Shotgun 650: The Insane Custom Dream

What is a new motorcycle doing in a place like this?

 The Australian moto-journalist thought it was strange. Royal Enfield introduced its shiny new Shotgun 650 model to the United States in Los Angeles in 2024, amid graffiti and urban blight. 

"Why LA? And why the grungy Downtown area?" he asked. Here's the answer he got: 

"Royal Enfield Chief of Design Mark Wells explained it was the ideal place to experience the Shotgun 650 in a range of environments, including what turned out to be sometimes messy urban riding, a loop through a run-down industrial precinct, a multi-lane freeway experience and a blast through canyon country on some fabulous twisty roads." 

And, besides, Los Angeles has a custom-bike scene and, according to Wells, the Shotgun 650 looked to those customs for inspiration. 

Compared to the rest of the Royal Enfield 650 lineup, the Shotgun looks hunky rather than sleek. 

It's a bobber, unafraid of grunge, tattoos, graffiti. It looks like breaking the law is its business.

Where, in this century, did she find a phone booth in Los Angeles?

The launch included a video of the Shotgun 650 racing in darkness, through a spray-can defaced tunnel and along the strictly off-limits concrete ditch of the dry Los Angeles River.

The video is a fantasy, with a sky of ball lighting and a phone booth — a phone booth! — in which an anxious looking young woman attempts to reach someone and fails.

She drops the phone, mounts her Shotgun 650 and competes for "Most Insane Velocity" with a male rider on another Shotgun.

Dawn in Los Angeles. Magically, there is no traffic in this direction.

The couple is joined by other Shotgunners, ending with six of them somehow now doing synchronized maneuvers in the desert.

That was two years ago. So I was surprised, recently, when the Internet served up that video as a commercial on my laptop.

Apparently, Royal Enfield wants you to know the Shotgun 650 hasn't dropped its wild ways.

The tagline is "Inspired by Custom, for Custom."

The one little thing everyone should do

 I feel foolish complaining about this: roadside litter. 

Wars, famines, disease and storms may rage around the world, and I complain about litter? 

In my defense, I note that few wrongs in the world would be easier to fix, at least in the United States, than roadside litter. 

We know who causes litter, don't we? 

And it's not motorcyclists. But motorcyclists seem somehow closer to the bad effects. 

We're watching the road, closely, because we're running on two wheels. Many things can damage your automobile, but your car falling on its side and crashing after hitting something small on the road is pretty unlikely. 

It's also pretty unlikely that you'll be pulled over if you toss that Big Gulp cup out the window. Enforcement is almost nonexistent, and you know it. 

You know you can get away with littering. So why not do it? 

I'll tell you why: because one less empty Big Gulp cup inside your car is not going to make it any neater than it would be if you just tossed the cup in the garbage when you get home. 

And, if you do that, kids won't see you throwing garbage out the window and think, somehow, that if YOU do it, they can too. 

The guilty parties can fix the problem at no special cost to themselves. It's simple:

Just don't throw stuff out the window! 

There. I fixed it. 

Problem with a Royal Enfield? It's simple

 Online motorcycle forums are great places to learn about vintage motorcycles, and get advice curing them of occasional ills. 

The owner of a 1970 Royal Enfield Series 2 Interceptor issued once such challenge recently to members on the REInterceptor forum. 

"I took it for a ride today and all is good... until I get to high RPMs. That's when it starts cutting out. The tank is clean and petcock filters are clear. Filters on the bottom of the carbs are clear. I have new plugs and coils. I have never replaced the coil to plug wires. Any other ideas?" Jim wrote. 

I was amused that almost the first response offered was the time honored suggestion for curing all Royal Enfield ills: 

"Check that the fuel tank cap vent is not plugged." 

If only life were so easy. It's worth checking, but I am pretty confident this is never the cause of problems. How would the vent have gotten plugged? 

More complex advice started coming fast.

Cutting out misfire. Typically a sign of lean mixture; what main jets are you running? What plugs are you running? What is high rpm?

"There are fake spark plugs that will not give a good spark at high rpm, so first thing, put your old plugs back in."

Has fuel changed to E10 in your neck of the woods? Is the fuel more than two months old?

Gas starvation? Did you fit new petcocks/gas taps? Are you turning on both taps?

Could you have counterfeit spark plugs?

The owner dutifully checked all these things. He replaced the gas, double checked the plugs, double checked the points, opened both taps, checked wiring, and on and on and on.

Then he found the real problem.

"The problem was the choke lever. Oh My God. The lever was wandering back to a point where it was semi choking the engine. So I tightened the screw and went for a ride today. And all is good. The (bike) goes like a scalded ape!"

Did the forum members feel cheated? Did they resent being bothered with a simple problem?

Not a bit of it.

"That's great news," one member responded. "Some things can drive you crazy."

Problems with your vintage motorcycle? Try the forums. You have friends out there.

Do YOU always stop at a red light?

 I admit it: I often "run" stop signs and even, occasionally, red lights when I am pedaling my bicycle — as long as no cross traffic is coming. 

I would never do this on my motorcycle, however. 

The reason bicyclists disobey stop signs and, sometimes, red lights is obvious. Momentum is important to bicyclists. Preserving it prompts them to take some, hopefully prudent, actions. These are illegal and, yes, I was once ticketed. 

But still, we do it; most bicyclists do, anyway. Most do it carefully. 

Momentum is less important when a motor is doing all the work. But there are other factors to the safety equation.

A bicycle typically is going slower than a motor vehicle, giving the rider a lot more time to check for cross traffic at an approaching intersection. If something is coming the bicyclist can see it and can brake quickly from that low speed.

All this is obvious. Why even bring it up?

Because there is a new variety of two-wheeler on our streets, much faster than a bicycle, yet seen everywhere ignoring stop signs and even red lights: the electric "bicycle."

They're capable of motorcycle speeds on residential streets, at least. But because they are legally allowed to enjoy the freedoms from regulation typical of bicycles, some riders tend to feel they're free from using common sense as well.

Free from requirements for insurance, licensing, safety equipment, rider age and training, electric bicycles are seen everywhere now on our streets and even swerving around baby strollers on pedestrian malls and sidewalks.

Riders obviously consider themselves above the law.

"Bicyclists do it," is not an excuse for these guys. They're going faster than pedal bicycles on machines that weigh more but may have no better brakes than a typical 10-speed.

Simply put, electric bicycles are motor vehicles.

They ought to be regulated and ridden to the standards motor vehicles require.