For all things bikes

Do you realize that Royal Enfield introduced its first motorcycle as early as 1901? It had a 239 cc engine mounted in the front with a belt-drive to the rear wheel.  This followed a couple of years after Triumph, which obviously made bicycles, had taken a look at the market with a small Belgian-built engine.

Both companies were in the vanguard of the British motorcycle industry and Triumph claimed to have shipped nearly 500 bikes by the end of 1903, but it was the American companies, Harley-Davidson and the Indian Motocycle Manufacturing Company that really generated the volume.

The Indian Single was selling at over 30,000 units by 1913 which was far beyond any expectations of a home based British company.

Part of the British problem was that it was possibly too innovative and there was so much competition. About 80 companies were active in the mid-1930s and there was simply not enough money to go around.

In the USA there really only the two big players, the Harley and the Indian and both companies cleaned up. It is just slightly ironic that after Indian closed in 1953, Royal Enfield bought the name.