Could it stand a little competition? Perhaps from this Victory motorcycle, shown in uniform at the Los Angeles International Motorcycle Show last weekend?
The Victory 100-cubic-inch V-twin is a long way from a 500cc Royal Enfield in size, power and cost (Victory's prices start at about $14,000). Victory's Batman style bruisers always look a little too Hollywood to me. They weigh 645 pounds and up, and come with a "tip over protection" system "in case you forget to put the kickstand down."What would Col. Clive Wynne-Candy have thought of that? Egad!
Still, as Royal Enfield guru Pete Snidal once said, military stuff is just so much more "butch" than anything civilian. This Victory military does almost look like it came from the local Army-Navy Surplus store.
Except, of course, it's just a paint job.
Military motorcycles are the heritage of made-in-India Royal Enfields, since it was to serve the military needs of India that the factory was built in Madras (now called Chennai) in 1955.
It's deeper than that, too, since made-in-Britain Royal Enfields had long served in England's wars. British and Commonwealth armies used motorcycles in general (Royal Enfields, Nortons, Triumphs, BSAs and everything else) the way the U.S. military used the Jeep.
The tradition continues. A Royal Enfield engineer I met told me that, even in recent years, the factory has shut down civilian production and poured its energies into filling big contracts from India's military and police forces.
The Royal Enfield sold to civilians in the United States as the Military model is not necessarily the same machine serving on the Northwest Frontier. Early on, for instance, the Military sold here had a glossy "parade finish" paint job unlikely to pass muster in the field.
But never mind that. Make mine a Royal Enfield Military. Egad!
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