Unofficial Royal Enfield Community Forum

Royal Enfield Motorcycles => Vintage Royal Enfield => Topic started by: KhardungLa on May 25, 2010, 02:03:12 pm

Title: what is it? advertised as a Trailblazer.
Post by: KhardungLa on May 25, 2010, 02:03:12 pm
I was interested in this bike as a resto job;

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=120573584920&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT#ht_500wt_1182

But having emailed the seller, I'm now more confused as to what it is.

It has a constellation tank fitted by the owner (apparently for touring range)

According to the seller - "I have a letter from Thomas Kay the Dating Officer from the R/Enfield Owners Club confirming the date of dispatch of a Trailblazer from the factory on10/12/1957 with frame number 6268 and engine number 5358. he also confirms that the engine number now fitted (7805) is a 692cc Super Meteor manufactured in 1959. He also provided me with a photograph of a Trailblazer which seems identical to my bike."

Nobody seems to know if the bike arrived in the USA as a trailblazer. The bike was first registered in the UK in 1959, however the engine had changed to engine number 7805. And looking at the photo's of the bike, it looks like a Minor Meteor to me;

Minor Meteor > http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2635/3974041800_b5811c8f6f_o.jpg

Also on the registration document the engine is listed as a 496cc. The seller claims the bore and stroke is 70/90 - not 70/64.5. He claims DVLA (driver vehicle licensing agency) made a mistake in 1959 when registering the bike. They will change this if they have a letter from a registered mechanic.

So we have a bike which apparently has a super meteor engine, a super meteor frame (trailbalzer) but a minor meteor front wheel, brake hub and Mudguard.

Why does the bike not have a super meteor brake hub?

I doubt Royal Enfield would have sold this bike in the UK as an assembly of parts.

what do you guys make of this?
Title: Re: what is it? advertised as a Trailblazer.
Post by: KhardungLa on May 25, 2010, 02:43:08 pm
This bike may have a frame from 57 trailblazer - but the front end is definately minor meteor - the owner swears trailblazers had this front end... they did not.

basically it looks to me he has a collection of parts.
Title: Re: what is it? advertised as a Trailblazer.
Post by: rotorwrench on May 25, 2010, 06:47:31 pm
I looked at the E-pay UK info and there just isn't enough there to say for sure what it is. The engine number for  all the early twins has a prefix of letters (between 2 and  4) that designates what model it was made for. That frame number says 1959 or 1960 by my own experiences but only the Royal Enfield Owners Club /UK has the records to say. The USA export versions, especially Indian marques, were different than there UK home market counterparts so parts for the USA models are hard to find in the UK unless you go to Hitchcock's. He bought up a lot of old inventories here in the USA.

Trailblazers had duck tailed & valenced fenders and a big Lucal headlamp mounted on fork tube ears (the kind that had the switch and amp meter on the back). The top tree had the big Stewart Warner speedo in miles per hour. The 1957 & earlier had the 120 mph and later ones had the 150 mph. The front mud guard had an anodized aluminum indian head emblem fixed there. You can look at original sales info on the RE-Indian web-site in Australia. The rear wheels were WM3 18 inch and the fronts were WM2 19 inch and they had the dual 6 inch front brake set up.

The bike in the e-pay add looks more like a meteor minor or an Indian Tomahawk 500cc machine. The Indians always had the smaller tank than the UK home market machines. They were Lucas distributor ignition instead of magneto ignition (SR2) like the Trailblazers.

If you can get the engine number with the prefix, I can tell you aproximately what year it was made and what model it was for.

Kerby

Title: Re: what is it? advertised as a Trailblazer.
Post by: KhardungLa on May 25, 2010, 06:55:28 pm
(http://www.re-indian.com/images/match4.jpg)

I think this is where the owner has gotten the idea it was a trailblazer.
Title: Re: what is it? advertised as a Trailblazer.
Post by: rotorwrench on May 25, 2010, 06:59:12 pm
That could be. AMC bought the Indian Sales Corp here in the USA in late 1959 and started selling Matchless as Indians.
Title: Re: what is it? advertised as a Trailblazer.
Post by: KhardungLa on May 25, 2010, 07:10:32 pm
yup. the bike for sale is defo a minor meteor front end and perhaps rear end. the frame is from a 57 trailblazer or was designated for a trailblazer... I think this bike is a collection of parts. There is no model listed on the vehicle registration document.

I've decided to back out of this sale and have stopped looking for a RE 700 twin. Maybe next year I will find a good one.

I'm still happy with my bullet and have agreed a sale for a US market 1977 Kawasaki C1 KZ650 which doesn't need any mechanical restoration (has been carried out last winter) so I can get straight to using it this summer.
Title: Re: what is it? advertised as a Trailblazer.
Post by: Sandgroper on May 25, 2010, 07:38:43 pm
Frankly, I'm very doubtful about all the info given for this bike. Nothing rings true - the Indian models were not sold in the UK, and there are none of the special Trailblazer parts on the bike. Kerby is spot on about the wrong front end, and besides that, I can see quite clearly from the shape of the pillion footrest/exhaust support loops that there is no way it is a 1957 frame as the vendor claims.

I'd steer well clear.