Photos of Royal Enfield's two-stroke motorcycles

One spark plug but two exhaust pipes on 1926 Royal Enfield two-stroke.

Richard Miller, author of the Red Devil Motors blog,  recently pointed to a trove of photos of Royal Enfield two-cycle motorcycles.

Royal Enfield Two Strokes Models is a Flickr collection by Motos Anglaises.

The photos reveal Royal Enfield's long history with two-stroke motorcycles that began before it got around to producing the famous Flying Flea for World War II paratroopers.

The oldest models, in particular, display the absolute basics of early internal combustion motors.

Also on view are what look like crude but effective suspension systems and workable provisions for tools and luggage. Much of what we call "a motorcycle" was on sale by Royal Enfield a 100 years ago!

Improvements have been many. One of them, in my opinion, has been four-stroke motors.

The only example of two-stroke technology in my garage is a small outboard motor boat engine for our canoe. I view it with suspicion. Mixing oil with gas is too much of a math challenge for me. I don't want to go too far in the canoe because of the likelihood that I could be paddling back!

That has never happened; but a two-stroke rental Vespa barely made it up hills in Corfu and then only after my wife got off and walked up.

That was enough of that!