Clymer built Enfield

A real rare bird on these shores, this beautiful Clymer built, Indian badged, Royal Enfield. Akin to the Indian Velocettes and Triumphs, Floyd Clymer used an Italjet chassis, with all the best contemporary parts, such as Marzocchi forks and Grimeca brakes. A batch of some 200 Interceptor engines was ordered but only perhaps 15 machines were actually built before Clymer died, the remaining engines were then used by the Rickmans for their Interceptor Metisse.

This particular 1970 machine was spotted on an internet auction site, advertised as an Indian, over in Weymouth, USA. The owner would not accept any form of payment from anyone unless it was via an American bank account, so Dave Holliman, who bought it jointly with Andy Legg and Maurice Mumford, signed up with American Express. However, their cheque maximum is $100, so Dave spent one day writing out no less than 84 individual $100 cheques, which were bagged up and sent to the owner.

The whole episode took some four months before the bike was in Blighty. The restoration was straightforward in that Andy has a spray shop, so took care of the cosmetics, Maurice used to work as a wheel builder at Enfield’s Bradford-on-Avon factory and Dave is a mechanic, so it was back to full health in no time. A lovely piece of work for sure.