Shopping for a new bike

I've been very satisfied with the performance, economy and reliability of Black Beauty, my Bajaj Discover 135 DB ES (disc brake, electric start).  Since purchasing in December 2007, I've done 25,000 km in Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Kerala.

But for the amount of touring I like to do, I decided to upgrade to a bigger bike.

Since I've been pleased with Bajaj, my first test ride was on a Pulsar 150. Nice to drive, but it didn't seem worth the expense and hassle for an extra 15cc. In retrospect, I should have bought Pulsar in the first place, instead of Discover.

Next ride was on a Honda Unicorn. Very nice handling, comfortable in city traffic, but again only 150cc, so disqualified.

Next to try was the Pulsar 180. Aha, a potential winner. Enough extra performance, good petrol economy, good trade-in offer for my Discover. There were a couple of changes in the new model (UG4) which I didn't like -- toe-only shifter, and no kick-start.  To my mind these changes were drawbacks, not improvements. But I found a UG3, which had the configuration I wanted. I was close to closing a deal.

Then the new Bajaj Pulsar 220 was released, so I had a look and test-drove it, but, like the P180-UG4, it has toe-only shift, and no kick-start. Disqualified.

I also looked at the Apache, but the thing that turned me off was the external linkage of the gearshift. It looked to me as though the designer had forgotten about it and had to cludge something together later. And again a toe-only shift, which I don't like.

But I kept getting hints from the universe, "Check out Royal Enfield." I hadn't considered the Bullet before; I'm not a hefty guy and I didn't want a bike that felt bigger than I am. But I went to the showrooms a couple of times, first the one on Anna Salai near Thousand Lights, and then the Adyar factory outlet.

I looked at the different models, and felt that the ThunderBird TwinSpark sang to me.  So I took it for a test drive in Besant Nagar, and it felt just fine, although a bit noisy.

I mulled it over for a couple of weeks, reading comments from several sources, considering the finances, and made my decision. In August I placed my order with a Rs 10,000 deposit. And on 09-09-09, an auspicious date, I took delivery of "RedWing", my beautiful new red ThunderBird TwinSpark.

P.S. Yes, I know that the Detroit hockey team is the Redwings, but that wasn't the reason for my choice of the name.

Firstly, my bike is red, and "ThunderBird" associates with "wing"; secondly, after the redwing blackbird, which as a family joke was referred to as "Mommy's bird", because the fieldguide says "its identification is unmistakeable."