The Quad at Beaulieu

I went during the summer to the National Motor Museum in Beaulieu. We discussed the bikes in another post, but I want to concentrate this one on the quad. The museum claims it is a 1900, although I have read that this was the factory prototype and contains pieces from 1898-1902. It was kept at the Redditch factory museum and moved to Beaulieu in 1958. It is the one that was featured in Top Gear. Here I would like to show some peculiar features of the vehicle.




First, dedicated to David Blasco and his eternal quest for mirrors, the vehicle has a mirror! Difficult to say if that was there originally or if it was added later,

Interesting springer mechanism for the back of the seat of the passenger,

Here's a picture of the engine from above,

And here from the front, featuring the AMAL carburetor,

And here is the gas tank from the side, showing the words "Royal Enfield" elegantly handwritten,

I was always intrigued by the round emblem in the middle, and here was my chance to find out, here is a closeup,

It says "De Dion Bouton, Marquee Deposee", which I guess means "De Dion Bouton trademark". Which calls me to wonder: did Royal Enfield just pull a job of badge engineering taking a De Dion Bouton quad and hand painting "Royal Enfield" on it? We already noticed that the trike was very similar to the De Dion Bouton and we knew the engine was made by De Dion Bouton, but how much of this trike was Enfield mad in the end? I guess we will never quite know.

Royal Yacht Squadron

This picture from 1920 shows in the foreground a Royal Enfield two stroke. In the background is a surrendered German liner. It is just outside the Royal Yacht Squadron in Cowes, Isle of Wight. This is the place today.

Slater

In the early 1980's the Slater Brothers were selling Royal Enfields in the UK. Apparently now they concentrate on Laverdas. Their premises are in rural Collington, near Bromyard. This is what Google claims their premises look like. I have my doubts...

Elegant Enfield chopper

Via BobTheBullet.

Riderscan

Riderscan is a simple concept, a wide angle mirror for motorcycles, similar to those that have been available for cars for a while. In a motorcycle this becomes even more useful, as it is hard to look over one's shoulder when wearing a helmet. It works as advertised.

The 1911 Royal Enfield

From The Motor Cycle discussing the new models to appear at the Olympia show, November 17th 1910.
How fitting that the first Enfields of the new era (motorcycle production was discontinued 1905-1909) have the same color as the latest model: Desert Storm!

And after the show, November 24th, 1910,

The December 1st issue features a cutout of the engine in an article discussing twins in general,

And another article on twins on December 8th,

The Royal Enfield Owner's club

Royal Enfield was the among the first (if not the first) company to have an exclusively dedicated motorcycle club. It held its first meeting on November 16th 1924. It consisted of a motorcycle run starting at the King's Head Hotel towards the Redditch factory, where they were joined by other riders and went to Stonebridge for lunch. The picture on the left is at the start at the Hotel. The following prizes were presented: best kept sidecar machine, Mr.  H. Hughes, Redditch, prize consisting of a gallon of Adcol oil presented by Messrs. A. Duckham and Co.; best kept solo machine Mr. L. Ball, Redditch, prize consisting of a medal presented by Mr. Crowhill; machine with most useful "gadgets" Mr. H. Cadby, Birmingham, prize consisting of a tyre presented by the Palmer Tyre Company.

There was no sign up fee and the annual membership was 5 Shillings. The honorable secretary was Mr. A. W. Riley, of 100 Abbey Road, Warley Woods, Birmingham. Apart from organizing runs, I have not found much other activity by the club. For instance they did not appear to publish a newsletter.

The club dissolved in 1970 when the company closed down in England, for reasons that I was not able to ascertain. After all there were lots of Royal Enfield riders left in the UK. Perhaps riding motorcycles had become more of an activity for the youth, who were less inclined to the organized activities of clubs.

Interestingly sometime in the mid 1970's a Royal Enfield Owners Club sprung up in the US!

The club was restarted in the UK in 1978, and the newsletter, The Gun, has been published ever since.

