Team-BHP - Std 350? Hmmm Electra 5s? Or Mach 350?

Hi All,

I am posting after a looong long time.

I am now planning to buy a Bullet but confused on which one.

My daily running is close to 30kms, with very rare chances of going on a long drive on it. (I would prefer my GTX for the long drives.

The story begins like this. I spend close to 3 litres of petrol for my daily commute to office and back, This comes to Rs.150/day. I realised that it is pretty expensive during recession. So I started searching for options in the two wheeler segment. But my long lost liking for the bullets starting haunting me again and I could not resist visiting the showroom.
(Meantime, I got my 12 year old scooter serviced as it was idle since 3 years now. I also found that the original spares are no longer available for it though.

Now I am confused with the Std 350, Electra 5s and the Machismo 350

Std 350, I like its looks and price, 82k on road, but afraid of the right left confusion of the brake/gear. It also lacks the disc brakes, the button start, gas shocks and the 5s gearbox which comes in the Electra 5s, approx Rs. 16k more, but somehow havent come to terms with the looks of Electra.
Machismo 350 has great looks + everything that comes with the Electra + Alluminium engine which I am not too sure of + 7k more than Electra.

All this puts me in a lot of confusion.

Bullet gurus here, please help.
Note: I do not want the Mach 500, as it will not achive my main purpose of saving the cost of petrol my much. I heard it does not give anything beyond 25.

Mods: I tried searching for the thread with the comparison I needed, but did not find any, hence started a new thread. If there is any thread already existing, please merge.

"Thump?!"

I mentioned the thump because a lot of buyers are into the bullet because of the thump and the old school charm.

Anyways, if you are not into the Bullet because you like that "Thump", then as i said before the "Machismo 350" should be Your choice irrespective of whats mine ;)

On another note, The AVL, Austria designed "Modern" Engine's future is unknown since RE will move to the UCE ( as seen on the TB TS) platform (hopefully leaving aside the std. 350) post the Classic 500 launch in India.

The Machismo 500 could possibly stand as a competitor to its own C5 and hence get discontinued or transplanted with the new UCE unit, this leaves only the Machismo 350 with an AVL unit. The Machismo 350 could then be transplanted with a UCE motor from the TB TS to cut down production costs.

Vinit, I burn the same about of pertol as you do everyday, and I too visited the Enfield showroom enquiring about the bullet. My thoughts were exactly like yours, where I thought I could save some money buying a bike.

The bullet I liked the most was the 5S for some reason, I don't like the look of the AVL engine, the 5S engine looks like the old bullet engine. If I had to take one, I would have taken the 5S. One point to note there is that the Standard bullet come with a lever on the right hand side, which when you kick brings the bike to nutral no matter which gear you are on, this feature is missing in the new bike where the brakes are on the right.

I started all the bikes, to hear how they sound, could not ride them, but these bikes when started vibrate a lot, I could see oil leaks from these brand new bikes, and these bikes have a hole lot of crome, which means a whole lot of rust after some time. In the end I gave up the idea, and even if I had to pick a bike today for daily commute I would pick up some new morden day bike, cause they are smoother and give far less trouble.

You are going to use it daily. You are going to use it in stop go traffic. You need a Electric Start. You are not going to tour on it. You want economy. You would need a bike thats fill it, shut it, forget it.

You will still spend Rs 50 per day + the cost of the bike thats 80k+. Simple calculation.

Money saved per day - 100, for a 82K Bullet, you need to ride it for 820 days to break even. Thats 2+ years. Makes sense? Forget the maintenance cost.

Get a commuter instead.

You want a bike because you want to ride and live with - get a Bullet.

Let me see if I can answer your question w/o going offtopic.

Std350: Will be discontinued soon. Purist Bullet-eers will not ride anything else. Its nice and easy going, but the lack of disc brake is apparent for a bike of its weight. Plus, it runs on cb points which may spring up trouble in the rains.

Electra5s: Old school mated to modern 5 speed gbox and clutch. Runs on TCI ignition, just keep your battery in shape, and the bike will never give up. Oh, and please ride it like a cast iron engine, be gentle on the throttle.

Machismo350: Alluminium engine, lots of clatter from the valve train (unless you stumble on that perfect setting), and can be ridden at WOT (wide open throttle) all day, and it wont miss a breath. The new Mach350s run on TCI iginition too. Ideal for my toruing purposes.

What bike: Considering you will use it mainly for office commute and small rides in the city, buy the Electra5s. Silent cast iron engine, and very coninient 5 speed gearbox. I find it hard to belive that a well inform person would let looks make the choice. You are buying the bike to ride it, more than to look at it.

If you love a Bullet and own one, then the mechanic should be your best friend.

