Hello all, I'm a new Enfield owner, and a new rider as well. I got my license last Feb, started looking for bikes, and when I found Royal Enfield I knew my search was over. Even better, for the first time, they were going to be street legal (new) in California. I found the closest dealer and put down a deposit in late May, being told they would be arriving in a week or two. I guess that wasn't quite accurate...
Finally today I picked up my bike (they just arrived in CA this month), having not ridden at all since doing my MSF course in Feb, and beyond that my riding experience amounted to a few trips on small bikes in various parts of Asia a few years ago (which shifted without a clutch). Needless to say, I'm pretty green. And unfortunately, the only route back to my house is a high traffic 4 lane road, for about 25 miles. I was already nervous about the ride home (probably psyched myself out a bit), and unfortunately I didn't make it without incident. About 5 miles in, trying to get my first real hill start, I popped the clutch out too fast and the bike came out from under me and went down on the right side.
I'm fine, of course my pride suffered the worst, but mistakes are how you learn right? Fortunately I had my friend who'd given me a ride to the dealer driving behind me, and he directed traffic while I got the bike up and to the side of the road. After stopping for about 10 minutes so the shakes would wear off, I got back on, and got home without another problem. Even took it out again a few hours later for a short 10 mile ride just to get back in the saddle, so to speak.
The bike took some damage though (not even 50 miles in
). Some of it I'm willing to live with (look at it for a reminder to control that clutch more!), but I thought I'd post it here to hear thoughts and if there is anything beyond what I've noticed that I should consider:
1) Handlebars are out of alignment, the right side comes back towards me more than the left. Not sure if they are bent or just misaligned, it looks like there is a pressure plate that holds them to the front forks and the bar is definitely off-center to the right now. Could be both, thinking of trying to loosen the pressure plate and see if I can realign them. Looks like there are 2 bolts on top and two below, thinking I just need to loosen them a bit, try moving the bar back, and tighten it back down?
If that doesn't work I guess I gotta take it back to the dealer and get the bar replaced, which I gather is a cheap part and expensive labor...that aside, would there be any problem with me riding with the bars out of whack for a while before taking it in? I kind of want to get more comfortable on the bike before making that ride again.
2) Right foot peg is bent back quite a bit. Honestly this is mostly cosmetic I feel, I can ride fine with it where it is, but it definitely looks jacked. Looks like its just connected by a single bolt, could I just pull it off and either a) try and bend it back somehow or b) easily replace it myself?
3) Front headlight housing has a large dent on it. The light still works fine and doesn't look to be damaged, thinking the housing is probably an easy part to replace?
4) Gas tank has a small dent and also a separate chip in the paint. Unless there's a reason to fix this I'll probably just leave it, maybe put some touchup paint on the chip to avoid rust.
5) Front fender has some scuffing, probably just gonna leave it for now
6) There is a slight scuff on the right front fork. The bike seems to ride fine and straight at low and high speeds, so guessing this is probably just cosmetic?
Nothing seems to be leaking and the bike rides the same as when I took it off the lot, that is good news at least.
So quite an eventful first ride! But I still look forward to riding more. I think getting the handlebars straight again, getting the foot peg back straight, and replacing the headlight housing (that dent is pretty glaring and embarrassing) are my only priorities right now, the rest I'll chalk up to learning and character that makes the bike mine. Just glad my first spill wasn't that bad honestly.
If I should be checking anything else please let me know, hoping to have this all sorted fairly soon so I can enjoy riding without worry!
And if you made it this far, thanks for reading!
Greg