PICS MOTOR

Actually, it should have read, "The Last of The Bullets made in England", but the title seemed straight out of a movie and so.....

Although the present Royal Enfields manufactured in Chennai (then Madras), India started its production in the 50s, The England Redditch factory was in production till 1967 and finally closed in 1970.

The last series of Royal Enfield to roll out from the factory as production units was the INTERCEPTOR. They came in 2 series, Series I & Series II. The main difference between the Series I and II are oil cooler, better lubrication design and more efficient brakes. An interesting feature that all Royal Enfield’s share is the separate lever on the gearbox; a clever device used to find neutral, regardless of the current gear selected which is still present in the modern Royal Enfields.

The English factories made a final attempt with the 1962 - 1968 to counter the Japanese invasion which was majorly targeted for the US market, it sported lots of chrome and an engine performance with less than 14 seconds to the quarter mile at speeds well above 175 km/h (105 mph). It became very popular in the US, so popular that supply-demand ratio was not being able to be handled by the company which further added to the demise of this last English made Royal Enfield.

After the factory closed a little over 200 Series II Interceptor engines were stranded at the dock in 1970 which were left to dispose. Luckily the Rickman brothers got stock of this and so a limited run of Rickman Interceptors were promptly built.
The Interceptor was first built in 1963, a bore of 71mm and stroke of 93mm making it 736cc, breathing through twin 30mm Amals and claiming 52.5bhp at 6,000 rpm. More significant was the claim that it would pull its 4.22 to 1 top gear down to a smidgeon under 20mph - a torquey, flexible, real riders power unit. As with all the Enfield twins, oil was carried in a compartment within the crankcase castings, and bolted to the back of the Albion gearbox was a meaty alloy casting that butted up to the frames swinging arm lugs to stiffen the whole assembly.