New Bike Time

Some time ago (well, 3 years) in a land far away (well, England) I made a wise decision to buy a new Royal Enfield Classic 350. I had fallen in love with these very wonderful bikes as soon as they first started importing them to the UK and was smitten the minute I sat on one. Eventually, I took the plunge and bought my first ever new bike in 2023. We did about 2000 miles together over 6 months, touring Belgium, the Lake District and Snowdonia. Every mile put a smile on my face. I had found my perfect bike.

Fast forward a few months. My relationship had broken down; I was living in a caravan and the new home I found to start my new life in had a tiny access to the back of the house that I just couldn't fit the Classic down. Sadly, I came to the conclusion that I'd have to move her on.

Fast forward another year and a bit. I have had fun using my 1962 Crusader 250 to tour on (in a limited fashion) but I'm really missing the joy of jumping on a new bike and knowing that reliability probably isn't an issue. My Crusader has never let me down to be honest, but there is always that anxiety lurking when you ride an old bike for a long distance.

For unrelated reasons, I needed to hire a storage container locally, and it struck me like a lightning bolt that I could keep a Classic 350 in it as well 😀😀😀

I also came to a realisation recently that bike restorations have been my "escape" to a happy place when relationships turn sour. Now that I am always in a happy place, the restorations have no particular appeal and so I decided that I could move the Crusader 250 along to a new home, as well as the Moto Guzzi 500 project, and put the money into a new bike instead. Just the small matter of sorting out a couple of outstanding maintenance issues on the Crusader and finishing the Guzzi before Spring then.....

Of course, being me, I couldn't resist some "market research" just so I'd know what was right when it came along. My heart was telling me that I needed a red and chrome model, because they just look SO beautiful and classic. They could literally have walked straight out of the 50's or 60's. But my head was telling me that the "Halcyon" models with painted tanks and mudguards are far more practical in terms of cleaning and polishing. And I really liked the look of either the Black/Red or Green/Black versions.

Anyway, after a month or so of quietly getting to understand where the market was, this morning a little peach (I hope!) was advertised on EBay. Halcyon Green; 2022 model; just under 3000 miles; some very useful extras (bar end mirrors, heated grips, heel and toe gear lever & rack). Otherwise she's totally standard and with full complement of service history, keys, tools etc. I found that my previous bike was just starting to loosen up at 2000 miles so was happy with 3000 miles. The best bit was that she was priced at about £6-700 (about 20%) less than all the other similar age/mileage bikes. Why? She has been a Cat N write off. i.e. 

" ‘non-structural damage’ to the body or chassis. This means the core safety structure of the vehicle has not been damaged but the insurer has deemed the vehicle beyond an economical repair."

I've always shied away from this in the past, but decided to investigate a bit more. The owner was a lovely guy and it appears that the bike fell over, damaging minor things like clutch lever, gear lever, headlight rim, mirror and putting a dent in the mudguard. Replacing that lot was deemed to be beyond an economical repair, so it was written off and sold to a salvage company. The next owner bought it and replaced all of the damaged bits except the mudguard, which still has a dent in it. That's it. But it's now tarred with a Cat N brush which affects it's value. 

To cut a long story short, I decided that it was so cheap that I didn't care if it had the Cat N stigma; made a lower offer and we settled on a very reasonable amount (less than £2000!). I can't believe what good value it is. If the dent in the mudguard bothers me, I can buy a genuine new one, painted in the correct colour, for less than £70! So here she is:

A bad point is that she currently lives in Cornwall, nearly 400 miles away. However, by coincidence, Louis (of 2025 Manx GP Adventure fame!) lives 3 minutes drive away and he is conveniently bringing another bike up to the Midlands sometime soon in his van, so can drop it at Rob's place. Then I can collect it from there when there is a decent weather window. How lucky is that!?

I did look at getting the train down and riding her back, and I would really prefer that, but the weather forecast for the next couple of weeks is shocking, so I think I'll probably go with the delivery option. It will still be a nice long first ride back from Rob's once the weather is better.

Immediate future plans? Well, nothing till one of the other bikes is sold, but then I'm not a big fan of the brown seats so will probably change them for black Royal Enfield "touring seats" - like most RE accessories they are very reasonably priced at about £65 each and have very good reviews. Plus they look nice with quilted bands on them :-) And then I'll probably get some of the pannier racks and canvas panniers that I had on the other one - the panniers aren't the most secure or practical things in the world but they just look gorgeous!!

So now the long wait begins......

