Royal Enfield parallel twin: An Interceptor or an Edsel?

Royal Enfield's incredible sales successes with its single-cylinder motorcycles only fuel enthusiasts' hopes for a powerful new Royal Enfield twin.

The prospect of a twin-cylinder Royal Enfield evokes memories of the mighty Royal Enfield Interceptor of the 1960s.

I reported in January, 2011 that Royal Enfield plans a parallel twin, the same configuration used by the 750 Royal Enfield Interceptor back in the day.

Since then, my email has reflected the hopes of fans in the U.S.

"Now would be the time for the parallel twin; blow your competitors into the weeds and unlock markets that haven't been yet served," wrote John Donlon, of LaGrange Park, Ill.

"As I have said before: a Bullet with a twin becomes a Meteor, an Electra with a twin becomes an Interceptor and the Continental GT with a twin becomes a Metisse. Three new bikes with one engine change."

Such a motor is coming, the authoritative blog Visordown reported. (I have not been able to confirm the size of the twin or the timing of its release reported in that article.)

But what would a Royal Enfield powered by a twin look like anyway? And how would it fare in the U.S. market? I found interesting the following cautionary comments by "Lannis," of Appomattox, Va., on the WildGuzzi forum. He wrote:

"Being a Britbiker with original '50s and '60s bikes myself, I understand why the Enfield single was and remains popular. It doesn't have anything to prove; it can johnny-pop around the countryside and break down every once in a while and go really slow and that's all OK, 'cause it's cheap and historic.

The Edsel.

"But a parallel twin? People are going to expect more out of that; they may even expect something like a Hinkley Triumph twin.  But if they get something anything LIKE the 1970 Royal Enfield Interceptor it's going to be an Edsel-sized sales disaster. Those were terrible bikes even in their day, as opposed to the single.

"What I mean is, the Enfield single was attractive to a certain type of person because it was a direct, genuine descendant of the British Enfield of 1955. Made the same way, with the same warts, eccentricities, and idiosyncrasies, and looked the business, too...
 
"So with the 'new' Royal Enfield Interceptor twin they've got two choices:

"1. Make it a direct copy of the 1970 twin, like the single was; hey, it worked once, maybe it'll go twice. If they do that, it'll be a nightmare and no one will buy one. They'd rather have a Chang Jiang, and with good reason.

"2. Make it a brand-new bike, with styling cues from the old RE 750, a la Hinkley. I'm not sure that would work.

"Heckfire, people didn't know what the RE twins were back when they were NEW! There weren't many around, and they didn't run for long when they were around. There's just no 'history' to help the new technology get accepted with the 'cachet' of the old one.

"I'm not hoping they fail. I'm just not going to be blindly optimistic about its chances, in hopes of adding to some karma stream that will get the bikes sold."

2015 Iron & Clematis Vintage Motorcycle Show

All metal and shiny everywhere, this Triumph Triton cafe racer was a highlight.

Funny how the things that attract the eye at a vintage motorcycle show are invariably either shiny or soiled. A rusty wreck looking like it was just pulled out of a barn can draw as much attention as a fully restored motorcycle.

The Second Annual Iron & Clematis Vintage Motorcycle Festival in downtown West Palm Beach, Fla. Feb. 21 had plenty of both.

Alloy fairing on Triumph Triton cafe racer.

A shiny Triumph Triton cafe racer on show fulfilled anyone's dreams of seeming perfection.

Imposing 1929 Henderson 4. Check the rustic yet rugged stand holding it up.

Across the street, a time worn 1929 Henderson couldn't be overlooked. Displayed behind its magazine clippings, it is as-is after years of use (and modification). The clippings told the story of its life and preservaton by members of a single family.

The 1929 Henderson had a full set of instruments.

Clematis Street is the center of old West Palm Beach. The vintage motorcycle show was concentrated in the 500 block of Clematis, which has the downtown's highest concentration of historic buildings.

Henderson 4 is rough looking but ready to take you anywhere.

Vintage yachts were on show in the marina at the bottom of Clematis. Their varnished wood seemed a complement to the shiny metal just up the street.

Vintage motorcycles and vintage yachts were on show the same day.

Royal Enfield races off-road in 1954 movie

A pretty Royal Enfield gets a real run in this 1954 Swedish comedy.

A beautiful Royal Enfield motorcycle features in the cornball 1954 Swedish movie "Åsa-Nisse på hal is." Google translates that as "Asa-Nisse On Thin Ice."

You see the Royal Enfield best in this short clip.

If you have the patience (it probably doesn't matter whether you speak Swedish; the plot is obvious) then watch the full movie.

It's a bone-headed comedy built partly around an off-road motorcycle racing event. Footage of that is excellent.



