Enfields in India

www.london-motorcycle-museum.org

India Trip April 2019

It started with a wedding invitation from a good friend. His daughter was to be wed in a hotel in Guwahati, India. Flights were booked and with the collapse of Jetair rebooked with Air India. It felt like someone didn’t want us to go. We did go and had a great time staying with family and meeting a few of the Assamese pop stars. A trip to Gangtok in Sikkim was organised and this where the motorcycle interest starts. 

For some reason we had to get lots of copies of things to be allowed into Sikkim and this took ages. Someone doesn’t want us to get there again! The next day in, lovely sunshine, views of the Himalayas came and went with passing clouds, as the day progressed the air became more humid and the views became murk. Time to stop sight-seeing and then a pleasant burble of a twin cylinder motorcycle passed by: an Enfield with two exhausts. It could only be the new twin. It carried on by and I didn’t get a good look at it. In going around Gangtok, which is a town on a hillside there were numerous Royal Enfields around.

More than I had seen anywhere else. I guess that the low speed pulling power of the single was ideally suited to the terrain. The older ones clattered around like an old British bike but the new ones were so quiet mechanically. In a few days we would be in Delhi on the final leg of our trip and there would be a good place to have a look at one as there were 20 showrooms to choose from. I did a web search when I had internet access and discovered a new model, the Bullet Trials. I had an idea to get a good look at a Himalayan, the Twin and this trials model. I chose two of the closest showrooms to where I was staying and with a driver to take us around went in search. The first one was a bit difficult to find but had all three models. Outside was a twin which was an Interceptor, a parallel twin with a 270 degree crank and a six speed box with some 50bhp on tap. It looked a little like the old Norton Dominator.

At the same showroom was this Bullet trials factory replica and it looked the business for classic trials. I was hoping to get aboard a Himalayan but the only one was parked outside and difficult to get at so after a nice chat with one of the sales reps we went off to a second showroom. Still no luck in having a twin or Himalaya on display but access to the trials model was much better and this one I had a chance to sit on and get a feel of it. I did like it and the seat height was low enough for me to get my feet on the ground even though it was on the centre stand. The 350 had about 20bhp on tap and the 500 25bhp. 

Modest by today’s’ levels but it should be satisfactory for the job. Think of the performance of the Ariel ridden by Sammy Miller in the fifties and how successful he was on that machine. It is about power delivery rather than ultimate performance. On leaving this showroom another twin was spotted and looking at it, it was slightly different with lower bars and was a Continental GT.

I wonder how many other variants there are. I did not see one Continental on display, but there were Thunderbirds in various guises, Classics and Bullets, perhaps the demand was not there? We had a great time looking at Royal Enfields, driver, nephew and me.

Pollution

www.london-motorcycle-museum.org

Pollution

I am steadily working my way through Road, the MAG magazine, about surveys that have been carried out and being treated as gospel by the powers that be that are completely false. When questioned about the results you will find some things have been omitted. One such survey has made a global assumption that there are only one percent of the journeys in London are on motorcycles and it turns out that motorcycle journeys are more that two percent of the traffic. The accident statistics can be halved straight away so riding in London is much safer than the powers that be have used to try to remove motorcycles from the traffic. Lies, lies more lies and then there is statistics! Along the same theme I have finished reading RoadSmart the IAM magazine winter 2018/19 that has a report in it on pages 40 and 41. Dutch of the BikeShed supporting motorcycling and on the other side of the coin is Dr Claire Mcloughlin Communications Manager of the UK Health Alliance on Climate Change. In her summation she quotes a report from 

www.greencarreports.com/news/1067907_motorcycles-are-more-poluting-than-cars-new-devices-shows 

that is dated October 2011. The report does not mention which vehicles had been tested and that information would have to be verified and then updated against a selection of newer bikes that are emission compliant and the equipment being a reliable source of data. It says that bikes are 300 times more polluting than cars . It does say motorcycles use less fuel and produce much less CO2. But the other stuff it did not identify. I sent this on to MAG for them to pursue. If this information is relied upon, and probably has been it sounds like doom for all old bike users or at least until the bikes are 40 years old!

One sunny day at the Museum a fairing, covered in dust bird droppings and cobwebs was sitting around waiting for a new owner. In my enthusiasm I gave it a wash with a view that it might just get a better price. One all the muck was off I could read what it was The Avon Streamliner and with the help of Martin who looked up the faded registration number it belonged to a SORN 1957 red BSA 650. Someone who still owns that BSA might want to know what happened to the fairing if so please contact me on the Museum e-mail.

On my last duty at the Museum I was quite surprised to see the Greenford Police LE on display. It looked fine but I have still not completed the reassembly. It still needs a wiring harness, handlebar switch and left twist grip. The right one is Amal so if anyone has a left Amal grip it would help to finish it off. 







I still have the screen to repair and paint and the apron to be refurbished. It is in two parts and glued together and looks like underwear for a very large lady. The screen is held together by 4BA nuts and bolts so I need to get some ordered from the BA bolt shop.

Recently we have had some good numbers of visitors and that included a party of eighteen French students that I had the honour of taking them around the Museum and answering questions. Not in French I must add but there was a bit of Franglais. A couple of students had some real interest in the Triumph Thunderbird cutaway and it was a real pleasure to be taking some technical details about bikes. Much of my new found knowledge was from finally reading Ian Spalding’s MotoGP Technology. It is a book for the anoraks with much interpretation of the detail changes that you can see to make the bikes go better. It took me months to read and absorb the detail. It is a shame that Ian is not part of the BT Sport team as he was with Eurosport. I miss that sort of stuff.