Royal Enfield custom is a masterpiece

The Delta. (Photo from BikeEXIF)

 The "Delta" is a custom Royal Enfield that really is a rideable work of art. The editor of the BikeEXIF website chose it as one of his top custom motorcycles of 2025. 

Go to BikeEXIF's article on the Delta for more of its gorgeous photos of the motorcycle. 

Being chosen for the 2025 BikeEXIF Editor's Choice Awards really is an honor, placing the Delta among the best custom motorcycles the website featured all year. 

It's an entirely emotional choice. Editor Wesley Reyneke first eliminates motorcycles that made the website's "stats-based Top 10." 

Never mind statistics: the Editor's Choice selection are based simply on the fact that he considers each bike on this alternative list of winners "unforgettable in its own way." 

He doesn't even rank his Top 10. They're listed alphabetically by the name of the builder.

The result is an emotional set of choices with which no one else likely would agree. I choked when I got to a custom based on a Vespa. Another Royal Enfield custom on the list left me unmoved because "subtlety went out the window" on that design.

Too much pizzazz always leaves me wondering what to look at it.

The Delta custom, based on a Royal Enfield Super Meteor 650 (but, except for the gorgeous 650 motor,  unrecognizable as such), doesn't shout.

To me, its visual appeal is silent wonder.

Everything about it is in context, including an otherwise outrageous 23-inch front rim. and a headlight small enough to be a reflector.

"Making something that elevates the style, but having to make it work well too," is the fun part, builder Tom Gilroy of Purpose Built Moto told BikeEXIF.

"Subtlety was key," for this design, editor Reyneke wrote of his choice to add it to his Top 10.

The Delta was a commission from Royal Enfield itself, inspiring Gilroy to consider the meaning of Royal Enfield motorcycles to the company and customers.

"The question became, 'What is Royal Enfield trying to build?'" Gilroy explained to BikeEXIF.

"My answer was that they have cultivated a die-hard community of riders based on their unwavering commitment to heritage throwback motorcycles."

So, when Gilroy tells BikeEXIF that Delta's bespoke girder front fork was somehow inspired by the deliberately crude Flying Flea of World War II, I begin to appreciate the challenge he faced.

The Flying Flea had used rubber bands for springing. For Delta, an adjustable air shock from a downhill mountain bike was used for damping.

You can read about every subtle detail of the Delta in BikeEXIF's full story on it.

Scroll down to the last paragraphs, where Gilroy reports what Delta is like to ride. 

But first, full stop: I can't quit writing about the Delta without mentioning the two features I find most fascinating.

First, and most obvious, consider the shift lever that incorporates the clutch lever normally found on the handlebar. Practical or not, it's an exciting feature that has to make Delta exciting to ride.

Second, and nearly invisible, the normally prominent oil cooler of the stock 650 twin is gone. Instead, oil runs through the two front down tubes, with oh-so-subtle fins cut into them for cooling.

Does that really work? I don't know. But it is an outstanding visual improvement. And the opposite of pizzazz.

Haven't I seen your ugly face before?

It was a case of Beauty and the Beast.

 Royal Enfield once manufactured a motorcycle so ugly that even posing a pretty girl next to it wouldn't sell it. 

One advertisement showed the girl sitting on the Royal Enfield Model Z Cycar as a uniformed RAC officer gave her directions to her destination. 

The Model Z Cycar was a sales bust. But, funnily enough, a later look-alike motorcycle marketed by Velocette sold in numbers.

The Cycar and the Velocette LE look so much alike you couldn't pick one or the other out of a police line-up. So why was the Velocette such a success (production ran for more than 20 years)?

Well, for one, Velocette didn't try to peddle its ugly ducklings to pretty girls. It sold them to the police.

Same idea, from Velocette. But theirs was a success.

Paul D'Orleans of The Vintagent website, picked a Velocette LE as one of the "Top Ten" motorcycles scheduled for the Mecum Las Vegas Auction Jan. 27-31, 2026.

You've gotta know that he considered his choice — um — a bit controversial. My God: it's a boxy, underpowered, side-valve flat twin, and, what's worse it was the motorcycle that spoiled Velocette's reputation for building gorgeous motorcycles.

"Despite their popularity with the cops, this is the design that sank a great company," he wrote.

"They knew a people’s motorcycle would someday conquer the world, but that was the Honda C100, not a strange little water-cooled flat twin. "

The Velocette LE (for "Little Engine") up for auction is a 1970 model.

Not pretty, but it had its points.

Royal Enfield's own experiment with building a utilitarian people's motorcycle didn't even last until World War II. Only about 1,500 were built between 1931 and 1936.

Naturally, the Royal Enfield of 1931 wasn't even as sophisticated as the 1970 Velocette. The Royal Enfield had a 148cc two-stroke single cylinder motor, with three-speed hand shift.

