First Royal Enfield lines up to become a Musket V-twin

The first "customer" Bullet ready for conversion to a V-twin Musket.

Whatever else happens to it, the unassuming Royal Enfield Bullet shown here will always have the distinction of being the first customer bike converted into a Musket V-twin.

Aniket Vardhan, the young Columbus, Ohio man who built his own double-barreled Bullet in 2009, recently announced that his design is about to go commercial.

And now, "Here it is, the very first customer bike," he wrote on his blog.

"An immaculate 500ES, ready for the full treatment. Got here last week, practically unused, a bare 600 miles on the odo. Belongs to a collector from Massachusetts who has been very supportive throughout the project and expressed the clear intention to have a Musket done as soon as things got rolling production-wise.

"Well, he bit the Bullet, shipped it over to me and here we are! This complete build for a customer bike will be very useful in calculating the costs for the whole job for those who would rather go that route.

"Will be putting heart, soul and body into this machine; hope I can handle the stress of sending it out when done, with the hope that it gives the owner many miles of smiles and doesn't drive him nuts."

This gallery of photos of Aniket's prototype 998cc Musket gives some idea of what the customer bike will look like when done.

The award-winning 998cc Musket prototype.