The Royal Enfield Story: A Tale Of Two Singles

At around half past three on Tuesday afternoon, Mohan knows he’s very near closing an important deal for his airline, which would get him out of his unfamiliar low sales rut. Just before the day's end, he loses out to the rival player, this after three days of persistent sweat and sweet talk. His calm expression hides a downed heart as he says bye to the guys, and rolls back home on the 5:46 AC, nodding slightly to a Steve Winwood playlist. It’s been a rough day. 

Mohan ducks in and out of the shower, then heads down the elevator into the basement, and walks towards a little glint of chrome in an unlit corner. As he nears the two wheels he’s proudest in the world to call his own, a small smile melts away all his previous intestinal by-product descriptions of the day. A decompression and two kicks later, and he’s off to buy bread at Satya’s bakery twelve kays away, after deciding against getting it delivered. Because somehow that beat his silver Bullet orchestrates never fails to soothe his stressed neurons.

Chicken and cheese sandwiched for supper, he sits on the single couch and places his prized book on the coffee table, feeling the familiar nirvana of slowly turning the glazed pages of that particular Royal Enfield collector’s edition hardbound…

It was around the time Sir Arthur Conan Doyle introduced Dr. John H Watson to Sherlock Holmes when the gods smiled down on the vision of a sturdy frame for the bicycle that would mature into a rather famous motorcycle. In the early 1880s, George Townsend Jr. had evolved the "Townsend Cyclists Saddles and Springs" company from a producer of a local inventor’s single coil saddle to a manufacturer of complete bicycles remembered for their robust scaffolding. Around ten years later, after bagging a valuable contract to produce precision rifle parts for an arms factory in Enfield, Middlesex, the newly-named-and-controlled "Eadie Manufacturing Company Limited" commemorated the occasion with the release of the Enfield bicycle. The link to, pardon the pun, 'royalty’ began when the specialised company producing these bicycles became "Royal Enfield Manufacturing Co. Ltd".

Image source - www.hembrow.eu

Royal Enfield’s initial foray into mechanised vehicle manufacture began with three and four-wheelers with an unimaginable gross output of 1.75hp. Quite soon after the hype and hangovers of the biggest parties the right side of the 19^th century had died down, French designer Louis Goviet penned the first ever Royal Enfield motorcycle. With the remarkably small Minerva engine mounted over the front wheel, it went into production immediately in 1901.

The front-engine design soon lost 'traction', since the first wheel was overtaxed for grip around corners due to excess weight up front. The engine was moved to behind the front wheel on the frame and came to temporary rest under the rider’s rear. Royal Enfield then furthered a division purely for production of cars and motorcycles called the Enfield Autocar Company. The Alldays and Onions Company took over proceedings of the soon cash-strapped Enfield Autocar from 1907 up until 1924, when the name “Bullet” was first adopted for car models produced under “Enfield” and “Enfield-Allday” badges.

Image source - www.royalenfield-paysbasque.com

Where there is a wheel, there is usually a way to compete. In 1909, Royal Enfield produced a quality set of two wheels that used a strong 297cc, Motosacoche V-twin motor coupled with a belt drive. The V-Twin went on to become very successful, winning prestigious reliability trials like the “Edinburgh to London” in 1910. Two years later, the Royal Enfield Model 180 with a 770cc JAP engine and sidecar competed convincingly in the famed Brooklands races. Some versions were exhibited with a machine gun fitted to the sidecar to garner public awareness of their versatility. This publicity did not ‘stunt’ the company’s growth by any means, because when World War I ensued, strengthened Model 180s realised huge demand not just from the UK, but France, Belgium and Russia as well.

Royal Enfield Model 180; image source - www.motorcycle-74.blogspot.com

However, the motorcycle we so fondly know actually spawned in 1934 when 350cc and 500cc displacement iterations were released with exposed valve gear - the first true Royal Enfield Bullet. Post-WWII in 1947, Enfield reintroduced the 500 Model J with kinder-to-spine front hydraulic damping system. This economical workhorse sold good numbers, while revolutionary rear spring suspension was introduced on Bullet 350 OHV and 25hp 500 versions shortly afterwards. Wonders never ceased with Enfied around that period, it seems, as the manufacturer is credited with producing in 1959 what was possibly the first superbike in history - the 700cc Constellation Twin. Some Enfields even crossed borders into the US, rebadged as red-liveried Indians. The Yanks, however, did not take too warmly to the immigrants.

