PICS: The BULLET 500's retro appeal

At a price of Rs 153,885 lakh the Bullet 500 is a very appealing cruiser. With retro style and modern mechanicals, the Bullet 500 is here to thump your heart, writes Faisal Ali Khan of MotorBeam.com.

Royal Enfield recently launched the Bullet 500 in India, which uses the same engine as the Classic 500/Thunderbird 500 sans the fuel injection. The new Bullet 500 is priced slightly cheaper than the Classic 500 owing to the reduced tech in the engine.

The Bullet name is extremely famous and Royal Enfield has done the right thing by bringing it back in 500cc form.

The styling of the Bullet 500 is very muscular. The design is retro which has its own appeal. The round headlight, big tank, long seat and metal parts remind you of yesteryears while the new pin stripes on the tank and long exhaust draw eye candy.

The Bullet 500 uses roundness everywhere, including the mirrors, indicators and tail light. The design of the rear mudguard is a bit awkward though but the Bullet 500 still manages to draw lots of attention.

A new forest green colour has been added which makes the bike look even better.

The quality of switch gear on the Bullet 500 is very good and the layout is conventional with an engine kill switch being standard. The instrument cluster is very retro which is good as well as bad.

Good because the speedometer is easy to read, bad because there is no fuel meter and trip meter on the bike in such modern times. There is a voltmeter though which doesn't have much use.

The handle weights help in reducing vibrations while the handle lock is placed below, near the front fork.

Bullet's are known to gobble up miles without giving fatigue to the rider. The Bullet 500 delivers the same levels of comfort.

You sit upright and hold onto a very wide handlebar. The foot pegs are rear set and the rear view mirrors are positioned differently to offer a good view of what's behind.

The cushioning of the seats is excellent although it's a bit narrow for both the rider and the pillion. The pillion does get a small backrest with a new grab rail to hold on to.

Powering the Bullet 500 is a 499cc, twin-spark, air-cooled, Unit Construction Engine (UCE) which produces 26.1 BHP of peak power at 5100 RPM and 40.9 Nm of peak torque at 3800 RPM.

This engine is fed by a carburettor and is coupled to a 5-speed gearbox which provides smooth shifts with some chunkiness at times.

Unlike old Bullets, the new 500 offers very good refinement levels with the engine offering smooth performance. There are however some vibrations between 50-70 km/hr but performance is excellent on the whole. The Bullet 500 offers splendid low and mid range performance and the loads of torque pull the motorcycle to 100 km/hr pretty quickly (under 11 seconds).

0-60 km/hr takes 4 odd seconds and the Bullet sounds quite soothing to the ears. Bullet engines have never been about high revving and the 500 is no different.

You do get performance which is exciting and the tall gearing helps you to cruise all day long at 100 km/hr.

One can expect 30 km/l mileage from the bike and the top speed is 128 km/hr.

The Bullet 500 uses a single down tube chassis and weighs quite a bit at 193 kgs. You don't expect the Bullet to handle like a sports bike, after all this motorcycle is a cruiser. The Bullet 500 has neutral dynamics and the suspension is stiffly sprung offering predictable handling with excellent stability through corners.

Ride quality from the Bullet 500 is excellent, it gobbles up bumps and doesn't feel harsh or uneasy even on bad roads, despite the stiff suspension. Braking performance could have been better although the bike stops with reasonable composure.

The Bullet is a motorcycle which has huge fan following and the new bike lives up to the hype surrounding it. The modern engine on the Bullet, coupled with retro styling makes a strong case for itself. Performance from the new engine is fantastic too and the Bullet eats up miles comfortably.

At a price of Rs 1.54 lakh (in Delhi after insurance and registration), the Bullet 500 is a very appealing cruiser. With retro style and modern mechanicals, the Bullet 500 is here to thump your heart.