Royal Enfield Motorcycles

Royal Enfield emblem

Royal Enfield Motorcycles: The Early Days

Royal Enfield motorcycles were never one of the top sellers among the classic British motorcycle brands, but they were known to be fast, rugged and often unique and interesting. Like so many British motorcycle companies at the time, Royal Enfield started out making bicycles in 1893 as the Enfield Manufacturing Company Ltd. By 1899, they had built their first quadracycle with a De Dion engine. They added ‘Royal’ to the Enfield name, and in 1912 started racing with Royal Enfield Model 80, powered by a 770cc JAP V-twin, enjoying some success at the Isle of Man TT and Brooklands.  (JAP was a manufacturer of motorcycle engines who sold them to makers of motorcycles who didn't have their own engines in-house.)

1912 Royal Enfield motorcycle

This is one of Royal Enfield's earliest commercial successes.  The 1912 Royal Enfield 2-3/4 hp used a side-valve 350cc V-twin for power, all two-and-three-quarters of it.

Royal Enfield Motorcycles in World War 1

World War I brought rich contracts from both the British War Department and Imperial Russia for three different models: a 225cc two-stroke, a 425cc V-twin and an 8hp sidecar rig with a Vickers machine gun mounted on it. With the end of the war, Royal Enfield concentrated on the civilian market with a new 976cc V-twin in 1921 and its first 4-stroke single, albeit with a JAP 350cc engine. In 1928, they added a saddle tank and a center-sprung girder front fork, state-of-the-art for the day, and Royal Enfield was one of the first to adopt it.

1947 Royal Enfield Flying Flea

The ‘Flying Flea’ was meant to parachute in with British troops during the war. But when peace came, Royal Enfield Motorcycles quickly converted them over to civilian use. The British home market was starved for cheap, economical transportation after the war, and bikes like this sold like hotcakes.  

Royal Enfield Motorcycles in World War 2

Despite all this, the company was in dire financial straits, barely limping along. In 1931, one of the founders, Albert Eddie, died. Then, just two years later, his parter, R W Smith, also died. Times were tough, and the Depression had set in, but Royal Enfield somehow managed to keep it going. World War II hit at just the right time, and again they were flooded with lucrative government contracts for gobs of military motorcycles. These included a 250cc side-valve (SV), a 350cc SV, two 350cc OHV singles, a 570cc SV single and the most famous of them all, the Flying Flea. The Flea was a lightweight, rugged 125cc two-stroke that could be parachuted in with airborne troops. To avoid bombing by the Luftwaffe, a brand new factory was built underground in Westwood, England, where it was found that the constant temperatures were ideal for making not only motorcycles, but ‘predictor’ detonators for anti-aircraft artillery shells. Dangerous work, that.

1949 Royal Enfield G2 Bullet

The 350cc and 500cc single-cylinder Bullets were always Royal Enfield Motorcycles'  best sellers. This one is a 350cc 1949 Royal Enfield G2 Bullet.

Royal Enfield Motorcycles Built in India

After the war, Royal Enfield Motorcycles resumed civilian production with the 350cc OHV Model G single and the 500cc OHV Model J single, both with rigid frames and telescopic forks. In 1948, they unveiled their ground-breaking new swing arm rear suspension, one of the first to do so. By 1955, Royal Enfield was struggling again financially and so sold the licensing and manufacturing rights and tooling for the Royal Enfield Bullet to Madras Motors in India. Madras commenced production of 350cc Royal Enfield Bullets, produced in India and later expanded to 500cc Bullet production, all singles. All Indian-produced Royal Enfields were single-cylinder bikes until 2018 when the company introduced an all-new 650 twin, in the classic British vertical twin mould (well, almost vertical). Even though the English arm of Royal Enfield is long gone, the Indian arm is still producing bikes to this day, to a huge domestic market within India, a large export market in the developing world and even to Europe and America, where they are viewed as ‘retro’. The basic design of the single-cylinder bullet has changed little since the 1950s, and they look like it, even though today they have electric starters and fuel injection. This new ‘Indian Enfield’ is built in a variety of styles, some mimicking military machines and 1950s classics.

2002 Royal Enfield Bullet

This 2002 Royal Enfield Bullet shows that even though it's a modern bike, it's still styled like a Royal Enfield Motorcycle from the 1950s.

Royal Enfield Motorcycles gets a Twin!