UPDATE 28/1/26: Louis has checked the bike over and it's all as stated, so it's moving to his place for now till he can do the delivery to Rob's 😃 His quote: "Youre gonna be happy with this."!

A Return to the Manx Grand Prix

After the Royal Enfield Owners Club Rally, the next big adventure was a return to the Isle of Man for the resurrected Classic TT. I took the Crusader there in 2023 when she had about 300 miles on her after the rebuild and she behaved impeccably so I had no real fears this time, although I guess I was a little anxious about the oil consumption issue that had become worse on the last journey. 

So now with a little over 1000 miles on the clock post-rebuild we set off from Anglesey, initially heading across to Dee's in Wirral before continuing on a couple of days later to Liverpool and the new ferry terminal.

We took things slow and steady along the A55 taking in the gorgeous coastal views  along this route, breaking the journey at Bodelwyddan Services for a coffee and a cheeky Greggs pastie!

A couple of days later, we set off nice and early to rendezvous with Rob and his mate Louis coming up from Tamworth. Although I got to the meeting point in good time, Rob and Louis were somewhat "punctuality challenged" - we rolled into the check-in just as it was closing and were last bikes on board 🤨. Just to compound things, an over-zealous security guy stole my (fortunately only half full) camping gas canister.

Anyway, all was well and after a super smooth crossing, we made our way up to Peel Camping Ground and had the tents up before you could blink! 

It was the first time that Rob and I had been back there since the "Tempest of 2012"! We learned our lesson from that and pitched tents in the shelter of a big hedge on the boundary to shelter us from the winds that can whistle down the valley.

The following day was a race and practice day. We watched some practice from Ramsey and then made our way around the island via Ice Creams at Laxey to Creg ny Baa to watch the race. 

Apparently, I did an impression of melting in the sun while having 40 winks at Laxey!

The following day we took a ride out to the Calf of Mann and had an excellent lunch while watching the motorcycling world go by in the sun. 

We headed in to Douglas and then decided to go our own ways to do a customary lap of the circuit. The poor Crusader was struggling up the steepest parts in 2nd gear and I felt like I was being very mean! But we took a breather at Windy Corner, where the views across the mountains in the sunshine were simply stupendous.

Most of the racing on Wednesday was postponed due to bad weather on the course but we did manage to see a bit in the evening session. We headed back to Shearer's Wall at Braddan only to find that there was a housing development blocking access. How very rude - me and my family have been watching there for years. Hopefully it will be accessible again once construction is finished. So we headed just a little further around to Braddan Old Kirk for the lightweight Classic race and then to Braddan Church for the Sidecar parade.

Thursday started off a bit wet so we chilled in tents reading and drinking coffee, then headed out later in the day to the Manx Motor Museum at Jurby. I've been there a few times now but there's always something new and interesting to see. This time it was Rob being squeezed into and out of a Bonneville Land Speed Record car!

Suddenly it was Friday and our last day. Tents were packed away; not a trace was left and we headed down into Douglas to enjoy ice creams and last minute shopping before trying to catch the Classic Senior race before we needed to check in for the ferry. Unfortunately, the weather had other ideas and it was postponed twice before ultimately being cancelled due to rain. A real shame as it was the one race that Louis really wanted to see - well really he just wanted to see the Norton Rotary on full chat down Bray Hill, but it was not to be.

What it did mean was that we only just made check in and were pretty much last on again!

So the lads headed back to the Midlands and I headed back to Wirral after what had been a really lovely break. We didn't watch much racing but we'd all agreed that wasn't really what we were there for - it was all about being on the Island with lots of other like minded people.

A couple of days later, I headed back for home again along the A55, dodging most of the showers but fighting gusty winds for the second half of the journey. This beautiful rainbow pretty much summed up how I felt about the whole week.

And so we arrived back on Anglesey, with more souvenirs on the flyscreen after just less than 500 miles. I am so impressed with how the Crusader has dealt with the last couple of weeks, clocking up almost 800 miles. She has now been "de-oiled", cleaned and put into hibernation for winter; with some well earned maintenance and improvements planned ready for more fun in 2026.

Royal Enfield Owners Club International Rally

The weekend of the International Rally finally arrived. This was to be the Crusader's longest journey yet at just about 160 miles each way and I was really looking forward to seeing how she dealt with it. I waited for an enormous rainstorm to pass before setting off - so much for the heatwave we'd been promised!

Mileage as we set off was showing just under 750 miles since the rebuild, so she's pretty well run in now and certainly will be by the time we get home.