The Bullet cannot be compared to any other bike, it has its own charm, values and issues.
Isn't chrome a part of that old vintage charm, why look at a bullet if you don't like chrome :confused:

Oil leaks on brand new bikes in a showroom, i have no reason to believe that either.

Oh wow, complain about the missing neutral finder and then suggest a modern bike !!

I would not follow the advice of a person who does not or has not owned one or has not ridden one (for a longer period) !!

I have used a Yezdi, a KB100 RTZ, Electra 5s, and 500 Machismo. The earlier two when I needed them to commute and the latter two as toys. I just sold the Electra and I now use just the 500 on the weekends, for a year I ran both bikes. So, there is some experience talking!
For your use, I would also recommend a commuter bike. As a commuter, you want reliability, FE, and comfort. In the first two, the Bullet is way behind almost every other bike in the market. No two ways about it. Other than pose value, if there is any place that the Bullet still hold its own in India, it is long distance adventure touring. No where else does it even come a distant second.
If you want to do some commuting with some of the fun, without losing the reliablity, I would take the Yamaha FZ 16. The new Fazer may be a little more comfortable over the longer distance. I would also look at the Hondas, followed by the Hero Honda, in particular the Karizma, another underrated bike, very good for your distance. TVS would not be that good, they are sports bikes in character, the ones that have any, and Bajaj is getting to be very unreliable.
In your place it would be a toss up for me between the Fazer and the Karizma.
PS: The 500 consistently returns 33-35 km/liter.
PPS: But if you really must buy a Bullet for commuting, the AVL ones are the ones better suited. The Electras still leak, and it is a mystery to me why RE cannot transfer what has to be trivial technology from the AVL to the CI bikes, to make them leakproof. My 500 has some electrical glitches, the wiring is a scandal, but the mechanicals are solid, compared to the Electra. And if the thump matters, you can be as noisy as you want with the AVLs with aftermarket pipes.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Spitfire (Post 1420462)

I am guessing you have recently bought a Bullet?

Edited: Oh yes you have :D I remembered reading a topic by you somewhere. http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/motorb...-poderosa.html

Cheers
Spitfire

Thanks for the pointer !!

The statement "for a longer period" is for "has not ridden one".

You are right, i have bought an Bullet Machismo 500 just a month back.Previously, I have driven a STD 350 owned by a Friend pretty Extensively, hopefully that also qualifies me to make a statement on Bullet's :D

As a matter of fact i have driven a lot of bikes which i have not owned.

I have previously owned some other offbeat bikes like the Norton, RD350HT, Honda Hurricane, BSA350 etc. Apart from this my family also owns an Austin big 7, VolksWagen Beetle and a Vauxhall. My father has been an automobile mechanic (he passed away last year) and has worked for the BEST in the british raj days, apart from M&M, Air India etc. He was a mechanic repairing trucks and cars in the good old 50's in Mumbai.

So i guess i pretty well know my stuff ;)

Quote:

Originally Posted by vinit.merchant (Post 1419918)

It is strange that yo have chosen Bull to be your steed when your purpose is to save fuel expenses.

But in any case since you have chosen Enfield, for your purpose the best mileage will be served from an AVL engine. It will be more maintenance friendly as well as can be ridden harder (supposedly benefits from more oil circulation).
AVL is coming only on Machismo.

Though, my choice would veer more towards STD Bull/Electra, but with its niggling issues ... well

PS: I have decently long ownership of a Tbird (since 2003) and I have tried my hands at various Electra, machismo, Lightning 535 etc

I also agree with Spitfire and suggest you a Unicorn or CBZ/Karizma etc (hassle free bikes in essence, Pulsar isn't considered as good in quality terms although my Pulsar never gave me any trouble in 30k kms)

I had a problem although not like you (I have a car and a bike - Pulsar 150) which I mostly use as a daily commute. I love my car but I only enjoy driving it on highways/long trips and hate driving it in the city (same as yours so you know how that is!), hence most of the week is spent on the bike. But what I really wanted for quite some time was a bike which I can take on longer rides of say 100+ kms and not have to walk weirdly the day after (you know what I mean, hehe) so I have now sold my Pulsar and got myself a Thunderbird. (as of only yesterday so I can't call myself an expert on Bullet matters by any means, seeing as I don't even own a Bullet)

I was never much of a Bullet fan earlier but seeing all the affection for them here on tbhp, I explored the RE bike stable and found that although I liked the Electra and Machismo, what would suit me best is the TBTS.

So its for you to decide what you need from the bike and what it in turn they would need from you (love and care for the RE bikes (esp the Bulls) or fill it-forget it for most Japanese bikes). hopefully that leads you to the bike that will keep you happy which is what is important.