Enfield Guzzi

Update: I was able to find a picture of the bike, taken when a journalist visited the museum at the Royal Enfield factory in the 1960's. It is at the bottom.

In 1934 Royal Enfield experimented with a transverse V-twin 500cc OHV engine with shaft drive! It was abandoned as too expensive. This led to the consideration of a standard V-twin engine with chain timing gear in 1937. This model didn't make it into production either but proved useful in that it silenced widespread criticism of the chain timing gear with its flawless performance. Parts of that timing mechanism, in simplified fashion, were eventually incorporated into the post war parallel-twins.

Apparently Ted Pardoe covered quite a few miles in this bike, but it had several problems. The crankshaft was wide to make it sturdy, but that meant it did not flex and they had several fail. There were problems with the gearbox and the magneto. In the end it developed a bad reputation in the factory and the project was shelved.

(Source: "Enfield Engineer" by Tony Wilson-Jones)

1928

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. ============================
In 1928 Royal Enfield adopts saddle tanks (the tank that sits atop and around the frame like in modern motorcycles, up to then the tank was suspended below the frame) for the first time. Also gone are the "druid" type forks with side springs replaced by girder forks with a center spring. There are five separate two stroke models (200,201,201a,202,203). The 201 and 201a were "standard" machines, the 201a having a step through chassis suitable for "the lady or gentleman who prefers not to wear special clothing when motorcycling" according to the catalog. They had foot operated two speed gear. Both models had a dressguard to protect the lower legs from the elements and were available with sporting or touring handlebars and aluminum floorboards. The model 200 was a sporty model with clip-on handlebars, footpegs instead of floorboards and twin exhaust pipes for good looks.
The 202 and 203 were three speed models with a short suicide shifter in the tank. The 202 was the "standard" and the 203 the "sport" without leg protection nor floorboards, clip on handlebars and sporty exhaust. The bikes sold for £ 35 cash or for £ 9 13s 9d down with 12 monthly instalments of £2 12s 4d including insurance. Price went up to £40 if one wanted M.L. Maglita electric ligting. They were taxed in the £ 30 category.
These bikes had "bacon slicer" type engines with exposed flywheels, which apparently tended to do a number on your shoes if you weren't careful, here is an advice column about the issue from a newspaper of the time. It is rather remarkable that the factory would not address these issues, since they clearly were making an effort to appeal to mainstream people wearing ordinary clothes with the leg protection, etc.
Speaking about protecting people's clothing, look at this accessory (the like of which we have not heard since) to protect clothes from touching the carburettor! It was highlighted in The Motor Cycle as one of the examples of the motorcycling industry being attentive to the customers' needs.
A new model in the lineup was a 250 sidevalve four stroke engine. It had a Sturmey-Archer gearbox and went for a reasonable £39. It was enamelled in black and had "cellulose-finished" petrol tank. It could be ordered with touring or sports handlebars.
The rest of the lineup went unchanged. We have the 350 and 351 models with 346cc 3.46 hp engines, the first one a sidevalve and the second an OHV., they went for £44 and £50 respectively. Sturmey-Archer three speed gearbox with suicide shifter were standard. There was also a special version, the 352 with high level exhaust suitable for trials. The mighty V-twins came in 9.76hp 976cc engines, three or four speed (model 180 and 182) and were the preferred sidecar rig towers. As usual they were available as tradesmen's delivery outfit (model 185) and a Dairyman's outfit (model 165). Early in the year it was learnt that Edward Magner, the Swedish Royal Enfield dealer, would compete in the Isle of Man TT. Magner would eventually break the world speed record on a Royal Enfield combo in 1930. In the meantime L. A. Welch and Fred Bicknell won gold medals in the Cotswold Cup Trial in February; Welch got a gold medal in the Victory Cup Trial in Birmingham (other four Enfield rideres got bronze medals). Freddie Clark won the Liverpool Cup Race in his 250cc solo mount. In the Redditch freak hill-climb at Morton Bank a young racer named Jack Booker won the amateur class on a Royal Enfield. He would go on to become a legendary figure in the company in latter years.
The presence of the Enfield riders at the Isle of Man TT generated great expectations. George Reynard, Gordon Burney and Cecil Barrow were the factory team and Eddie Magner ran independently. 246cc JAP engined machines entered in the Lightweight Race and 346cc JAP engined machines were for the Junior Event. The machines were considerably modified with respect to the street versions. The practice laps went very well and things appeared very positive. Alas, in the Junior race proper there were several mechanical and other difficulties. Finally Reynard finished sixth, Barrow fourteenth and Magner, who had to stop to repair engine troubles, sixteenth. His wife was in the audience, having flown from Malmo to Croydon via Amsterdam and continued by train and boat to Douglas. Burney also finished considerably behind. Incredibly, the Enfield team was the only factory team to have all its riders finish the race! In the Lightweight race things went better, Cecil Barrow placed second, Gordon Burney tenth and a privateer, C. Lord, also finished. The tiny picture below shows Burney repairing his machine near Brandish corner.
Royal Enfield was also doing well in racing events in the Continent. Framesznik won the Hungarian TT, Berrenger in France got a gold medal in the French TT, a seven day long very tough race in which he did not have a reserve rider and only 12 of the 31 starters finished. In Sweden Fred Bicknell and Betty Lermitte took part in the Majpokalen a strenuous 1,200 mile race from Gothenberg to Stockholm. In Dublin D. McKay placed third in the Leinster Hundred.
In June another lady rider brought great prestige to Royal Enfield. Gwendolyn Adams completed a 6,300 mile tour of Spain, which at the time had very primitive roads, without any trouble on her 355 solo.
The International Six Days' Trials was staged in the moors of Yorkshire. The Enfield team consisted of L. A. Welch, George Reynard and Betty Lermitte. All got gold medals, including Lermitte who finished the race in spite of having her exhaust pipe fall off from her mount. In Ireland in County Kildare at the Athy MCC Open Speed Trials, Gordon Burney ona 350cc made the fastest time over a flying start quarter mile, setting a new Irish speed record. T. Jenkinson won the 350cc and unlimited capacity handicap events. Later, in October, Betty Lermitte won the Stanley Bernard Challenge Cup riding her ISDT machine.