I'd decided to try and do without the tank bag this time and took a small rucksack instead. This proved to be a bit of a mistake as the load was clearly now concentrated too far to the rear with the rack and top box, even though I'd tried to load the box fairly lightly. As I set off there was a very noticeable wobble from the bars, which fortunately stabilised as we built up some speed. But it never felt like a bit of a mini tank slapper was far from the story! I'll use the tank bag again next time to move some weight forwards.

We took a nice relaxed pace, doing around 45-50mph most of the time which seems to be her sweet spot. If we built up any traffic following, I just pulled over to let them pass and carried on; all very relaxing 😊

I stopped in Dolgellau, roughly half way, for some lunch. The oil hazing off the cylinder was noticeably worse each time I stopped, which was a minor concern.

We rolled onto the rally site at Baskerville Hall, just outside Hay-on-Wye, at around 5pm and after checking in, quickly set up camp. Total distance was 157 miles. 

When I checked the oil level it was just below minimum, which was a bit alarming! I've now realised she is leaking from the head gasket and possibly base as well. I managed to speak to a couple of the Crusader Gurus over the weekend and what I am experiencing seems to be very common. Most of the problem is the very marginal arrangement for clamping down the head around the pushrod tube. They gave me several tips to try and help her incontinence!! 

I think that she is probably running lean in the midrange as well - not much "pull" there compared to how I think it should be. That would also explain why she is running very hot and also the "blueing" of the exhaust header. So I think I need to raise the needle a notch in the carb to get more fuel through.

There were probably about half of the attendees there on the Thursday evening with the rest drifting in over Friday and Saturday.

I picked up the obligatory goodie bag with rally sticker and badge!

The Hall was pretty impressive, although inside looked like it had seen better days! It turned out to be a great setting for the rally though.

I loved this tree carving in the grounds.

On Friday morning, they had a thing where you could try an old bike. I had been really taken with this 1953 350 Bullet when I was walking around the site and was delighted to see it was one of the ones you could try. I don't know what it was about it that got under my skin - certainly wasn't pretty as it had been painted (everywhere!) a long time ago in silver hammerite and there wasn't a spot of polished chrome on it, but it just looked so RIGHT as my idea of a motorbike.

I managed to get a couple of spins around the estate roads on it and it was absoloutely gorgeous to ride. Felt right, sounded right, went right. I adored it and it was all I could do to not surf EBay afterwards trying to find one!!

Wandering around the site, I came across a couple of other interesting bikes. This 700cc Constellation (or "Connie" as he called it) is what I remember my Dad telling me was his last bike (with a sidecar).

And I just loved this 'bitsa V-Twin. Sounded great chuffing around the site and was very well used.

On the Saturday, I took out a couple of "new" Royal Enfield demonstrators for a guided ride of around 40 minutes each. First up was the Hunter 350, which had been the bike I was originally thinking of getting before I got taken in by the Classic 350. I'd never ridden one and absolutely loved it. It felt very much like a modern version of my Crusader - similar proportions and 17" wheels so very nimble handling. I couldn't get over how comfy it was.

Then in the afternoon there were some slots left to take out a 450 Himilayan, so I grabbed one of those. Can't say I particularly liked it really. It reminded me a lot of my Honda Transalp actually, but I think I've completely moved away from that type of bike.

In the afternoon, there was a bike show in front of the hall. I took my place amongst 170 or so others. 

Jacqui Furneaux was a very interesting woman, who took off at 50 and travelled through 20 countries over 7 years on a 500 Bullet. Obviously, I bought her book!

And so Sunday came around and it was time to head for home. I had a leisurely breakfast then packed up and headed for home.

I deliberately took it slightly easier on the way back, trying to cruise at 45. We took exactly the same journey and the average speed was pretty much exactly the same! Stopped halfway at a cafe for lunch but pretty much just sat it out for the 2 x 2hr stretches. That saddle definitely needs sorting! Oh, and we crossed 1000 miles just as we came past Dolgellau 😃so definitely run in now.

So, the total adventure was 314 miles at an average speed of 37 mph, which doesn't sound like much but is actually not very different from the Ireland and France tours that I did on the GPZ500.

The "touring mods" I'd made all worked well, apart from the afore-mentioned wobble at low speeds, but that was down to weight distribution and is easily fixed.

The tool bag is great and just holds the right amount of stuff neatly. The chain oiler worked well. The fly screen did (I think) make a small difference in the rain at the expense of creating a small amount of wind noise. Most importantly, it provided somewhere to put the rally sticker!!

Roll on the Classic TT adventure next weekend!!