YOU NEED… …a works Royal Enfield

We continue our series where the editor dishes out the orders as to what you should have in your shed… which should be pretty full by now if you’ve taken our advice!

Words and pics: Tim Britton

In paying tribute to Johnny Brittain, who passed away in March, we say you need a works Royal Enfield trials bike in your shed.

Of course you couldn’t actually get a pukka works bike unless you were Johnny Brittain – or Don Morley. Yes, photographer Morley (author of ‘the’ book on classic trials bikes) ownedHNP 331 for five years.

However, Royal Enfield came the closest to providing a replica of their factory bikes for public consumption.

This of course proved a dilemma, as on the one hand they liked to use their star man Johnny Brittain’s wins in their publicity and advertising and the actual Works Replica was based on his motorcycle, but like all team bikes regardless of their factory, there were differences and the edict ‘ride what we sell’ meant the obvious lightweight bits had to be handed back.

In common with all publicity departments, Royal Enfield would state a weight in their brochures, which, while not made up, stretched the truth as far as possible and the 309lb posted would be a ‘dry’ weight or in other words the weight of a machine without oil or petrol, a condition no rider would use a motorcycle in.

Read more and view more images in the Summer 2019 issue of CDB – on sale now!