[Keef Sparrow]

most 125 bikes these days are faster than the bullet many can hit 70 mph.

My old Honda CB125T-2 was good for 80 back in 1979. One motorcycle magazine got 83MPH from one through timing lights so it wasn't just an optimistic speedometer. As others have observed, I think a 500 is a bit much for someone with zero motorcycle experience - the Bullet may not be fast or powerful, but it is very heavy.

[bj]

A hearty second / +1 to Boxerman! We had quite a few retirees from the Utility take up motorcycling in their late 60's. There are a lot of learned responses that keep you alive on the public roadways. Your machine handling responses need to be second nature. You are literally starting out on the "Double Diamond" slopes. The excellent Honda 250 Rebel & Yamaha XV250 are user friendly urban learning platforms that are perfectly capable of long distances as well, if you are.
The sad syndrome of a new Retiree squashed in traffic 90 days after getting the "Electra Glide" starter bike happened several times. Hubris won't help in traffic like trained survival reflexes and a maneuverable, lightweight motorcycle.

Re: Boxerman; Reply #13: Quote - My home contents policy will not cover cars, vans, motorcycles or mopeds. My pushbike and Ebike are covered, but I had to ask for them to be added.

To be brutally honest BJ, If I was an insurance company, I would not go near you with a barge pole. No offence meant, but you have, by your own admission, no experience whatsoever on a motorcycle and want to start on a 500cc machine. Although the Bullet is not a particularly fast or powerful bike, it is certainly fast and powerful enough to do you and others a lot of damage.

Why not buy a cheap second hand 125 and get a bit of two wheeled experience in first?

[/size]

Not a great start to my new venture. I am clearly out on a limb on a number of issues now. Looks like I am going to be a lonely Royal Enfield rider.

In my defence with regards to choosing a RE 500 as my first bike. I did indeed initially assume that I would start on a 125 or similar. However, having spoke to various motorcyclists, training schools and campaigners for safer riding I have chosen a different route than most.

The majority of new riders start by taking a one day CBT course and buy a 125cc. As it appears to be brutal on this forum, then the general impression I got was that the CBT is woefully inadequate as an introduction to riding. The following is not my interpretation, as I have never been on a CBT course, it is simply what many say or at least think: CBT is course you have to attend (no test), that shows you which end of a bike is front, which is back, then heads you off into town for two hours at 30mph. At the end of the course you can set off on a 125cc, which is just as capable, or more so, than a RE500 as some of you have openly acknowledged. Learners then can spend two years 'learning from their mistakes', in some cases fatally to themselves and innocent bystanders.

The alternative route that I have chosen is to take an intensive residential course based at a racing circuit. No 125cc's here, it is at least 3 days learning how to ride a motorbike starting on day one with a minimum of 100bhp, controlling the bike at all speeds up to 70mph in a variety of difficult bends and conditions to be expected on the road. Training is to very much higher standard than is required by DVLA. Only then, assuming we are competent, do we get let loose on the general public, taking another three full days before even being considered for a test. The organisers prefer seasoned car drivers, that are new to biking with no bad habits, as they tend to respond best to the course. My RE500 will feel somewhat tame in comparison, but hopefully i will have been taught to a much safer standard than many, dare I even say than seasoned riders. Ouch! That really has barred me from any sympathy or fellow RE riders now.

I have not been able to take a course earlier because COVID has closed all the theory test centres. In the meantime, RE500 classic has been discontinued, only a few new left, and since it is the bike that I want, I chose to buy one while I could. Confused as to why numerous posters here are saying a RE500 is not suitable as a first bike. Up until I started this post my impression from reports, forums and social media was that it is an ideal first bike. Can't win. I have nailed my flag to the pole and have to run with it.


Awaiting those proverbial bullets to fly my way!

And this has highjacked my original post!

[Boxerman]

OK! fair enough, I've only been riding since I was around 16, but you obviously know far more about it than I do.

Frank

[Nitrowing]

bj - a Bullet is fine as a starter bike. It's for pootling around on and wasting time in general - polishing, twiddling and chatting to other owners. Yours should (being brand new) keep you pottering around for years.
Intensive courses can be very good, certainly much better than learning from mistakes!
A 125 is a complete waste of money, their 2nd hand value is nothing.

