Royal Enfield Classic Cars for Sale

Royal Enfield is an Indian company with deep British roots that speciallizes in patrol bikes for police and military. The company also makes limited edition runs of its popular retro models from the 1960s that have fetched the eye of Prince William and other celebrities.

Royal Enfield. The World's Oldest Motorcycle Company

The History of the Royal Enfield motorcycle company stretches all the way back to 1851 in the United Kingdom. In fact, the company had existed in one form or another for 50 years before it even made its first bike. At the time of its founding the company had yet to decide to focus its energies on motorcycles and it was known as Enfield Manufacturing Co. Ltd. By 1893 the company's founders Albert Eadie and Robert Walker Smith had decided to change the name to simply Royal Enfield.

In 1901 Royal Enfield built their first motorcycle, which was designed by co-founder Walker Smith and Jules Gotier. This first Royal enfield Motorcycle featuref a 239 cc motor and 1.5 horsepower. In 1912, Royal Enfield also broke new ground when it introduced their first sidecar.

Further Innovations

In 1932 Royal Enfield intriduced The Bullet, first ever single cylinder engine with 4 valves. The company also released the iconic Model K with a 976cc motor in the same year.

Manufacturing in India

In 1949 Royal Enfield created the Bullet 350 especially for the Indian armed forced. By 1954 the Bullet was being manufactured in India, following a large order consisting of 800 units.

This sudden spike in demand in India made it feasible for Royal enfield to start manufacturing motorcycles in Indian territory, and the company reached an agreement with an Indian partner who was sent to the company's headquarters in Redditch in order to learn the company's patented and well guarded methords of production. At first, the Royal Enfield factories in India simpy mounted the motors that were brought in from England, but by 1955 entire series of Bullet motorcycles -engines included-were being built from scratch in India. In this same year the Royal Enfield name was incorporated in India.

The Royal Enfield Logo

Although the British Royal Enfield company ceased operations in the 1970s, the Indian Royal Enfield company is still going quite strong.

The Indian company uses the same logo that the British firm did, save for some very subtle modernizing changes that were made in 2014 after the company hired a Gurgaon based design firm CoDesign.