[Boots]

Due to excessive heat today, I find myself trolling through the Forum for topics that apply to my riding experience. You've got to be with your Bullet, at least virtually.

Anyway, I always look into threads that are tagged with B5 and have noticed a lot of issues with that model. Hell, we all complain here and conversely learn from one another's mistakes and discoveries. There is the tank badge issue started by Mattsz and later with Gremiln. There is the front fork rub marks. The list goes on. My own bike has slightly off pinstripes on the tank which at first drove me crazy! Also, the gold embossed Royal Enfield logo on the back of my seat is heavily left adjusted, cat-e-whomp -ass to say the least. There are other issues as well.

When I discovered that the B in B5 stood for basic, I felt slighted. This entry level Bullet has perhaps less emphasis placed on the little quality details. May be.

But, I love this bike like nothing I've ever ridden before. All my other bikes were pretty cool in their own way, but this little Bullet has personality, charm, a true thump... and many little cosmetic bugaboos. It's made by hand that are subject to occasional error, just like all the rest of us.

Do yourself a favor and get all the little things fixed under your warranty while you have it. I have been for anything I consider major... a left side foot rubber that jumped off the bike and ran away one day... a right hand side metal side panel that cracked and vibrates to beat the band. But I've chosen to live with my cosmetic blemishes, embrace them, much like the condition of my 48 year old face and body. Sure, I'd look a lot better twenty pounds lighter with a full head of hair and some sweet pinstriping (?) but my thump is what really counts. And I can still thump with the best of them.

Long Live the Bullet!

[Portland Bullet]

I'll make this brief and to the point, being a fellow B5 owner. Amen!

[barenekd]

I don't think the B5 has any niggling things that the others don't have! Where did the "Basic" come from? the B5 is actually the original frame that the Indians got the tooling for when they got the contract to build the bike. It is actually the most original of all the models. That was the one I wanted when I bought mine, but the dealers didn't have that one in yet. About 3 weeks after I got my G5, the B5s showed up!
Bare

[Boots]

You know Bare...

C for Classic
G for Groovy
B for Basic?

[barenekd]

Maybe that as B for "Best"
Bare

[Royalista]

E for Elementary, dear Watson 

[wildbill]

i don't think it has any drama when compared to the c5 and the high speed wobbles  at plagued some.

now as for the "b"  i think it stands for blast! and what a ride

[Boots]

Best? Blast?

I'll take that.

[wildbill]

 it's looking right at you!
"B" is for boots. so call it the boots special.

[hillntx]

the B5 is actually the original frame that the Indians got the tooling for when they got the contract to build the bike. It is actually the most original of all the models.

I've heard this as well, but looking at a 1955 Bullet 350 the styling looks more like my C5 with a bench seat. 

[JVS]

I've heard this as well, but looking at a 1955 Bullet 350 the styling looks more like my C5 with a bench seat. 

It's just the colour!   



Haha, all other Enfield Bullets are little brothers and sisters of the B5. Just sayin'. Either way, any Enfield is great+awesome. As Bob Harris says, 'Enfield people are good people'.

[hillntx]

Actually they're little brothers and sisters of the G2, even the B5.

[JVS]

True true! But it resembles the modern B5/old indian domestic Bullet so much, that I'm just going to call it a B5 ! lol

Hitchcock's 1950s kit, almost a C5? -

[hillntx]

There's no denying the C5 is a "new" configuration, but for the sake of discussion let's compare and see which looks like the step child:

G2


C5


B5


I think the B stands for Boxy rear fender.

[JVS]

That "G2" surely resembles the C5. In this case the "G2" has a similar RH toolbox as the C5s. All other G2 pictures I've seen, the RH air filter resembles that of the traditional Bullet model. Some owners retro-fit newer parts on their models and vice-versa. I would still choose the B5 as the original Bullet. Just my opinion. No denying 50 years + domestic model.