Royal Enfield motor and frame for sale in different bikes!

Royal Enfield twin started life in an Indian Tomahawk; but not the one it's in now.

A rare Royal Enfield motor and frame were briefly "reunited" on eBay recently, when they were offered for sale by separate sellers. They are now parts of two different motorcycles. The 1955 500cc twin motor was for sale in a motorcycle near Las Vegas,  while the frame was for sale with a different motor near San Francisco.

"Hello," one seller informed the other on eBay, "this is a 1956 model year frame; the frame was manufactured in 1955 and is actually the correct frame number for my engine, which can be seen in my auction here 120883590814 ... small world!"

Motor 5T4775 and frame 5T4792 apparently left the Royal Enfield factory in Redditch as an Indian badged Tomahawk twin. This 500cc motor was the smallest of the Royal Enfield twin-cylinder motors, but it was in the newly redesigned Royal Enfield frame of the day.

1956 Tomahawk frame now carries a single-cylinder Woodsman motor.

Frame and motor parted company at some point before 1993. The frame became part of a nice looking custom with a 500cc single-cylinder motor from an Indian Woodsman (a rebadged Royal Enfield Bullet). This motorcycle is now badged as an Enfield.

The motor, too, went into a custom design. The seller explained that "the project concept was to take a '50s Indian Enfield twin and set it up stock but in 'street scrambler' form similar to mods performed on these bikes in the 1960s." The frame from a nearly identical Indian Trailblazer twin was used. This motorcycle remained badged as an Indian.

Original Tomahawk motor is now in the frame of a Trailblazer.

Both motorcycles look terrific. Neither is "factory" original anymore but that won't matter to their buyers. As for the coincidence of coming up for sale at the same time, what can anyone say?

"It's a small world."