Monday, March 26, 2012

Royal Enfield inspirations-Modified Royal Enfield

Like all other enthusiasts, the modification bug has bitten the Indian enthusiast. Indians have been modding their rides for quite some time. Some of them really amazing to some very creative to some outrageous or outright dangerous to rider or other people on the road. With access to internet and English movies the Harley Davidson Bug bit the Indians. And opened up the possibilities on what can be customized and how it can be .
Many years ago when I 1st came across the Harley-Davidson modding scene on TV. I knew the Royal Enfield would be an ideal candidate. And it did finally hot up our shores, the tourists in Goa started the scene there, with some really breath taking paint jobs and good mods. But it's still long way to go as most of the mods here lack creativity , most are a rip off and an attempt to recreate the HD magic. Other than those by
Rajputana Custom I find them lacking. There is another firm in Mumbai "Vardenci" to say the least I am not a big fan. And I do not blame Vardenci, they cater to a market which is a "Wannabe HD" market and they create their magic on them and they are pretty good at what they do.
From what I have observed , I remember the 1st mod was the handle bar, I once saw an Ape bar mounted on a Bullet and the butter fly handle , I am not sure if it's called the butter fly handle. Some removed the front steel faring covering the headlight and replacing it with a separate head unit with that of a rickshaw which had the water drop shape similar to the Harley,s. Some of them replaced the 18" tire with a extra wide tire 16" or 17". And also go for a alloy wheel. The alloy wheel was quite a craze some time back, but now with almost all bikes India having an alloy as a OEM. Alloys are not much used mod option.
On the exhaust front not much was changed as many of the Bullet owners loved the thump sound , though now many do change and go for the BSA Goldstar style silencer or the megaphone , the latter much newer to the market.
Some went in for the vintage look with single spring seat , some went for the scrambler look.

I have been following the international Royal Enfield Modification scene for a little while now and have come across some great works.

The 1st and 2nd were found on the "The local hero Japan" Page on facebook no info is available on the builders.

The 1st is a hard tail Bobber, and looks the part too.Reminds me of the chopper in Easy Rider. I like this as it is minimalistic and metric bobbers are coming on big. Bikermetric for more dope. I believe that these types will soon find it's way in India, but with the roads here or the lack of it. Hardtails may not be such a good idea.



This is a absolute gorgeous one, a cross between a bobber/tracker. The bike has been lowered and I just love how different the design is.The small simple rear fender really adds some character to the bike.



This was a mod which made me sit up and look a few times.The work gone into it is great. The work is by Stoop Motorcycles
Images I have flicked from bubble visor.









I have seen pics of a few RE cafe racer in India and they were very well executed with all the mods associated with a Cafe including the pain in the ass and neck and shoulder riding position. This one I found is built by T Factory bikes







This is as pure as it comes, open pipes and cafe racer looks and this a pure bred racer with Rat bike looks. It's quite famous as the RE Badger"








There a lot many such bikes out there, being built in home garages over weekends and being documented in blogs or small FB groups.Enfeilds are being modified with the cafe racer looks in India and some of them are quite good. But I'd like to see more bobbers and maybe a few trackers too.
I'll try to keep this blog updated with the latest builds to inspire other on what can be done with a Royal Enfield.



I will keep updating the blog with new pics and mods as and when I come across them. 


This one is a Japanese build found the pic on this blog


Flicked there images from the Sideburnmag blog , they have converted their RE 500 into a superb hard tail bobber. 





Finally found an RE tracker , find more info about it on the Motorcyclephotooftheday blog. Built by Doug Douglas Motorcycles of San Bernadino.





1 comment:

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