be made particularly clean and neat at this point, and frankly, I like having machinery I don't worry about dings and scratches on.
Not going too wild on the engine now, given the quality of Indian-made internals and engineering on something like this. (Plus, I can go too fast for conditions too easily on a stock 350 as-is!) Just a bigger carb, new 5-speed transmission, free-er exhaust, etc. Maybe rearsets depending on how the ergos work out with choice of new seat and bar. Definitely going to replace the front wheel with a double-leading shoe brake, because the stock single-sided drums are insanely weak. My Indian mechanic already thinks I'm weird, but at least he's willing to work without understanding why I want things the way I want.
I am going to keep all original parts on-hand in case I ever want to do a more respectful restoration of it to its original state. But for now, it's going to be my first real experience with customizing a motor vehicle. I look forward to asking a ton of stupid questions. Wish me luck...
AX
