Motorcycle gangs of Argentina

Check out the trailer for this documentary about urban motorcycle gangs in Argentina. It is in Spanish, but the dialogues don't contain anything memorable. The picture on the left should help you find the coolest bike in the documentary.

Preferred by cangaroos all over Oz

Photoshop was probably involved here but no one can deny the Royal Enfield Owners Club of Australia produces cool pictures!

The Avengers

Several Royal Enfield motorcycles feature in the opening and other scenes of this chapter of the series. We should thank the designers who put the pilot lights in the nacelle, they make all the difference in recognizing a Royal Enfield in low resolution pictures.

1926

This post is part of the Royal Enfield Virtual museum. If you don't know what that is, visit the museum, you will be able to return here easily. ============================

The 1926 lineup of Royal Enfield bikes presented in the Olympia show on November 1925 includes the new design of Ted Pardoe, a 346cc OHV single. The development of this machine was put in the hands of young Tony Wilson-Jones. He was so confident in the design he toured the lake district towing a sidecar in his honeymoon the next year.

On January 1 and 2 the South African TT races were held in a hilly road in Kragga Kama. Charlie Young in a 344 Royal Enfield won the 350 and 600 solo events at 59.15 and 60.43 mph. The circuit was 200 miles long.

Tony Wilson Jones started preparing in early May for the Isle of Man TT race which would take place early June. This preparation was prescient, since the UK was hit by a ten day general strike in 1926. The Works' team consiste of Gordon Burney, George Reynard, Charlie Young and Cecil Barrow. Bicknell, a trials rider, went as a reserve rider. During practice Charlie Young fell and broke his collarbone, so Bicknell was in the race. In the Junior Race (344 OHV machines) Reynard had engine trouble and dropped out and Young overdid it in the last lap and crashed. Burney ended up sixth and Bicknell 26th. For the Lightweight race Barrow was out and so was Young. So Bicknell had to pick up the slack once more. Burney and Reynard had engine trouble. Bicknell, riding the sole remaining Enfield kept going and finished 5th at 48.47mph.

On June 27th Bicknell was more in his game during the Scottish Six Days Trials. He and T. H. Garner rode newly designed 346cc OHV engines with inclined valves with duplex springs. Rocker gears and pushrods were enclosed. Garner dropped out of the race but Bicknell got a silver medal. Bicknell was a foreman in the Enfield works when he was not racing.

On July 17th Reynard won the 50 mile Handicap Race during the Open Speed Trials in Saltburn. T. Stewart came second in the 350cc class of the 1926 Ulster Grand Prix at 64.22mph. During the International Six Days' Trial in the Peak District in Derbyshire, the works team was composed of T. H. Garner, Fred Bicknell and Mrs. P. C. Spokes on 350cc machines ad C. Patrick on a 976cc sidecar. Garner was forced to retire and Mrs. Spokes lost too many points but Bicknell and Patrick got gold awards.

Cecil Barrow, recovered from his accident took part in the 1926 Hutchinson Hundred at Brooklands, a 100 mile handicap event for all types of machines up to 1000cc. He rode is Isle of Man lightweight Royal Enfield-JAP with Brooklands fishtail exhausts and running on alcohol as fuel. He won, receiving the Mellano cup.

At the Ulster Grand Prix in September, Gordon Burney and T. Stewart entered Royal Enfields. Burney did not finish but Stewart finished second at 64.02mph.

The company was in a solid economic position in spite of the strike in May, and an expansion of the Hewell Road plant took place towards the end of the year, taking the size of the plant to 24 acres including sports facilities for the workers and a new building devoting to building sidecars. There were three grass and a hard tennis course. Sources: The stoyr of Royal Enfield Motorcycles by Peter Hartley and Royal Enfield, the story of the company by Anne Bradford.

Where in Istanbul?

The Royal Enfield dealer in Turkey in the 1950's was Sezim Turk A. S., located in the Galata district. I could not find an address, but here is what their display window looked like. I also found a copy of their stock, they were a listed company.

The mysterious WD "Beezafields"

After the disaster at Dunkirk, the War Department was desperate for equipment, including motorcycles. They would take anything the motorcycling industry would put out, mostly civilian machines painted in military colors. Eventually the government wanted to standardize things and in the end of the summer of 1940, all players in the industry were developing “experimental lightweight prototypes” for approval. Eventually Triumph and BSA were asked to make 50 motorcycles each, presumably for further testing. But during the Coventry Blitz of November 14th 1940, all the Triumphs were destroyed, together with the drawings and the tooling. From there on, the details are sketchy, but it appears a "shotgun marriage" was arranged by the government between the motorcycle builders, which ended in the above displayed Royal Enfield with a BSA WB30 engine. The full story is in the WD motorcycle forum.

