Thursday, February 24, 2011

Great gas mileage isn't why we buy Royal Enfields

Is this the reason you should buy a Royal Enfield?
Rick Fairless' Strokers Dallas is certainly one of America's most colorful Royal Enfield dealerships. How many other Royal Enfield dealerships have had their own reality TV show?

Want further proof: check out the multiple links to biker babes and bikini contests on Strokers' website.

You might ask what a nice Victorian girl like Royal Enfield is doing here in Texas amid the chicks, choppers and tattoos. But Strokers has a practical side, too, and their latest posting is devoted to — what??? — gasoline mileage!

"Gas prices got you down?" Strokers asks. "Some of our new and used motorcycles average 40 mpg, and the Royal Enfields average up to 70 mpg! I bet you can see those dollar signs adding up in your head as you compare these numbers to the average on your car or truck!"

No. I can not.

Readers in India may not understand it, but gasoline mileage is not the reason Americans buy motorcycles. Scooters, maybe. But Americans buy motorcycles:

1. To go fast.
2. To look hot.
3. To make noise.
4. Because they like motorcycles, and,
5. To get someplace.

Reasons No. 1 and 2 don't apply so much to Royal Enfield, but the rest do. Only reason No. 5 invites gasoline mileage into the equation, and then only for commuters.

Non-commuters in America would typically boast to fellow riders that "(I'm so bad) I burned two tanks of gas just getting here!"

As a former commuter, I appreciated the distance my Bullet carried me between gas stations. But out of all the times people leaned out of their cars to ask me about my Royal Enfield, not one yelled "Hey! Want kinda mileage you get on that thing?"

Sorry, Strokers. Gasoline mileage is just not a turn-on for American motorcyclists. Let's get back to those babes.

4 comments:

  1. Hit the nail on the head... we dont buy em here either for their milage

    ReplyDelete
  2. Bob Slovey2/24/2011

    I remember the days when a moto-journalist actually tested the bikes he wrote about. Have you noticed they don't do that anymore? Are they getting lazy, or what? I guess it's just easier to trust the Manufacturer spec's. After all, they wouldn't lie. Would they?

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  3. Efficient for us indians is somewhere in the range of 200/g, unfortunately bullet does not make it to our list.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Anonymous2/25/2011

    I do agree that most Americans seeking more efficient (read: cheaper) transport would turn to scooters. Notice that I said most because there will certainly be those who instead will opt for a motorcycle. And so, it seems perfectly reasonable, and probably also good business-sense, to proffer a bike as a way to reduce gasoline expenditures.

    Al in Philadelphia

    ReplyDelete

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