Royal Enfield Desert Storm photos with Army tanks

Royal Enfield Desert Storm poses with an Army tank.
(Jeff Allen/Cycle World, used with permission.)

Cycle World's article on the Royal Enfield Desert Storm posed the motorcycle with Army tanks.

The remarkably appropriate photos appeared with a series about "Bikes With Soul & Character."

Editor-in-chief Mark Hoyer liked the Desert Storm as modern alternative to the 1954 British-made single he'd owned.

"The character is there when you're riding, and you get it without all the character building in the garage," he wrote in the 2012 article.

I overlooked the photos at the time but came across them again recently. Cycle World staff photographer Jeff Allen made them at a military museum in the California desert. Take a second look.

Royal Enfield Desert Storm and Classic Chrome

Royal Enfield's Desert Storm and Classic Chrome models made a huge splash at their recent introduction in India. Here is the nicest compilation of photos of the two models I've seen. The pictures really make these motorcycles appealing.

It is odd, though, to find so much to like in both treatments, when one emphasizes desert camouflage and the other is in its Sunday clothes. Both are based on the new Royal Enfield C5, which is as good as they get in terms of modern features.

The Classic Chrome is on sale now in the U.S., if you can find a dealer who still has one he hasn't sold. Royal Enfield USA is listing the Desert Storm as one of the available colors of the C5 Military. It is available in all 50 states but if you want one in California you had better reserve it quickly.

Don't ask me which one I prefer: I suppose I will just have to buy one of each.

Illustration from Royal Enfield factory website.
They could have called it the El Alamein model.