GT's return from America

Towards 1967 the Redditch factory was only producing the Continental G.T. at a rate of about 500 a year. The Interceptors were being produced in the underground factory in Avoncliff near Westwood and Bradford-on-Avon. Eventually the Redditch factory was closed down and production of the Continental G.T. terminated. Cowles of Sunderland bought the remaining stock of G.T.'s and apparently 100 were brought back from North America, where no market had been found for them. They were offered to dealers in 1970 and apparently a fair number of them ended in France and the Netherlands. They all were delivered with a five speed Albion gearbox but also with a cluster of gears for four speeds as the five speeder had proved troublesome. The picture offers documentary evidence of the G.T.'s brought back from america, from an article by Jack Gray in The Gun issue 21.

Where in Warren, Michigan, part II?

Reader Robert Slovey, president of the Phoenix Veterans Foundation, saw the article about Royal Enfield in Warren and decided to visit the place and get better photos (the google street level image I had was blurred).
The address was 1981 E 8 Mile, which is clearly visible. Here  are two of them.

Happy Republic Day!

Republic day is one of the three national holidays of India, commemorating when the Indian Constitution came into effect in 1950.

Oil motors

The picture above, from "A proud war record", the booklet produced by the Enfield Cycle company after the war shows a technician of the company testing oil motors. Those motors were used in the aiming mechanism of the Bofors 40mm anti-aircraft cannon. Here is the placement of the motor, according to the gun manual. And here is a picture, though I'm not sure that particular unit was Enfield produced, being operated by a US GI.
This is a better view of an Enfield motor,

Heads up display

My Enfield C5 feels like the cockpit of an F15. And fifth gear is my afterburner. Yeah, you can quote me on that! I actually use the reflection of the dial to check that I'm in neutral and that my turn signals are off without having to take my eyes off the road!

The twins are coming!

For many years, in Enfield related bulletin boards someone would raise the question of if a two cylinder machine was in the works. And for years the company seemed to have a laser focus on the singles. This made sense: Royal Enfield was a relatively small company, it would have been a very risky move to launch a model, ostensibly for export mostly, and take head-on the likes of the new Triumph Bonneville.

But I guess that the new affluence in India, and the ramped up production to 100,000+ bikes a year has changed the mood. The company is still being vague, but talk of twin bikes by 2012 is starting to emerge.

I have mixed feelings. I owned a new Bonneville and for the type of riding I do (mostly 50mph roads) the Enfield is much more fun. And if you want to go on a US interstate highway, where 70-80mph is usual, I would like something more massive than a new Bonneville. But I guess it takes all sorts... Now if rumors that it will be a V-Twin are true, I'd be the first in line to get one!

More mysteries surround the Enfield "street triple"

We have written before about the experimental three-cylinder 675cc two-stroke machine built by Royal Enfield in 1916 and how it appears that it was lost and reappeared when the Enfield factory and museum were dismantled  in the 1960's.  The bike sits now in the National Motorcycle Museum in Solihull.

However, in a letter to The Gun in 1981, Don McKean claims that the engine alone was sitting in a basement of the Beaulieu museum at the time. He contributed the attached picture. When was the bike reassembled? Was the rest of the bike available somewhere or did they reconstruct it from scratch?

Don ponders about the bottom end and how it was assembled. The engine was put together by laying side by side three 225cc two stroke engines and grinding out the fins so they could sit flush to each other. Holes were drilled for bolts to run across and keep them together. Putting together the bottom end must have been a tricky affair, since crankcases were split vertically and one needed to keep things sealed to keep crankcase compression. Perhaps this was a complex process that in the end doomed the machine which was never produced. He also notes the bike was incredibly long, which probably made it difficult to ride and perhaps the last cylinder didn't get proper cooling. The inlet manifold looks quite tortuous so perhaps carburation was also  tricky.

