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Wednesday, June 29, 2011

The First Bullets

The Royal Enfield Bullet first appeared in the lineup of the company when the 1933 models were announced in September 1932. There were actually three Bullets, all with overhead sloped valve engines, in 250, 350 and 500cc. The larger machine had four valves. All had a raised exhaust. The Bullet name derived from the fact that the 500cc with very little tuning, stock parts and a raising of the final gear, was capable of almost reaching 100mph. Jack Booker ran a quarter mile in 9.1s timed by Motor Cycling, an equivalent speed of 98.9mph.

4 comments:

  1. My 500ccRE bullet 4 valve sloper was first regestered in the UK 22 Sept 1932, would that be one of the first bullets made/sold? what do you think?

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  2. My first bike was a 1933 two exposed valve Sloper 350 Bullet. Myself and my Father acquired it in 1957, for £1, in a poor state not having run for years. We managed to get it working OK and I used it on farmland until I was old enough to ride on the roads. It was used by me daily on the roads for over a year. The main problem I can remember was the exhausts, though the externals on twin chromed high levels were fine the internals were completely gone. This problem was solved by filling the silencers with 'Brillo Pads' (happy days).

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  3. Hi Jorge
    In the above comment I forgot to thank you for the picture of the 'Bullet". I have a picture of all the bikes I have owned, about 20 before age 'caught me up', but the only decent picture I had been able to obtain of my first bike was a 'thumbnail' of the cover of a spares manual. Now I have a good picture Great!.
    Thanks again.
    Keep riding while you can mate.

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