Now just so you don’t think Barnett’s Magazine Online has gone to the total dark side with this formerly British and now totally India-built bike that’s been customized by a German guy who’s recently set up shop in Florida, here’s a link to a recent article we ran on another one of his builds. Yes sir, that is a Harley and it’s pretty damn cool if I do say so myself. It’s one of the many customs Erik has knocked out when he’s not buzzing around on one of the Boss Hoss motorcycles he sells at his dealership. Also being a Royal Enfield dealer, Erik knew he had to do something super cool with one of them and that’s where we’re at.
Royal Enfield’s factory in Chennai, India, has been in bed with the original English company Royal Enfield ever since they started assembling under license knocked-down Enfields in 1955. In 1957 they acquired Royal Enfield tooling for the single cylinder bike and have been manufacturing them ever since. Originally the Indian Enfields sold here were a wee bit to much like the original English Enfields with all their quirks. Actually they were like buying a 1955 bike in too many ways so recently they upped the ante with a new engine featuring unit construction, a 5-speed tranny replacing the 4-speed, EFI instead of a carb, disc brakes where drums were and a whole lot more. Yet they’ve somehow kept all the quaint charm of the original through all these improvements.
What Erik’s done here is to take a stock 500cc model and with a few reasonable mods and paint, he’s taken it to the next level with Lucky 13. The single remains stock inside, but the addition of a racing style megaphone possibly adds a horse or two of fury to the stock claimed 27.2. What it really does is bring out the soul of a single with a nice blast of sound. You always hear there’s nothing like a single and from my own experience it’s true. Singles are just so simple it’s ludicrous and it’s fun steadily picking up speed as the thuds get closer together.
Erik’s main Lucky 13 trick was appearance and in this case he succeeded with a more aggressive demeanor replacing the stock somewhat dowdy vintage vibe. The previously mentioned black megaphone exhaust certainly ups the cool factor by about ten compared to the huge stock chromed piece and is complimented by getting rid of the full-valence stock front fender for nothing. Yes, nothing, and just cause he could, he whacked off the rear fender to almost nothing. I don’t know about you, but it sure sounds to me like someone was bobbing out a bike in true bobber fashion. The slice and dice approach has been a customizer’s favorite since the first post WWII bobbers hit the scene.
Giving the scramble to Lucky 13’s scrambler theme is a set of braced off-road bars that look good and are probably pretty damn comfy too. A set of vintage-style square tread 4.00×18 Firestone reproduction tires are mounted front and rear on the now black, stock ex-chromed spoked wheels and that only ads to the tough look Erik was going for. A slimmed-down Burley Inc. seat replaced the thickly padded stock sprung solo saddle and the result is also a bit tougher in real life and in one’s perception. A side-mount license plate bracket and tail light add a bit of pizzazz instead of the huge, goofy looking DOT fender mount setup, but that was kind of a no-brainer as there’s really not much rear fender left to mount anything.
What really catches your eye is the metal flake gold and black panel paintjob along with Lucky 13 graphics on the tank and just enough pinstriping to add eye appeal. Royal Enfield’s seriously tried to bring their biggest offering to current standards, but metal flake paint is definitely not on their option list ─ yet. Last, but not least, I’ve gotta mention Erik’s penchant for using yellow headlight lenses like the French government once required for registered vehicles. It’s all kinda cool in a French movie kind of way.
The marketing lads back at the factory are probably busy studying this version of American taste as interpreted by a German guy for future models. Yeah, an ancient British bike is modernized by it’s new Indian owner for sale to bike crazy Americans who just might want it customized by a German guy living and working in Florida. Seems like the whole world was involved with this build on some level so take it for what it is, a fun to ride, knock-around bike that you would never lose in a parking lot. By the way, if you did, you really shouldn’t be riding anymore anyway. A gold metal flake single cylinder bike with a yellow headlight lens is not something you see everyday.