Vintage Royal Enfield oil dipstick tells tale

There's something different looking about this oiler filler cap and dipstick.

 It's easy for young people, and even not-so-young people, to assume that some feature of daily life is the way life has always been. 

Or, at least, has almost always been. 

Television hasn't always been in color. Clocks haven't always been digital. Popcorn didn't always come from a microwave. 

To my recent surprise, Royal Enfield dip sticks haven't always been marked for oil level. 

Hardly an earth-shaking discovery, I admit. But it is the sort of vintage motorcycle discovery that delights me. 

The tip-off was an eBay ad I noticed offering a "Royal Enfield Oil Cap with Dipstick Models G, J, J2 Bullet and early Twins No. 19670." 

There was something odd about the accompanying photo: the stick of the dipstick folded underneath the cap, whereas the dipstick of my 1999 Royal Enfield Bullet always projects stiffly out from the bottom of the cap.

Eyelet allows measuring rod to swing under the cap.

Whereas the dipstick on my Bullet is fastened fairly firmly to the bottom of the cap, with a rivet, the eBay dipstick is free to swing from an eyelet under the cap.

And, whereas the dipstick of my 1999 Bullet is flat, and marked "H" at one point for high, and "L" for low, the eBay dipstick was just a rod. There seemed to be no way it could be marked with a letter of the alphabet.

(It may have some indent or other marking to indicate level; I can't tell from the photo.)

There are further differences. The top of the vintage cap specifies what oils are recommended for the motorcycle. The classic old names are evocative: Castrol Grand Prix; Essolube Racer; Golden Shell; Motorine 'B' Deluxe; Mobiloil 'D'.

Vintage kit, for certain. Ceandess dipstick dates from the 1940s.

The cap on my Bullet only cautions that I use oil that meets standards set in the owners' manual. Boring.

Inside the vintage cap the maker is identified as "Ceandess Ltd., Wolverhampton." Ceandess is still in business and still making filler caps! According to its website:

"Ceandess was founded in 1924 by Chilcot, Stephens & Scott and has been part of the Midlands metal engineering industry ever since. In the 1940s Ceandess developed a range of filler caps for the British motorcycle and car industries and we take pride in the continued development and supply of filler caps, necks and filters within the industry."

That pretty much dates the vintage cap.

The parts books online at Hitchcocks Motorcycles do in fact show part No. 19670 with the dipstick folding beneath the cap. It is specified for "Early Bullets, Twins and G, etc."

The discovery brought a smile of recognition to my face. Back when I bought my 1999 Bullet new, the online forums were vocal on the subject of oil level.

More modern dipstick is flat, firm and marked for High and Low.

Fill the oil to well below the "H" mark on the dipstick, ran the usual advice to novices. Any oil added above that level quickly burned off, sometimes in clouds of white smoke at start-up.

The simple round rod of the vintage dipstick likely would not have imposed the psychological sense of Fill-it-Full-or-Fail encouraged by the arbitrary level marking.

I suppose the motorcyclists of old would have been reassured to see there was oil in the oil tank. Only a dry, or nearly dry dipstick would have signified much.