The elderly bumpkin Asa-Nisse proves his ineptitude on a motorcycle in the short clip above. Then he inadvertently takes over for a fallen rider in the motorcycle race and wins the event.

There's plenty of other silliness, too; the movie's title refers to the opening sequence featuring a wild ride on an ice boat powered by a motor wheel.

There have been many Asa-Nisse films, starting in 1949 (and another was released in 2011) but they are not considered a high point of Swedish film making.

On the other hand, this film does include some excellent motorcycle racing footage and even, near the end, a car race featuring one of my favorite British motor vehicles, the little known Austin A90 Atlantic convertible.

Rarely seen Austin A90 Atlantic convertible in racing action.

Royal Enfield in disguise was longtime motocross champ

This veteran Royal Enfield racer was proudly displayed at motorcycle show.

"Royal Enfield in disguise" proclaimed the hand lettered sign on a veteran 1956 Indian Woodsman motorcycle at the Dania Beach Vintage Motorcycle Show Jan. 31.

"Ruled South Florida dirt races (motocross) from 1956 to 1966," the sign claimed.

Hand-lettered sign proclaimed it a "Royal Enfield in disguise."

Could it be that the big 500cc, single-cylinder Woodsman by Royal Enfield dominated local motocross tracks for a decade?

It's hard to believe that a lump that looks quite a bit like my own 1999 Royal Enfield Bullet was ever a race course powerhouse.

For more information I called the motorcycle's owner, Herb Doan, of Miami Shores, Fla.

"I meant that the Indian Woodsman ruled the tracks, not that this bike and I were dominant," he explained.

In a 1995 article in The Sun-Sentinel newspaper, Doan, then 65, called himself a motocross "addict."

"A South Florida rider from way back," is how one motocross rider described Doan recently on the VitalMX forum. "I grew up in Fort Myers and rode in Naples, Miami, West Palm, Okeechobee, Dade City, Croom and anyplace else you can think of and Herb was everywhere."

1956 Indian Woodsman looking as it was raced.

You'll find a reference to Herb Doan and the Hurricane Motocross club he belonged to in the April, 1959 edition of American Motorcycling magazine. He'd won a race in a February 1, 1959 scrambles with 22 entries. Two hundred people attended the event, the item claimed.

The Woodsman was appropriately displayed on dirt.

The July, 1960 edition reported that Doan was the "High Point Winner" in a Fort Pierce, Fla. race.

He was there in the May, 1979 edition as well, winning a race in the senior category.

Doan told me that he started racing in 1953. He would have been 24 at the time and new to the idea of riding off the pavement.

"I had a couple of very heavy motorcycles. I started with a 1948 Harley Davidson 45 and from there I went to BSAs. They were heavy, I thought."

Weight actually helped, in a way.

"It helped handle, the Florida sand," Doan told me. The weight added stability in the sand.

"In 1957 the Indian dealer in Miami, Sherman Polhamus, let me have this Woodsman to race and I rode it for 10 years," Doan said.

"It was 75 pounds lighter than the BSA."

Doan doesn't remember if his Woodsman ever had lights but, if it did, they came off, along with the front fender, for motocross. The rest of the bike remained pretty much the way it came, stock.

Knobby and gnarly looking.

Now 85, Doan still goes to motocross races from time to time on newer bikes he owns. But these days he might just practice instead of racing.

He likes to say he's known for racing with all his wheels on the ground. (A photo displayed with the Woodsman, though, shows him with both wheels in the air.)

"I don't reminisce too much unless people ask me," he said. But Doan still talks like a racer.

"It's more important to talk about today; what makes motorcycles faster," he said.

A Royal Enfield and a woman alone across India

Author Michèle Harrison and her Royal Enfield in May, 1998.

Michèle Harrison and the Royal Enfield Bullet motorcycle she dubs "Big Thumper" are the heroes of her book "All The Gear No Idea; A Woman's Solo Motorbike Journey Around the Indian Subcontinent."

It's available for Kindle on Amazon (and, with Amazon's free app,  for smartphone, tablet or computer as well).

The book begins as Harrison, a 30-something financial services worker in London, frustrated by what seems to be a series of laughably uncommunicative men, runs off to India, with a plan — sort of.

Having only just earned her motorcycle license, she buys a new Royal Enfield Bullet in New Delhi in October, 1997 and journeys on it for almost a year. She is so green at the beginning that she commits the most basic error possible on a Royal Enfield. I won't spoil the story, but perhaps you can guess what it is.

"All the Gear No Idea" is a bit of a happy-go-lucky travelogue, written in a breezy, conversational tone. But this is no weekend in the country. Harrison covers 17,000 miles.

