This from an email I just received:

"Take a look at Royal Enfield. They're (relatively) affordable as far as motorcycles go [$5k], can achieve top speeds of about 75mph (though they are a bit whiny at that speed), and have a published fuel economy of 70mpg. I rode one about 8 years ago and found it to be a bit clunky compared to modern bikes, but it certainly had a little charm the modern bikes lack. Enfield offers sidecars to match their bikes. And the military model comes with hard panniers."

Cool!

I note that their sites says they have a new model, the Electra, and also a new kind of engine, "AVL with Lean Burn"---raising the speed to truly highway worthy and the economy to 75mpg.

Another neat thing is that this is an Indian motorcycle, that is, from India, a country that specializes in smaller, fuel-efficient motos.

Here's a link to another site of theirs: http://www.royalenfield.com