[AzCal Retred]

The track isn't the street. The street is ruled by random traction and drivers governed by their "chicken brain" ( Chik'n Brane / CB ), for lack of a more technical term. The Chik'n Brane tells them they don't have to see anything smaller than themselves. The CB means folks randomly turn left into you or just push you into the curb. The CB means that when you're stopped at a light, they driver approaching from behind may not care that you occupy the last 20 feet of tarmac before the crosswalk, punting you into the intersection. The rule is head on a swivel 100% of the time in town, maybe only 80% on the open road. The foremost road course racer in the world died in his Land Rover SD1 getting t-boned at an intersection. On your bike you can't withstand any physical  interaction with traffic, so you plan ahead & don't let it happen. A small, light bike is more maneuverable, takes up less room, is less physically demanding to wrestle around in a hurry and is maybe more disposable than a larger machine. I knew one ijit that threw himself under his Honda 750 chopper so it wouldn't scratch the chrome...!?! Defensive driving can be learned at 25 - 40 mph. A more powerful machine accelerates harder but is generally less nimble.
Another unpleasant reality is that vision, hearing, physical strength & reflexes at 65 aren't of the same scalded cat-like quality that they were at 25. Older riders survive because they are wiley and avoid many incipient accident scenarios.
So I'm not saying a road race course won't help, but you will be tumbling across the asphalt if you are trying to keep up with the young lions at 10/10ths. There are good lessons to be learned there - but at your own speed.
A MSF course or the like gives you a leg up on the "ride to survive" technique. A $1000 used beater CB250 is still worth $895 after you add a few scrapes to it, and is a helluva lot easier to pick up when you lowside on some anti-freeze in the middle of an intersection whilst performing a left turn.
Do what you think is right, but learning a new skill set is easier on a light machine.
If you are going to have a heavy bike, it might as well have some beans. Personally if I was spending $5500 I'd get an Interceptor, 45 HP in a 450 pound machine is better that 28 HP in a 410 pound machine when you really need to accelerate out of a tight spot.

[Karl Fenn]

God glad l'm a well seasoned 5 decade rider must have had Lady Luck on my shoulder all these years, but we all must agree he does not have to justify himself to anyone, he's doing what he wants to do, rather than what anyone suggests, he has to be saluted for that anyway he will have some fun on his course, but l dred what the cost is. There's a name they use for these circumstances , l think they call it late mid life crisis

[Karl Fenn]

Yes Kieth l remember the 125 l had the GT Suzuki a blue one l was looking for it on the web today but could not find it, produced a genuine 80 mph, that was my real start of a very long journey of road biking and bikes, at that time l had no idea l would one day be riding 1150s but had a tinge feeling in me guts, good god l had so many bikes between then and now l could fill a large shop.

[Richard230]

Here is a photo of my 1969 Garelli 125 that I bought new from a local shop for $275. It had a top speed of 60 mph and was not nearly as fast at the Honda Super 90 of the time. I put 1500 miles on the Garelli  in a year and then traded it in on a 1969 350cc Yamaha YR2-C "scrambler".

[Bilgemaster]

In contrast to some here, I believe a Bullet would be a perfectly fine and sensible first bike. More sensible than mine, anyhow, which was an ex-police Norton 750 Commando "Interpol". I was still fine with it, but in contrast my Bullet's like an easy old Schwinn balloon tire bike of yore. It's not THAT heavy, and carries its weight nicely down low. And even "bj's" fancy newer one is not so powerful or even fast that it'll get even a novice rider into trouble if they're reasonably sensible, which it sounds like our man "bj" certainly is.

One main reason cheap smaller capacity used bare-bike "beaters" have been the time-honored smart  choice for new riders, all legalities aside, is that apart from their low cost, you can drop 'em. I'm not talking about going over the high side on The Devil's Backbone chasing the ton. I'm talking about in the Tesco parking lot getting it up onto its stand, or that slow turn into your girlfriend's driveway (while she looks on bemusedly, naturally), before you've really internalized that the trinity of "slow" and "turn" and "front brake" should be viewed in much the same light as "undergarment" and "insert" and "scorpion." You'll likely drop that first bike...a lot. With the right bike you'll easily get it up again without staring at a huge repair bill. Sure, a broken lever here, a bent footpeg or shift lever there, but not a thousand or three in plastic cowling or other repairs. A whack to bend back something here, a new lever there, and you'll be back on your merry way.

So, while I both concur with and couldn't presume to berate or question "bj" about his choice of "first bike" anyhow, given my own past lapses in judgment in that very regard, I would strongly urge him to get some good sturdy engine guards mounted to that Bullet by the dealer BEFORE he takes delivery of it. And get a spare pair of clutch and brake levers while you're at it. Just do it, man. You'll thank me later. I guarantee it.

[Karl Fenn]

Yea l remember the Garelli by brother had one in about 78 called the tiger, it had a chrome barrel as l recall yellow and black, l think it gave bore trouble from time to time, l never realised they made a 125, all though slow compared to the jap competition.

