Bitcoins

All of you Bitcoin millionaires reading this blog, you can now use them to buy a Royal Enfield.

New markets sought

It is a bit disappointing that these stories do not give more details. Royal Enfields are sold in Argentina, Peru, Chile, Colombia already. Where else in Latin America are they targeting?

Where in Jakarta?

I know there is at least one reader of this blog in Jakarta, Indonesia, so I would like to recruit her/his help with this post, read on!

When Indonesia was still under Dutch rule, Jakarta was known as Batavia and Jalan Hayam Wuruk was known as Oost Molenvliet Street, an interesting street with a river in the middle. At number 51 was the Royal Enfield dealer, Lim Tjoei Keng. Here is a picture of the dealership from "REVS",

 Here is another view of the street, with the dealership on the left, found serendipitously (someone was auctioning a postcard with that image on ebay!), According to Google maps, this is what that address looks today. Is that brown roof still the same building? Could someone send me a picture of it today so I can update this post?

In Havana

A Royal Enfield model R.E. parked in front of the monument to General Máximo Gómez, in Havana, Cuba circa 1950. The monument is still there.

The racing controversy

Perhaps quite apropos, given the introduction of the Conti, is to revisit some of the aspects of the previous incarnation of the bike. In particular there was a serious effort made to get Enfield back to racing on a machine loosely based on the Continental, called the GT5 and involving racing legend Geoff Duke. The move was surrounded by controversy, as the letters reprinted below show. Basically, it was decided to go with a Villiers Starmaker engine and later with an engine designed by renowned two stroke specialist Hermann Meier and also the gifted Polish engineer Leo Kuzmicki, whom Duke knew from his days at Norton. The Enfield proved to be the quickest British-built 250cc machine, but suffered from reliability problems. Meier even proposed the design of an in-line, liquid-cooled, twin-cylinder two stroke engine, with disc valves, for which he produced a general layout and specification. Like the current Conti, the machine sported a specially designed frame made by specialists, the design was of Reg Thomas and the build by Reynolds Tube Co Ltd. The fairing was produced by Mitchenall. But the racing adventure had proved costly.  Enfield,  was owned since 1962 by E. & H. P. Smith Ltd, a manufacturer of machine tools, static electrical equipment, electronics and equipment for medicine. That is, a large conglomerate which view the motorcycle concern purely in terms of revenue. And revenue was getting hit hard by the influx of Italian and Japanese machines. The racing project was canceled and in 1967 the main factory sold, and it became clear to everyone involved that the end of the company was near.

Sources: "Geoff Duke: The Stylish Champion" and "The story of Royal Enfield motorcycles", books by Peter Hartley. The article is from "Motor Cycling" March 21, 1964