I tried living with an standard carb model, iron barrel indian enfield 500 last year, after having used a Enfield 700 super meteor as a daily hack for a few years (long time ago but an excellent bike - better than a bonny i also owned). With the 500 I modified it to try and improve it a bit - made it more of a street scrambler upgraded, bars, shocks, seat, upgraded brake to disc, rewired it and fitted electronic ignition, it was still just a huge compromise. The gear shift being on the right was not a problem but then again i have owned right shift Laverdas, triumphs and so on before and you soon adapt to riding with gears on the opposite side however the lack of power / speed was a problem in faster moving traffic or more so on long hills when loaded for a bit of camping, the brakes were woeful more so in the wet even though it was fun to ride it made every journey feel three times as long and god was it uncomfortable, it did not soak up the road or the bumps on gravel it was very harsh and so was tiring to ride. I am 6ft and the bike felt too small, my back ached, my knees were too high so for me the ergonomics were simply wrong. I know people have done massive trips on these bikes in my humble opinion they need a medal for such an achievement, a pushbike would be a better choice. The Enfields was sort of reliable enough but needed fettling a bit now and then, and I constantly wondered given the general standard of build quality when the big end would go or the some other catastrophic failure at some point. The 350s are far more reliable with little in power loss.I would say the general build quality, fit and standard of materials and engineering was simply awful. (moreso in like for like comparison to the original British built Enfields. Jake.

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