[Dave] Hi Gordon nice to meet you. We're here at Brooklands. This is fantastic. I mean we have here,
I know it's a replica, but it is built as like the original, which doesn't exist anymore. So this is a
1901 Royal Enfield single cylinder. You're going to tell me about it, and we'll walk around it as well.
But this is so interesting. [Gordon] Well it's a faithful working replica of the original 1901 Royal Enfield.
Sadly none have survived, and in 2020 a group of young engineers working at Royal Enfield's UK
Technology Centre decided that they would build this replica in honour of that original bike.
We had so little to go on. We only had two photographs,
a couple of advertisements, and one tatty old brochure that was falling apart at the edges.
So we had these two photographs. We chose the best and we projected it onto a full-size screen,
and then we started mapping out all the angles from there. [Dave] So this is to scale? [Gordon] Yeah, to scale.
And then we put it into CAD, and I think the first six months of this project were in CAD,
because that's how all the young engineers work today. [Dave] Yeah, it is. [Gordon] And these are the guys
that worked on the Royal Enfield Interceptor, the Classic, the Meteor. So for them, they didn't
understand this technology, there was a steep learning curve. But you know, look
at what we've got as a result of it. [Dave] I mean the build quality is brilliant isn't it. And if anyone
didn't, they wouldn't know it was a replica. [Gordon]. No. We've had a lot of help from the pioneer motorcycle community.
So the chap for example who made this petrol tank for us, Ian Bane, he folded that from a
single sheet of brass, and then he soldered three baffles inside it. So at the back here
we've got the trembler coil and the battery. [Dave] I going to say to you about the trembler coil. So
that has still... [Gordon] It's got a trembler coil, and that's an original one that's been restored.
Then we've got a baffle that's soldered in. Then we've got the fuel, so we're running on Avgas.
And then a baffle soldered in, and then we've got the oil in the front. But of course with the
coil being at the back, the HT lead's got to run all the way through the petrol tank and the oil tank
to come out the front so, you know, that the skill, the craftsmanship in doing that was incredible.
A tube right through and then soldered in with Victorian handheld
soldering irons. [Dave] Yeah, the old way of doing it.
[Gordon] The old way of doing it, so quite quite wonderful that that level of
skill has been brought to it. [Dave] But looking at the engine. So we have as atmospheric in that valve.
[Gordon] Atmospheric in that valve, mechanical exhaust. So on the rear it's got an Eadie hub, and of course Eadie
patented that hub, and it's been used still to today, but Albert Eadie was one of the founders
of Royal Enfield in 1891 along with Bob Walker Smith. So quite wonderful that we were able to
find an original one of those and put it in here. [Dave] But the belt itself,
we know it's now a more modern V-belt. This would have originally been a leather belt. [Gordon] It
would have been a hide belt, yes, and crossed over to keep tension on the front
pulley. We've actually had no idea how to scale that up, we didn't have a photograph of that.
We've actually over geared it so, you know, going flat out on the, well you can only go one
speed, and that's probably about 30-35 miles an hour. [Dave] Fast enough.
[Gordon] So at some point we're going to down gear it which will actually make it easier to start.
[Dave] I see, you know, where the belt crosses over, there is probably a chance it rubs on the side here.
This is all a learning curve isn't it really. [Gordon] Is it, yeah. [Dave] But the engine itself, it starts really well doesn't
it, once it's warm. [Gordon] Once it's warm. [Dave] So tell us about that. [Gordon] Right, starting it cold is a real
challenge, and you have to prime it by dropping some fuel down here to prime it. And then
you just get it to top dead centre and you just flick open the valve lifter so you can spin it. It
took me about quarter of an hour today to get it started cold, and my legs were like jelly. But after
that, once it's warm, it'll go first kick. [Dave] Reason being, we've got such a long manifold here.
