REOC's 'The Gun' magazine is loaded with lovely stuff

The Gun magazine sounds off for Royal Enfield Owners Club UK members.

Time for our occasional update here on the Royal Enfield Owners Club UK, as reported in the most recent two editions of the club magazine, The Gun.

The Gun magazine for August and September, 2019 seemed to specialize in suggestions for ways to have fun on a Royal Enfield.

Here's advice from John Hunter, on riding in India: Always aim for the back end of a cow. They don't walk backwards.

Devon Branch members experienced so much rain on their ride to Great Torrington that it was renamed "Great-Torrent-On." So British.

Later the Royal Enfield's Exeter dealership brought new Royal Enfields to show off at the Devon Branch rally. When one member's Bullet broke some teeth on the way up, the dealer loaned him a new Interceptor to ride on the associated outing. Lucky break.

The Suffolk Branch report reminded riders to "bring a sidestand support for soft ground parking" at one event.

North Yorkshire members took cover from rain in a bus shelter during a ride-out. (All the cafes were full of pedal bike riders.)

Quizzes are common fun at chapter get-togethers, but the Kent Branch reported something I hadn't realized was done: prizes for both the winner and "the thickest." In this case, their winner got a box of chocolates as a prize and the thickest got a wooden spoon.

I don't understand. Anyone? (Don't know? A helpful reader provided the answer, in the Comments on this post, below. Thank you!)

Somerset and Dorset branch heard from guest speaker Rodney Cross, whose mother was the remarkable Clara Dunbar Cross, first woman doctor admitted to the Royal College of Physicians. His father was Roland Cross, whose innovations in sealing rings were tested in Royal Enfield Crusader 250s. Today they're in jet engines.

West Riding chapter went on a "mystery run" — so much of a mystery that the leader did not plan a full route and made up something on the go. Their "mystery stop" on the ride was odd railway infrastructure left over from World War II.

The chapter reported that a member with a diesel-powered Royal Enfield made it to the British Diesel Motorcycle Rally, a round trip of 650 miles, "and whilst slow it was certainly a cheap trip!"

The Gun for October and November, 2019 contains the obituary of early REOC member Dave Bogg, written by Steve Mayhew, another early member, who remembers his friend's fondness for the color red — such that the center stand of his Royal Enfield Constellation was painted red.

"Our friendship was all due to this club as is so many others... long may it go on," he wrote.

Don Mckeand described the 2019 REOC International Rally, which especially celebrated the 70th Birthday of the Bullet. He noted that its actual birth, like his own, was in 1948, but production sales started in 1949, so...

The goal of attracting 70 Bullets to the event was easily surpassed. No less a personage than author and world-traveler (by Bullet) Jacqui Furneaux wrote in to say how much she enjoyed the event.

The South Lancashire Branch report included its Red Rose Rally, overlooking some beautiful countryside.

"I genuinely found riding through the clouds added to the atmosphere," our correspondent wrote. (The weather improved the next day.)

James French detailed progress on his 1956 350cc Clipper project. It now goes 60 mph, whereas he remembers the one he had at age 14 would do 75 mph.

He consoles himself that he isn't so fast anymore either.

There's so much more in The Gun. To get it, just join the Royal Enfield Owners Club UK.