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| No! A Royal Enfield Bullet with a unit constructed motor in 1963? Yes, like this example I spotted at the Ace Cafe in London in 2011. |
You should join at the Royal Enfield Owners Club website. You'll "enjoy the benefits of a friendly community and access to many resources not available to the public."
Not least of which is The Gun.
Viewed from the perspective of 3,000 miles across the ocean, The Gun inspires its reader to daring deeds performed under difficult circumstances, without actually requiring that you get out of your chair. It's ideal, in other words.
Some examples:
"By 11 a.m. we were on the way, Matt, Neil, Ron, Mike and I to meet with Chris and Elaine at King John’s Castle Limerick," John writes from Ireland.
"We were on the run by 12:50 on the route closest to the one Patrick Sarsfield and his army of 600 would have taken in 1690 to defend Limerick at Ballyneety."
The very route! Well, close enough. How stirring!
With even greater courage, Trevor writes:
"My wife however, finds the pillion end of the dual seat quite uncomfortable. She is not that wide in the posterior but finds the seat too narrow. We also ride a Meridan Triumph T100 and she finds the seat on this bike quite OK. I am looking for advice to a solution to this problem, which doesn’t include swapping the wife."
And what about the righting of wrongs, such as the too often overlooked fact that the Royal Enfield Bullet had a unit constructed motor as early as 1963. John Dove writes:
"A small number of club members and enthusiastic 'New Bullet' owners have decided to pool information and experience about this rare 350cc model produced in Redditch between 1963 and '65. To that end it is our hope to form a 'New Bullet Register.'"
And then there are the club reports, where dash and dash-it-all really combine.
From Wessex: "The June club night was well attended, with 10 bikes following Doug Hopkins down some very narrow lanes and through a muddy farm yard, which really pleased those who had recently cleaned their bikes!"
From Kent: "When Alan Barringer's bike backfired on 22 May it seems he triggered an earthquake immediately below his home near Sandwich. It’s rumored that a budgie fell off its perch in Margate and the cliff-top Otty Bottom Campsite moved up to 1mm closer to the sea." (This item is accompanied by a map showing the epicenter of said backfire.)
From West Riding: "The quiz seemed hard and I am sure Dudley (ex-police motorcyclist and also Advanced Riding Instructor) was not overly impressed with our scores."
From South Midlands: "We were delighted to have Mr. Roger Boss as our speaker. Roger, an employee of the Enfield Cycle Company from 1950 to 1967, started as a tester, spending many hours on two wheels. Roger gave a very illuminating talk about the company over the years and unfortunately, its demise."
Yes, the Gun does not blanch at tragedy. But there's always Hope, and the Certainty that, in two months' time, there will be another edition.
Great photos and magazine. I'll bet however, that if RE has their "development center" up and going then every member of that group is a potential "spyshot" photographer just in case that Royal Enfield that just doesn't look quite right comes blasting up a road.
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