Read before you repair a Royal Enfield

It's Saturday morning and, if I plan to wave a wrench in the direction of my Royal Enfield Bullet, the first thing I do after brewing coffee is to fire up the computer and get "The Pete Snidal Royal Enfield Bullet Owners and Workshop Manual" on the screen. I print out the relevant pages and head for the garage.

My early edition manual is perfect for my early 1999 Bullet. Checking Pete's website, though, I see that the current edition covers every kind of Bullet you can buy in America.

"If It's An Enfield Bullet, It's Covered," Pete promises. Full price for the full manual on CD in the U.S. right now appears to be $31.95 plus $1 postage and you can pay by PayPal or check. You can buy a book version of the manual for $54.95 plus $8 postage.

Note that Pete has written the manual in a way non-mechanics like myself can understand, and it functions as an owners manual as well as a workshop companion. He writes:

"Although --everyone -- doesn't have to be a mechanic, just because they ride a classy 'old' motorcycle (there's no disgrace in taking your ride into a shop to have things done; I always wished I could afford it myself!), even if you live close to a good shop, and can afford to have your machine worked on, it's still nice to know what's going on in there … inside your engine on a dark lonely road."