[Blairio]

I thought they were designed for the extreme conditions in the UK!

Nah, the USA counts for far more Enfield sales than the UK, so maybe they are spec'd for sunnier climates... like Harleys. Mind you, in the UK imported Enfields have English wheel rims and stainless steel spokes fitted, which is a neat touch.  There's nothing worse than furry spokes....

[gremlin]

Wash?  Huh?

gloss obsession.

[barenekd]

Nah, the USA counts for far more Enfield sales than the UK, so maybe they are spec'd for sunnier climates... like Harleys. Mind you, in the UK imported Enfields have English wheel rims and stainless steel spokes fitted, which is a neat touch.  There's nothing worse than furry spokes....

The bikes were designed in England. the Indians just built them at the same specs the English designed them to, originally!
Bare

[young gun]

Lol, I don't think they were built for any particular region, I'm reading the history and it looks like they just designed and built the best bike they could.

Saying that it was a BRITISH design, I don't think the US was even a thought back then and considering India's population is sitting on 1.2
Billion vs the US's 300k, I don't really think it was thought of now   sorry, but as far as sales go, I don't think the US really features.

[Blairio]

Lol, I don't think they were built for any particular region

...and yet for a while they were marketed in the US under the Indian brand. To quote wikipedia "From 1955 to 1959, Royal Enfields were painted red, and marketed in the USA as Indian Motorcycles by the Brockhouse Corporation". The truth being stranger than fiction etc...

The current bike is certainly based on the original 1949 Redditch design, but I suggest that over the years it has been well and truly adopted by its current home, and is all the better for it.

[young gun]

Wow ok, I would think their "current" home is India since that's "where" they are made but anyhoo...

I polish my bike twice a month since I like the shiny

[High On Octane]

I hand wash only once or twice a year (depending on how many dirt roads I've down), but I wax once a month with Meguiars Ultimate Liquid Wax and wipe down on almost a daily basis with Meguiars Quik Detailer or Meguiars Final Inspection detaling spray.  I use microfibers for EVERYTHING.  Some I keep clean and use only for wax and polish, others I let get dirtier and use them for cleaning the swing arm and other areas that get greasy.  I also use Never Dull for all my chrome and engine covers and polish it off with a grubby microfiber.

Scottie

[Arizoni]

I'd like to hear how Lwt Big Cheese washes his RE.
Getting the mud and muck off without damaging the "natural patina" must be a challenge.

[young gun]

A question, and I thought about this on Sunday when I was cleaning but how smart is it to clean the engine with degreaser? Since I bought the bike my focus has been to make the engine gleam and for the 1st time this weekend I used degreaser and thought "hang on, this may not be a great idea"

[no bs]

if you clean it too well, you won't locate the leak. i usually wait until mine eye is offended, then start wiping. hard to stop once started.

[barenekd]

The current bike is certainly based on the original 1949 Redditch design, but I suggest that over the years it has been well and truly adopted by its current home, and is all the better for it.

Actually, the Indian RE is built on the 1955 tooling that was sent over to India so the Indians could produce the bikes 100% themselves. This took a few years to accomplish. The original contract to build tehbikes was done at Enfield. That English factory couldn't keep up with the Indian order, so they started sending them tooling to start building subassemblies, and then started sending them just kits of the parts they were still manufacturing. By 1962, the Indians had all the tooling and were able to start manufacturing the whole bike. They did very little to change the design over the years, except upgrading parts like mags and carburettors that were no longer available. So by 1990 or so, when they wanted to get into some real exporting, the bikes were very English. They have deviated somewhat from the English design, but the B5 is still the original frame! Up until the AVLs the engines were plain old English designs. Basically the iron barrels are pretty much as English as you can buy a bike nowadays.
Bare

[barenekd]

Since I bought the bike my focus has been to make the engine gleam and for the 1st time this weekend I used degreaser and thought "hang on, this may not be a great idea"

It isn't. Be very careful of the degreasers. Some of them  will definitely remove the sheen! And it's bloody hard to get the sheen back! Sorry, I don't really have any good recommendations, but I've definitely used some bad ones!
Bare

[Blairio]

Actually, the Indian RE is built on the 1955 tooling that was sent over to India so the Indians could produce the bikes 100% themselves.

Fair point. On that basis Indian Enfields are more British than the current Triumph range.  You can't argue with capacity though, and an 860cc twin has attributes that a 500cc single can't provide. Here's to Enfield resurrecting the 700cc Constellation.