The Badger - Enfield Rat Cafe Racer

Built by Leon at Cycle Icons, with Chumma and Tom from Ace Fireball doing the engine, The Badger made manifest, a 500+ mile ride from Trenton to Mid Ohio vintage motorcycle days where it raced in two races and survived. Not without issues, it was blowing oil, shakes and wobbles like hell, and 105 degree weather this Royal Enfield based, 500cc iron barrel engine with the ACE Fireball mods was a champ. Built in a rat cafe style, road and vintage race legal. Kitted for both a license plate, and a number plate. Built to both a price and a standard. Hi quality, low brow. Goes like stink. A ride it to the track, flog it in the heat of battle and ride it home proposition. Possible in this day and age?

Yep. What a blast, you can follow the story here: bulletproofbadger.com

The concept in part inspired by this; courtesy, Teddy Roosevelt:

"It is not the critic who counts: not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes up short again and again, because there is no effort without error or shortcoming, but who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself for a worthy cause; who, at the best, knows, in the end, the triumph of high achievement, and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew neither victory nor defeat."

'49 Royal Enfield Hardtail Model G

This was a Craigslist find, I was in the airport just about to board a flight when I found it. I called Leon at Cycle Icons to see if he could work out a deal. When I landed plans were set for a trip to Boston to get this gem. We are working on the forks and fitting with new cables but otherwise is rideable as is. Leon's comment "It's like riding a Radio Flyer" as the spring seat and front float all over the place.

UPDATE 8/20/11 - Spent the day working on the forks and I properly screwed them up. I was milling down some rough spots from old welds to allow the new bushings to fit and gouged the hell out of the left fork. So I am now looking from some old springers. After giving up on that, I fitted new fuel lines and watched all the gas spill out of the petcocks. They would just spurt so cleaned that up removed the tank and ordering new petcocks.

Royal Enfield Bullet 500

This is my Bullet 500 Deluxe 2008 pic by Alex Fischer

I love old english bikes, Nortons, BSAs, Triumphs. Did you know can buy a brand new 1955 english motorcycle in 2008 for $5K new or $3K used? While not the fastest bikes, they definitely have the most character. They are not light weights by any means though and can cruse at 80 MPH and have a nice low end torquey feel.

Royal Enfield was the brand of the Enfield Cycle Company, an English engineering company. Most famous for producing motorcycles, they also produced bicycles, lawnmowers, stationary engines, and even rifle parts for the Royal Small Arms Factory in Enfield. This legacy of weapons manufacture is reflected in the logo, a cannon, and their motto "Made like a gun, goes like a bullet". It also enabled the use of the brand name Royal Enfield from 1890.

In 1955 Enfield of India started assembling Bullet motorcycles under licence from UK components, and by 1962 were manufacturing complete bikes. The original Redditch, Worcestershire-based company dissolved in 1970, but Enfield of India, based in Chennai, continued, and bought the rights to the Royal Enfield name in 1995. Royal Enfield production continues, and now Royal Enfield is considered as the oldest motorcycle company in the world still in production and Bullet is the longest production run around model.

The US import version has the foot shifter moved to the left hand side of the bike which adds a awkward linkage to the already tricky transmission If you can find it try to get a unmodified non US bike or get the kit to return the foot shifter to the original right side.

These bike are single cylinder thumpers and you feel the thrust of each stroke as you are propelled down the road. It is a really unique feeling that has not been experienced in the last 50 years of modern multi-cylinder bike design.

There is a olive green military model that has panniers and crash guards. I love the look of this bike and it is very useful for extend trips. It's great grandfather is here Royal Enfield G

If your looking for a cool bike talk to Leon at Cycle Icons.