New Bike Day - meet Ella!

Well today was birthday and Xmas all wrapped up into one! For the first time ever, I bought a new vehicle. I had been an ardent admirer of the new Royal Enfield Classic 350 since it came out here in 2022 - seemed to be exactly my type of bike.

For about 12 months now I have been mulling around whether I was better off having the '61 Crusader as a "true" classic bike or, for not a lot more money, swapping it for a modern version of the same thing, with lots of the feel and character but also reliability and modern brakes etc built in. But I have put so much work into the Crusader restoration that I didn't really want to let her go. In theory, she should be reliable for longer journeys, but at the end of the day she's a 62 year old bike and, more importantly, a 62 year old design. Having used the G5 for some extended journeys over the last year, I am very familiar with the feeling of hoping that you will get to the destination without incident. (We always have done, but you still worry, just because it's an old bike.)

Finally, I realised that the two things are very different aspects of the "hobby" of motorcycling, rather than alternatives. E.g. if I was into classic cars, I would probably have a classic for taking to shows etc and a modern car for enjoying driving adventures. Applying that to my bikes, I obviously needed to have my '61 Crusader for local runs out / taking to shows etc and a nice modern bike for my longer distance adventures!!

I don't have room for 2 classics and the 250 G5 was always a stop gap to give me something on the road last year, so she is currently for sale. The Finance Committee approved putting the money I get from the sale of Gloria towards a new bike. 

The only "modern" bike I was really interested in was the Classic 350, so I started looking around at nearly new examples. To cut a long story short, I was offered an exceptionally good deal on a brand new bike and some accessories, which actually ended up a bit cheaper than the second hand bike I was looking at! I snapped their hands off.

It had to be a stock Bronze Chrome version, which was my second choice of colour but actually having seen it out in the open I absolutely love it. I ordered some genuine Royal Enfield canvas panniers and frames to be fitted. (I actually ordered black ones but the dealer got it wrong and it turned up with brown. However, I think she looks way better like that!)

After a very long 2 week wait, she was delivered today by Roger. 

Here is the happy new owner.

I reckon those panniers look amazing!

So now I have to do the initial 300 mile running in period at a maximum 70kph / 44mph, which feels very slow but is made easier by the relaxed character built into the bike. 

Why Ella? Well, the Crusader is called Anna and I thought a link between new and old would be nice. They are both ROYAL Enfields; both are female obviously; so how about 2 Queens? Queen Anne (Anna)  and Queen Elizabeth (Ella) - obvious really ☺