V Twin video

Celebrities that ride Royal Enfields

A list of 11 celebrities that ride Royal Enfields. That's a rusty bike that Gul Panag has!

The Enfield Co.'s outing

Although it says that the picture was taken in the hotel grounds I couldn't find any rocky formations close to it. It probably was taken at the Heights of Abraham Hilltop Park, which is nearby.

At Lyme Regis

Reliability trial in Leeds

City Square looks much the same

In the Cotswolds

The Plough Inn is still there!

Custom Himalayan

A custom Himalayan from Smoked Garage.

Nice gallery of the KX Concept

This article includes a nice gallery of the KX Concept bike.

F. J. Walker at the Quarter Bridge

A cartoon of F. J. Walker, who placed 3rd with a Royal Enfield in the 1914 Isle of Man TT. However, he had fallen, probably had a concussion and overshot the finish line and crashed against a wall and died.

Today there is a lot of vegetation to see the bridge clearly but the Quarter Bridge pub is still in the back.

The news of his death.

Custom Enfield choppers?

In this blog we don't normally pontificate on what Royal Enfield should do. After all, what does a physics professor know about motorcycle markets. But here I am basing this on a piece by The Vintagent (Paul d'Orleans). He muses about how the motorcycle market in the US is on the way down. Motorcycles are just too perfect and they do not offer striking design beauty features as new motorcycles did in the past. He argues that factories should cut alliances with modifiers and offer customs. I think this idea could work well for Royal Enfield. There exist great customizers in India, but they are essentially unaccessible for people in the most lucrative markets, the US and Europe. One cannot contact a shop in India to have an Enfield customized, it would be a nightmare meeting emissions and safety standards in the US and the inexperienced customer would have to do it. But what if the factory took care of that? They could partner with reputable customizers in India and offer a limited group of custom motorcycles, the buyer could choose features online and Enfield would guarantee the bike is US street legal. Now, think about it: a chopper in the US is $50,000 to $100,000, way away from most people's pockets. But a Conti or Interceptor customized in India could probably be profitably sold around $10,000. And with the 650 Twin, it would have a respectable engine. I think a lot of buyers would go for it. I predict it could be a gold mine!

Growth in October!

3%!.

The Conti GT makes Popular Mechanics 10 best list

The 10 best motorcycle buys of 2018, according to Popular Mechanics.

The Concept KX.

Royal Enfield introduces a concept V-Twin. They just follow on almost to the date 7 years later on the direction this blog laid out towards generating world peace!

At Ballig Bridge

According to Wikipedia, Ballig on the Isle of Man "...is the site of a former notorious hump-back bridge used for the Isle of Man TT Races on the primary A3 Castletown to Ramsey and the road junction with the A20 Poortown Road in the parish of German in the Isle of Man. The former Ballig Bridge was part of the Highland Course and Four Inch Course used for the Gordon Bennett Trial and Tourist Trophy automobile car races held in the Isle of Man between 1904 and 1922. Also, Ballig Bridge was part of the St John's Short Course used between 1907 and 1910 and part of the Snaefell Mountain Course used since 1911 for the Isle of Man TT Races and 1923 for the Manx Grand Prix."

The humpback bridge was removed in 1935 and the road straightened. The above picture is from 1914. This is what it looks like today.

At Bray Hill

In the 1914 Isle of Man TT.

Some features are recognizable still today.

An Enfield trophy display

Sometime in 1914