My Royal Enfield photo won't make the 2022 calendar

Here's my (too late) entry for the Royal Enfield Owners Club calendar.

Keeping calm while carrying on is a tradition in Britain, and I am happy to see that The Gun, magazine of the Royal Enfield Owners Club UK, stands firm in its determination to do so. 

In fact, there is such optimism at the REOC that the club plans to issue a calendar for 2022 and The Gun solicited photographic entries for it from members. 

"Let us make this happen," membership secretary Teresa Langley asserted in The Gun's April-May edition. 

Teresa promises to let me know when the 2022 calendar is available for purchase. I will pass the details along when I get them. 

Unfortunately, I missed the deadline to send my photos of my Royal Enfield Bullet. But just the fact that the REOC thinks there will be a 2022 to make calendar entries for is reassuring. 

The emailed editions of The Gun for April-May and June-July 2021 are now tucked away on my computer. To summarize, yes, correspondents in fact did do considerable carrying on (griping) about cancelled branch meetings, missed motorcycle outings and binned events in the April-May, 2021 magazine.  

Remember that the April-May edition of The Gun was compiled way back when it seemed as though the pandemic would never end! 

Now that it is apparent that the pandemic will, in fact, never end, premature rejoicing that a corner was being turned adds a note of unreality to the June-July edition.

Turns out, it wasn't a corner we're at; we're in a roundabout. Just keeping turning, you're not going anywhere.

Still, hope for happier times lives on. There was good news in April-May's The Gun, as the welcome to new members (who joined in January-February) listed 139 names, including three from the USA. Seventy-two new members appeared in the June-July issue, including two more from the U.S.

Also in the May-June edition, Nick Burkinshaw wrote in with photos and the story of how he finally completed a "Trifield": a 1959 Triumph 350cc motor in a Royal Enfield Crusader Sports motorcycle.

He started collecting parts for this in 1976! Magnificent results, but I bet no one will notice the Triumph motor, as what catches the eye is that he powder coated the frame yellow beneath pale blue cycle parts.

The REOC Greek Branch has purchased and will restore a 1955 Royal Enfield bicycle, Andreas Papadakis advised readers of The Gun. He expressed hope that the REOC will add a bicycle specialist to advise on such projects. Volunteers, anyone?

The June-July cover of The Gun featured a beautiful 1917 Royal Enfield military motorcycle built for Tsarist Russia during World War I.

Even the actual Tsar and his family disappeared in that war, but bits of this motorcycle were found, in rough shape, in Estonia, and restored by REOC member Pasi Makiranta in Finland. He posed next to it (in a reproduction Russian uniform of the period) for the cover shot.

There's no topping The Gun magazine for amazing Royal Enfield stories like these. The magazine is one of the benefits of REOC membership. Like to join? Click here for directions for UK and non-UK residents.