Bullet Electra-fied my world!. Review on Bullet Electra

One evening a few weeks ago, the hypnotic cycle of work-rest-work was dramatically broken. Somehow, somewhere a niggling worm of discontent burrowed its way into my comfort zone, and I was forced to deal with the question: Is THIS all that I want(ed) out of life?

While the answer is obvious, how the question came about is a different story altogether. It started with AJ buying a motorcycle. Not just any motorcycle, but an old, weather beaten monster that first rolled onto our roads sometime in 1992. Why, you may ask, does AJ want someone’s has-been bike rather than a shiny new, easy-terms-low-EMI-full-warranty car? Or even a motorcycle, if that’s how his inclination goes. Because he found himself a Bullet Electra, one of Royal Enfield’s living dinosaurs that still touch a primeval part in most of our simple, hormone-riddled brains.

That particular evening, as AJ rolled into the Business Park (what an ironic term that is!) where my company straddles a couple of floors, I heard the deep thump-thump-thump of the 350cc engine. Something churned inside me. I took one look at AJ astride his bike with his new smirk, and I knew I had to try out this beast for myself.

So I found myself with some basic instructions from AJ (after all, the Bullet does have a completely different set-up than most bikes, with the gear-shift being on the right and all) and started up my very first Bullet.

When the fog cleared from my brain, I was back next to AJ, refusing to accept that I already had taken a circuit of the building. Then it came flooding back the incredible feel of the thumping monster under me, the primitive gear changes, the immense torque that changes the awkwardly heavy (70-odd kilos!) mass of metal into a road-skimming banshee. And the feeling that someone had put a cape on me and I was wearing my underwear on the outside.

Ever since then, I’ve been tortured. I remember the three years I zipped happily on my Pulsar 150cc, content with 10bhp of power. The Bullet gives 18bhp. It is challenging to ride and immensely satisfying. I desire it. I want it. I need it.