What motorcycle can claim to be the embodiment of legacy, of tradition more than the Royal Enfield Bullet? It’s not, mind you, as if the Bullet is in a race to reserve this status - it simply is in a class of its own. It always has been. That’s tradition, for it.
Of course you know all of the Bullet’s tropes - it's timeless thump, a silhouette that’s among the most recognisable in the world and, above all else, its character. The Bullet has shaped entire lives over a brief period of nine decades - yes, that’s how long a chapter it has penned in the glorious book of motorcycles - and, by the look of it, it only seems to have turned a new page in its newest form. Oh, and what a form that is!
You’d think achieving the effect of familiarity would make the Bullet an easy motorcycle to create or refine until you consider what the Bullet represents; generations of emotions and aspirations, unified by the idea of a perfectly analogous motorcycling experience. It’s rooted, it’s rugged and, now more than ever before, it’s so beautifully refined, too. Timeless, you say? If the past is prologue, the Bullet has simply redefined the rules of time itself.
All of this coalesces before you even thumb its starter and bring its 349cc long-stroke engine to life. As the thump emerges through its exhaust pipe, the Bullet transforms into something visceral. You become one with it. The shift into first gear not only enables propulsion - it becomes a fundamental moment in a motorcyclist’s life, one with an irreversible impact on what you will expect from motorcycles ever after. Get into a rhythm and you’ll simply have entered perhaps the most meditative, most rewarding dimension of motorcycling there is. Riding the Bullet is all about being, without doing as much.
Arguably the world’s most traveled motorcycle, the Bullet knows a thing - or twelve - about making life on the road a blissful affair. This is evident in its signature single bench seat and it's easy-to-reach handlebar, and in the overall ergonomics that favor short urban rides as much as they do seemingly endless soul-searching escapades.
From the rider’s seat, you get a refreshed perspective on that all-too-familiar casquette, courtesy the digi-analogue instrument cluster that gives you all the essential readouts in an easy layout. In keeping with the times, the most entrenched-in-tradition motorcycle in the world now also offers you a USB port so you can charge your all-important mobile phone on the go!
Even if you were, for a moment, to dissociate the Bullet from all of its tradition, it still holds tremendous appeal as a motorcycle. To many, the Bullet effortlessly represents stability, dependability and an inherent character that encourages you to explore, without being unapproachable in its form or function. This comes through even stronger in its latest evolution and that bodes really well for a newer generation of motorcyclists. It’s this blend of refinement along with its analogous temperament that makes the Bullet what it really is.
With its sort of lineage and legacy, it’s only natural that the Bullet wears its experience in a most intrinsic way. Here’s a motorcycle that isn’t clamoring to be called intelligent - it’s wise, a bit sage-like, you could say. It always has been. That’s tradition, too.