Inlet tract is so long, so cold fuel,
it's got to draw it up. So if you can put fuel straight in here... [Gordon] That's
the only way it will go. But then once it's warm, you see it's heated round here,
there's an off take from the exhaust that goes round to the carburettor, which is a
Longuemare carburettor, and that's what heats the air fuel mixture, allows it to atomize.
But of course when it's cold, that's not going to work.
So once it's running, you can stop and start very easily. But from cold is a real challenge.
[Dave] Can I just ask you because people may not know a trembler coil, the whole setup, how that works really.
Because it doesn't have a magneto as such does it, so this relies on
basically a battery. [Gordon] A battery, so there's a 12 volt battery in there,
and it sends a shower of sparks. So it doesn't send one single spark.
It's not a pulse spark, it sends a shower through, which actually gives you really nice combustion.
[Dave] You get a better burn. [Gordon] You'll get a better burn, that's right. The spark plugs are, you know,
the spark plugs are probably about 60 or 70 years old, and we've got two of them, and
that's it. But it's actually running quite clean. Oil is total loss. [Dave] So you've got a primer here.
[Gordon] You've got a primer so you draw it up, and then you give it about a squirt of
half of a plunger full, and that should do. We estimate that will run for about 15 miles
on that. Put too much in of course and you've got smoke. [Dave] If you're working it hard you can give
it a bit more. Is there another regulating oiler? Is there anything on the tank, a tap or anything?
[Gordon] No. [Dave] So it's just literally from here. [Gordon] It's just that, and it's total loss. [Dave] So
it's drawing oil from here and pushing it, so it's got like a pump. [Gordon] And so we gave it a
squirt on Friday and it's probably done about 10 miles on that. It was running very cleanly
coming up the circuit
but of course you don't want to push it too far. [Dave] Right Gordon, we're just going to chat
about these controls on the bike. I'm going to let you tell me what each lever does. I think
people will be interested by this. [Gordon] Okay so here we've got left-hand front brake, that operates a
band brake. The right-hand is a valve lifter. Here we've got the advance retard for the ignition.
And to this side we've got the revs for the carburettor. We've got that set to full revs
because we haven't had time to work on developing it further, we're just running it full revs at
the moment. This is the ignition off and on, that's the coil switched on, switched off. [Dave] Just for people
listening and looking at what we're showing at the moment. So our advance and retard, we'd
normally have that slightly retarded to start, and maybe when we go uphill retard it slightly.
And then you fully advance it again. [Gordon] Yeah it's running more or less fully advanced. And again
that's probably one of the issues with starting it cold, it could do with retarding. But we
got the bike ready and out there to show people, now is the time where we... we're early days.
First proper, proper run with it today at Brooklands, so now we're getting to the point where we can
refine it and really develop it's running further. [Dave] I think you've done a great job, you rode
it really well. [Alex] How does it how does it feel to ride it? [Gordon] Do you know I'm grinning from ear to ear
on it. It's such a thrill to ride, and you don't have to do very much when it's going. But I guess
out on the road when you've got traffic lights and roundabouts, that would be another thing altogether.
[Dave] One thing we didn't mention, cc, how big an engine are we looking at? [Gordon] It's a roundabout 250cc. [Dave] It's
big isn't it. [Gordon] Yeah, it's got some thump to it. And you can feel it pulls, and
I'm sure once we lower the gearing a little bit, it will really go like a tractor up hills. [Dave] I mean
most people think of a moped, 50cc, and you pedal start that yeah days of Puch Maxis. So to start
something of this capacity, hard work. [Gordon] Yeah, you get leg burn. I can tell you getting
it started, if it doesn't catch quickly when it's cold, you really notice it. [Dave] Lovely interesting
bike and a real privilege to see actually out on Brooklands circuit here today. So thank you very much.
[Gordon] An absolute pleasure. Wonderful place to come to, you know, where else would you want to run
this but Brooklands with all this heritage here. [Dave] Original surface as well. [Gordon] Yeah, exactly.