This month we feature Bobby’s 1964 Royal Enfield Interceptor.
Royal Enfield’s Interceptor was made in England between 1960 and 1970 and intended for the North American market. It began life as a tuned 692cc version of the Constellation, and in 1962 was restyled and upgraded to 738cc. A key selling point at the time, was that the crankshaft was dynamically balanced at the factory, allegedly making it one of the smoothest British 750 twin models on the market.
It was offered in a scrambles and a road version.
Q: Perhaps a bit of background to begin with ?
A: I started riding at age 13 I started on a new Suzuki 50 M15. I then bought a 68 Honda CL125 and didn’t have a great dealer experience with that bike and went back to Suzuki. I had many Suzuki GT 750’s and a couple of RE 5 Rotary bikes.
Q: Why this bike ?
A: In the late 70’s a friend asked me to work on his Kawasaki 500 which was a write off with 100 miles on the speedo. I rebuilt the bike for him and afterwards he asked if I would rebuild his Royal Enfield 750 Interceptor. Short story, I did and was hooked.
Q: What is the bike’s history ?
A:Many bikes later and looking for a motorcycling direction, I bought a 64 Royal Enfield 750 Interceptor rolling basket in California. She had been ridden hard and left to rot in California before her purchase and trip to Canada. There was only about 1000 or so of these built and sold around the world. Built in England in small batches, each and every bike it appears was just a little bit different as the lines and bikes were modified on the fly.
Q: What have you done so far?
A: The ’64 proved to be a challenge with a lot of threads stripped on the engine. Some parts were missing like the rear fender seat rail. It had been cut off and welded to the frame. After an exhaustive search, I found one in a garage a couple of miles from my house ! Every nut and bolt has been repaired, replaced or upgraded to complete this bike. I converted the Electrics to 12 volt and rebuilt the magneto. The only change I made to the bike from stock is to paint it a little brighter red than the red RE used. I also added the Lucas Altette horn which was not on this model year.
Q: What about parts availability for a 48 year old machine?
A: I resourced the Interceptor group on Yahoo http://groups.yahoo.com/group/RE_Interceptor. The guys on this site were are great. I used Hitchcocks as well as Burton Bike Bits , both in the UK, who sell Royal Enfield spares worldwide.
Q: Other comments?
A: I made a blog for the build of my bikes to be used as reference point for other builders and enthusiasts – it is located at this link.
