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-   -   "irish" royal enfield 350 bullet (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/post-war/57535-irish-royal-enfield-350-bullet.html)

as promised in my introduction, i will put up all my questions and pictures of my bike.

my dad came across the bike through a friend of his who imported a couple of containers of old bikes from nigeria. following a little gentle persuasion, we went and bought it for next to nothing and in fairness, maybe thats all its worth!

we have a nigerian taxbook which has next to no details, so we are not sure as to its age.

I would be grateful for any information about this bike through your detective work by spotting parts and saying that they belong to model years x,y, z etc!
i understand that certain parts could be bolted on afterthoughts, but in general, if you think something on it represents either 60s, 70s, 80s or whatever, please post away.

i hope the photograph attachments show or else i cant follow instructions!

Me thinks it is a pre-75 Bullet. It has an oil pressure relief bolt next to the oil feed pipe. It has a strange carburator with an iron? float bowl.

I'd guess itz a 70s bullet too but then the part where the breather pipe fits in looks different. Can you give us the engine number. The parts for this bike will be easily available in india and many parts of the world.

Pre-75 Bullets had that kind of triangular removable breather pipe fitting.

Thanks for the info Sankar. This should be an Enfield India export bike, looking at the tank pads and the short Armstrong rear shox.

speedometer "veglia"??-was such a brand existed?and AFAIK Enfields were not exported in 1970's.

Looks to me like a 85-87 model thats when REL was known as Enfield also the front mudguard is the hand made one, And REL exports a lot of bulls to the African police. Please send its engine number and frame number by which we could find its past. And thats a very unknown and unheard type of a speedo and carb.
Heres the link to what i feel is the speedo co.
Welcome to Smiths-Veglia Fine Classic Automobiles

Thats the brand of speedo even the current Palio 1.6 comes with. Is the brand Italian?

Veglia Borletti is an Italian brand which was an OEM for Fiats even in 50s.
My Fiat Super select and Fiat Palio both have these meters in pristine condition.They are master pieces.
But im surprised to see on an Enfield Metre instead of Smiths.

And I might add the Lambrettas had it too! :)

Maybe even Vespas but I'm not too sure.

Wow.. does this thing have any electricals??

The best and the easiest way to find out is by the chassis/frame number. You can find out exactly which year and month straight away.

Another peculiarity of early 70s bullets made in India was 2 series of numbers stamped onto the engine. That was because the engines were made in England (where they got an engine number) on arriving in India and being mounted onto a chassis, the chassis number was then stamped onto it. If your bike has that, it's even easier to pin-point it's origin and birth.

You definitely have an interesting carb.

Aah! Just spotted something else. Your swing-arm is definitely from an old bike. I don't know from which year it changed, but old bikes like mine (Sept. 1972) have a swing-arm like yours. Newer ones even in the 80's had it different. i don't know how to explain it, but they were turned around for some reason. Maybe it is easier to manufacture or something. You'll have to scrutinise some pictures or bikes to get what I'm saying.

Either way it's a beautiful bike, and you can easily repair it yourself and source parts for it. If it is an old bike you'll really enjoy the "Heavy Crank" thump.

Ciao

Welcome aboard.

you cant get all parts for this bike from any of the Royal Enfield dealers here in UK.
i dunno whether they have RE dealers in Ireland too?

Also,go thru the RE blogs/forum and website to know more about the legacy of the RE brand.

Ozy.. that's a real bad condition of the Bull. This looks like a model from mid 70s and finding parts for such an old model in Ireland can be a big pain in the right place :)

Anyway, for the parts, I think these websites can be of good help.

Hitchcocks Motorcycles -- Royal Enfield and Amal Parts and Kits
British Royal Enfield Spares, Royal Enfield Motorbikes, British Enfield Spare Parts
Royal Enfield UK

Also, you have eBay to check as well!

yeah, i was wondering about the italian speedo alright. could be aftermarket.

the fuel tank has been badly corroded and badly repaired in the past with the enfield lettering painted on by hand, badly too. this would be replicating whatever was there before i would imagine.

if shes as old as pre 75 we would be very happy, thats old enough for us.

where is the engine number located?

i believe the chassis number is found at the front of the frame where the forks are mounted
chassis number = B/144317/51X

can the chassis number be broken down, say "B" means something, "144317" means something else and "51x" mean something else again?
i know that on my classic cars that the chassis number can be analyzed and deciphered to give you its original spec or other information.


the bikes engine isnt seized and everything is moving, yeah shes in bad condition but we will get her on the road again

Yes it is a Pre75 model, the oil pressure relief valve bolt next to the base of the oil feed pipe to the head and the detachable three screw type crankcase breather confirms it. later ones had cast in the case breather outlets.

Engine number can be found at the LH side a little below the last cooling fins cast into the crankcase.