Hazaar thanks to Kiruba's blog, On a lovely day I met Rahul, Shashank and Sriram, three friendly & motivated guys at The Royal Enfield Showrroom cum Office at Besant Nagar, Chennai.
After ensuring my identity, they parted with a brand new Royal Enfield Thunderbird (with some petrol filled in its tank!!) to ride happily for one whole day (& night too).
Thunderbird, a cousin of my dream machine Royal Enfield Bullet (Gazzat ki savari) has the gear shift on the left hand(leg) side and break on the right unlike the Bullet (like most other bikes).The front wheel has disk break and the rear the usual drum break. This bike had five forward gears to make an entry level car feel shy. Low seat, conveniently placed handlebar are the special features gaining superiority even over the Bullet. A heavy bike loaded with a 350 CC engine with awesome power made me feel like the boss when I hit the road. Due to its great design the weight of the bike could be little felt.
For the rugged nature of the bike, gear shift were comparitively smoother. The front panel had a tachometer,a speedometer, an Odometer and a trip meter. I was surprised to see the black panel near the keyhole comeup live when I turned on the indicators. The dull black finish of the panel even suppressed the presence of an electric panel underneath- really cute.
As far as the riding, I could reach 90 KMPH in an empty road, with my wife screaming from the pillion I didnt have guts to pull the throttle any further. The greatness of this bike is not just in the speed you can achieve but in the power it has in its chest to pull. I was able to overtake a MTC bus being in the 4th gear with ease that too in Pondy Bazaar area. That whole day I spent mostly on road. I had a great exciting time with the machine and had to give it back the next day.
When I was a kid, I used to call the Bullet as 'budu budu' after the exhilarating sound it makes but Thunderbird comes with a new kind of exhaust so the familiar sound is missing. Bullet and Thunderbird are no doubt Hummers among bikes in India.
People wanting to have a similair experience may get in touch with these friends at Royal Enfield office.
18 comments:
vaanga, sowkiyama?:-)
bullet has always been my dream bike vasu. i was scared bcos of the left brake. but this looks like cool. btw what about the economics part?( mileage?)
if i ride it i will never feel like
touching my splendour:-))
naan vangara rendarayana sambalathukku idhula office navalur poitu vandha kattupadiyaguma?
PK,
I too didnt like my splendour after being on this Thunderbird for a whole day.
Mileage:- they promise 42KMPL but 35 should be practical.
Vasu... where were u all these days? Was looking for your post on Thunderbird, but you disappeared all of a sudden.
For Fun ok dhaan...looks like.
What about the Fuel efficiency? with the fuel rates in india ( You have said 35). How is the braking, stablity, etc.
Is it 4 stroke?
Maybe its for fun..I agree..!
But for Indian Economy, don't you think we need vehichles that run on water?
Just kidding....we need more fuel eff. vehiches?
yeah i own a thunderbird, gives me a milage of 45-50 under patient riding and proper gearshifting, when i twist the throttle it drops to 35,
except for the milage nothing else is tat gr8 bout it,
i bought it for milage alone, and wud prefer a secondhand run down bullet, for round 5000-15000 which i can ready pannify with another 20000, and this bike ll be as good as new.
so all those who r lookin at a bullet, shud first look at second hand option, seriously.
srivatsan
may not be that great. but may be great for those who break their backs riding 40 kms daily in their maginificent "Hero Honda Splendour" whose tyres and shock absorbers are.... well a shade bigger than tvs 50.
Pani,
I was running around a bit as the courts re opened on the 13th and had so many loose ends to be tied.
Narayanan,
braking, stability of Thunderbird are all superb.
Fuel efficiency and this bike are miles apart.
Srivatsan
I have heard about these auctioning of Bullets in the military which were talked about as a great deal to own a Bullet. I am not sure if they are still being auctioned or if the military still buys Bullets in the first place. I do agree with you going for a second hand is the best option to own a bullet as unlike the other half baked Japanese vehicles, Bullets' do not detiriorate in condition fast
PK,
I too sympathise with. I am also one of those who scale the city roads on a HH Splendour :((
But left to me I would prefer to go for a car than a Bullet/TB
OT: Vasu, I blogrolled you :-)
Thanks Thennavan,
But what is OT?
vasu scaling city in a car is a pain, the traffic is horrible and parking even worse, bike na nan pundhu pundhu povan, romba fasta and quicka, but in may heat afternoon riding in bike is a strick no no,
PK rather than splendor, go for a 2nd hand TB or BULLET, but ull have to wait patience pays here.
Vasu OT: Off Topic
:-)
Welcome to the Bullet club.
Thunderbird is a nice machine. But nothing can compare to the thump of the Bullet 350cc and Bullet 500cc.
:)
Shiva
Vasu, hope your next blog post wd be "Day of Santro"
That is a good point. I found another bmw alpina site that goes into even more bmw alpinadetail.
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