3 міс тому
People ask me why I don't upgrade to a bigger bike. Something with more power, more tech, ABS and traction control and riding modes and whatever else they're putting on motorcycles these days. I just smile and pat the tank of my Classic 350 and say nothing. Some things you don't explain. You either get it or you don't.
See, the thing about a Royal Enfield is that it forces you to slow down. Not because it can't go fast - well, okay, partly because of that - but because the whole experience is built around taking your time. The engine doesn't like being rushed. The gearbox rewards smooth, deliberate shifts. The suspension wants you to read the road, not blast over it. It's the two-wheeled equivalent of your grandfather telling you to sit down, have chai, what's the hurry.
Last Sunday I rode from Pune to Tamhini Ghat. Seventy kilometres, took me three hours. Stopped at every tapri that looked interesting, talked to a farmer about his sugarcane, watched a group of kids playing cricket on the road with a tennis ball who all stopped to stare at the bike like it was a spaceship. The Classic does that - it attracts people who remember a simpler time, or wish they'd been part of it. My mechanic Raju says this bike has soul. He charges me two hundred rupees for a full service and throws in life advice for free. I think he might be the wisest man in Maharashtra.