Unofficial Royal Enfield Community Forum
Royal Enfield Motorcycles => 650 Interceptor & Continental GT => Topic started by: Richard230 on November 29, 2018, 11:29:43 pm
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I found a test of the 1965 Royal Enfield 736cc Interceptor in the 1966 Cycle World Road Test Annual. The bike they tested had a lot of beans and would have made short work of the new Interceptor. (Of course, it might have been a "ringer". ;) )
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Here are the last two pages.
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I found a test of the 1965 Royal Enfield 736cc Interceptor in the 1966 Cycle World Road Test Annual. The bike they tested had a lot of beans and would have made short work of the new Interceptor. (Of course, it might have been a "ringer". ;) )
Paraphrasing: "Nothing upsets its equilibrium much which is very good for a machine so ghastly fast" 8)
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I would think the new 650 would be almost as quick, with a 6 speed box vs a 4 speed and with 47HP vs the old ones 52.5hp. Of course, with a few mods.................
9fingers
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I would think the new 650 would be almost as quick, with a 6 speed box vs a 4 speed and with 47HP vs the old ones 52.5hp. Of course, with a few mods.................
9fingers
The interesting thing is that I found a Cycle World test of the Interceptor published in 1970, when it was being imported by Floyd Clymer. That bike was a lot slower and handled much worse than the 1965 model. The magazine felt that the 1970 bike was just assembled poorly and did not reflect the way it should have performed. Then I thought maybe the 1965 model had been blueprinted by the factory, not something that was likely during the early 1970's, while the factory and likely its workers, were getting ready to move on.
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The interesting thing is that I found a Cycle World test of the Interceptor published in 1970, when it was being imported by Floyd Clymer. That bike was a lot slower and handled much worse than the 1965 model. The magazine felt that the 1970 bike was just assembled poorly and did not reflect the way it should have performed. Then I thought maybe the 1965 model had been blueprinted by the factory, not something that was likely during the early 1970's, while the factory and likely its workers, were getting ready to move on.
The Mk1A models were the fastest ones. Even so, there are other tests revealing 105 mph top speed, and slower performance overall. That being said, if the advertised power was true, it should have been capable of 115 mph top speed, but we are not certain how true the advertised specs were.
The Mk2 models were not as fast in any reports that I have heard.
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The Series 3 Interceptors, of which I think only two (three?) prototypes were ever built, could have done very well. There were a number of technical improvements plus a capacity hike to 800cc, but coming at the very end of the line just before the Bradford on Avon factory went the way of Redditch, they will probably remain the best British RE that never was.
A.
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Talk of the Mark II inspired me to take photos of the 1969 CW test of that model. As you will see, they were not all that happy about the bike that they tested.
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Here is the rest of the article.
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Great stuff Richard230! Where did you find these? I loved reading these and was amused by the writing style they used to use. Also, no air cleaner? And they mention that the bike is not as fast as previously tested but then I noticed, from the specs section, that there was a 12 to 20 mph headwind, which had to have a significant effect on the results. Funny that they thought Enfields were so fast and today, bikes with 900 or 1100cc are considered too small by many. But not by me. Thanks for posting these reviews.
9fingers
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Those tests came from various Cycle World Road Test Annuals, which compiled motorcycle tests during each year. I have British motorcycle road tests that go back to the 1930's and Cycle World road tests that start in 1962, when I first started riding. Since no dealer ever gave a possible customer a chance to ride a new motorcycle before purchase, if you wanted to know anything about a motorcycle before buying one you had to get your information from either the manufacturer's advertising or brochures, or magazine road tests. What I did was to subscribe to every motorcycle magazine on sale at the time and either buy the CW test annual each year or rip out the new motorcycle tests from other magazines and pour over them to make a decision on which motorcycle to buy next. During the 1960's I tended to purchase a new motorcycle every year as they were improving a lot all the time, plus the Japanese ones could usually be purchased for just a few hundred dollars after trading in last year's bike. :)
I have collected many hundreds (if not thousands) of motorcycle road tests and brochures over the past 56 years. One that I really like is a British test of the 1961 RE 250 Bullet, that managed a top speed of 88 mph. Likely another "ringer". I posted that article several years ago in the Vintage sub-forum. I could do it again upon request. ;)
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" I could do it again upon request".
PLEASE DO!
You are a veritable motorcycle test historian!
I was only 5 in 1962 and not particularly aware of anything other than making paper airplanes...I had a fleet of designs. I started in 1969 or 70 when I bought my Honda CT70H, the 4 speed with the clutch, with my newspaper and lawn cutting money. Then the SL125, then TL125 (hooked on trials at that point) and then a fantastic XR200R, the first model with Pro Link mono shock. What a great bike. I love these old reviews you are posting.
9fingers
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Here is a link to my summary of the 1959 Bullet test. I'll post pictures of the entire article in the Vintage forum later today after the sun comes up and I have enough light for a decent photo:
https://forum.classicmotorworks.com/index.php/topic,21593.msg241960.html#msg241960
I just posted the 1959 article in the Vintage forum, where it should have been in the first place. ;)