Efficient Japanese motorcycles were to become all the practical rage around when the world’s best concert ever took place in that ranch near Woodstock, New York. What was to follow could have been forecast the moment the first frugal import was successfully tested. The demise of British Royal Enfield occurred finally in 1970 when their Bradford-on-Avon factory was shut down, meekly aping the Redditch facility’s end in 1967.

Mohan pours a stiff whiskey and lights his post-meal smoke.

India, meanwhile, had more than twenty years of familiarity with the good ol’ thumper before Britain’s Enfield fabrication ground to a halt. 1955 saw the government order an 800-strong consignment of Enfields that were to be mainly pressed into border patrol service. Working to lower production costs, the Redditch firm chose Madras Motors as partner to assemble British-built components into the largely unchanged Bullet 350s under the “Enfield India” title.

By the late fifties, the Indian offshoot was manufacturing Royal Enfield components locally after purchasing the necessary tooling. Enfield India became wholly independent producers of Bullets in 1967. The company kept churning out examples of these singles for almost thirty years, till Eicher bought over the company in 1994, and obtained the rights to the “Royal Enfield” name the following year.

Unfortunately, there was a long time when a Bullet was not “Made Like a Gun” like its original 1893 trademark advertised. Worrying oil spills occurred anywhere they were parked more than momentarily, and the itch to ditch lube from any supposedly-sealed joint had the knack of creating brilliantly random black streaks on just-laundered attire. Not too much complaint was made at the time, since there really wasn't much choice in the market at the time to threaten shifting of loyalty to a competing bike maker.

However, demographics of buyers have changed especially over recent years. Younger, ‘sophisticated’ buyers in spotless chinos began demanding improved-everything, adding to the safe and more silent customer base of yore. Enfield sat up and took notice of its shoddy workmanship which turned out to be a good thing for the company. Royal Enfield can’t keep up with current demand and is ramping up production capability. Steps in the right direction are constantly being made, and though most Bullets today still ride on that basic 1960s design, they are exponentially more reliable, and easier to ride and live with now. A lot of buyers presently even use them as daily commuters, something that even the bravest enthusiast couldn’t have been bribed to do previously.

Image source - www.flickriver.com

The relatively-simple-to-modify Bullet sparked local chop shops aplenty. Results, sadly, have not always been entirely delectable due to bank statements often taking precedence over quality personalisation work. However, a handful of low-profile mod-gurus do still take pride in keeping national customisation colours at full mast. Aftermarket jobs like silencer replacements to attain that perfect pipe length and pump out the right acoustics are almost unwritten requirements of new Enfield owners today. Let’s not forget world-renowned names like Swiss Enfield distributor and tuner, Fritz W. Egli, and Englishman Andy Berry, who transcend geographical boundaries to showcase their skill and passion on the Bullet canvas.

The Royal Enfield portfolio today has a dozen single-cylinder models in 350cc and 500cc displacement variants, true to their unique mechanical upbringing. The engineered protagonist holds the longest continuous production cycle for any motorcycle in our spinning sphere’s two-wheeled history – the Bullet has become an obvious stalwart in the Motorcycle Hall of Fame. Glory put aside, there quite simply isn’t an alternative to that iconic bass resonance sending jitters down the chassis of predominantly characterless new-age competition during a nonchalant pass on open tarmac. Since often parroted are phrases like “glorious history” and “timeless heritage” in the same breath as “Bullet”, this unflinching single-cylinder icon warranted a small excavation into Royal Enfield’s time capsule.

Author Illustration

Mohan swigs the last remnants of his second drink, clinks the stubby glass down on the balsa table, and reads the handwritten epilogue on the back cover he remains deeply rooted to:

A family in the nineties,

An ailing man in his fifties,

And a Bullet from the sixties

Finally went separate ways.

It was an emotional goodbye,

But the next meeting’s on lay-by.

A stretch, a scratch, and few steps later, he’s under the covers with the fan at full tick. It’s one in the morning and he’s exhausted, but fulfilled. Mohan’s day improved by night, when he grabbed those valuable couple of hours to exercise a blessing he knew was his – being able to sample and understand why only some legends will be truly fit for royalty.

@turtletorque