Short History of Royal Enfield

The pride of British manufacturing companies, Royalan aircraft along with the troops provided a means
Enfield has established a reputation that dates backof motorized battlefield transport not previously
to the mid 1800's. Like many early manufacturers ofavailable.
personal transportation, founder George TownsendThe Royal Enfield line even included a version of the
focus on producing parts for existing bicycle designs,famous red-painted Indian motorcycles, after the
and by 1893 was producing and selling completecompany acquired the brand name rights. The RE
bicycles under the Enfield name. It wasn't long beforeIndians were discontinued in the 1960's. Intense
Townsend turned the name Enfield and its slogancompetition from Japanese motorcycle producers
"built like a gun" into household words across Greatduring the 1960's and 1970's meant the Royal Enfield
Britain.needed bikes that could match the speed and
The most endearing product introduction by Royalperformance of the Asian bikes. The answer was the
Enfield has to be the Bullet. With a single-cylinder, 4Interceptor line of extremely fast motorcycles, with
stroke engine, the 1933 Bullet sported a dramatica top speed of over 105 miles per hour and able to
front to rear rake making for truly classic line. Worldcover the quarter mile in les than 14 seconds. Sadly,
War II brought a one-of-a-kind bike from Enfield, theproduction could not keep up with demand, and the
Flying Flea. Complete with its own parachute andInterceptor became the last of the Enfield line to be
packing cage, the Flying Flea could be dropped fromproduced in England.