Wednesday, May 1, 2013

Trifield is a Royal Enfield with 865cc Triumph twin

The Royal Enfield Bullet looks great a with modern parallel twin motor.
Should Royal Enfield build a twin and, if so, should the new motor be a V-twin or a parallel twin (like the Interceptor)?

Well, ask the man who built one. In this case I don't mean Aniket Vardhan, who combined two Royal Enfield singles to build his V-Twin Musket.

Let's ask John Dawes, a Brit who lives in Spain and whose "Trifield" is featured in Sump Magazine.

It's a Royal Enfield motorcycle with a parallel twin Triumph Speedmaster motor. That's 865cc (60 horsepower!) in a finished and fueled motorcycle that weighs 100 pounds less than the Triumph.

The Speedmaster's unusual 270-degree crank positions its parallel pistons in such a way that they produce a lopping pattern of power pulses akin to those of a V-twin.

"It's a blast to ride," John commented recently on my item asking what kind of twin Royal Enfield should build.

"I say definitely a parallel twin with an offset crank is best; then you can draw on Enfield's history and keep the V-twin guys happy too!" he wrote.

Check out the Sump Magazine article for details on how John performed the neat looking transplant.

3 comments:

  1. Hi, Paul
    That line about the Trifield being !00lbs lighter than the donor Speedmaster really got my attention I can tell you that..Sourcing a modern Tri motor from a wreck is probably quite a task,'tho :-(

    You see I know a guy that's got a Redditch 350 with a very dead motor...

    Speaking of 350's
    Here's a kind of intersesting article (pictures only, unfortunately) about
    an Nepalese Enfield crew in Nepal http://www.truebikerspirit.com/2012/05/30/the-nepalese-tattoo-crew/

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Here's a shortened version of the link for that Nepalese photo gallery -- very cool:
      http://tinyurl.com/cge4dy3

      Delete
  2. Anonymous5/05/2013

    Hi Paul , I had no problem finding the Triumph engine , got it from Pinwall Motorcycles (USA)& it cost me £799 with most of the ancilares. Which was about half whot it would have cost in the UK ! Shipping was free as it came over in the back of a friends 1950s pick up he was importing !!

    ReplyDelete

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