This is the sort of Royal Enfield we really love to ride. It’s stripped to the bare essentials, it’s high on power, and it looks like a bomb! Right, so what we have here is a street tracker based on a Royal Enfield Classic 500, built by JC Moto (Joshua Crasto, ex-BSM bike guy, builds custom bikes under this brand) and, as you can tell, it bares no resemblance whatsoever to the original number.
WHAT’S CUSTOM ABOUT IT?
Best bits first – the ST500 (yup, this is BSM’s creative nomenclature committee at its best) is around 40 kg – yes, you read that right – lighter than a stock Classic 500, which means it now weighs roughly 140 kg. Now imagine that sort of weight on a bike that sports a 500cc thumper of an engine! As a result, the 27.2 bhp that the engine produces can be really felt on the ST500. Add a Yamaha FZ handlebar, short fenders, a narrow, well-detailed seat and a cool headlight/tail-light to the mix and you have all that you need for that perfect street-tracker experience.
IS IT FUN?
Do you even have to ask? Of course it’s fun! That handlebar-seat combo give it excellent chuckability, even if that's not really a word, and this is further aided by the sticky Pirelli rubber at both ends. The self-starter has been retained on this bike, although Joshua has smartly re-positioned the battery almost right underneath the swingarm axle, and you can bet loads of dough no one will ever be able to spot it. So you simply swing a leg over, thumb the starter and, thereafter, throttle away into endless sideways action. It's so agile, it's almost scary! Previously, you may have seen Royal Enfields of various shapes and sizes doing things that may have seemed out of character, but on this bike, it’s all, as they say, cool. Wheelies? Slides? Yumps? The JC Moto ST500 does it all.
SHOULD YOU get ONE for yourself, TOO?
No. Get a 100cc commuter instead. Okay, kidding. Now, this bike has had virtually nothing done to its engine (save for that UNI air-filter) and it's already so much fun, so I wonder what 40 bhp and a little bit of patience might do. Ideally, if you get one made for yourself, keep an extra set of knobbly tyres for those off-roading days – this bike is off-road ready, but you don't want to ruin those Pirellis in the dirt, do you? Right then, Josh, build me one in a KTM orange shade, will you?