Reaction to Don's letter came a couple of issues of The Gun later. Don was claiming that the license plate that appeared on the bike when the factory was dismantled was ABP4, a 1934 West Sussex registration. This added to the mystery: why a 1934 plate for a 1916 bike? The legendary Ivor Mutton and also Bob Currie (Editor of The Classic Motorcycle) clarify that point, apparently the plate should be read as AB-P4, which is a 1916 Worcestershire trade plate. Mutton also points out the engine had the habit of running backward, and one only noticed it when one engaged in gear!

Will all the mysteries surrounding this bike ever be cleared out? Someone out there must know the answers...

The lady has spoken!

Gul Panag shares her motoring thougths in this article. Among them, she muses about the loss of the thumping sound with the introduction of the aluminum engine on the Bullet.

ATS

From the History Learning Site, "In the army, women joined the Auxiliary Territorial Service (ATS). Like soldiers, they wore a khaki uniform. The recruiting posters were glamorous - some were considered too glamorous by Winston Churchill - and many young ladies joined the ATS because they believed they would lead a life of glamour. They were to be disappointed. Members of the ATS did not get the glamour jobs - they acted as drivers, worked in mess halls where many had to peel potatoes, acted a cleaners and they worked on anti-aircraft guns. But an order by Winston Churchill forbade ATS ladies from actually firing an AA gun as he felt that they would not be able to cope with the knowledge that they might have shot down and killed young German men. His attitude was odd as ATS ladies were allowed to track a plane, fuse the shells and be there when the firing cord was pulled……By July 1942, the ATS had 217,000 women in it. As the war dragged on, women in the ATS were allowed to do more exciting jobs such as become welders (unheard of in ‘civvie’ street), carpenters, electricians etc." From the WW2 Talk Forum a picture of some ATS riders. The two bikes on the right are sidevalve WD/C 350cc Royal Enfields. And here is Her Majesty herself, before she was queen, getting her hands dirty on an ATS vehicle, no news if she ever rode a Royal Enfield!

Royal Enfield may build factory in Brazil

Hat tip David Blasco, who blogs at royalenfields.com. R. L. Ravichandran, Board Member and Executive director of Eicher Motors, the parent company of Royal Enfield, talked to journalists at the  Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers and said that within two years there will be a manufacturing presence in Brazil. Latin American economies are expanding at remarkable rates, whereas the US and European market for exports have been hit hard by the recession. Also Latin American countries impose tariffs on foreign vehicles that could be circumvented with a factory in situ. It is interesting that they chose Brazil. As far as I can tell Royal Enfields are not being sold in Brazil, whereas they are in Argentina, Chile and Colombia. It is true that Brazil has by far the more advanced automotive industry in South America, so that may have been a consideration. More here, here and here.

Rigid Bullet

1950's not retro enough for you? Dial your Bullet back another decade with Hitchcock's recently introduced Rigid Kit,

Advertising slogan

This type of slogan would have been tough to keep up in the 1990's. But with the new century it would be easy to implement "11 new features for 2011". Bolton still sells bikes in Australia!

Dubai

The indestructible Royal Enfield cannot be stopped even by the mega-collapse of Dubai World. The Dubai dealer, Mr. Nelson Suresh Kumar, now has a proto-website

Norcroft Enfield

Earlier last year Aniket Vardhan took the world by storm when he announced he had built a V-Twin 700cc Royal Enfield from two 350cc Bullet engines. He dubbed his machine The Musket. It was an amazing feat of engineering for an individual. There are other V-Twin Royal Enfield attempts out there, most notably the Carberry Enfield in Australia. Much less known is the Norcroft Enfield, a creation of Bill Hurr and Richard Hurst. Bill had worked with the Austrian consultants AVL, which developed the lean burn engine for Royal Enfield. They built a 1000cc V-Twin with a Metisse chassis. Two prototypes were built around the year 2000 and they still have potential plans of producing them, according to their website.

Following Che on Royal Enfields

Everyone knows about Che Guevara's motorcycle ride. It was taken on a Norton 500 and did not end well, the bike broke down definitively in Chile. Now a group of French people are recreating the ride on Royal Enfields.

Where in Warren, Michigan?

In 1969 the ads for Royal Enfield in the US listed four distributors. One of them was Shores Motors, of 1981 E 8 Mile Road, Warren, MI. Today that place corresponds to an auto parts store, so it is conceivable that it is a continuation of that original business.

Where in Paris, France?

The Royal Enfield dealer in the 1930's in Paris, France was Pierre Psalty, of 271 Boulevard Pereire. Today that place is a restaurant, the building looks old, so it may be the same one the dealership occupied. Mr. Psalty moved in the later 1930's to 80 Avenue des Ternes, which is a real estate place nowadays, but probably in the same building,