1977, USA.

We have chronicled the history of Royal Enfield in the USA. After the closure of the factory in the UK in 1970 we thought that not much more (apart from used sales) happened in the US till 1997, when Marty and Debbie Scott decided to import Enfields from India. It was a big undertaking, as approvals of the Department and Transportation and the Environmental Protection Agency were needed and these are complex and expensive.

But now we unearth this November 1977 issue of Cycle World. In it, a piece about an Enfield India 350, available through a distributor in California! We have not been able to unearth further information. The article is a bit too full of cliches about India in it, starting from the title (and with someone dressed up as Sherlock Holmes riding), but apart from that it is a quite positive and decent article about the bike. Sorry for the rather distorted pictures of the pages, if you click to enlarge they can be read.

There seems to be no trace left of "Ricky Racer" in Pomona and 444A East Monterey seems to be a parking lot today. How he got the bikes DOT and EPA approved for sale in the US is another Enfield mystery!