Jay Leno now rides Royal Enfield with a sidecar

Jay Leno with his Royal Enfield G5 and custom Inder sidecar.

Jay Leno took delivery of his own Royal Enfield G5 motorcycle a year ago. Now he has a sidecar for it, with the result that Royal Enfield once more is associated with America's best know "car guy" and host of The Tonight Show.

Royal Enfield USA president Kevin Mahoney, his wife, vice president Ron Greene and Mike Frankovich of NoHo Scooters in North Hollywood, Calif. visited Leno's storied garage to film a program about sidecars for Jay Leno's Garage.

Leno did a segment in February on the sidecar he has attached to his 1931 Henderson KJ Police Special motorcycle.  That motorcycle originally had a sidecar (lost over the years) and it even has a reverse gear. The modern sidecar was deliberately made to look old to match the all-original condition of the motorcycle.

In contract, the custom sidecar attached to Leno's G5 Deluxe looks shiny and new.

Kevin described Royal Enfield's day with Leno:

"He is riding his Royal Enfield quite a bit — it had just short of 2,000 miles on it. Someone did tell me that they went to The Tonight show and saw him take off on the bike and sidecar.

"Ron, my wife Mimi and I showed up at NoHo Scooters and picked up Mike. Ron rode Mike's G5 with a Rocket sidecar on it to Leno's Garage. It is not far. They decided to do the shoot in what they call the Bugatti Room. His collection is housed in a number of interconnected hangar like buildings. Each car is hooked up to a battery tender, has the keys in it and is ready to go. Not a speck of dust on any of the cars in any of the buildings.

Jay Leno shows Kevin Mahoney his old Henderson and its newly old sidecar.

"About the time we got there Jay showed up. We spent quite a bit of time just talking about different bikes that he had, sidecars and about how much he likes his Royal Enfield. He also customized a sidecar and put it on a very old Henderson of his. You will hardly recognize the sidecar. He has an earlier video about the Henderson on his site.

"I think he looks better in person than he does on camera. He is quite 'fit' in person. When he started to film, his hair was a little wild and my wife felt compelled to fix it for him. We all got a good laugh but he was grateful.

Royal Enfield USA's Ron Greene talks sidecars with Jay Leno.

"Ron carried the day with Jay. He is our resident sidecar expert and has owned many. The process is very casual. Jay just wings it. He is so knowledgeable it is no problem for him to do so. Before he starts he asks if there are any specific points you want to go over. He is a very casual guy and already knew us so it was quite comfortable.

"Right after the shoot lunch was served. They have a full blown kitchen in the shop so everyone sits around and eats pizza, pasta salad, etc. He said that he did a piece there once with Martha Stewart and used a huge shop press as a garlic press."

I didn't yet see the sidecar segment on Jay Leno's Garage, but here's the May, 2011 program on Leno trying out his new Royal Enfield G5 Deluxe.