re: Royal Enfield Motorcycles

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. I still have eyes for the Speed Twin 

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I had a 2016 Street Twin as an around town bike for a few years. Loved that bike.

I have a Royal Enfield INT650 that I love. I think you may like the 350 as a first bike, but I’ll wager that within a year you’ll trade it for something bigger. The great thing about Royal Enfield is they are basically affordable versions of classic British cycles but with fuel injection and ABS disc brakes. They only have one ride mode, and maintaining it is easy if you are so inclined to do your own work.

I have rode Harleys and Triumphs for most of my adult life but my 2021 RE Interceptor is my pick when I want to just go blast down River Road on Sunday. There is a plethora of parts and accessories for these bikes (RE) some factory, some aftermarket. The 650 can be stepped up to a 750 or 865 cc respectively by buying a big bore kit from S&S Cycles.

I would take a Motorcycle safety course now just to see if you really want to ride. Remember though the asphalt is hot in summer and the classes fill up fast. Later when you buy your bike take the advanced course using your own bike.

Check out YouTube and watch the Fuzzy Biker and anything from Baxter Cycles in Marne, Iowa. They are always riding and reviewing all of the Royal Enfield line.

I find the Super Meteor very interesting , check it out, it is assembled with a cruiser frame very much like the 350 Meteor, but it has the larger and more powerful 650cc engine.

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Not sure I'd want a bike that could go much faster than that

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C'mom Bert, should know better than that. I don't own a bike but rode a friends often (he had a couple of them). Once you get on them you can't help but go fast. i had to keep telling myself to slow down.

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Just curious, do bikes hold their value as far as trade ins?

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No. They plummet in value.

Buy the best maintained bike from a private party seller.

Also, buy a smaller bike and get better at riding and then sell it and move up.

My first bike was $750. I dropped it on its side 4 times and sold it for $600.

Then I took two separate motorcycle rider safety courses and felt much more confident.

Next bike was $1800. Only dropped it down once. Two years later - Sold it for $1500 in one weekend.

Had 3 other bikes and never laid one down in the last 15 years of riding.

I currently do not own a bike. All this bike talk is making me want to go shopping for one asap.

That meteor isn't too far off in looks from a stock, base model Sportster. I see them regularly around here for $3.5-5K with way less than 10k miles. You can always take any stupid apehangers, forward controls, chrome off, since a lot of them have it. Probably a post 2002 would be better, since that's when they started to not have the engine directly mounted to the frame. I had one and found it easy to learn on, the powerband is forgiving.

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buy used

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Couple of issues: when I search for used motorcycles on google, there doesn’t seem to be a ton of options online around me. I’ve look on cycle trader and on auto trader but both have very limited options for what I’m looking for.

Second issue is that I know literally no one that has a motorcycle or would be knowledgeable about it. Should I stick to a new bike in that case?

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Second issue is that I know literally no one that has a motorcycle or would be knowledgeable about it. Should I stick to a new bike in that case?

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If you have no option but to do this on your own, here's a few things to look for.

First the easy stuff:

Check the tires for wear and signs of being plugged or otherwise compromised. Also check for dry rot if the bike has a few years on it with little mileage. You'd be surprised how many used bikes with low miles have dry rotted tires. Motorcycle tires are right up there in price with auto tires if you buy quality rubber and unless you know how to remove the wheel, get the old tire off and mount and balance the new tire, expect to pay at least $100 for a shop to do it for you. Oh, and don't even think you will get over 10K miles on a rear tire and about 20K on a front tire. They wear out way quicker than auto tires.

Check brake shoes/pads for wear and rotors for damage. Rotors and pads are easy since they are exposed with many bikes having them front and rear while some bikes have rotors and pads on the front and drum and shoe brakes on the rear.

Check fluids if the bike has hydraulic brakes and clutch. Check the levels and see if they are fresh and not old. Also check engine oil levels.

If a chain drive bike check the chain for wear and tear and excess slack in it.

Easiest of all is to check for dings, dents, scrape marks in the stuff that is not suppose to hit the road. That will tell you if the bikes been down.

If the seller allows you to do a test ride by yourself, go through the gears and listen for a strong running engine with no misfiring or throttle hesitation. Also feel how the tranny shifts----is it smooth, clunky, miss shifts, etc. Some of that can be your fault not being familiar with the bike so take that into consideration.

Ask for maintenance records. I do my own maintenance and everything I do is written down in my owner's manual as to date and what was done and how many miles were on the bike when the work was done.

I really appreciate you breaking it down like that for me. I also really appreciate everyone's input in this thread. Yall have definitely filled some gaps in my knowledge that I am not sure I ever would have figured out on my own without putting myself in tricky situations.

All this bike talk and cool weather has me ready to roll Saturday morning. Can't wait !