"The EI characters in Thomas' bike's numbers suggest Eicher Industries, ie, wholly Indian made to me. Redditch continued to supply complete engines to India up until 1962 or so, but had certainly ended the arrangement by '66. If it's a 500 then clearly wrong! I seem to remember that it was reported a while back (in the UK old bike press,) that there was a dealer in Denmark who was supplying bikes with less than sound provenance (as our learned legal friends might say...) as a way of avoiding whole bike type approval, perhaps? I seem to recall that once into Denmark the other Scandinavian countries accepted the registration. Hmm! Great Blogsite, by the way! REgards, Mark"Original item:
Identifying Royal Enfield motorcycles can be a challenge. So I shuddered when the following comment showed up on this blog:
"I wonder if someone can help me identify my supposedly 1966 Royal Enfield. My bike has ID number: Frame number: G2/50910 E1/12910. Engine number: G2/50910 20620 E1/12910. Appreciate all help that I can get. Kind regards. Thomas Jakobsson, Sweden.
Can you help Thomas?
Royal Enfield is less well known than BSA, Triumph or Honda. But in its day it offered a bewildering variety of models for every purpose and purse. Some of these were sent to the United States to be sold as Indian motorcycles under still more model names.
So how nice it would be if every Royal Enfield motorcycle made was marked with a number that revealed its model and year of manufacture!
Unfortunately, things are more complicated than that. Here's what Roy Bacon wrote in his definitive book, Royal Enfield, The Postwar Models:
"This series of books normally contains as full a list as possible of engine and frame numbers for the machines described. This has not proved practical with Royal Enfield and it is with regret that the author and the publisher have omitted them.
"The reasons are two-fold. First the numbering sequence is known to be random to some degree and not to follow any pattern which would enable the information to be set out in an orderly fashion. Second is that, due to this, it would take a great deal of space to provide the data...
"Fortunately the records do exist and are contained in some 37 ledgers, each 27 by 18 inches and 3 inches thick, all held by the Royal Enfield Owners Club dating officer."
Chris Overton, an authority on many things, including Royal Enfield Interceptors, points out that "for twins, an approximate ID can be made using the chart at this link. Click on the 'chart' link."
Looking there, I think Thomas does not have a twin, since nothing seems to line up.
Unless someone reading this comes forward with an answer for Thomas, all I can do is refer him to the Royal Enfield Owners Club, where, for a fee, hopefully he will have his answer.
Thomas, the link is: Royal Enfield Owners Club.
Good luck.
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