At this point, Royal Enfield was still building bikes itself at its Bradford-on-Avon factory in England. In 1949, it joined the vertical twin race with its own 500cc Royal Enfield Meteor. By 1953, it had punched it out to 700cc (hoping to trump Triumph and BSA who only had 650s) with the Royal Enfield Super Meteor. It punched it out again in 1962 to 750cc with the Royal Enfield Interceptor, all the while, building lots of 18hp 250cc OHV Royal Enfield Crusaders and Bullets. It also dabbled in two-strokes, like the Villiers-engined 250 Turbo Twin. However, nothing seemed to add up to the sales it needed to survive.

1963 Royal Enfield Interceptor Mk1

Royal Enfield put great care into the design of its own entry into the vertical twin foray, and they did an excellent job of it. The 750 Interceptor was a fast, robust, handsome machine.  This is a 1963 Royal Enfield Interceptor Series 1.

Indian Enfields and Enfield Indians?!

An interesting twist in the Royal Enfield story is how Super Meteor 700cc twins were rebadged as Indian Motorcycles and sold in the US market as the Indian Chief from 1955 to 1960. Interesting story. The Indian Motorcycle brand had itself changed hands during World War II, and after the war, the new owners wanted to get out of the heavy V-twin market to embrace the ‘new wave’ of vertical twins pouring in from Britain. They had tried unsuccessfully to lobby the US government to impose heavy tariffs and limits on British imports. When that failed, they decided that if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em. Indian squandered its dwindling resources on trying to build its own vertical twin on the British pattern, but failed miserably. In 1953, bankrupt Indian changed hands again and the new owner, Brockhouse Engineering, also happened to be the exclusive US importer for Royal Enfield Motorcycles. Starting in 1955, they painted Royal Enfield Super Meteors bright colors, slapped on big fenders, a huge leather saddle with tassles, along with garish Indian logos. They gave the bikes appropriate names like ‘Indian Chief’, ‘Tomahawk’ and ‘Hounds Fire Arrow’. Indian Motorcycles had thrown all its eggs into the Royal Enfield basket when it ended decades of production of its own V-twin. Unfortunately, the rebadged ‘Enfield Indians’ didn’t do well and so the marketing agreement was cancelled in 1960, at which point Royal Enfield Motorcycles became available in the US under their own name. So, another oddity is that there are both ‘Enfield Indians’ and ‘Indian Enfields’ (ie: Indian-branded Royal Enfields, and Royal Enfield Motorcycles being built in India by Madras).

1963 Indian Chief

From 1955 to 1960 Royal Enfield 700 Super Meteors were rebadged as Indian Chiefs, and given lots of garish details to make them look like an Indian...sort of. They didn’t do well in America, but it paved the way for Royal Enfield’s entry into the US market. This is a 1960 Indian Chief.  

The End Draws Near

By the mid-1960s, the horsepower race was raging. The Japanese were on the march, and everyone was pumping up their bikes for more power. Royal Enfield followed suit by punching out the 700cc to 750cc with its Series I and Series II 750 Interceptor. They were fast, now good for a 13 second quarter mile at 105mph. The US loved the bike, but cash-strapped Royal Enfield was unable to produce them in large enough volumes quickly enough to meet the demand. That and a reputation for leaking oil (earning them the nickname ‘Royal Oilfield’) led to their final slide into insolvency. By 1967, production had stopped, with unsold bikes being retitled all the way out to 1970 and sold as new. The factory was closed for good in 1970, at which time Royal Enfield (the English one, now completely separated from the Indian company) was acquired by Manganese Bronze Holdings and added to the scrap heap that would become Norton-Villiers, which would ultimately include Triumph, BSA, Norton, Matchless/AJS, Ariel, James, Francis-Barnett and now Royal Enfield. Nothing much came of it. Royal Enfield was added to the long list of failed British motorcycle companies.

2020 Royal Enfield Continental GT650

The Royal Enfield in India had never built anything but Bullet singles until 2018 when they launched this stunning new 650 vertical (well, almost vertical) twin. This one is a 2020 Royal Enfield Continental GT650.

Three Centuries of Royal Enfield Motorcycles

However, Royal Enfield is the only motorcycle company still building bikes who can claim to have done so over a span of three centuries! They started in the 1800s, ran though the 1900s, and are still producing bikers in 2024. Not even old-timers Triumph (1902) and Harley-Davidson (1903) can make that claim!

Royal Enfield Motorcycles by Model

Royal Enfield Bullet

Royal Enfield Interceptor

Royal Enfield Motorcycle Books


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