Royal Enfield Motorcycles 140 1914
The Royal Enfield marque traces to a small, light engineering firm – George Townsend & Company – founded in Redditch, Worcestershire in mid-Victorian times. The firm moved into bicycle manufacture and by the turn of the Century had been reorganised as the Enfield Cycle Company, makers of the ‘Royal Enfield’. The Redditch company built its first powered vehicles – De Dion-engined tricycles and quadricycles – in the closing years of the 19th Century and its first motorcycles around 1900. By 1904 the firm was concentrating on motor car production, resuming motorcycle manufacture in 1910 with a 2¼hp v-twin Motosacoche-powered lightweight. A 2¾hp version with two-speed gear and all-chain drive followed. The famous JAP v-twin-engined 6hp sidecar outfit joined the range for 1912, and the firm continued the v-twin theme with a new 3hp solo for 1913, the latter being powered by Enfield’s own 425cc inlet-over-exhaust engine, which was raced successfully in 350cc form at Brooklands and the Isle of Man TT. Enfield were a technologically progressive concern, adopting multi-speed transmission, chain drive, automatic dry-sump lubrication and a patented cush-drive rear hub that would remain a feature of all future models.
This Veteran 3hp Royal Enfield v-twin formerly belonged to noted collector/restorer Henry Ormonde Gurr, of Great Brickhill, Buckinghamshire, whose name is the only one listed in the accompanying old-style continuation logbook. Issued in May 1966, the latter document records the date of original registration as 11th October 1921, this being shortly after the introduction of the Roads Act of 1920, which required local councils to register all vehicles at the time of licensing and to allocate a separate number to each. (Many vehicles, although in existence for several years in some cases, were only registered for the first time after the Act’s passing.)
Accompanying copies of old Swansea V5 documents show that ‘HK 7931’ passed from Henry Gurr to Alastair Brown, of South Croydon, Surrey in 1988 and thence – in 2003 – to Roy Tubby, of Wrentham, Suffolk from whom it was purchased by Brian Verrall in October 2004. In 2005 the Enfield was selected to illustrate one of a series of Royal Mail stamps celebrating the glory years of British motorcycle design. The stamps were released on 19th July 2005, and a First Day Cover, advertising poster (featuring ‘HK 7931’), set of postcards, foldout brochure, provisional artwork and a quantity of loose stamps, etc are held at NZ Classic Motorcycles.
The bike was last campaigned on the 2004 Pioneer Run and became part of the New Zealand MC Museum collection in 2008.