Forum

[RoSy]

Ive got a money making idea, take your run of the mill Enfield that looks perfectly alright take off the front and back mudguards or cut the back one down until it looks ridiculous , fit a crappy single seat that has to slope toward the rear tyre, fit low bars, junk the rear shockers and fit some old bits of metal cut from the garden gate to replace the shocks, call it a Bobber to impress buyers and here,s the cunning part charge an extra 1 thousand pounds on top of what you paid for it, its a no brainer.

[Bullet Whisperer]

And to make it a little more 'authentic', get it registered as a rare 1965 model, shipped out to India from Redditch in kit form, then rebuilt as a 500 in 2004 before being shipped back to the UK. Provenance or what? Got to be worth an absolute fortune. Not. regards, Paul.

[Exile]

I've never understood what all the chopping up of a perfectly good motorcycle is all about. I've seen some absolute abominations on the roads around here. I don't truly think they are safe and I'm damn sure half of them aren't comfortable to ride...

[Adrian]

RoSy, you forgot the deliberately rusty tank with the paint stripped off and the exhaust pipe wrap. Don't get me started, part 597(b).



It's bad enough when some poor Indian Bullet falls to this naff bit of band-wagon hopping, but when they start doing it to genuine classics as well...



So if someone ruins a Bullet, sticks it up on ebay for £4,000, but it doesn't sell as evidenced by the steadily reducing price over the course of a few months, it's not because the Bullet buying public are a bunch of Philistines who don't appreciate decent custom work, it's because they can clearly see said someone is a talentless [insert favourite word here] who has ruined a good bike, possibly to the point where it's now unsaleable if the frame has been chopped about. One particular example on ebay recently comes to mind.



Even if it's just one where only the mudguards/rear number plate/seat need replacing, that might still be enough to put buyers off if it's extra expense to rectify.



Give me a 1965 Indian "original" 500 any day, as long as it has been built properly and registered, you can still enjoy one for what it is (also assuming it's not one that's been imported then re-sold for a big mark-up).



A.

[Count Johnny]

Absolutely! Bloody awful aren't they?

[Count Johnny]

But it takes all sorts.



The trick, as I see it, is to buy your trousers from the back pages of the Peoples’ Friend and – if you make any changes to your Bullet – call it a ‘special’ and that’ll be just fine.

[RoSy]

Thought I might have been alone here, but apparently not, I've never ever understood why someone would want to chop/bob a bike, ape hangers how un comfortable must they be I think there must be some sort of masochistic depravity they get from riding a bike and getting home looking like a sheet of fly paper. But yes it takes all sorts, dolly mixture anyone.

[Count Johnny]

Well, I did a thousand miles in 4 days (Bavaria to Biarritz) in June (and in appalling weather) and I didn't stop smiling once.

[apparently lucky eddie]

Don't know how mant times I've laughed at bicyclists with no rear mudguard in the rain that look like they shat themselves But to me anything without rearsets and clipons is a bit odd.

[Mark M]

I like Slo Poke, that's a really nicely thought out and executed bike. I suppose that's it really, they're all bikes to me (and most of us here!) But, to some boutique bike builders they are an expression of the imagination or a form of self fulfilment. sadly In many cases the imagination is poor and the self fulfilment is not worth expressing! Count Johnny's bike is (to me,) the exception that tests the rule, motorcycling is a broad church and it would be very boring if we all liked the same thing. There are plenty of cheap tired Bullets out there that get another lease of life from amateurish customising, I'm not losing any sleep over it!

REgards, Mark