Enfield

Finally I started with this project. The
purpose was to have a guinean Indian
made Royal Enfield, but gradually it
grew to a full project which costed me
less than 600 euros....It was fun
rebuilding the thing and the bike is on
the road now. Typically for India and all
that I try to do here, is that getting the
paperwork done takes more time than
redoing the bike.

Spares are plenty here and cheap... a
new speedo cists one euro, all gaskets
for the bike is less than 6 euro,
carburetor 10 euro...

Royal Enfield motorcycles had been sold in India since 1949. In
1955, the Indian government looked for a suitable motorcycle
for its police and army, for patrolling the country's border. The
Bullet was chosen as the most suitable bike for the job and the
Indian government ordered 800 350 cc model Bullets, which
was an enormous order for the time. In 1955, the Uk based
Redditch company partnered with Madras Motors in India in
forming 'Enfield India' to assemble, under licence, the 350 cc
Royal Enfield Bullet motorcycle in Madras (now called Chennai).

The first machines were assembled entirely from components
shipped from England, but by 1962 all components were made
in India.

Once I got it running, I took it to pieces in our
front garden, a couple of Saturdays wrestling
with color codes which did not match and
under great admiration of the
neighbourhood. Watch the 60's tank and
toolboxes on youtube.