More on the cafe racer

If you also cannot have enough about the Cafe Racer model, here is another video, this time by Royal Enfield of Fort Worth

More on the Czar's Enfields

We have covered the order of Royal Enfields placed by the Czar during World War I that he probably never got to see. Here are some pictures of them. Well, more precisely, the same picture in two different places.

From the Motor Cycle, May 17th (by then the Czar was no more!):

Reader Pasi from Finland advances the theory that some of these bikes probably ended up with the Estonians. After the revolution, Estonia launched the war of independence and defeated the Russians and the Germans. He sends this picture from a book on the history of the Estonian independence

And he sends some detailed pictures

And he has one himself to restore!

Cafe racer: from concept to production

Most concept vehicles put out by automotive or motorcycle companies never see production. It is therefore quite remarkable that in a short time Royal Enfield went from concept to production on the Cafe Racer. Obviously, there were some small changes made. Here they are discussed in detail.

1925 for sale on ebay

For those well heeled readers of this blog, there is a beautifully restored 1925 V-Twin for sale on ebay. Buy it now price is US$25,000. Here is a video of it.

200,000 Pageviews

Don't know much about the significance of this, but this blog has been visited 200,000 times.

Jay leno demonstrates sidecars on Royal Enfields

Cuenca to Machala

Local riders accompany others who are traveling to Peru. From Royal Enfield Ecuador.

Where in Punta Carretas?

During the dictatorship of the 1970's and 1980's, Uruguay had one of the highest incarceration rates per capita, at least for political prisoners, in the world. Many of these were held at a jail known as Punta Carretas, located in the neighborhood of Montevideo that has the same name. It was the place of a daring escape through a tunnel of 106 prisoners. The current president of Uruguay and many members of the government served time there.

After return to democracy in 1985, it was transformed into Montevideo's most upscale shopping mall. I was visiting the place a few days ago and suddenly noticed a brownish familiar figure in the window of an upscale clothing store named Kosiuko. It was a Royal Enfield Desert Storm. And for sale, for around US$8800. It had a Royal Enfield made like a gun neon sign on top of it.

We covered the Montevideo Royal Enfield dealership. It is in a dodgy neighborhood, where you're unlikely to find the type of shopper in Uruguay who can afford a Royal Enfield. Most motorcycles sold here are Chinese, some retail for US$900 brand new. In fact, there was a piece in the paper recently indicating that on Mondays there is a spike in motorcycle thefts. This is because in the weekends the police conduct extensive checks for DUI. And the fines are larger than the cost of a motorcycle. So some people just don't pay the fines and lose their bikes and go steal a new one on Monday! Anyway, I think it is a great idea to have the bike displayed in that store. It surely will increase sales. I also saw a huge billboard in one of the main avenues of Montevideo with a Royal Enfield promo.

Shell Enfield II

Reader Barbara was reminded by our post about Shell Enfield of a certain cigarette lighter she owns.

Bullet Bose

G Subhash Chandra Bose was a dominant figure in racing in both motorcycles and cars in India in the period ranging from 1969 to 1994. He was most famous for winning GP and then rally races using a 350 Bullet against formidable competition of Japanese and other foreign bikes. He also went on to bag the Chief Minister’s trophy for Best Rider in 1985, 1988, 1989 and 1993, and was also awarded India’s Best Rider award in 1990 and the Ugadhi Puraskar in 1993. He was Enfield India's official factory rider from 1976 on.

Musket V-Twin 998cc starts!

Continental GT walkaround video

The Lady Drives in The Motor Cycle

We have published in its entirety the pamphlet that the Enfield Cycle Co. produced in 1916 in order to entice more female riders. Here is the coverage its publication got the The Motor Cycle. Ipad users may need to go to the URL to see it.

Lady Drives

Janus motorcycles

Janus is an American motorcycle manufacturer. Their philosophy is " to produce a line of simple, stylish, easy-to-ride and light-weight motorcycles that will appeal to a new generation of male and female riders." Their first model, the "Halcyon", is "an homage to 1920’s and 30’s record-breakers; Brough Superior, Indian, Triumph, and Zenith, to name a few... " I would add a 1922 Royal Enfield 125cc two stroke.

 I wish them well. But with a 50cc 9HP engine, I don't see much of a market for a bike like this in the US. It could not be ridden safely in many places...

Angry Bird

David Blasco has good coverage of the article about the Thunderbird that appeared in Business Standard. Here I want to refer more to what appears to be some sort of controversy surrounding this bike. Apparently, for some people, for Royal Enfield to produce a modern-looking bike is sort of inappropriate. I disagree. Obviously in India these bikes are going to sell well. There are not many cruisers in the market, and certainly none in the price range of the Thunderbird. And as infrastructure in India improves, a cruiser makes a lot of sense for a lot of people. But even in overseas markets I see potential. Consider, for instance, the Triumph Speedmaster. It is the same concept as the Thunderbird. Take a bike from the  retro line, put forward footpegs, make it look moody and mean with black paint and voila! The Speedmaster has been in the lineup of Triumph for many years now, so it clearly must have a good customer base in the US. In fact Triumph also has the "America" model cruiser based on the retro line, so there is market for even more than one model! (In fact Triumph has two more cruisers, one also named Thunderbird, but based on bigger bikes). I have ridden the Triumph Bonneville on which these bikes are based and it is a boring ride compared to a Royal Enfield. If anything I would suggest putting the footpegs even further upfront for the US market. It should sell.

For the record, I cheated a bit creating the image, the Thunderbird (left) is shorter and taller, I stretched it out to emphasize the similarities with the Speedmaster (right). Perhaps Royal Enfield should consider doing the same thing in reality. There seems to be desire out there for low, long bikes. Take a look at Her Majesty's Thunder call for bringing back the model G, for instance.

Where in Amsterdam?

Thanks to reader Jan, we learn that already in 1903 Royal Enfield was exporting motorcycles to the Netherlands. This ad is from "De Kampioen", October 2nd, 1903. The dealer was J Witmondt. The place at 106 N Z Voorburgwal (a nice street with a canal in the middle) is behind a closed gate that Google maps would not allow me to traverse :-) But the place looks old enough to have been there in 1903.

Later they seem to have moved to Prinsengracht 291, this is from 1907,

The place is now a store that sells clothes for kids,

They also seem to have imported the Enfield cars. This is from 1914, when the Enfield car brand was not related to the Enfield Cycle Co. anymore.

Where in Chester? II

We had covered a Royal Enfield dealer in Chester in a previous post. Thanks to reader Jan, who spotted this picture for sale in ebay,

we can say there was probably more than one (look at the left). Here is what the place looks today,