Wednesday, October 19, 2011

Royal Enfield parts, too good to toss, too dippy to keep

Tossed in a box and offered for sale on CraigsList.
Royal Enfield motorcycles are mass produced in specific models. No sooner do these reach the masses, however, than certain specific parts are unbolted and chucked aside, to be replaced by after-market accessories (many of them available from Royal Enfield itself).

The result is boxes in attics and garages, probably around the world, containing the identical perfectly good and nearly brand new parts.

The items shown here are for sale on CraigsList in Appleton, Wis.  From a 2008 Bullet we have the full exhaust, $100; four blinkers, $30; headlight, $40; and airbox , $20.

I mused recently that hearths throughout America someday could be hung with a shiny chrome "bazooka" muffler from a Royal Enfield motorcycle. These are often the first item replaced (for something louder and, theoretically at least, more power inducing).

But what is to become of the unloved and unwanted plastic turn signals and the dim standard headlight in its dippy looking DOT-required adjustable rim? Flashier (pun intended) turn signals and full-size unaimed headlamps are the rage.

They are the rage right now, that is. Will there come a day when restorers place ads, begging elderly motorcyclists with fading memories (and their widows) to wipe the cobwebs off old boxes in the shed? The search will be on for genuine "factory" bits to perfect those museum-piece Royal Enfields from the 1990s.

Or am I crazy?

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