But its frame was a clever single steel pressing, "offering complete protection from oil, grease and mud without sacrificing accessibility." Equipped with standard leg shields, it kept the icky stuff off a lady's skirt.

On the other hand, she was bound to get her hands oily using the gas cap to measure the correct amount of two-stroke oil to add to the mix.

Jorge Pullin has detailed information about the Cycar on his blog My Royal Enfields.

Interestingly, he has also tracked ad photos of the "lady in the fur coat" and her Cycar as Royal Enfield ran her around town posing with it!

Follow along as Jorge stalks the young woman from here.

To here.

To here.

And here.

Yes, they even made her wash it.

Modifications make a different Bullet

A Royal Enfield Bullet just like mine. Or was it?

 I own a 1999 Royal Enfield 500cc Bullet so, on a lark the other day, I Googled around to see what other 1999 Bullets are out there. 

The first thing to pop up was an eBay ad for a "1999 Enfield 500cc Bullet, Only 208 original miles." The asking price struck me as very reasonable for what must be a practically brand new 1999 Bullet! What a find. 

I expected to see a stock 1999 Bullet, just like mine, perhaps dusty from years of storage. But the motorcycle was very clean — and definitely different. 

The first thing I noticed was an attractive metal binnacle wrapping around the speedometer. Very nice, but obviously an aftermarket item. So, clearly, this Bullet has been modified to some degree. 

Note the binnacle around the speedometer.

I was pleased to see that a close-up photo of the speedometer shows that it is delineated in miles per hour, indicating this would likely be an original U.S. model. The odometer in the photo does, indeed, show just 208 miles.

The muffler on the motorcycle is an aftermarket item, much more attractive than the original bazooka. Not stock, but definitely an upgrade.

I ignored a couple of "Royal Enfield" insignias in places my Bullet doesn't have them — the aftermarket again? Markings on the toolbox label the motorcycle a "Bullet 500," and the rounded rear fender is correct for a 500cc Bullet. So far, it looked very familiar.

Something else that caught my eye was a curlicue in the oil line that feeds the head, with nodules, obviously meant to cool the oil. Not stock, but certainly clever, I thought.

Twisted oil line, intended to cool the motor.

Unfortunately, the official tag on the front down tube that might have settled what year the motorcycle is appears at an angle that does not show the manufacture date ("JUN 1999" on mine).

The tag on this motorcycle is in much better shape than the faded one on mine (blasted by water and debris kicked up by the front wheel for tens of thousands of miles). Again, an indication of low miles on the for-sale bike.

I began a search for other clues. The turn signals are the same as found on my 1999; unusual, as the mounting stalks of those things disintegrate with age, so you often see aftermarket turn signals fitted on an old Bullet.

A video in the ad shows the for-sale motorcycle running, and in the video the front turn signals are indeed changed to aftermarket items.

The handlebar controls look just like the Magura items on my early 1999 — the factory changed to Minda designs mid-year, again suggesting this motorcycle is indeed a 1999.

But this is strange: the back brake pedal is on the left side of the motorcycle. Royal Enfields officially imported into the United States from 1995 on were required to have the brake on the right, as does mine. 

Graham Scarth, of the Royal Enfield Owners Club (UK), helps motorcyclists determine the correct age of their Royal Enfields. He advised me that the numbers that are visible on the down-tube tag confirm that this Bullet is in fact a U.S. model.

This means that the motorcycle for sale should have its gearshift lever on the left side, if it is a U.S. model.

It doesn't. In fact, the photos in the ad show no gearshift pedal anywhere! How is this possible?

The brake lever is on the left, so there should be a gear lever here.

As with everything else, there is a possible explanation.

To be legal, Royal Enfield Bullets meant for the U.S. in the 1990s had their gearshifts on the left thanks to a peculiar bodge: crude and sloppy linkage that transferred shift action from the gearshift pedal, on the left, to the gearbox on the right.

I've worked hard to make this bodge work fairly well on my bike.

Some owners actually went to the trouble to install kits that reversed the modification, restoring shifting to the right side in hopes of better action. Perhaps that has been done here and the gearshift lever itself is off during modification? If so, this isn't mentioned in the ad.

The ad lists "Mikuni VM32 carburetor (up from 28), high performance camshafts, improved clutch, lightweight pushrods," all from Hitchcock's Motorcycles in the UK, a high end provider.

It also states: "208 miles, still needs to be ridden suitably to attain 500 mile break in. Upgraded components installed but no miles since that installation."

Instead of a look at exactly what my Bullet would have been like 26 years ago, the ad presents a look at how this motorcycle was modified. Interesting.

At the price, I'd consider buying this Bullet — if I didn't already have one.