There is the constant caveat that this is a woman traveling alone, perhaps up a dangerous road in bad weather with no certain idea where she will sleep this night. Harrison steadfastly refuses to acknowledge fear to people she meets — and perhaps to herself as well.

Occasionally it's only the fact that there are more pages to go that reassures the reader she will survive some new danger.

As she travels, Harrison finds herself often mistaken for a man, in part because she opts for a man's haircut to accommodate her helmet. But it's also because no one in the places she goes expects to see a woman traveling alone on a motorcycle.

She gets propositioned a lot, and occasionally gives in to a desire for romance. Notably, these two experiences have nothing to do with one another.

Her Royal Enfield Bullet is her most loyal and only constant companion and its dents and scrapes become a sort of diary of mishaps.

As she travels, Harrison gains affection and respect for her Royal Enfield motorcycle. But caring for its needs leaves her with a different set of conclusions than you might be expecting.

Harrison at the same spot, in October 2013.
What a difference the hair makes!

In the end, it's more important for her that she gains confidence in her own abilities to deal with life's challenges.

"I am increasingly worried that your audience will be very offended once they find out how badly I treated my gorgeous Enfield," Harrison wrote me when I asked a question about her book.

"I am sure you know by now why I called it 'All the Gear and No Idea.'"

Yes. But I noticed that, in the Epilogue, Harrison's final thought is, indeed, for that battered Royal Enfield.

"All The Gear No Idea" is hardly the last word on motorcycling alone across India and it probably won't be the final word on a woman doing it. Perhaps it's unfortunate that Harrison waited 17 years to publish what is, in effect, her diary.

The advantage is that time gives the author perspective on her own experience.

Royal Enfield lists top selling U.S. dealers for 2014

Royal Enfield adopted aggressive pricing, boosted sales in 2014.

Here are the top 15 U.S. Royal Enfield dealers, by sales, for 2014. Pat Canney, director of marketing for Classic Motorworks, announced them.

Note that there are many ties, and thus more than 15 dealers on the list.

"As it stands we more than doubled our sales in 2014 with a growing dealer network as well. We’re all very excited for what 2015 holds for Royal Enfield here in the U.S.," Canney wrote.

Is your dealer on the list?

1. Royal Enfield of Fort Worth, Fort Worth, Texas

2. Fremont Honda Kawasaki, Fremont, Calif.

3. Bodacious Bikes, San Antonio, Texas

4. Southern California Motorcycles, Brea, Calif.

5. National Powersports,  Pembroke, N.H.

6. Go Moto, Minneapolis, Minn.

7. Raceway Services, Salem, Ore.

8. House of Thunder, Miami, Fla.

9. Marks Motorsport, Enfield, Conn.

10. Detroit Iron, White Lake, Minn.

10. Route 66, Marina del Rey, Calif.

11. Heindl Engineering, Eaton, Ohio

12. Cyclehouse, Forked River, N.J.

12.  Rocket Motorcycles, San Diego, Calif.

13.  Gateway Cycles, Mount Sterling, Ky.

13.  LA Motorsports, Summerville, S.C.

13.  Winchester Motosports, Clear Brook, Va.

14.  Baxter Cycle, Marne, Iowa

15.  Gold Coast Motorsports, New Hyde Park, N.Y.

15.  Kiss Cycles, Pottstown, Pa.

15.  Poet Motorcycles, Helena, Mont.

15.  Strokers Dallas, Dallas, Texas

Custom Royal Enfield Interceptor saved from the junk yard

This stunningly dramatic Royal Enfield cafe racer remembers its heritage.

Charles Giordano is the man who rescued a 1968 Royal Enfield Interceptor on its way to the scrap heap. He paid $150 for a motorcycle he didn't even recognize under a load of junk in a truck.

And then he turned it into a work of art.

The stunning custom you see in the beautiful photos here is that very Royal Enfield Interceptor.

He calls it "Gunner" and it does have a mighty and masculine look. But how it came to look like this is a real Cinderella story.

Which Giordano tells in a book he's written about how he builds motorcycles. The book is entitled "I Don't Build Motorcycles."

The "Gunner" abounds in simplicity. The details add instead of distracting.
See the bottle opener?

Confused? Prepare to be entertained as Giordano explains in his friendly style. The book's subtitle is "How to Design an Instant Classic" but don't expect this to amount to three easy steps.

In "I Don't Build Motorcycles" Giordano argues that building motorcycles is not about mechanics.

His book emphasizes feeling, seeing and believing in yourself to bring to life what you have in your mind's eye.

The Gunner: Has a chain guard ever contributed so much to a design?
The battery box was pieced together from six cigar boxes.

But if it doesn't work out, don't worry, he writes.

