Did you recognize those odd sidecar lights?

Update: We now have the explanation for the Royal Enfield featured here with an attractive set of lights on its Cozy sidecar.

Ted Wetzler of North Ridgeville, Ohio, shared pictures of his rig, delivered to him with extra heavy duty marker lights front and rear on the sidecar fender. I speculated that better lights, like these, would be an effective way to increase safety.

How many of you readers recognized the lights on Ted's sidecar? I'll bet some of you did.

"We put those lights on because the Cozy comes with barely a marker light on top of the fender," explained Ted's dealer, Ben Erickson of Ural Northwest in Bellingham, Wash.

"The lights and mounts are for a Ural Retro (whether you believe it or not)! If you look in the Enfield parts catalog at the Cozy you can see the marker light I am talking about," he wrote.

Ted and I both had a notion that the lights looked — somehow — familiar. Those of you who know Urals probably recognized them.

But looking at the perfect installation, Ted couldn't believe that it hadn't been done in the factory.

"They had me fooled... so this car is one of a kind," he wrote.

Period correct accessories for Royal Enfield

Years ago I came across a picture of a couple in Quebec posing with the most amazing Royal Enfield Bullet. The motorcycle was shiny and clean, and looked to be in excellent condition. But never mind that.

What was amazing about the picture (I wish I had saved it) was that the couple had outfitted it for touring in a very tasteful and unusual fashion.

Many serious long-distance motorcyclists fit square, stainless steel boxes that don't look appropriate for a 1955-vintage motorcycle. Rounded plastic boxes hijacked from a Gold Wing don't please me either.

Instead, the couple in Quebec had modified their bike to accept the sort of gear a traveler might have used in the era when the Bullet was designed.

Most striking was a secondary set of pannier bars that slung small gas cans very low on the sides behind the rear wheel. You had to see it to appreciate how natural this looked.

Another photo I wish I had saved was of a different, younger couple from England who had ridden their Triumph motorcycle immense distances in the 1960s. They had fit plastic gas cans, one on each side, to the front crash bars. Now that looked dangerous. But very cool.

This same couple had fit a very small suitcase to the tank rack. It wasn't water proof, probably, but it was aesthetically so much nicer than some black nylon bag obviously made in the 21st Century.

I apologize for not having better pictures to go with this blog post. But here's something for you. Recently an ad ran on this blog for Heindl Engineering, in Eaton, Ohio, a Royal Enfield and Ural dealer.

They offer a Ural model called the "Gear Up." The intent of this model is obvious: they're thrown every possible period-correct accessory they have at it, including a rack on top of the spare wheel atop the sidecar.

Do you really need a big gas can on the front of the sidecar? Is it really safe to have one there? Who cares? You don't have to fill it with gas. It just looks awesome.

The Ural Gear Up captures the sort of "age appropriate" accessories I like on a Royal Enfield.

Chang Jiang makes Enfield look modern

"Makes the Royal Enfield look like crap." That's the pitch in an ad for a 1968 Chang Jiang motorcycle in Whittier, Calif.

The seller is just having fun with a bit of attitude. That's obvious, since he also refers to how well the Chinese motorcycle rides with his own "fat ass" on it. (Just for reference, he says his own specifications are 6-feet tall, 240 pounds).

His Chang Jiang is interesting, since it appears to be a solo motorcycle; like the Ural and Dnepr, Chang Jiangs are usually seen hooked to a sidecar. Because not everyone is familiar with it, the seller provides a link to a great Chang Jiang web site.

It explains that while the Chang Jiang, Ural, Dnepr and others all descended in some ways from a BMW boxer twin of the 1930s, their histories and thus their parts and workmanship are distinctive. As far as workmanship goes, the Chang Jiang would tend to be far from the BMW original.

Brand new Urals are actively sold in the United States, often alongside Royal Enfields, and have a network of dealers. A vintage Chang Jiang is something else again.

These were built for military service with the People's Liberation Army. This means they are basic, rugged, slow and like lots of maintenance. Draftees are the cheapest labor there is. One feature the military especially liked was the shaft drive.

Although the BMW heritage sounds attractive, it's important to realize that it is long in the past. The BMW original was replaced with a new design for the German Army by 1941!

According to the web site, a 1968 Chang Jiang M1 would be a side valve model, with 22 horsepower and a 6-volt electrical system. The seller says his has less than 500 miles on it and runs perfectly. The asking price is $4,000. He says it has a California title and plate "so all you have to do is take it to the DMV."

Is his motorcycle really a 1968, or just registered that way? It looks too nice to be that old. If it's not, it may have more modern features, but it is still a long trip back in motorcycle design. If you want to dial back your personal time machine, his phone number is 702-578-1945.

Why not a trailer for your Enfield Military?

Perfect for "liberated" congac, tent halves and C-rations, the motorcycle trailer has a time-honored place in the history of mechanized warfare.

Or, maybe not. The image above was created in Adobe PhotoShop. My thanks to Gavin Birch's book Images of War, Motorcycles at War, for the original picture. Here we see an M10 tank destroyer grinding through a motorcycle traffic control post in Percy, France, on Aug. 2, 1944.

Not in Liberated France on that day in 1944 was the Inder trailer sold by Classic Motorworks for Royal Enfield motorcycles. I added it to the picture.

I am probably not the first person who has thought what a wonderful addition the Inder would make to a Royal Enfield Military model. Paint it olive drab (using a broom for a brush), stencil on a white star or a British Army style C (for "Census") number, and you're all set.

The only question then is what you put in it. I had the opportunity to see an Inder trailer at Classic Motorworks recently and was impressed by how really small they are. Much less room than you get in the overhead compartment of any airline. This is not luggage for two, the way my wife packs, at least. The Inder I saw was red (above) but apparently they are being sold only in black, so far.

For comparison's sake, I took a close look at the luggage compartment of the Ural sidecars shown at the International Motorcycle Show in Minneapolis Feb. 14. They are maybe a bit roomier.

But, still, there is the question of what you put in there. The Ural was shown with an old-fashioned tire pump, the perfect thing for a military motorcycle in my opinion. Of course, the Ural also can come with a spare tire mounted on the sidecar -- a bit obsessive about punctures, I'd say, but a great look. Hey, wouldn't the Inder look great with a sidemounted spare for its little wheel?