Photo Essay – Beauty of the Beast !!

Between Harohalli and Jigni – Back roads – lovely views

Harohalli Ride – the sky was darkening and it was gorgeous

Resting peacefully after a long ride

The rear view 🙂

Just happened to find a Royal Classic parked on the road, parked mine next to it and snappity snap – just for a comparison

Waiting by the kerb at night for a coffee !

In my apt parking the beast sits quietly

Getting ready to head out for a long ride

The Bike is now READY !

So, I finally managed to get my bullet kitted out to the plan I had in my mind. Added the windshield (or visor) in front and changed the Silencer. I fully recommend the shop where I have been getting all these additions to the bike. When I went there for the visor and silencer, the old man who runs the shop told me of a new imported silencer which he had just got the previous day. I asked him about the Goldiesilencer I had heard about. He mentioned it was a local made one and not really recommended by him. He showed me a brochure of this company in Chennai who make silencers for bullets. He said they have been in business for a number of years and are reliable in what they make. We then removed the original silencer and fixed the imported one in place to hear the outcome. It was good, not overwhelming. Then we put in a couple of the Chennai ones and I liked one of them straight away. The proprietor then told me that the imported one is probably made in Gujarat his supplier has not told him where it actually comes from and just told him it is imported. Though this one was 3x the cost of the Chennai one he recommended that I go for the Chennai one which is known and I had liked the sound as well. His salesman was doing his best to get me to buy the more expensive one of course.  

Then we looked at the windscreens, there was a dark one (with tint) and the plain one. I wanted to get the plain one and this too came with two options. With the Royal Enfield sticker and without, the sticker was actually inside the two layers of fiber. But the cost differential was 500 bucks, certainly not worth it. So we stuck with the plain one and started the process of getting it fixed. Meanwhile I carried the stickered one to a sticker shop a 100 meters away and showed it to him; he said he could easily make that one. I had already got a similar sticker from him for the helmet box anyway. This one was in white radium and cost fifty bucks 🙂.

Why change the silencer?

Well, it is a bullet, it is meant to have a solid thump however the new improved engines probably mean that thump is reduced quite a bit. The original classic 500 silencer is nice but it does not produce any significant thump. The changed silencer gives a feeling of more power through the accelerator and you get a solid thump too. It is like a huge bass boosted hammer on an anvil. The downside of the change is a potentially reduced efficiency of the engine, you will travel fewer miles for the same liter of fuel. Upon inquiry I was reassured that it would not cause any damage to the engine. One lives in hope. However if I were to go on a seriously long ride, I would switch back to the original silencer, which is safely packed and tucked away under the bed at home.

Besides these I changed the light bulb, the original one seemed a little less light at nights. However, so far I am not very impressed with the one that I got from the shop it seems only marginally improved if anything. I still need to upgrade the headlight. But otherwise the bike rocks!!

The windscreen is a definite head turner, everything else being the same the windscreen will turn 10 times as many heads as without one. I do not see it producing any drag or wind resistance, of course I no longer feel the wind in my chest, being a little tall the windscreen does not come up to the face so I do feel wind on my face which is nice enough.