Clymer's Folly
Clymer's Folly
The Strange Case of the Unknown Indian
MEET A MOTORCYCLE THAT NEVER had a chance. Like most of Floyd Clymer's doings, the 1970 Indian Enfield 750 was part dream, part scheme. Today, if the bike is remembered at all (and mostly it isn’t), it’s as the last full-sized motorcycle to carry the famed Indian script logo.
Never mind that the engine came from Royal Enfield in Bradford-on-Avon, England, or that the frame and running gear-essentially the same as used on the Indian Velo 500-were put together by Leo Tartarini in Bologna, Italy, or that Clymer’s HQ on Virgil Ave. in hip-nhappenin’ L.A. was about as far from Indian’s ancestral Massachusetts home as it’s possible to get and still stay within U.S. borders. Details, schmeetails, ol’ Floyd might say.
Anyway, the Clymer/Tartarini/Indian/ Enfield 750 had more going against it than questionable ethnicity. A mature motor, for one thing. The 736cc verticalTwin traced its roots all the way back to 1948, when Enfield joined a pair of 250cc cylinders to come up with the bleakly named 500 Twin. Kickstart only, of course, with a balky, if bulletproof, four-speed gearbox and a reputation for being weepy-“Royal Oilfields” or “Oily Enfields” maintained the wags.
At least the chassis had a shot at greatness: sturdy Marzocchi fork, jumbo Grimeca binder up front, sexy Borrani alloys, generous cornering clearance. Unfortunately, build-quality was severely lacking. Faced with the extra weight and torque of the Enfield mill, Tartarini’s frame tweaked itself out of alignment. Electrics were a joint ItalioBritish hodgepodge, the less said about that the better. Pinstriping apparently was done by an elderly gent lacking the calming effect of his morning grappe. The front fender was particularly offensive-an otherwise stylish blade, it was mounted back
wards and with about two inches of ugly daylight between it and the tire. And Clymer’s insistence on “Western-style” handlebars-more like braced MX bars-was all wrong. (In a blow for aesthetics, our featured photo bike, restored by Time Machine’s Berg, has arrow-straight pinstripes, a dropped fender and low-rise BMW handlebar.)
Attribute the final nail in the Indian Enfield’s coffin to rotten timing. Clymer’s crossbred concoction hit the marketplace just in time to run into the Great Multi-Cylinder Revolution. BSA and Triumph had their Triples, then Honda pulled the wraps off its monumental CB750 Four-disc brake, electric starter, oil-tight motor, wailing exhaust, all for $1295. At $1545, the Enfield was out of range and out of luck.
Too bad, really. In sum, the bike was good-looking in a kandy-kolored cafe-
racer sort of way. Despite its antiquity, the motor was distinctly handsome, a long-stroke affair with torque o’ plenty and an exhaust note halfway between Triumph rasp and Norton rumble. And had Clymer not keeled over with a massive coronary in January of 1970, a new-generation Indian Enfield might have been a possibility. Reportedly, an updated 800cc motor, developed at a cost of £1 million and capable of almost 130 mph, was nearing completion in June, 1970, when
Enfield, too, went ta-tas up. In his book, The Story of Royal Enfield Motorcycles, Peter Hartley recounts that at the time there was a standing order from the USA for 400 new units. Floyd Clymer, wheelin’ and dealin’ to the very end?
-David Edwards
