Hey ya'all, I've been doing business in the same Carquest for over 20 years. The owner is now more a friend than a business acquaintance. For me its kind of like guys hanging out at the barber shop in Mayberry. Well I havent had much BS time with the owner in quite a while, so when I stopped in for something last week and he was working the counter it gave us both time to do some catching up. He has a Chromed out softtail and so somewhere we always get to talking about bikes. He has been saying for a couple of years now he was going to sell the softail as it was Hardley ( ) ever ridden any more, then he says "did I tell you about my new one?" No, what did you get" says I? He says, "my Uncles 1961 Royal Enfield Hornet." I didnt even know such a bike existed. Come to find out they are VERY rare. U.S. only market and the Hornet was only one year 1961.

My friend is slowly trying to finish the work his uncle started on it over 30 years ago. I may end up helping him out with the wiring on it when the time comes as it has been blessed by that devil lord Lucas with a positive ground system

Here are a couple of links that tell some more of the story if you are interested,

Questions

The Answer

Rod

Nice Rod sweet bike! A good family friend of mine just picked up an old Norton and it too has electrical gremlins like you wouldn't believe!

The Royal Enfield was an awesome bike I would love to get my hands on one

Thanks for sharing that was a great story and brought back a lot of memories as I was in England for 3 1/2 years starting in 1963. I own two Triumphs and a Matchless at one time.

I saw quite a few while I was in India. the new ones are nice too. biggest allowed in India is a 500cc. All are made in India now too, I believe. They are nice looking bikes, it would be fun to have one as a second bike. They sound great too. I think they are single cylinder? I could be wrong.

Orthogonal wrote:
I saw quite a few while I was in India. the new ones are nice too. biggest allowed in India is a 500cc. All are made in India now too, I believe. They are nice looking bikes, it would be fun to have one as a second bike. They sound great too. I think they are single cylinder? I could be wrong.

Yes you are correct about the single cylinder. The engine in todays bikes is the same basic 500cc engine that has been used since 1933 in the "Bullet, only now its fuel injected. That makes the Royal Enfield "Bullet" the longest continuously produced motorcycle in the world and because of the Royal Enfield plant in India, R.E. is the only motorcycle company on the planet that has seen continuous production over 3 centuries, starting in the 1880's in Britain.

Rod

i like the classic model. the green one:

Great story, Rod. Thanks for sharing.

Btw, did you ever sell your Harley? (Thought this is where the story was going...."catching up with a friend, told me looking for a Harley, told him I had one for sale, etc)

I had one of the Indian-badged Enfields, a 700 cc Indian Chief. Not knowing (at the time) what I had, when I started looking for parts, I quickly found out that the REAL Indian guys hate these bikes and will have nothing to do with them, much less have any parts for them. I also found out you have to have Whitworth tools to work on them.

Royal Enfield is alive and well, though not so popular here in the States, they are imported. I know there's a dealer in Prescott, Arizona, and in Austin Texas. I'm sure there are many more.

I don't know if the new ones still have this, but a cool feature mine had was this extra little shifter. No matter what gear you are in, you just stomp on the little shifter and it puts the transmission in neutral. Quite handy. It also had a leading front axle and inverted forks...hi-tech shit for 1958. Mine was British made. I don't know about the ones made in India, but mine was well built with beautiful castings and aluminum covers.

You can easily change that positive ground system around.
MG's used to use it also.
The reason was that back then they did not know which way electrons flowed.
In about 1957 they found out that electrons flow from negative to positive.


Just rewire the bike with negative grounds.
All of it.