"Remember, a well-designed motorcycle is a work of art. (However, a poorly designed motorcycle is still better than a well-designed copy machine.)"

Giordano owns two motorcycle exhaust companies, Von Braun Exhaust  and Tailgunner Moto Exhaust in West Tisbury, Mass. He knows a lot about motorcycles but even he wasn't sure what he had after pulling the filthy Royal Enfield motorcycle off the back of a truck.

1968 Royal Enfield as found under a heap of scrap.

Learning that it was a rare and valuable Royal Enfield Interceptor he faced a decision: restore it or customize it? Breaking out of that either/or trap was the first and hardest step, he writes.

Giordano would end up working on the Royal Enfield for eight months before he began creating anything. But, when he did begin building, the motorcycle he wanted already existed in his mind and he knew how to build it, he writes.

Offset gauges, brass Time/Machinest clock handmade by Charles' brother Cal.

The result looks magical.

But it wasn't magical, not originally. In fact it was "bloody awful" and needed more work to make it run right.

And, finally, it did.

"I like this bike a lot" is Giordano's verdict. I do too.

Hardcover $64.99; ebook $5.99; instant pdf $7.99.

His book "I Don't Build Motorcycles" is a fun ride that will make you think about the things you do and the way you do them, even if making a motorcycle isn't your speed.

It's a beautifully illustrated book and available as a hardcover, ebook or pdf. I bought the ebook and enjoyed it. Full disclosure: I'm quoted in the book but I have no other connection to it or Giordano.

Tailgunner Gatling gun exhausts, created for Harleys, look great on this Royal Enfield Interceptor.

Motorcycles: When you needed a proper toolbox

Stylish kidney shaped toolbox on an AJS would open with a coin.
Note the hook to the right for the top end of the hand pump.

There was a time before motorcycles had nothing but cosmetic plastic "side covers" to hide their fiddly bits.

Instead, gracing the haunches of motorcycles, many British ones anyway, were useful metal boxes in which to carry the tools you'd need to keep the motorcycles running.

Blocky but probably useful toolbox on 1958 Ariel Red Hunter
shown by Tony Thackham of Dania Beach, Fla.

For 60 years, the Royal Enfield Bullet has offered handy toolboxes. Was this a competitive necessity? A selling point? Or just a natural feature no one would have dreamed of doing without?

It was fun walking around the 2015 Dania Beach Vintage Motorcycle Show Jan. 31, comparing the toolboxes an English motorcycle buyer would have sized up back in the day — before motorcycles were assumed to be, somehow, maintenance free devices.

Low-slung toolbox on 1947 Triumph 3T
shown by Roger Rodriguez of Hialeah, Fl;a.

There were lots of other details to delight the eye at the Dania Beach show. Here are a few:

Round metal toolbox on front fork of 1925 Harley-Davidson JD
shown by Eric Lachoff of Pompano Beach, Fla.

Handy horn on a 1957 Harley-Davidson Hummer
shown by Joseph Jones of Fort Lauderdale, Fla.

Pith helmet, ready for an explorer on BMW R75/5
shown by Jeff Neuwirth of Fort Lauderdale, Fla.

2015 Dania Beach Vintage Motorcycle Show shines

This 1971 Triumph Bonneville looked the best of Britain.
Shown by Bill Mead of Fort Lauderdale.

British motorcycles shone brightest for me, as usual, at the 2015 Dania Beach Vintage Motorcycle Show in Dania Beach, Florida Jan. 31, 2015.

Whether restored to better-than-new or left as filthy as they were when found, the Triumphs, Nortons and BSA motorcycles best captured the spirit of motorcycling, I thought.

But the Harley-Davidson Sportster was the featured class of the 2015 and there was plenty of American soul on hand to inspire as well.

A rider moves his Triumph into display position.

This year I went early, and was treated to the sounds of many of the motorcycles being ridden into display position. My verdict on vintage motorcycles of all brands: they "rattle" when they run. Reassuring, considering my 1999 Royal Enfield Bullet makes that same noise. It's part of the legacy.

Antique bicycle with modern looking swing arm suspension and shaft drive.

As always, at Dania Beach, there was much to learn. Antique bicycles are part of the show and I was amazed to see a 1890 Pierce bicycle sporting not only shaft drive, but swing arm rear suspension. How advanced! Still, there was room for improvement: it had no brakes I could see.

The Friends of the Dania Beach Library put on a patriotic display.

Yes, there was at least one Royal Enfield in the show — and I spotted a new Continental GT cruising the parking area — but more about that later.

More or less a motorcycle, 1971 Bond Bug delighted onlookers.
It was shown by Gaylord Wood of Fort Lauderdale.

Check out the joyful sound of this Harley-Davidson tricycle in police uniform rumbling into position in this short video: