Tuesday, September 6, 2016

This video of world traveling rider would sell Royal Enfields


Jonathan Gibson, a world traveler by Royal Enfield, talks about why he chose to ride a Royal Enfield motorcycle in out-takes of filmmaker Chris Zahner's documentary "Chasing the Bullet."

Gibson speaks movingly — and frankly — about the appealing and appalling aspects of riding a 46-year-old Royal Enfield Bullet from Sydney to London.

Appropriately, the February, 2015 interview opens with Gibson talking about getting his Royal Enfield started in the morning. He never puts on his gloves, never puts on his helmet.

"If you load up, you put your gloves on, you put your helmet on, you put your sunnies on, you know, she's never going to start," he says with a shake of the head.

"You can't put pressure like that on an old bike."

Gibson says family members have ridden Royal Enfield motorcycles going back five generations, making his choice almost inevitable. He rides the same make and model motorcycle his grandfather had at his age. In his pleasing Aussie accent he tries to explain how such a thing could happen to a young man.

"You've got this — mystique sounds like such a wanky word — but this kind of air about this motorcycle, that has this image of people crossing sub-continents, Himalayas, right through the ton-up boys blasting their old Continentals around the islands. And the fact that you can still get on these motorcycles and still ride them today.

"Shit. Why wouldn't you want to?"

The Gibson out-takes are another in a series of "Chasing the Bullet" extras Zahner has released, including a series of "making of" videos that are fun to watch.

In this case, Gibson has me sold. Give me a Royal Enfield! This out-takes video ought to be played over and over again inside every Royal Enfield dealership in the world.

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