The Enfield Perfins

Perfins were perforations that were made in postage stamps. In the late 19th and early 20th century, postal stamps became widely available. The cost of postage was much more significant than today, in relative terms. Postage stamps were valuable and were redeemable for cash at the post office, so some people used them as currency to pay small bills. This entailed the risk of stamps being stolen. To prevent theft companies and individuals would perforate the stamps with their initials. The perforated stamps could not be cashed in the post office. And even if stolen to be used for postage, the owner of the stamp could be identified, which implied risk to the thief. The Enfield Cycle Company had its own perfins, and according to an article in the Perfin society website they were as shown in the figure.

Where in Gunnislake?

A member of the Royal Enfield owners club UK found this photograph of a Royal Enfield dealer (if you click on the picture and pay attention to the left door it says "Royal Enfield"), he assumed it was somewhere in Cornwall due to the license plates starting with "RL" and to be from the 1930's. Another member of the club has a friend that is interested in Cornwall mining history and recognized the smokestack on the left as belonging to an engine house of the Drakewalls Mine, portions of which still exist today. With a bit of effort and Google street view here is the modern view of the place, there still is some sort of garage in the place, Here's is a closeup of what's left of the engine house,

The gun is back!

As we have discussed, the Enfield Cycle company used a Maxim machinegun for promotional purposes, which caused a bit of a kerfuffle in a motorcycle show in Ireland in 1915 due to the gun restrictions that were in place at the time. Now it appears the gun has reappeared as an advertisement prop. This picture is from the motorcycle expo organized in Rosario, Argentina by the Moto Club Rosario. You can see more pictures here.

UK Prime Minister rides a Royal Enfield

Ok, so it was in 2002. And he was at the time David Cameron, MP from Witney. And he rode pillion. Once. On "Ride to Work" day. Impressive anyway. Did you know that the press office of Royal Enfield UK is in Witney?

Bullet Baba

One usually hears that certain bikes are an object of cult. This is usually meant metaphorically. For instance Harley Davidson runs a commercial on TV in Louisiana that starts by "There is a temple in Baton Rouge..." and they refer to the local dealership. Not in the case of Royal Enfield. There is a shrine in Rajasthan where the deity that is being adored is Bullet 350. Here is the story. Another version here.

Esfied

As readers of this blog know, the Enfield Cycle Co. acquired that name in 1893 to celebrate a contract they had received to supply parts for small arms for the Royal Arms Factory at Enfield, north of London. Some of the most famous Enfield rifles that came out from that factory at the beginning of the 1900's are still being manufactured as bootleg copies in the Kyber Pass border between Afghanistan and Pakistan. One can usually spot copies by shoddy construction and egregious typos like the one in the picture. That one has several problems, including V.R. for Victoria Regina even though the rifle claims to be from 1919. In spite of all this, however, it now appears that the 900 metre range of the Enfield rifle in the hands of the Taliban seems to be a problem for the US troops, armed with M16 rifles designed for the close-quartered combat of Vietnam and with a range of 300 metres.

The Mostest!

(click to enlarge)

Many involved in C5 design

According to Royal Enfield India, several outside people were involved in the creation of the C5. The engine was validated by Dr. Stuart McGuigan, formerly of Cranfield University in the UK. He started his career in BSA and Aston, then got a Ph.D. and joined the Royal Military College of Science (now Cranfield U) where he became Director of Design in the Engineering Systems Department. He was involved in the design of the five speed gearbox of the Bullet Sixty-5 and also in the HDT Diesel motorcycle for the US Marine Corps (he's riding it in the picture). He was helped by Ricardo PLC, a consulting firm in the UK. The design team has been in collaboration with, Xenophya Design, UK. If you go to their gallery you will see they were involved in Mac Motorcycles, the electric TT bike, Derbi scooters and other projects. In all cases they include their sketches, except in the case of the C5 where they only display the final product. Obviously they were in such awe of what had been created! The chassis was developed by Vepro in the UK and Engines Engineering of Italy (now property of Mahindra & Mahindra, India). The fuel injection was developed with Keihin from Japan.

In El Paso