A superb
and rare photo, of a Royal Enfield army motorcycle.
Royal
Enfield was the brand of the Enfield
Cycle Company, an English engineering company. Most famous for producing
motorcycles, they also produced bicycles, lawnmowers, stationary engines, and
even rifle parts for the Royal Small Arms Factory in Enfield Lock. This legacy
of weapons manufacture is reflected in the logo, a cannon, and their motto
"Made like a gun, goes like a bullet". It also enabled the use of the
brand name Royal Enfield from 1890. In 1955 Enfield of India started assembling
Bullet motorcycles under licence from UK components, and by 1962 were manufacturing complete bikes.
The original Redditch, Worcestershire-based company dissolved in 1970, but Enfield
of India, based in Chennai, continued, and bought the rights to the Royal
Enfield name in 1995. Royal Enfield production continues, and now Royal Enfield is considered
the oldest motorcycle model in the world still in production and Bullet is the
longest production run model. About 1890, Townsend got himself into a bit of
financial trouble. He called in some financiers from Birmingham, but they didn't quite see eye to eye so Townsend parted
ways with the financiers leaving the company to them. The financiers then
appointed R. W. Smith & Albert Eadie to take control of Townsend's in
November 1891. The following year the company was rechristened as "The
Eadie Manufacturing Company Ltd". Soon, Albert Eadie got a profitable
contract to supply precision rifle parts to the Royal Small Arms Factory in Enfield, Middlesex. To celebrate the contract, Eadie and Smith
decided to call their new design of bicycle the "Enfield". A new company was created to market these new design
bicycles called "The Enfield Manufacturing Co.
Ltd", in October 1892. The next year, the word "Royal" (after
the Royal Small Arms Factory) was added to the company name and thus the Royal
Enfield began. Their trademark, "Made Like A Gun" appeared in 1893.
The first automotive vehicles with the Royal Enfield name were produced in 1898
- a quadricycle with a De Dion-Bouton 2.75 hp engine. This appears to be the
first motorised example of what we now refer to as "ATV's" or
"Quad's". In 1901 came the Motor Bicycle with a 150 cc 1.5 hp
(1 kW) engine above the front wheel. In 1902 a similar contraption appeared
with an Enfield engine of 239 cc 2.75 hp (2 kW). In 1910 came
the first of the famous Enfield V-twins, first with Motosacoche 344 cc 2.75 hp
(2 kW) engines, later with Enfield's own engine. Until World War I the big twins with
770 cc six hp J.A.P. engines and after WWI 976 cc eight hp
Vickers-Wolseley engines. In 1915 came the first of the small two stroke
225 cc engines, starting with model 200. The company merged with Alldays
& Onions in 1907 and produced cars called Enfield-Allday until 1925. The
First World War began in 1914. Royal Enfield was called on to supply motorcycles to the British war
department and even awarded a contract to build bikes for the Imperial Russian
Government during the same period. The machine gun combination and the
6 hp (4.5 kW) stretcher-carrying outfit were some of the models
produced for the war purpose. Enfield started using its own engines, a 225 cc two-stroke single
and a 425 cc V-twin about this time. In 1917, the officers of the woman's
police force were issued with a 2.1\4 RE 2 stroke. The models of this period
featured 600 cc, inlet-over-exhaust closed valve gear, hand operated oil pump,
two speed countershaft gearbox and chain final drive. The 1915 make in-line 3
cylinder 2 stroke prototype was the world's first with this configuration and
engine type. They also made the only known two seater car, the Enfield
"Autolette" made in 1914, complete with four cylinder engine with a
bore and stroke 59x100mm with a cubic capacity of 1,093 cc. and delivers
9 horsepower (6.7 kW). Other rare examples include the four seater
four stroke and a two seater two stroke. The Enfield Autocar Company Ltd. of
Hunt End Works in Redditch was formed in 1906 to handle the car making activities of
the Enfield Cycle Company. In the early 20th century they moved to Sparkbrook
after being taken over by Alldays and Onions Ltd. The interwar year was a
period when the sidecar reached its zenith. The year 1924 saw the launch of the
first Enfield four-stroke 350 cc single using a JAP engine. In 1928, Royal
Enfield adopted saddle tanks and centre-spring girder front forks, one of the
first companies to do so. The bikes now with a modern appearance and
comprehensive range, meant continuous sales even during the dark days of
depression in Great
Britain
towards the end of 1930. In 1927 Royal Enfield produced a 488 cc with a four
speed gear box, a new 225 cc side valve bike in 1928, and a four-stroke single
in 1931. Several machines were produced in the next decade, from a tiny two
stroke 146 cc Cycar to an 1140 cc V-twin in 1937. Royal Enfield's range of bikes for 1930 consisted of 13 models. During
World War II, The Enfield Cycle Company was called upon by the British
authorities to develop and manufacture military motorcycles. The models
produced for the military were the WD/C 350 cc sidevalve, WD/CO
350 cc OHV, WD/D 250 cc SV, WD/G 350 cc OHV and WD/L 570 cc
SV. The most well known offering beyond doubt was the Flying Flea aka the
Airborne. This lightweight 125 cc bike could be dropped by parachute along with
airborne troops. The factory also manufactured a variety of special instruments
and apparatuses to use against enemy forces during war. In 1931, a four-valve,
single-cylinder was introduced and christened "Bullet" in 1932. It
had an inclined engine and an exposed valve gear. It was the very first use of
the now famous Bullet name. In the late 1950s and early 1960s, Royal Enfield
produced a number of 250 cc machines. The biggest selling of these was the
Royal Enfield Crusader, a 248 cc pushrod OHV single producing 18 bhp (13 kW).
In 1965 a 21 bhp (16 kW) variant called the GT Continental, with GRP
tank, 5 speed gearbox (which was also an option on the Crusader), clip-on
handlebars and rearset footrests was launched. It sold well with its "cafe
racer" looks. Other variants were the 250 "Turbo Twin" fitted
with the Villiers 247 twin two-stroke engine. An oddity was the 250 Clipper,
mainly notable for its use of trailing-link front suspension (all the other
250s had conventional telescopic forks). During the onslaught of the Japanese
motorcycle manufacturers in the late sixties and early seventies, the English
factories made a final attempt with the 1962 - 1968, series I and Series II.
This is
a very nice and very rare non period photo that reflects a wonderful era of 1940s
motorcycle history in a wonderful way. This is your rare chance to
own this photo, therefore it is printed in a nice large format of ca.
8" x 10" (ca. 20 26 cm). It makes it perfectly suitable for framing!