British Injun?

I have a 1951 Indian Warrior to paint for a guy. He says the engine (a 500?) was made by Royal Enfield. I'm wondering if Royal Enfield had a model of their own that was very similar?

Reason I ask is that the tank has what appear to be pairs of rivets or pins that were ground down and puttied over, the sort of pins that would be used to attach emblems. '51 Warriors had water slide decals, so I think this is not an original tank. Wondering what else it might have come from...

Those would be the ones Floyd Cylmer imported wouldn't they? Pictures should be around on the web, but if you can't find what you need pm me and I'll ask a local historian who has Indians.

Cookie said:

Those would be the ones Floyd Cylmer imported wouldn't they?

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This would be when the British Brockhouse company were involved with Indian.

The Warrior engines were not made by Royal Enfield.

http://www.indianchiefmotorcycles.com/oldinjun.htm - "1946-53 Era"

LAB to the rescue again. I'd never heard of these.

http://www.re-indian.com/enfield/enfield1.html

Yes, a lot Royal Enfield models were rebadged and restyled and sold in the US as Indians: http://www.re-indian.com/history.html

There was also a 250 Brockhouse engined Warrior I think? But they were rather unreliable!
Brockhouse never sold them in the UK, they were mainly known for the "Corgi", a development of the WW2 paratroop "Welbike" http://www.motorbase.com/auctionlot/by-id/473029122/
http://bcoy1cpb.pacdat.net/welbike.htm

hi LAB,did indian ever produce a 250 brave , i can vaguely remember my uncle telling me that his bike was a 250 brave when i was a kid or could it have been the warrior you mentioned

chris plant said:

hi LAB,did indian ever produce a 250 brave , i can vaguely remember my uncle telling me that his bike was a 250 brave when i was a kid or could it have been the warrior you mentioned

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Yes, thanks for jogging my memory, the 250cc model was the Brockhouse "Indian Brave", and maybe not a 250 "Warrior"
http://www.motorbase.com/auctionlot/by-id/985606484/

hi LAB,thanks for the link,but it says in the write up that they was,nt sold in uk ,from memory that looks like the bike my uncle had ,dark red or maroon,first bike i ever sat on

So it seems from those history links that Royal Enfield Indians didn't start 'till 55 and the Warrior wasn't a RE motor. The owner of the bike I'm painting will be interested to learn that. Also from the pics I've seen, I think the tank I have might be from a Chief. Same shape and with badges on the sides.

Chris, some bikes and cars cross the Atlantic both ways depending on the dollar or pound.

chris plant said:

it says in the write up that they was,nt sold in uk ,from memory that looks like the bike my uncle had ,dark red or maroon,first bike i ever sat on

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As the Braves (or just the engines?) were built over here, then it wouldn't surprise me if there had been the odd one or two in the UK at that time, but as far as I know they were never on general sale here in the UK, and I think we would know much more about them if they had been?

That Clymer Indian Vellocette 500 might be a fun bike to own.

Cookie said:

That Clymer Indian Vellocette 500 might be a fun bike to own.

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Yes!

Got £11,000 GBP to spare?: http://www.vintagebike.co.uk/Classified ... photo=3565

http://www.vintagebike.co.uk/Classified ... o_500.html

And what about a Brockhouse Corgi for £2,500 GBP :shock: to keep it company?

http://www.vintagebike.co.uk/Classified ... photo=3594

http://www.vintagebike.co.uk/Classified ... Corgi.html

Good Lord,

Pricey little suckers aren't they?

Cookie said:

Good Lord,

Pricey little suckers aren't they?

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Yes, and to think that 20-30 years ago, you'd have had trouble giving a Corgi away!

I guess it's the old "Supply and demand" equation at work. Those Corgis were so cheap and nasty, particulalry when bought from military surplus, poeple just put them out with the trash if anything went wrong.

It's the same with my favorite, of the bikes I personally owned, a 1961 Ariel Leader. It was only a 250, but the performance was quite good. I could blow off MG Midgets and Triumph Spifires, but couldn't keep up with MGBs and TR4s. It was a 2-stroke parallel twin, full fairing, windshield and engine covers. The factory recoomended gas/oil ratio was 16:1, so it smoked heavily if you were riding hard. The mufflers used to clog up with partially burned oil.

I sent a letter to the factory sking if there were any aluminum parts in the mufflers, as I was planning to clean them with a hot water/lye solution. I got a message back sayin that would work fine and "by the way, testing has shown that the engine is fine on a 40:1 ratio, if you use Bardahl". That made it pollute the air much less.

You can't find a decently restored one these days for less than about £10,000. I paid £100 for mine at 2 years old!

Yup,

It's not unusual to see someone cherishing a car or bike we thought was rubbish when I was young. Put 40 years on it and many things come back in fashion, maybe even the 58 Oldsmobile I had.