[AzCal Retred]

Bilgemaster - who is the young sprout making those excellent riding videos you are so fond of? Any useful links for bj? It'd be time well spent.

bj - going from zero to 100 BHP can be a savage learning experience. You are talking machines that do 6 second quarter miles and have a top end of maybe 120 MPH, something only a handful of cars can do. The only thing keeping you alive on two wheels is your wits and a bit of luck. Collecting a blackbird in the chest at 100 MPH is a real learning experience. A dog darting across the road in front of you at 60 can be fatal. Bikes are like aircraft, in that job #1 is "fly the aircraft/ride the bike" as you can't step off and examine the problem. Developing proper reflex responses and behaviors can save you. I saw a dresser Harley rider upside down in a freeway divider ditch just south of Tehachapi, lots of emergency vehicles around. It was a nice day & he had his jacket open, rode through a swarm of bees, apparently the same ones I had just used my windshield wipers on. Most likely bee slapping took precedence over riding and things had went sky-ground. The ambulance drove off with no siren. Tiger Woods just proved that even a rental Hyundai will keep you alive in a tumble. You made it 65 years, you are probably not short of cash as you are looking at road-race schools, ease into this hobby. A spare used $1000 250cc disposable learner bike won't break the bank. Sell it or give it to the grandkids or neighbor when you're done. As Bilgemaster says, use it to get the scuff marks out of your system - everyone has them. A few hours spent in an empty parking lot practicing smooth starting, then feet-up stopping with clutch-in, some tight figure-8-ing, stopping with only the front brake, learning the foot gear change/hand clutch dance in a straight line without looking, and general tootling about the neighborhood at 20-30 MPH is time well spent. Your brand-new shiny UCE will thank you for it. You'll have a better frame of reference when you get to real training. Get a good full face helmet, gloves and jacket with spine armour - dress for the crash. If it doesn't happen, that's a good thing. If it does, you maximized your chances of walking away relatively unscathed. There is no reason to rush this process. At our age we don't bounce so good no more...

[Bilgemaster]

What "AzCal Retred" said, except to point out that yonder in "bj's" homeland, where "toad in the hole" is a good  thing to eat, the engine size limitation for learner-riders is now 125cc, and hasn't been 250cc since my youth. As for the rest of the current UK motorcycle rider licencing scheme, it used to be simple until the '80s: up to 250cc for a learner's first year or so (with no passengers and a big red "L" plate on the bike), take the test, pass it, and then ride whatever you like. Simple. Now when I've tried to understand the new rules my eyes soon just glaze over, and I wander off to do something more productive, like clean the crumbs out of the toaster or sort bits of string. I got up to §LXVIII once, but couldn't find my sliderule for the furlongs-to-kilonewtons conversions, so still don't really know what I can ride. Guess I'll just wear a face mask and run from the cops. That always seems to work a charm yonder. Only the law abiding get pinched, it seems. Sort of the moral of this whole thread.

Regarding learning to ride well, while ANY practice is good, at a track, in a parking lot...wherever. I've always been led to understand that the off-roading "trials" path was the best bet for gaining real "sense memory" likeliest to keep one alive in the real world. I never did much of it myself, but most of your really great riders back in the day came up via that old Cursus Honorum ("Path of Honor"...an ancient Roman' s traditional career of public and political progress) of first Trials, then Clubman road racing, and only then the big time TT or GP events. It makes sense to me: learning to deal instinctively with gravel and slippery or uneven surfaces would necessarily prepare one better for real world hijinks than some swept and manicured track. And who are you kidding, "bj"? You're gonna be on an Enfield Bullet, not Agostini's old MV Agusta. And you know where Enfield Bullets actually first made their name? In the dirt. See this: https://www.google.com/amp/s/speedtracktales.com/2013/12/20/internationally-famous-royal-enfield-at-the-isdt-1948-1953/amp/

So, by all means, go haul ass around a track, but also try to find those guys with the muddy goggles. The skills learned with them are even likelier to keep you alive on the High Street.

As far as those great ride videos 'AZCal Retred' mentioned, with a dash of superb mechanical insights, just to pass the time, you could do worse than check out our own "Bullet Whisperer" Paul Henshaw's back catalog at https://youtube.com/c/PaulHenshaw. That's a most wonderous procession of fine iron he's fettling and then flogging around those Welsh country lanes like a madman.

[Nitrowing]

Again, AzCal makes some very astute points.
Have you got all your 'gear'?
Lid, gloves, jacket, boots & pants?
Decent gear can easily empty the wallet 
'Ride' magazine used to be pretty much the bible for choosing kit (not sure now as it's been over a decade since I bought any magazines) and they used to test stuff to destruction.
I'm not going to state that proper gear is going to save your ass but it's much less likely to disintegrate when something goes wrong.

[Richard230]

Yea l remember the Garelli by brother had one in about 78 called the tiger, it had a chrome barrel as l recall yellow and black, l think it gave bore trouble from time to time, l never realised they made a 125, all though slow compared to the jap competition.

Here are two pages from the 1969 Garelli brochure. I bet this is a collector's item. 

[Karl Fenn]

Well a full face l would never wear if you put on full face take it off then fit an open you will see just how much field of vision you loose, that field of vision is essential the way cars cut junctions l want to see the road not the inside of a full face crash helmet.