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Classic Motorcycle News
Royal Enfield’s CEO returns to the firm’s heritage homeland; vintage and veteran bikes blaze through the Home Counties, and Lewis Leathers need your assistance…
We’ve long admired Talana Gamah’s photo-realistic paintings which capture every angle and reflection in intricate detail – you almost expect the bikes to fire up and ride away. Each artwork is unique and takes weeks to complete so the originals are highly sought-after and valued. There’s now a more affordable option in the form of high quality limited-edition prints – which are individually numbered and signed – as well as ‘standard’ prints, where prices start at £9.99 for an A4 rendition. The limited edition giclée prints are produced on 100% cotton, acid-free archival stock, using archival ink for superb reproduction of the original art. Prices for these start at £60.
Most of Talana’s illustrations are also available as greetings cards, cushions and mugs – even flip-flops and deckchairs! He also accepts commissions, should you want to have your P&J preserved in all its glory. See or email [email protected]
Vintage & Veteran
60 riders took part in the Sunbeam MCC’s annual Garden of England Run for veteran, vintage and post-vintage machines in July. Based around Headcorn Airfield in Kent, this event has almost become a two-day affair because many owners opted in to a static display on the Saturday as part of the airfield’s Battle of Britain commemoration.
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Sunbeams (wrong ones), on Now… |
Then on the Sunday they enjoyed a splendid ride on a carefully planned route through some of Kent’s most beautiful countryside, with a midway lunch stop and a return for tea and cakes. Riders voted for the motorcycles they would most like to own and the worthy winners were:
Memorabilia Sought by Lewis Leathers
Can you help Lewis Leathers? They’re putting together a book about the history of the business and need to find old catalogues and info to help the research. Lewis Leathers had shops around the country (Birmingham, Sheffield and Burnley) in the 1950s, 60s and 70s, with Camberley, Sutton-in-Ashfield and Staines added in the early 1980s. Any old photographs of the shops, correspondence, receipts and paperwork are also of interest. Similarly, old catalogues and sales lists from S Lewis’s of 27 Carburton Street, London W1, any information or anecdotes on S Lewis, the person, or shop, will also be gratefully received together with early vintage products from the 1920s to the 1950s.
If you have any of those items – or anything else related to D Lewis Ltd or Lewis Leathers – then they’d love to hear from you at [email protected] or 020 7636 4314
New At Norvil
The latest new components to join Norvil’s extensive stock of British-made spares for Nortons are outer chaincase covers. The one pictured is for early Commandos (1968, ‘pointed’ type) which costs £280 plus VAT. They also have chaincase covers for all variations of G15, at £220 plus VAT.
The company now stocks over 7000 genuine Norton parts, the vast majority of which are made in the UK, many produced to better-than-standard specifications using modern materials. Call 01543 278008 or see
Royal Enfield Head Home?
While sales in the Indian home market boom – up 49% y-o-y in July – the company’s CEO Siddhartha Lal will relocate to the UK for a year to give the business a boost in its heritage homeland, now a valuable export market. Royal Enfield, the two-wheeler division of Eicher Motors, aims to be a global player in 250cc-750cc motorcycle segment over the next decade. ‘We are in the process of developing engines for the international markets and lots of developmental work is happening in the UK,’ said Lal, explaining his temporary relocation.
The move brings him closer to Royal Enfield’s target markets and the new technical centre in the UK, which leads the development of motorcycles for international markets. The company’s international bike business constitutes around 5% of global sales but is expected to increase over the next decade. Royal Enfield acquired UK-based Harris Performance in June in order to scale up its R&D facilities, and the company is developing two new engine platforms for a variety of new machines suitable for emerging markets. ‘In addition to the US, the UK and Europe,’ said Lal, ‘we are looking to enter new markets including Latin America and south-east Asian countries.’
The firm’s limited edition ‘Despatch’ model sold out in just 26 minutes earlier this summer, when all 200 of the initial inventory were snapped up online.
Sunbeam MCC photos by John Mijatovic
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