Test Ride
Royal Enfield Bullet 350
One cold night in January 1998, my old friend Paddy Minne and I had too many glasses of wine. We must then have had some sort of blackout, for five months later, we found ourselves sitting in Delhi on two Enfield Bullets, about to ride the 7000 miles home to Belfast.
I’d only passed my bike test two years before and had ridden just 30 miles in my life, and as I looked at the chaos that was Indian traffic shimmering in the 46°C heat, I wondered what in the name of Biggles’ sainted aunt and the seven sultanas of Constantinople I’d got myself into.
As you can see, I survived it, and now found myself back in Chennai for the relaunch of the Bullet 350, a model whose history started in 1932 when it was launched for £40 17s.
It had a groundbreaking foot gearchange and, in 1948, an equally revolutionary swinging arm rear suspension, and went on to be a world-beating trials bike in the hands of riders such as Johnny Brittain.
Sadly, that glorious history ended in Europe in 2007 and globally three years later, killed by not only emissions strangulation, but by leaner, meaner 350 Royal Enfield models such as the Classic, Meteor and Hunter.
So why, you might ask, is Enfield relaunching the Bullet now? Well, the answer is nostalgia and love.
Nostalgia because the Bullet name dates back 91 years, and love because since the original British company opened a factory in 1956 in Chennai, then called Madras, to make Bullets, the name Bullet has lodged itself so firmly in the hearts of Indian riders that you’d need
