Royal Enfield Bullet
Royal Enfield Bullet Background & History
The Royal Enfield Bullet is the longest continually produced motorcycle in history, having launched in 1931, and is still in production today, with no breaks in production (other than during World War 2). Over 90 years in production, no other brand can claim that about a model that is still in production today. Royal Enfield Motorcycles of Reddich, Worcestershire, England started out making bicycles in the late 1800s and by around 1902 they were building motorcycles. When World War 1 hit, they got lucrative contracts from His Majesty to build motorcycles for the war. It happened again in 20 years later when World War 2 started, and again they were building motorcycles for the Crown.
This 1949 Royal Enfield Bullet has a rigid frame. Later this year the redesigned 3rd-gen model got a swing arm rear suspension.
Royal Enfield Bullet Background & History
Between the two World Wars, Royal Enfield built motorcycles for the public, lots and lots of motorcycles. In 1931, they released the first motorcycle to bear the ‘Bullet’ name. Available in both 350 and 500cc displacements, these early Royal Enfield Bullets had an inclined cylinder and exposed valve gear. That valve gear was 4-valves-per-cylinder, unheard of in 1931. In 1933 they added a 250cc option based on the same engine. All prewar Royal Enfield’s came with rigid frames which necessitated a sprung saddle for riding comfort. This established an iconic look that the makers of modern Royal Enfield Bullets have retained with the sprung saddle, even though it’s unnecessary with the swing arm suspension on the modern bike. All prewar bikes also used a girder front fork.
3 Series of Royal Enfield Bullet
1964 Royal Enfield Bullet 350 engine, primary side.
This first-generation Royal Enfield Bullet was in production from 1931 through the 1939 model year. After great success in the marketplace and on the track, the British Army adopted the 350 Royal Enfield Bullet as their dispatch bike. The RAF also bought some 3,000 during World War 2. The next generation ran from 1939 through 1949 with a 5-model-year interruption because of the war. It was mostly a freshening of the previous design, now with enclosed rocker boxes. Postwar bikes got a hydraulically-damped telescopic front fork.
The third generation or series ran from 1949 through 1956, with an all new engine with a vertical cylinder, an iron cylinder block and an alloy high-compression cylinder head. The frame was also all new with a swing-arm rear suspension setup. The gearbox was a 4-speed Albion unit with an industry-first ‘neutral finder’ lever that could be pressed to slip the gearbox into neutral in from any gear.
These new Royal Enfield Bullets performed well as 350s or 500s, and won two gold medals, at the 1948 International Six Days Trial (ISDT). In 1953, Johnny Brittain won the Scottish Six Days Trial and in 1953 he won the ISDT without losing a single point, all on a Royal Enfield Bullet.
2002 Royal Enfield 500 Bullet engine, timing side.
Royal Enfield Bullets from India?
After 1949, when India gained its independence from England, the new Indian Army needed a robust, reliable motorcycle to patrol its lengthly borders and chose the Royal Enfield 350 Bullet. In 1954 they order 800 Royal Enfield Bullets in 350cc. In 1955 Royal Enfield of Reddich, England partnered up with Madras Motors in India and formed a new entity called Enfield India to assemble 350 Bullets under license in India from parts manufactured in England, for the Indian government and for the Indian market. As production ramped up, Royal Enfield of Reddich began selling the tooling to Madras so that they could manufacture more and more of the parts needed themselves in India. By 1962 Madras was building complete motorcycles with no parts from England. The model they were building was essentially a 1960 Royal Enfield 350 Bullet, and it became frozen in time as they just kept producing the same machine year after year. This is the same bike you can buy today from the modern Royal Enfield.
This 1964 Royal Enfield Bullet shows what the swing arm frame looked like. Not like most other modern swing arm frame, this one look, well...old.
Royal Enfield Struggles
Up until this time, Royal Enfield of Reddich was still producing motorcycles including the Bullet, and their new line of twins, including the 750cc Royal Enfield Interceptor. But the company, the English company that is, was struggling. They hadn’t done nearly as well in the all-important US market as hoped, much of which was resting on the musclebound Interceptor. But it failed to catch on, and quickly got a reputation for leaking oil that earned it the nickname “Royal Oilfield”. There was a brief stint from 1955 to around 1960 when 700cc Royal Enfield Super Meteors were rebadged, and redecorated as an Indian Motorcycles to be sold in the US. That didn’t work either, no one was convinced. They’re rare to see at auction today because so few were sold. Royal Enfield Motorcycles went into the 1960s on wobbly legs. Things got worse by the year and by 1967 British production was halted, although unsold bikes got retitled all the way out to 1970. Another classic British motorcycle company bites the dust.
2002 Royal Enfield 500 Bullet.
Modern Royal Enfield Bullets
However, back in India, production of their one-and-only product, the Royal Enfield 350 Bullet was booming out of the Tiruvottiyur plant. By this time, the Madras-based entity was the only Royal Enfield left and simply started calling themselves Royal Enfield. They produced many different variants of the tried-and-true Bullet over the years, all, until recently, styled like the 1960 model that they started with. The rear section of the frame, around the swing arm, has a decidedly old-fashioned look to it, and they played on this rather than change it. This 1950s-era frame has gone mostly unchanged for the past 75 years or so. This is why so many of the modern Royal Enfield Bullets look like retro bikes, styled like bikes from the 1950s. Some were styled like military bikes, and many are just standard roadsters. While modern Royal Enfield Bullets and now their twins sell well in Europe and America, their biggest market is at home. India is now the world’s most populous nation, they passed up China in 2022, and their huge population is very accustomed to motorcycles as primary transport. What’s more, because of their history as an English colony and the prevalence of British products in India, there was tremendous brand equity and loyalty among the Indian people for Royal Enfield motorcycles.
2002 Royal Enfield 500 Bullet.
Royal Enfield Bullet Lives On
2015 was a big year for Royal Enfield Motorcycles. They expanded their product line to include a new 650cc twin, they purchased UK-based motorcycle design firm Harris Performance Products, and they opened their first company-owned dealership in the US in Milwaukee WI with three models on their pallet: the Royal Enfield Bullet 500, the Classic 500 and the Continental GT535 Cafe Racer. Their goal is to open 100 dealerships across the US. However, the home market in India is much more focused on cheap, reliable transportation, so the twins and the higher-end models don’t do as well there. In fact, the Royal Enfield 500 Bullet was discontinued due to poor sales in 2022, but has been replaced in 2023 by the 350 Bullet, priced at just 1.74 lakh ($2,090 USD).
Royal Enfield Bullet Books
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"Royal Enfield 500 Bullet/Classic/Continental GT 2009-2018 Service & Repair Manual" |
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"Made in India: The Royal Enfield Bullet" An excellent and informative expose' on the Indian arm of the Royal Enfield story. |
More Royal Enfield Motorcycle Pages
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