My brother Stephen and I stood before the shimmering worm hole between us and 1955, we could faintly hear Cliff Richard’s raunchy song Move It, and with a hesitant look at each other we said "what the hey!", and jumped through it to stand before the ever so British, Royal Enfield.

Oh come on! What crap is this? The truth is we went to visit Alan Craig Motorcycles at Boolaroo where the stalwart of motorcycling offers a range of very unusual new machines.

If you think that the Harley Davidson Motorcycle company is the longest running bike company, think again. The Royal Enfield can track its lineage back to a company that made bicycles way back in the 1880’s and the current range has remained predominantly unchanged since 1955.

Unless you’ve been doing a very good impersonation of sleeping beauty, you’ll have noticed the current obsession with creating ‘the retro look’ in new cars and motorcycles, well, Royal Enfield has been making new motorcycles untouched by the passage of time for 45 years. While you might think that this is a poor passage of mechanical progression, there is another train of thought that concludes that after all this time the original idea can only have been perfected. There is no point, in comparing the Enfield range with the current crop of new motorcycles available to the riding public as it is unique.

Back in ’55 the Bullet must have been quite the performance machine, as it runs to about 120kph top speed and can do it a lot quicker than I would have anticipated. At that top speed the engine is maxxed out to about 4500rpm (according to the tacho) and you can bet that slow spinning parts like that are going to take decades to wear out.

The 500cc air cooled single has the same type of vertically split crankcase, as used on other British bikes of the infant rock n roll era. This design used to allow the slippery liquid contents to make a mess on the garage floor, however, there is no evidence of oil leaks on the new Enfields. There is also the same separate 4 speed gearbox but the gearshift and brake have been swapped to the opposite sides thanks to the crafty linkage system designed by the Madras factory. Anyone who has ridden a bike with right gear shift and left foot brake will tell you how difficult it is to switch the brain over when you’re used to the now more normal configuration.

Servicing the bike’s mechanicals is as simple as following a recipe for making scones, very easy indeed. There is little in the way of high technology in the machines, points ignition, drum brakes, kick start etc., so you won’t need to be kissing up to the bank manager whenever something stops or a major service falls due. Speaking of the brakes, I found them quite good at stopping forward motion and actually thought they were smoother than discs, which have a tendency to bite when applied suddenly. Once we had been schooled in the art of kick starting, it was easy to find the ‘spot’ where the ammeter read zero and swing the engine into life. There was also need of tuition in gear changing because if you don’t do it just right you’ll be able to find more neutrals than a crowd of political fence sitters.

Once under way the Enfield can accelerate to the speed limit as quickly as the rest of the tintop encased population. This is thanks to the good torque of the engine, once you are in fourth cog it’ll plod along quite happily up hill and down dale without the need for numerous gear changing.

Both bikes ride along very smoothly, however, due to the characteristics of a single cylinder engine there is always going to be a certain amount of vibration, it’s a case of like it or lump it. Handling is not too bad for a design spanning nearly half a century, so I guess that you could again say that it was ahead of its time when it first left the drawing board and rolled off the assembly line. The Avon tyres offer very good grip, which may in some way compensate for any inadequacies (if there are any) in the now out dated suspension and frame design.

We couldn’t check the headlight’s capabilities properly as we were unable to find enough paraffin! Sorry I’m crapping on again, no we just didn’t have the bikes for any night riding, but from what we could tell they appear to throw out a fair amount of illumination.

I personally preferred the Bullet to the Lightning not just because the ‘classic’ styling appeals to me, chrome tank, knee pads and all, but that the riding position suits me as well, making gearshifts easier and more correct. This may sound like an oxymoron but the Royal Enfield is a new old bike, it requires the same care as a fully restored classic motorcycle. You’ll need to look over the bike at regular intervals, taking care to make sure the bolts etc are still tight.

The Bullet 500 starts at $6,665 plus on road costs while the Lightning 500 is $7,260 plus ORC and come with a 9 month or 9,000 kilometre warranty. So for the price of a 250cc scooter you can have a brand new 500cc motorcycle with classic lines, not look out of place at the vintage bike runs, and be the envy of the talkative old bloke down the street who reckons he’s owned every bike from the turn of last century onward.

If you aren’t aware of it, Royal Enfield motorcycles are currently manufactured in Madras India (yes the land of sacred cows and curry). Enfields are used by motorcycle tour groups traveling throughout India and have enjoyed a reputation of comfort and reliability, with many in the groups buying one to take back home with them such was the impact made by the solid machine.

Test bikes supplied by Alan Craig Motorcycles, 10 Main Road Boolaroo, 02 49581455.

Ancient brother with new 500cc Royal Enfield Bullet             500cc Royal Enfield Lightning