A superb
and rare photo of the Royal Enfield 750 Interceptor Mk1 in 1964!
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.
Made largely for the US
market, it sported lots of chrome and an engine performance with less than 14
seconds to the quarter mile at speeds well above 175 km/h (105 mph).
It became very popular in the US,
but the classic mistake of not being able to supply this demand, added to the
demise of this last English made Royal Enfield. The Redditch
factory ceased production in 1967 and the Bradford-on-Avon
factory closed in 1970, which meant the end of the British Royal Enfield. After
the factory closed a little over 200 Series II Interceptor engines were
stranded at the dock in 1970. These engines had been on their way to Floyd
Clymer in the US,
who unfortunately had just died. His export agents, Mitchell's of Birmingham, were left to
dispose of them. They approached the Rickman brothers for a frame. The main
problem of the Rickman brothers had always been engine supplies, so a limited
run of Rickman Interceptors were promptly built. As far as the motorcycle brand
goes though, it would appear that Royal Enfield is the only motorcycle brand to
span three centuries, and still going, with continuous production. A few of the
original Redditch factory buildings remain
(2006) and are part of the Enfield Industrial Estate. From 1955 to 1960 Royal
Enfields were painted red, and marketed in the USA as Indian Motorcycles by the
Brockhouse Corporation, who had acquired the rights to the Indian name after it
went under in 1953. Floyd Clymer, of manual fame, was involved, but Americans
were not impressed by the badge engineering, and the venture was unsuccessful.
It was rather ironic that Enfields went 'Indian' in two different ways. The
largest Enfield
"Indian" was a 700 cc. The marketing agreement expired in 1960
and from 1961 Royal Enfields were available in the US, still through Clymer, but under
their own name, up until Clymer's death in 1970. Royal Enfields had been sold
in India
from 1949. In 1955, the Indian government looked for a suitable motorcycle for
its police and army, for use patrolling the country's border. The Bullet was
chosen as the most suitable bike for the job. The Indian government ordered 800
350 cc model Bullets, an enormous order for the time. In 1955 the Redditch company partnered Madras Motors in India in
forming 'Enfield
India'
to assemble, under licence, the 350 cc Royal Enfield Bullet motorcycle in Madras (now called
Chennai). Under Indian law, Madras Motors owned the majority (over 50%) of
shares in the Company. In 1957 tooling equipment was sold to Enfield India so that they could
manufacture components. The first machines were assembled entirely from
components shipped from England,
but by 1962 all components were made in India.
This is
a very nice and very rare non
period photo that reflects a wonderful
era of 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 11" (ca. 20 x 28 cm). It makes it perfectly suitable for
framing!