royal enfield bikes

does anyone here have any experience with royal enfield? i am curious about their quality.the yuppies have driven even the price of a 45 basket case to unreasonable levels and the enfield looks quite affordable
thanx smitty

Are you talking about the original RE's or the new ones?

The India Enfields still have a lousy reputation.
You buy one new and rebuild it to non Indian standards(they have difficultys to understand what's a thou off an inch) with good quality bearings all around...and you can go riding.
Otherwise they are just a pain in the butt!
Stéph
P.S. the Kawa 650W is a good looking cheap machine with a kickstart!

thanx for the info to steph r/e kawi 650 is this the new w model or the old one that looked like a bsa??

[Pa]

Local Bro buddy of mine bought one of the new ones. Made in India. Bike looks nice, gets tremendous fuel milage, but has all kinds of problems as he puts on the miles. Problems have ranged so far as, parts falling off of the scoot to never be found again and loosing of fasteners all over consistantly and electrical shorting here and there. No engine related or tranny mechanical failures as of yet. BIke has less than 4000 miles on it so far. We will see how additional miles will affect it as ime goes by.

sourdoughsmitty I think Kawa only makes 1 model W650 and yes it looks like a...BSA/Triumph... but with a better finish than the last ones replica imo.
Stéph

hi steph,
the one i was thinking of goes back to the late 60's or so as the w1 and then the w2 kawi copied and reengineered a bsa to do this but i have seen the other one you mention as well in a dealer wasnt aware they were still produced i'll give em a look see. right now after a 20 yr absence from the road due to life and family etc. i am looking at something economical once i have that then i will start building flatties again than smitty

Pa.
I thought parts falling off and electrical problems were normal for any British bike.
Dusty

[Pa]

Some HD's as well. Pa

:lol: Some HD's as well. Pa

Thats right PA. Used H-D's with owners who don't take care of them may have a problem. But not nearly as bad as those limey bikes.

[Pa]

No argument there Chris. Pa