Royal Enfield Motorcycles Photographs
December 1, 1999

Pictures of various models of Royal Enfield motorcycles, both British made and Indian made, mostly taken at events in the Netherlands, but also the UK, Germany and Belgium. there are some special sections available:
Fairs and events - Vehikel Utrecht, National Veteran Rally, etc.
Personal - personal pictures of personal bikes
RECN - pictures of meetings and rallies of the Dutch RE club
REOC - pictures of visits to events of the British RE club
Special request - put together according to wishes of guests regarding specifig models
Travel - Travel stories
Yours - pictures send in by you

all sections show pictures about or around Royal Enfield Motorcycles

Royal Enfield motorcycles were first made in 1898 in a small factory in Redditch, Worcestorshire, England, where production continued until closure at the end of the 1970's, when a lot of British motorcycle factories went closed down.
Since 1954 the Royal Enfield 350 Bullet has been made in India, first assembled from parts shipped over from the British factory, later completely manufactured in India. While the British production stopped in the '70s the Indian one continued until today with nearly the same model and engine.
In 2008, there will be a new model on the market, with a completely new design engine, due to European environmental legislation (i.e. noise reduction).
The Royal Enfield factory has little in common with the famous Enfield gun but for its name. The name Royal Enfield came from the Royal Small Arms factory in Enfield near London, which was a big customer of the special parts the first factory made. First the mark Enfield came on the first bicycles and motorcycles the factory made. The Royal was later added. The slogan of the new make was appropriate 'made like a gun' which was their trademark until closure.
Over the years a lot of models from very small to the biggest British motorcycles of their time passed the way to the customers. Although the Royal Enfield factory was not a very large one, it left its mark by continuous innovation and efficiënt use of parts on different models. During the 1920's and 30's RE was famous for their big V-twins, which were used during the 1st world war by different millitary among which the Russian. The capacity of the v-twins grew from 425cc (the model 140) in the beginning of the 20th century to 1140cc, the model KX, in the late 1930's, which was the largest v-twin available at that time.
Also their 225cc twostroke was a famous cheap every day bike which lasted in some form until WWII.
During the 2nd world war Royal Enfield participated with a few models, which were nothing less than updated prewar models, like the 350cc valve model C, the 350cc overhead model CO (though updated), the big single sidevalve 570cc model L and the small 250cc sidevalve model D which all got a prefix WD/ (War Department).
Famous is the 'flying flea' a 124cc lightwheight twostroke, designed after the German 98cc DKW, of which the Dutch DKW importer Stokvis & Zonen (Sons) send a sample to the Royal Enfield factory, because just before the war the Nazi government wouldn't deliver DKW's because Stokvis management was Jewish.
The flying flea was ment to be dropped by parachute behind enemy lines as a means of transport for paratroopers. The small motorcycle was closed in by a tubed cradle of which several were found in the clay near Arnhem.
Postwar started with the selling off refurbished wartime motorcycles like the model WD/CO mostly in the color black and restyleded prewar bikes, now with telescope forks, like the models G (350) and J (500)
In 1948 the new Bullet 350 with a full springframe came on the market and a new 500 Twin motorcycle, both a great success. The Bullet would go on with ever better performance engines until the sixties. The 500 twin evolved from 500cc (500 Twin, Meteor Minor), via 700 (Meteor, Constellation) to the largest British twin the 750cc Interceptor which lasted until the factory closure.
During a few years in the mid fifties Royal Enfields were sold under the (American) Indian label with names like Chief, Apache, Woodsman, Fire Arrow and Trailblazer.
During the 60's Enfields answer to the Japanese twostroke attack was a 250cc twostroke Villiers twin, which was a moderate success. A great success were the 250cc Crusader and Continental GT, the last one being a ready to go café racer.

Royal Enfield was a Ltd. Co. but with largely one family in management, the Smith family, it looked like a family business. Ann Bradfords book Royal Enfield, the story of the factory and the people who made it great is a great read and gives you an idea of a factory in those years from 1898 to 1970.

The photographs are taken at various events in the Netherlands, the UK, Germany and Belgium. There is also a special section with pictures the visitors of Royal Enfield Motorcycles Photographs send.
The Album is hosted on my 'payed for' webspace (Casema 100Mb), my father's webspace (Orange 20Mb), a free webspace (Orange 20Mb) and another free webspace (Byethost 250Mb). The total space of the album is now about 200 Mb. The several maps of the album are joined with simple 'forwarding' html scripts, which allows me to move around with the maps between the different web servers. The album was made with JAlbum using the ExhibitPlus skin in black. Some personal features (Royal Enfield logo, webrings, e-mail, guestbook) were added in the News.inc section. The header.inc has the title of the album in big font and there is a counter in the footer.inc so I'll know how many visitors Royal Enfield Motorcycles Photographs gets.