[2bikebill]

Believed to be the oldest surviving Royal Enfield. 1903!
Advertised for sale on the RE Owners Club site. No price given.

[GreenMachine]

wow..looks like a its circa 125 cc engine with a really small carb on it ...On the other side of the rear wheel, wass their a setup for a belt at one time?...Brake levers remind me of old style levers I had on a old Peugeot 10 speed...Price - As much as can be had with a min I would think..

[Spitting Bull]

Wow - what a nice little machine!  It is indeed a belt-drive bike, direct drive with no clutch, and the belt has been removed (you can see it stowed on the rear carrier) so that the bike can be wheeled around.

Tom

[SRL790]

I think the highway pegs are a little optimistic.

Andy

[Ice]

Perfect position for splashing through puddles. 

[Arizoni]

I can't tell if it has one from the photo but a lot of the motorized bicycles in those days used that large belt drive pulley as the brake drum with one brake shoe rubbing on the inside of it.

[Ice]

Believed to be the oldest surviving Royal Enfield. 1903!
Advertised for sale on the RE Owners Club site. No price given.

That makes it at least two years older than the oldest Harley in existence.

[Arizoni]

The World of Motorcycles, Orbis Publishing Ltd., London 1979 has a bit of history on the Royal Enfield.

According to this book (p1455), in the late 1880's George Townsend & Co was marketing a pedel cycle in Hunt End, two miles south of Redditch, England.
The company had problems and was reorganized by Albert Eadie and Robert Smith.
It was renamed the Eadie Manufacturing Company and by 1892 it was making the 'Enfield' bicycle.

The  "Enfield Manufacturing Company Limited" was registered in 1893 to market the Eadie bicycles.

In 1896 the "New Enfield Cycle Co" was formed and within a year the "New" was dropped from the name and the Eadie Manufacturing company moved to Lodge Road, Redditch, leaving the Enfield Cycle Co in Hunt End.

By 1899, Enfield was making motor tricycles and "quadricycles" powered by De Dion engines.

Around 1900 Enfield was experimenting with a heavyweight bicycle frame with a Minerva engine clamped to the front downtube and driving the rear wheel with a rawhide belt.

In 1901 a Frenchman named Jules L. Gobiet designed another powered bicycle for Enfield with a 1 1/2 hp engine clamped to the steering head.
It isn't clear but this engine may have been designed by Gobiet and it used a spray carburetor and bronze connecting rod.
At least one version used a oil sump that was cast into the crankcase, a feature that Royal Enfield still uses.

By 1904, Enfield dropped their motorcycle line and concentrated on motor cars and piece parts for other motorcycle companies.

In 1907 the Eadie Manufacturing Company was acquired by BSA Ltd so Eadie left the Enfield board leaving R. W. Smith in charge at Enfield.

In 1910 Enfield renewed its interests in motorcycles and introduced a lightweight V-Twin with a Motosacoche engine.

In 1912 Enfield introduced a 770cc V-Twin sidecar rig (Model 180).
It used a 2 speed transmission with chain drive to the rear wheel.  It used the Enfield patented "Cush-Drive" in the rear hub.

edit:
I know a lot of people think the Royal Enfield motorcycle has some sort of tie in to the Enfield company that is famous for making the Enfield rifles and muskets but there is no relationship at all.
The Enfield firearms were named Enfield because the Royal Firearms Factory was located in Enfield, North of London.
The Royal Firearms Factory had been making firearms in Enfield for the British government from as early as 1804.

[singhg5]

Another piece of article on RE's history also indicates that the company rolled out first motorized bike in 1901.

Fast forward to 2012 - Last year RE made 74,600 bikes in India against a huge number of 10 million total bikes (mostly Japanese) made in the country. RE exported 3,200 units, which is a very small fraction of its annual production. Here is that interesting piece of journalism with some photos -

http://profit.ndtv.com/News/Article/royal-enfield-roars-back-on-quieter-sleeker-bikes-302437

[jdrouin]

Looks like it's got a Brooks bicycle saddle.

[GreenMachine]

Great article..Expect more changes over the next 5 - 10 years .

Royal Enfield's motorcycles start at Rs 1,08,000 in Mumbai and rise to Rs 1,75,000, against Rs 72,000 for a 220 cc Bajaj Avenger, a similarly powerful bike also marketed towards enthusiasts.

Harley Davidson, whose bikes start at Rs 5,60,000, is part of a slew of overseas manufacturers such as Britain's Triumph and Japan's Kawasaki that is ramping up activity in India to capture a growing premium motorbike market.

"If you want to ride for the heart, you ride the Bullet. If you want to ride for performance you ride the Harley," said Koshy, who plans to add a Harley Davidson to his collection.

[Lwt Big Cheese]

Depends where you're riding.

They're different!

I went out this morning for some 60 miles around English lanes. The chap I was with also has a HD.

When we chatted over our Full English breakfast the guy says there's no way he would have ridden his Harley the way we had been going!

At times we had lanes the width of a dining table, with a lot of gravel and weeds in the centre of the road. If he'd been on his own he would have been on the A-Roads and been there in half the time. But where's the fun in that?

[2bikebill]

Sounds familiar.  Are you in Devonshire perchance...?

[Ice]

Depends where you're riding.

At times we had lanes the width of a dining table, with a lot of gravel and weeds in the centre of the road.

Precisely why I log more miles on my Bullet in one month than I do in a year on my H-D.

Mobility options.