Royal Enfields: Made Like a Gun, not with one

Saddle pistol, shotgun exhaust pipes.

Royal Enfield motorcycles, "Made Like a Gun," seem like natural mounts for a saddle gun and holster. Here's a picture of a Western style holster and pistol on a fantasy motorcycle.

This picture was making its way around the Internet even before my daughter Anna spotted it on Boing Boing.

I see it on the Innocent Bystanders blog as early as May 31, 2010, but even it doesn't claim to have originated the picture.

Some who have commented on the picture note that the label on the seat identifies it as from Wicked Cactus Leather of El Paso, Texas. It is shown on their website. They do make motorcycle seats, gun holsters and knife sheaths ("anything made of leather, really") so there is probably no reason they couldn't make one up for you.

Their pictures make it apparent there is a matching holster on the other side of the bike. I think that's overdoing it. I recall once hearing someone who had studied the Old West explain that cowboys almost never wore two guns.

"If they couldn't get the job done with six bullets, there wasn't much point in having 12," he said.

On the other hand, if the intent is to put a damper on Road Rage, the armed rider would want to advertise his arsenal to drivers on all sides.

There is a "bullet hole" in the fender, no doubt one of those magnetic phonies.

The motorcycle sporting the saddle gun is clearly a show bike. One Internet comment pointed out that the exhaust pipes visible in the picture are set up in double-barrel "shotgun" style.

Another comment wondered what the rider would do when he parked the bike. Take the handgun with him, one presumes.

While the Western saddle is attractive, I think that for use on a Royal Enfield, the nod still has to go to the "optional" Thompson submachine gun.

Military Channel test fired submachine gun on a Royal Enfield.