The young man from Columbus, Ohio who built his own V-twin Royal Enfield tells how he did it and how he's trying to make it possible for you to have your own 700 or 1,000cc Royal Enfield V-twin motorcycle.Aniket Vardhan tells how years of day dreams and more years of hard work resulted in his beautiful Enfield Musket on his new web site, MusketVTwin.com
It's a stirring story, one of those rare times outside the movies when the lone hero overcomes all to create something marvelous. The web site explains how Aniket hopes to improve the castings at the heart of the Musket and make them available to those courageous enough to follow in his footsteps.
The web site includes a splendid gallery and links to the inspiring videos of the Musket in action.
Pictures are worth thousands of words, but Aniket also shares a little of his design philosophy. The full story is on his site, but here's what caught my attention:"1. Keep it as ridiculously simple as the original Bullet engine. Therefore, no modern updates to major engine internals, so it still has the stock tappets, no hydraulics, and the stock piston oil pumps...
"2. Improve the oil filter – I machined a new filter housing which uses a standard modern cartridge type filter available at Advance. This is not a screw on car type filter – that doesn’t look right, so I have a finned aluminum housing I made.
"3. Aesthetically — and this was very important to me being an industrial designer — keep the “vintage” and “Enfield” cues strong. I thought I would pick up from the last Enfield big twin, the Interceptor. The rounded profile of the front of the crankcase and pleasingly smooth and gently radiused forms of the castings and the cooling fins on the side of the wet sump. A wet sump simplifies matters and also ties in with the last Enfield big twin, the Interceptor Mark 2, which also had a wet sump.
"4. I love the external copper oil pipes that are such beautiful visual elements on vintage engines, so I decided to incorporate that as well...
"5. Keep the frame mods to a minimum and again keep the “vintage” feel going by keeping the single down tube — the Enfield big twins of yore had single down tube frames and handled well..."
The web site also includes a contact form for more information, should you be interested in getting in line for your Musket kit. Oh, and by the way: Hollywood? What are YOU waiting for?
Videos of the Enfield Musket V-Twin in action.
Why doesn't this fellow tell readers that it would cost perhaps $20K to build up a similar bike from the casting that he evidently plans to sell. Also, how does he, as an immigrant, currently support himself after having left his teaching job? The dole perhaps? In not impressed with his indulgence into engine design rather than using his skill in making a contribution to the Nation.
ReplyDeleteAl in Philadelphia
Thank you for your comment Al. The web site doesn't mention price. The price you mention actually seems low, to me, for something so special but that's conjecture on my part. I'm not in the market anyway, being satisfied with my stock Bullet. The biography on the web site mentions that Aniket was employed as a teacher. The school would have checked his immigration status. He has recently purchased a house, impossible on the dole. I think what he has done already is remarkable enough. I wish him luck in the future.
ReplyDeleteAl, whether you're impressed or not doesn't matter. Clearly you are checking out the wrong blogs.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, returning to the actual post, this is great news. I read it on the Bullet Yahoo groups (Nandan's) also & just wish Aniket best of luck. I hope the parts become accessible soon...here in India !
Al-Really? What are you doing to "make a contribution to the Nation"? Did you really get on this website and leave a comment calling into question the builder of something only two other people in the world have done? Do you really have nothing better to do with your time? Are you really sitting around reading this blog wondering how big of a douche bag you can be? My guess is, and of course I don't know you from Adam, is that Aniket has more talent in his little finger than you do in your entire "Nation contributing" body. How about you get quit hating on somebody who you are obviously jealous of and go do something productive with your time.
ReplyDeleteThis engine is amazing and the bike looks great. My bet is that if you could acquire a decently cheap bike, and do the frame mods yourself, then you could get a bike like Aniket's (depending on the cost of the engine of course) for no more than 15,000. That would make it way cooler than a cookie-cutter Harley, and less expensive than most. Where do I sign up for a Musket?
I'm not sure why anyone thinks this will take 20K to do. He's obviously capable of producing a repeatable design, at no cost to himself, that can be produced in either India (likely) or China. Read his website, he's done all of the work with borrowed machinery and in CAD. He's never going to be a considered a manufacturer selling kits so he's not going to have to comply with any government crap. It's the government that is expensive to deal with, not creating crankcases. I'd be surprised if the kit ends up costing more than a couple of thousand. He's not stupid, people aren't going to pay more than something like that. You can buy a whole bike for less than 4K. Besides, who says that USA is the market? Billion + people in India, thousands of Enfields, a passionate audience and no restrictive government. Why bother with the USA? China and India are growth markets, not the USA.
ReplyDeleteMoney can never bring in the happiness than creating something way too cool as this...speaking of cost estimates around 20k which a certain moron pointed out..I am sure he is not familiar with how the global inflation has shot upwards...I am sure he is another jealous immigrant who cant withstand someone doing better than him in america..You may like it or not but America is a nation made by immigrants..As far as the dole goes maybe you need more work on it than Aniket
ReplyDeletetrue i absolutely agree, leave the guy who accomplished it and congratulate him... cheers
ReplyDeleteAl......Shut the hell up U redneck.U re just ticked off because a guy 3000 miles from across the globe has mnaged to achieve so much while u can only comment on a blog.Who re u anyway?Does anyone care if u re impressed with his work or not?.....What are u his dad?U need to get back onto your fields and maintin silence buddy.
ReplyDeleteA fabulous job and worthy of congratulations. When I saw him start that engine I shared his obvious delight. Great job beautifully executed.
ReplyDeleteGenius !
ReplyDeleteHi Bro, can you just pls send me the engine block design, at least the picture as assembled in the same mega machine, so that i'll work with that to make my enfield in India! my ID 'indran.m17@gmail.com'
ReplyDeletethanks & regards,
Dev.
Iam sure someday in India the V Twin is going to roar like a king of roads and people can just close their ears,eyes and everything else if they cant take it. Fabulouse Job my friend you should continue this and create a brand for the new V Twin.
ReplyDelete