Trying to bring life back to rusting Enfield

Few things spark a motorcyclist's imagination like finding a forgotten old motorcycle rusting away under a tree someplace. It's impossible not to think what it would be like to make it run again.

For a blogger named Luc, that motorcycle is a 1999 Royal Enfield Bullet 500. It had been left in the sun and rain for two years, covered only by a tarp, in Iraklio, on the Greek island of Crete. His reaction:

"Glory Hallelujah! I found what I was looking for. Ecce moto! It’s an old iron barrel Royal Enfield Bullet 500, the classic type, no frills."

Luc has blogged about his search for a Royal Enfield. He had been focusing on a recent model, the Electra, but a couple of failed attempts to find one used apparently left him open to the idea of bringing this older Classic back into service. A native of Belgium now living on Crete, Luc has started a blog for the project.

Luc says the bike has 35,000 kilometers on it. His pictures show some intersting accessories like single seat and pillion pad, and bar-end turn signals. My eye immediately noticed the left-side shift, which I had thought was only for the United States in that era. Could this be a U.S.-spec bike somehow transported to Crete?

Luc says he hadn't been on a motorcycle in 25 years when he took a test ride last year on a new Royal Enfield. So far, he hasn't got so much as an owner's manual for his restoration project on this one. It will be interesting watching how he fares.