'British Custom Motorcycles' features Royal Enfields

"British Custom Motorcycles" includes Royal Enfields.

Custom Royal Enfield motorcycles are among the bikes featured in a new book, "British Custom Motorcycles: The Brit Chop"  by Uli Cloesen.

Offered by Veloce Publishing  at 10 inches by 10 inches, the book is large enough to provide a good look at its 250 photos. You can download several sample pages.

"Many books have been written about British bikes and their racing history, but no one has devoted an entire book solely to the British-only custom motorcycle, and its chopper, cruiser, bobber and trike scene... until now," the publisher boasts.

The book's featured motorcycles are from around the world; only the motor has to be British to qualify it.

There's even a separate chapter on Royal Enfield customs built in India.

Author Uli Cloesen has been involved with motorcycles since 1975, including owning a Royal Enfield. Other books by him include "Italian Custom Motorcycles," "Italian Cafe Racers," "BMW Cafe Racers," and "Japanese Custom Motorcycles." He lives in New Zealand.

In his Forward, Cloesen writes of discovering Royal Enfield Bullets while in India, and being intrigued that a British design of the 1950s remained in production, virtually unchanged. He shipped a 350cc Bullet home to New Zealand. He doesn't mention customizing it.

The chopped motorcycles in the book typically appear meant to draw — drive, really — attention to themselves. I enjoy what I take to be admiring glances when I pass by on my Royal Enfield. But it would require a stronger ego than mine to thunder by on one of these babies.

"What kind of man is enough of a show-off to ride one of these?" I wrote the author, attempting to get a rise out of him.

"Bikes are like life itself; there is the good, the bad and the ugly. Still, variety is the spice of life," he replied, mildly.

The book is available for purchase from Veloce or at Amazon.