Motorcycle Sport & Leisure

Unveiled at the NEC last year, Royal Enfield's latest addition looks every inch the 50s throwback. Phil Turner takes a trip down memory lane.

I'm going to show my age now; I wasn't around in the 50s and 60s. I wasn't around for a large part of the 70s either, so unfortunately I missed out on the glory days of British motorcycling.

Even though I wasn't there at the time, everything about 'the movement' fascinates me and I get a kind of weird nostalgia whenever I'm around someone or something connected with the era. It's the little things that fascinate me, the everyday things. What people wore to ride in, where, when and of course what they rode. What events there were to go to, what accessories you could buy. Fascinating. What intrigues me more though, is the amount of machine modification that went on.

From what I can gather from archive pics, magazines of the day and talking to various folk, if you weren't completely satisfied with your chosen conveyance, or you fancied trying a spot of competition at the weekends, you bolted a few bits on here and there and hey presto, a new machine. A bit of a budding racer, but currently have a tourer? Rear sets, clip-ons, a twin carb head and you're away... Same goes if you're into off-road; braced bars, high level pipe, maybe a pair of number boards for good measure. Just the job.

Although a fair amount of modification goes on in the modern movement, the art of changing the dynamics of your machine to that extent has largely been lost. The manufacturers picked up on the phenomenon quite quickly and began to tailor their machines towards each genre. Suddely, you could walk into a showroom and pick up a tourer, a racer, or a street scrambler ready made, and you still can today. Royal Enfield are no exception, just look at their current range of machines; café racers, roadsters, grand tourers, trials... plenty of choice for budding racer, trials star, tourer and now there's one more option...

Inspired by the street scramblers RE exported to the USA under the Indian banner in the 50s the latest addition to their range, the Woodsman, brings yet another dimension to the Enfield experience, and a surprisingly different one.
Like the rest of the range, it's based heavily on the Electra format. Power comes from the now familiar 499cc, four-stroke, single cylinder, ohv, lean burn motor – producing 27.5bhp in this guise, and complete with electric and kick-start. A five-speed gearbox (left foot change now, of course) transfers this to a chain final drive and keeping it all together is a traditional steel tubular cradle frame.

- End of online sample -

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