Arms Hill, Oxford

I have not been able to find where in Oxford is Arms Hill located. Which suggests to me it probably is no Mt. Everest. But anyway, since as we know nothing was impossible for an Enfield 6hp sidecar rig, the first climb on a sidecar of such hill was carried out by an Enfield. And certified by the secretary of the Oxford motorcycle club. And communicated by telegraph to The Motor Cycle, who dutifully stopped the presses and published the  newsflash of such momentous event on March 28th 1912 shown on left. Only to follow it with a photograph of the daredevils in the April 4th issue,

Auto Expo 2012

A prestigious moto-blog like this one could not be absent from the Auto Expo in 2012 in Delhi. Except... that well, I couldn't go! So in lieu of live coverage here are some pictures shamelessly stolen from Royal Enfield's Facebook page. We start with an overview of the booth,

In the front of this view there are three bikes. In the left we have a Desert Storm with nice leather saddlebags,

The one in the middle and the one behind inside the Moebius strip is the new Thunderbird 500 UCE

The Thunderbird sports a  cool looking black engine and cruiser stance. The last bike is the regular bullet UCE featured in the front of this picture as well. There was a prototype cafe racer model. With its red tank and white lettering, it was reminiscent of the Continental GT5 of the 1960's,

I normally don't care for prototypes since they rarely see the light of day, but this one looks eminently doable. Look at those Ohlins shocks! Compare it to the original:

There apparently was also a big screen,

Royal Enfield has also introduced an apparel line,

boots...

and helmets...

The folks at Royal Enfield USA are probably thinking of all the stuff they are going to sell to me in the next few months! It is great that Royal Enfield is expanding into all these areas. There is a huge potential market.

We close of a picture of  "The never ending trip"

Well done Royal Enfield!

Redditch industrial history video

This video has a couple of interesting items I had not seen before. First is a photo of the old Royal Enfield factory in Hunt End on Enfield road.

A photo of three riders in the test track in the new factory in Hewell Road,

All in all the video is a quick way to learn of the history of Royal Enfield in Redditch. The same person (Anthony Green) has posted videos on other industries from Redditch: springs, needles, fishhooks, Alcad batteries, the arrival of the railway. Of particular interest is the Alcad video, since the battery factory was set up in the Hunt End old Royal Enfield factory and later expanded to a building in Union Street that also belonged to Royal Enfield. In that video one can see the interior of the plant. Here is the actual telegram indicating the purchase of the factory,

Tardebigge

Tardebigge is a town three miles to the Northwest of Redditch, famous for the 36 locks that raise the Birmingham to Worcester Canal 220 feet ofver the Lickey Ridge. Two wharves on the canal were used to load and unload goods, one of them still visible in the picture. Also there is Hewell Lane, where three miles down to the right gets renamed Hewell Road and was where the Royal Enfield factory was located. The canal had its heyday in the first half of the 1800's, since in 1859 the railway arrived in Redditch and made the canal uncompetitive. George Townsend set up his needle making mill, which would later become the Enfield Cycle Co in 1851. So it is conceivable that goods for the mill were transported through the canal, although it should be remembered that Townsend's original factory was in Hunt End, not in Hewell Road, which a bit further removed to the South of the canal. Here is a view of the canal in Alcester Road, where it goes subterranean for a while. The wharf is around the bend to the right,

Harleys still expensive when locally produced in India

Harley Davison launched two locally produced model at the Auto Expo in India. The cheapest one goes for 900,000 Rupees, almost nine times the cost of a Royal Enfield.

Where in Cardiff?

The Royal Enfield agent in Cardiff was Robert Bevan, of 31 Castle Street, and was great at solving holiday problems. Today the place corresponds to one of those boarded up shops you see in the picture

Bevan motorcycles was founded in 1897 and was selling Royal Enfields as early as 1911. See this ad from 1912,

Remarkably, they are still in business today, but moved, in 1998, to a new location.

Made like a gun

This picture is doubly significant. Although quite blurry, it is one of the few pictures of the first Royal Enfield from 1901. It is being ridden by Ernest H. Godbold. He was a French engineer that worked as general manager at Enfield in the very early  years. Among other accomplishments, he was the one who coined the motto "Made like a gun".

Here's an example of the motto being used already in 1912 by Farrar's motor exchange, of 19-24 Hopwood Lane, Halifax. I couldn't find Farrar's building, it appears it was demolished to build the A58.

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I do not know the rider of this other picture, it might be Godbold as well,