Susi Aichbauer   >
             with her 159 cc
             Hero Honda CBZ
             in 2002.

If your thinking of buying an Enfield, I would strongly recommend that you read Michelle Harrison's account of her travels on a motorcycle. CLICK here.  She bought a 500cc Royal Enfield and seems to have had no end of trouble.  Susi Aichbauer, who I meet initially in the middle of her similar 2001/2002 motorcycle tour on a Hero Honda CBZ, seems to have fared much better on her 160cc machine and she told me how her machine took the Himalayan foothills in its stride, as she passed overheated Enfields being pushed by other travelers.  There's nothing sexy about them when that happens. It happened to me. I bought an Enfield 350cc Bullet Electra (electronic ignition) model.  It overheated climbing up to Ooty in the Western Ghats.  But I left it to cool off for 45 minutes and it was fine after that. The only other trouble I had was the need to have the valve guides rebored under warranty at the first free service.  Otherwise, I didn't even have a single puncture in 6000kms.  Read the account of my Nov 2002 to Feb 2003 travels on an Enfield (Not yet added)  You should also read what Lonely Planet has to say about Enfields.

There are various Indian manufactures of other more modern style motor bikes, Including Yamaha, Suzuki, Kawasaki, Bajaj, &  TVS.  Most have small engines but the Bajaj Pulsar is available with150 or 180cc engines and the TVS Energy (which I think has a self start) also has a similar sized engine.  These latter two models, along with the Hero Honda CBZ, are possible alternatives to an Enfield whilst also being much more suited to city and urban  travel, but they do not have the same luggage carrying capacity.  I think that Hero Honda also have plans to introduce a 200cc machine.  Whilst all of these bikes are Indian built, they are essentially all of fairly modern Japanese design and I think the original Japanese manufacturers have a minority interest in the some of the companies, so the quality control procedures are likely to be based on good Japanese practice.  The larger Japanese bikes are simply not available in India as the cost of imported machines is quite prohibitive..  

CLICK here for the Royal Enfield web site and HERE for the official Hero Honda site. Kevin Gilmartin.

Where to buy your bike: If it is possible, buy your bike in the place (state) in which you ultimately intend to  sell it.  Selling a bike registered in another state is possible, but it is a less attractive proposition to a potential Indian buyer and this will affect the resale value of the bike.  See Selling Your Bike below.

Buying a bike in India:  Both the Lonely Planet and Rough Guides have sections on buying motor cycles. I suggest that you also read them.  Before you buying, you really ought to consider the problems you might have in selling your bike at the end of your trip - see 'Selling your bike', below.

NEW BIKES: Strictly speaking, non resident foreign nationals are not permitted to purchase brand new vehicles in India.  You have to be a registered resident foreign national and the motorcycle dealers will probably not be prepared to sell you a bike if all you have is a Tourist Visa. That is certainly the case in Delhi. But, it's a hurdle which can be overcome. 

Bike Extras: The extras I had fitted to my new Enfield 350 Bullet were:-

• Leg guards - fitted as standard on most other Indian bikes - (480 Rs)

• Fuel filter (35 Rs)

• A petrol lock (no charge)

• Luggage rack (400 Rs), pannier boxes & frame -secondhand - (600 Rs)

• 6 bungee straps (180 Rs)

• Helmet lock (155 Rs)

Things you might consider which I did not bother with are a tank bag (handy for pacing your map in the transparent top pocket whilst on the move) and a bike cover (a dirty one is less conspicuous) would also be useful to cover your bike as, if you are leaving it unused for several days, a lot of dust settles on it in the dry conditions.  These can be bought quite cheaply in India.

Spare parts & tools: I purchased the following spare parts (as advised by Inder Motors) to carry with me:-

• Throttle cable (26 Rs)..

• Front brake cable (43 Rs).

• Clutch cable (48 Rs).

• Front brake lever assembly (130 Rs).

• Clutch lever assembly (110 Rs).

• Spark plug (88 Rs).

• Rectifier - Electra model only - (75 Rs).

• Headlamp bulb (20 Rs).

• 2 fuses (8 Rs).

• Chain link (15 Rs).

• Bush cable stop (5 Rs).

• Spare tube (100 Rs).

The basic tool kit was very sparse and I was supplied with a fairly comprehensive set of extra tools (425 Rs) by Inder Motors.

Because of the tools and spare parts it became necessary for me to have the pannier boxes fitted, which I had not originally planned.

The paperwork: Before you set off on your travels, make sure you are in possession of the following original documents:

Take photocopies (2 sets) of all these documents and have one set readily available for any police check. Keep the original copies safely packed in your luggage where they are inconvenient to get at so that the police might be satisfied with the copies.  Avoid parting with the original documents if you possibly can. The police simply cannot be trusted in India. (see the item on the Traffic Police below).  If you buy a bike through Inder Motors in Delhi, Mr. Singh will ask you for photocopies of all your documents, including passport etc, to keep on file for your benefit should any misfortune occur. Kevin Gilmartin.

