BRING ON THE BIG GUNS




"Sergeant Major, have you greased the wheels on the Enfield ? " 

  As we roll into 2010 time to think of greasing wheels and getting the gun carriage out of hibernation
prior to an assault on that Premier Heavyweight Championship. The Royal Enfield, made like a gun,
faster than a speeding bullet etc, etc, will take to the foray this year having been benched for 2009
while the Cub sought vengeance in the Classic Division. So far the Enfield has only lost 7 points in its
7 rides and already has a couple of minor Championships under its belt so maybe 2010 will be its
year.



 

 Why an Enfield you ask? A very good question and one that I really have little idea why I ever bought
the beast other than it had been ridden in the Pre 65 Scottish in 2005 and was one of Don Morley's
machines when he was a factory rider for the company.

 It was purchased via ebay and was residing in "deepest" Scotland and the then owner, Willie, said
he would make a crate for it from washed up wrecks and driftwood and Allied the shipping company
would do a "door to door" for considerably less than I had just paid to have the Tiger Cub sent from
Southampton. Only problem here was US Homeland Security who said the "wood" had to be of a non
Al-Qaeda variety, or failing that the whole thing could be sprayed with an Osama juice to prevent
terrorist termites!..... for an extra $200.00 !

 Once more the truck pulls into the yard and after unpacking I'm left dumbstruck as I view my purchase
....... what have I done?  How in God's name can you ride this in a section let alone the Pre 65 Scottish ?
Well its straight and true and the wheels are round, and after oiling and fueling it starts and I trundle
round the yard with it trying to imagine if I could actually go Trials riding on it without breaking my neck.


 

What have I done.......... ?

 A lot of mental wrenching was done over several beers trying to come up with a more modern look and
a practical design for the frame to shorten the wheelbase by 4 inches and get some ground clearance
higher than the stock 5.5" !!! It has a motor akin to the size of a Harley and the rear frame comes around
the primary chaincase and has the swinging arm pivot behind the assembly giving the massive 55.5"
wheelbase, so thats where the dawn attack will go in........ but how ???

 Time to speak to my engineering guru, Barry at Premier Motorsports.  Barry likes a challenge and is a
master craftsman, welder and one of the best "spanner men" I have ever met. The creature from the
black lagoon is put on the scales, or rather the scales are offered up to it via the craftsman jack and it
weighs in at 309 lbs!!!  Many bolts later the engine is free of the frame and also weighed out of curiosity
and shows the same as a complete Raga Gas Gas...... and this is an Enfield "works motor" with all the
lightweight mods!!!

 

Get the hacksaw !

 The whole thing literally hinges on the swinging arm pivot point so out with the hacksaw and saw
through the top tube.... I hope I get this right!  Now machine some new longer gearbox bolts so that
where they connect engine to gearbox we can hang a downtube from the upper section and make the
swinging arm carrier similar to the Cub. Shorten the front downtube to raise the engine, machine some
new engine plates and set the headstock to modern day Beta angles.


 

Reconfigured frame, and the swinging arm now inside gearbox &
primary chaincase
 
A slight bend in the top tube, machine a head steady plate and the 3 piece frame should all bolt back
together. Now cut the swinging arm in two, and reduce the width so that it fits on the downtube inside
the primary chaincase and gearbox. Slip in a sneaky KTM bolt and the reconfigured SA fits perfectly. I'm
planning on a Ty 250 rear wheel so a huge sprocket from BJ Racing  and shocks, new tank, billet yokes
and bash plate from Spartan Engineering in Devon. I also went for their "lightweight " front wheel with 
Cub style hub.



The big sprocket and reversed mount TY tensioner
 
 In retrospect I should have narrowed the upper frame rail at the rear as its still a bit wide for trials
today. With suitable chroming of parts, and a reversed TY chain tensioner, it all goes back together
along with an Ossa VM26 Mikuni which just happens to have the same perfect fit flange mount. Figure
that one ???  Metric and British Whitworth and they match!  Small brain teaser with the jetting of main...
increase main jet size with a 2T and come down on a 4T.  The Majesty used a 290 main and 30 pilot
whereas this beast runs a 100 main and a 40 pilot.



It all bolts together 


 Time to behave like a Jamaican Drum maker so some gentle panel beating with a soft hammer to the
underside of the new tank to accommodate the rocker boxes of the raised engine. The rebuild is done,
the new super shiny front wheel weighed exactly the same as the Enfield full width alloy hub but due
to the square peg brake arm would not fit !  The old front wheel was retained, the gas betors were
angled on the frame and Barry made an exquisite full bash plate to finish the job off.  Upstairs Magura
front brake lever some low rise Hebo bars to take into account the very long fork legs and a very clever
integrated decompressor and clutch lever from Works Connection.






All finished and an Indian Enfield chrome mudguard 





Another work of art bash plate from Barry




The really neat clutch & decompressor by Works Connection

....... and then it ran for a Day! The Prince of Darkness Lucas Racing Mag went into a sulk and was
sent to rehab in the UK and has been a joy since its return.


 So, 2008 and it has its first outing at Milliken and swept round on a zero card with some amazing
"Oh CRAP!!" cleans on sections where Jeff Smith had 3 "5's" due to ground clearance or lack of.
It felt a bit like being on a show jumping horse when you arrive at a series of big log crossings from a
tight turn....... as I came out of the turn I thought "OC, it will never get over those" but it just rumbled into
them and went up and over without any hesitation on just idle power.

 

First ride ever for me on a big'un and a zero score

 Two rides at Donner for just a single dab when I lost the brake pedal on a rock and didn't even notice.
On to Casper and 3 very easy events for the loss of one mark and then the final ride of the year at
Sandia where five points were lost in the sand on the first loop but then it flew round clean on the rest
of the sections for it's 7th class win of the year and the Championship.

 

Two wins at Donner for the loss of 1 mark




3 more wins at Casper

 

Win No7 at Sandia

 So for 2010 beware "the speeding bullet" or "the lumbering gun carriage".. The ENFIELD is back and
ready to take on the other BIG GUNS in the remake of "THE CHARGE OF THE LIGHT, OR HEAVY
 BRIGADE"




"Into the valley rode the 600", well a 350, in this case........... Turks, Aj's,
Velos, BSA's, Matchless and Ariels take cover !

TONY DOWN