Part Two
Josh Moore returned from his travels in the Sahara determined to buy a motorcycle to ride at home in Kansas. He was drawn to the Triumph Scrambler but something stopped him. If you've looked at his personal blog, you know it has an "Indiana Jones" theme and he has the experiences to justify that. Moore liked the appeal of heroic times. He explains:
"I've always been a man obsessed with most things vintage and retro. My girlfriend Jasmine and others have sometimes referred to me as a 'man out of time' -- and I tend to think that I should've been born 50 to 100 years earlier. I'm stuck in a past that, for me, never even existed, and feel such a nostalgia for an era that I never knew.
"The price tag on the Scrambler was my only hesitation. I decided to keep looking around. No choice could've been better made. Whenever I ran across the Royal Enfield online I was instantly in love. I informed everybody I knew that I would be buying a Bullet ASAP.
"It was also no contest which bike I would buy: the Military model pulled every string inside of me that was tethered to my love for vintage and military-esque items. It's hard to even put into words how giddy I felt when I first laid eyes on it. I knew it would be mine.
"I did some research and found out about the fabled 'constant maintenance and repairs' that these bikes demanded from their owners. As a young kid with absolutely ZERO mechanical experience, I was a little concerned (to say the least). I never knew how to change the oil on my car. I tended to ALWAYS neglect taking care of it -- never washed it, wouldn't change the oil until I was about 3,000 miles afterthe 3,000 mile oil-change mark, never worried about new tires, etc. I was a bad owner. This made me a little worried about how I would fare with the Enfield Bullet.
"I loved the idea that this was a bike you could tinker with and work on while on the side of the road, if you had to. I loved the idea that this was a bike that would probably run forever if you treated it right. Slowly, I began to fall in love with the idea of learning to become a mechanic, learning to treat the bike as, essentially, an extension of myself and taking care of it. I took the dive and 'bought the Bullet'."
Next: So how does he like his new Bullet?
Josh, Did your bike come with the stenciled star motif or was it something you added yourself?
ReplyDeleteanonymous: I added the star decal myself. There is a really great seller on eBay who sells sheets of these star decals both for restoring WWII military motorcycles, as well as for restoring WWII military jeeps. They're pretty cheap, and the seller is generous enough to throw in extra stars for free if you need. Just search for "military motorcycle decals" and you'll find them.
ReplyDelete