The Finance: There is apparently no scope for negotiating a better price on a new bike.  New bike prices at all dealers in a particular city are fixed. The prices vary slightly around the country, dependant upon the taxation levied by the individual states.  And of course you will have to pay in rupees.  It's better that you do so, because you may need the Encashment Certificate (valid only for 90 days) from the bank to show that you have changed a relatively large sum of western currency in order to be able to change the proceeds of your eventual sale of the bike back into hard currency.  If you were to buy the bike in a foreign currency, you'd could be stuck with the rupees at the end of the trip, unless you are able to use it for some other major purchase such as your flight out.  But beware - see the warning below about Selling Your Bike. Kevin Gilmartin.

Crash Helmets: Crash helmets are mandatory and enforced in the metropolitan cities such as Delhi, and you'll have to have and use one.  Elsewhere they may be mandatory, but their use may not always be enforced. In Goa they seem not to bother with helmets around the resorts but the Highway Patrol police may be keener on the NH 17 National Highway.  Non compliance by westerners can be a lucrative source of unofficial summary fines (straight into the police officer's back pockets).  Susi's experience was that after going with the intention of always wearing a helmet, she found it much too hot inside one, particularly when riding around cities, that she completely abandoned its use (as did Michele Harrison), except were it was enforced.  But you'll have to buy one.  I used a helmet throughout my travels.  They're much cheaper in India, but obviously not made to western standards.  They appear to be made in a limited range of sizes and are very loose fitting.  l bought a new full face helmet with visor for 500 Rs in Delhi.  There are a number of pavement helmet stalls on the road between Pahrar Ganj and Karol Bagh.  I met a couple of bikers (Belgian & Finnish) who had in fact brought their own helmets from Europe, one of them had brought full leathers as well. Kevin Gilmartin.

Other extras: The other things you may need are:

Selling your Bike: Susi apparently had little trouble selling her CBZ.  Throughout her trip she was in fact getting offers before she was actually ready to sell.  She eventually decided to sell in the Himalayas where second had bikes were fairly few and far between.  She put the word around locally and within a few days a buyer came forward.  After 6 months, 12000km and some repairs necessary, she sold it privately for Rs  35,000, having bought it new for Rs 59,000.  She left it with the purchaser to arrange re-registration of her Delhi registered machine in another state.  The bike was never actually registered in her own name (she had no address in India anyway), so that when she came to sell the bike it was still a one owner machine.

My experience was not so straight forward.  I bought my 350 Enfield Bullet in Delhi and hence it had a Delhi registration, just like Susi's.  Not having a residents permit, the bike had to be registered in someone else's name, again as did Susi's.  I was told however, that it would have been possible to have registered it in my own name had I gone outside Delhi to Guragon in Haryana.  But I didn't bother.  During the trip I had various enquires about buying the bike but I was not ready to sell and would not be returning to those places at the end of the trip.  I was flying home from Bombay and decided to end my travels within striking distance of it, in Colva, Goa, allowing myself 3 weeks to sell the bike.  By then I had had enough of traveling and did not fancy the 2000 km trip back up to Delhi where I could have sold the bike without too much trouble (from the start Inder Motors had offered to by it back from me).  I also did not really have enough time to fit that trip in before flying home.  I put word around in Colva that the bike was for sale and had quite a bit of interest, but when it came to the crunch, no one was prepared to take the risk of not being able to transfer the Delhi registration to Goa.  In order to transfer a registration from one state to another you need what is known as a No Objection Certificate (NOC) from the current Registration Authority.  I could have got this with the help of Inder Motors in Delhi (for a fee of 1550 Rs) but it would have taken 15 - 30 days and I didn't have the time.  No potential buyer was prepared to take the chance that Inder Motors would be as co-operative in the matter as I knew they would be.  At one point I thought I had a buyer who was from Delhi and intended to ship the bike back up there himself.  For him it would have been a bargain price at 38,000 Rs.  He said himself that the bike would be worth 45,000 Rs in Delhi. But he failed to come up with the cash within a few days of my departure.  I felt that, knowing I had to depart, he was stalling me so as to put me in the position of desperation,  so I backed out and made arrangements to store the bike in Goa.  Even if he had honoured the deal, I would by then not have had enough time to get the Rupees changed into a hard currency.  This meant I had to return the following year when after 5 weeks I managed to sell the bike in Goa to another westerner without having either to get an NOC or to take it back up to Delhi.  The best time to sell is in early November at the beginning of the tourist season.

A point you should bear in mind with regard to selling a bike is that you cannot legally take Indian currency out of the country and you can only officially change Indian currency back to hard currency at your point of departure, i.e. the airport, after you have checked in.  Here the banks mainly deal with tourist's relatively small amounts of surplus cash and you may find yourself in a Catch 22 situation.  I heard an apocryphal story of someone who had tried to change a large amount of Indian currency at the airport but the banks there claimed they did not have sufficient foreign currency available to change that amount.  By then it was too late. He was not allowed to leave the airport after check in and the authorities knew he had the cash.  He apparently made an arrangement with a woman on the same fight for her to take the money onto the plane for him and she apparently absconded with the cash at the other end.  If you are able to sell to another foreigner you may be able to do so for a hard currency Kevin Gilmartin.