[DPCOOPER]

Hello, I'm new here and have little knowledge of Royal Enfield bikes, so please forgive the dumb questions.

I am the executor for my late uncles estate, and he had two Royal Enfield Constellations that I am trying to value for IHT reasons, and ultimately sell. The 1960 version I have some history for. The 1961 model says that is was first registered in 1995. Does this potentially mean that it might have been built in India, and imported into the UK in 1995? I can't find any info confirming if Royal Constellations were ever build in India. If I'm not mistakem, they were only built between 1958 and 1963??

As both bikes are in decent condition (my uncle was a keen mechanic) my current valuation range is between £3500 and £7000. I would like to narrow this down if possible.

Any help would be greatly appreciated. Cheers

[oilypuddlefield]

Hello and welcome! Happy to help answer your questions regarding your uncle's Constellations.
If you haven't done so yet..I think your best source of information would be to contact the Royal Enfield Owners Group..
https://www.royalenfield.org.uk
Their dating officer would be able to give you the actual manufacturing dates and other pertinent data about these machines.

Your "Connies" are 700cc twins and as such were most certainly produced in the UK. The Indian company only recently started producing 650 cc twins based a completely updated design and bear very little resemblance to the motor designs from the 50's and 60's.

The 1995 registration date is only the date at which the machine was registered back into the system and has no bearing on when it was actually produced.

You have two wonderful examples of classic British engineering there !
Cheers

[Adrian II]

I'm guessing you're in the UK, since you mention inheritance tax.

The Constellation was only EVER built in the UK. The 1995 registration could be due to the fact that the original registration was lost - there was a deadline set in 1983 for getting any older vehicles onto the UK DVLA computer system that weren't already on there, and if this particular Connie was languishing in someone's shed or garage with nobody wanting to use it, the number would have gone. In some cases an original UK reg number CAN be re-allocated to the vehicle, but what I suspect happened was that someone, possibly your uncle, restored the bike, did not have the paperwork to get the original number back and had to apply for what's known as an age-related number, i.e. a previously un-issued number left over from the north of Scotland, back in 1995. My guess is that the registration currently on there, if being three letters and three digits, will be something like *SK *** or *SV ***, or similar.

If you contact Graham Scarth at the Royal Enfield Owners' Club with engine and frame numbers plus current registration he will be able to tell you more, he might even know the bikes if your uncle was a club member.

https://www.royalenfield.org.uk/services/machine-dating/

A.

[DPCOOPER]

Thanks for the quick responses. All very much appreciated.

[Bilgemaster]

Needless to say, I am probably not the only one here who'd love to see a couple-few pictures of those bikes.

[AzCal Retred]

Are they like this ? 

[Adrian II]

I hope not!

A.

[oilypuddlefield]

How about this ?

I suppose we shouldn't hijack this thread to show what NOT to do to a perfectly good Enfield !

[Bilgemaster]

Thing is, in their cannabis-addled day, those two bikes were "bad". Now they're just bad.

[Adrian II]

That second one is at least pretty much intact, and didn't one of this forum's members have a twin with a yellow frame?

A.

[ERC]

That was me sold it to hitchcocks.