Re-realizing that I enjoyed riding a bike in Texas, made me want to start riding again.
I had a cruiser (Honda Shadow 650) in Texas and have always thought that the cruiser is more of a classy bike, where you can enjoy the scenery as you ride, so when I started looking at options of bikes to get here, it narrowed down to one of two bikes. The Bajaj Avenger OR the Enfield Bullet.
I had ridden a coworker's Avenger and found the ride to be comfortable, the seat being well paded, back rest for the pilion, good location for the foot pedals etc, but felt like it was too small a bike (engine-wise).
One of my cousins had an old (1992) bullet and was heading out of the country to study further, so I thought this was a perfect opportunity for me to borrow the bike and start using it.
I got the bike home on the 30th of December and was determined to start riding it from the 1st of Jan, as we have a belief in India that if you do something on the first day of the year, you do the same all throughout the year. (I think the black eyed peas on Jan 1 in the US is similar to the Indian story).
As you might know, bikes didn't have "self start" in '92, so it was all lower limb strength that helped start a bike (another thing I really like about older bikes). After about 200 kicks and a sore right knee and sore right soles, I decided to call a mechanic home, to get him to start the bike. One of my cousins however said that I should give the bike to Tirupathi!!! I was upset initially, but later realized that Tirupathi was the name of the mechanic that he was suggesting. As expected, Tirupathi started the bike on the 10th kick (kicked it 5 times, did some wiring work, kicked it 4 more times, adjusted something else and VIOLA). He took it to his shop and mentioned that I could pick it up the next day at 4.
Tirupathi mentioned that nothign major needs to be done and he would like to do a general service when I have some time on the bike and that I could ride it 500 km without any problems as is. A short ride around Jayanagar and Gandhi Bazar with a friend on a 650 Ninja ended my 2010 :).
I had a cruiser (Honda Shadow 650) in Texas and have always thought that the cruiser is more of a classy bike, where you can enjoy the scenery as you ride, so when I started looking at options of bikes to get here, it narrowed down to one of two bikes. The Bajaj Avenger OR the Enfield Bullet.
I had ridden a coworker's Avenger and found the ride to be comfortable, the seat being well paded, back rest for the pilion, good location for the foot pedals etc, but felt like it was too small a bike (engine-wise).
One of my cousins had an old (1992) bullet and was heading out of the country to study further, so I thought this was a perfect opportunity for me to borrow the bike and start using it.
I got the bike home on the 30th of December and was determined to start riding it from the 1st of Jan, as we have a belief in India that if you do something on the first day of the year, you do the same all throughout the year. (I think the black eyed peas on Jan 1 in the US is similar to the Indian story).
As you might know, bikes didn't have "self start" in '92, so it was all lower limb strength that helped start a bike (another thing I really like about older bikes). After about 200 kicks and a sore right knee and sore right soles, I decided to call a mechanic home, to get him to start the bike. One of my cousins however said that I should give the bike to Tirupathi!!! I was upset initially, but later realized that Tirupathi was the name of the mechanic that he was suggesting. As expected, Tirupathi started the bike on the 10th kick (kicked it 5 times, did some wiring work, kicked it 4 more times, adjusted something else and VIOLA). He took it to his shop and mentioned that I could pick it up the next day at 4.
Tirupathi mentioned that nothign major needs to be done and he would like to do a general service when I have some time on the bike and that I could ride it 500 km without any problems as is. A short ride around Jayanagar and Gandhi Bazar with a friend on a 650 Ninja ended my 2010 :).
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