Royal Enfield – Mo Powa

DSC_0505Royal Enfield’s have been standard fair on the menu of motorcycle custom houses for decades.
Think of a flavour and someone, somewhere will probably have made it out of a Royal Enfield.
Fast, slow, off road, on road, low, high and everything in between, to say the Royal Enfield brand is versatile doesn’t do it justice.

Royal Enfield have been manufacturing motorcycles of various kinds since 1899 and are credited with the longest production run of any motorcycle, the Bullet, which has been in continuous production since 1931.

DSC_0583bThey say you can’t teach an old dog new tricks, but they don’t say anything about an old dog teaching us new tricks. Royal Enfield have taken the opportunity to do just that. Prepare to be educated.

The basis for this lesson is the Classic 500, a post war styled bike, traditional, sedate, pretty and unassuming.

From front to back, there is little that hasn’t been uprated, upgraded or modified to transform this post war cruiser in to a drag inspired, post-apocalyptic machine.

DSC_0542bWith what was to come, the standard front brake was junked and replaced with a funky Brembo calliper with billet calliper mount. This bites hard into a floating wave disc.

To create the drag bike stance, the standard front forks have been lowered and stiffened and the standard, classic style raised bars have be re-worked and flattened, tracker style. The standard classic style, comfortable, wide sprung seat has been reworked and upholstered in deer skin with racing foam accents.

The stock single downtube frame with the engine as a stressed member was retained and was subtly reworked with the rear foot peg hangers removed and the rear shock mounts extended to improve the geometry of the rear suspension.
That weedy, Classic 500 swing arm was resigned to the skip and in it’s place Royal Enfield have slotted in a stretched swing arm from the Continental GT, resulting in a longer wheelbase.

DSC_0528To strengthen the attitude, the lower shock mounts were flipped and re-located from the top of the swing arm to underneath, giving the bike that slammed, drag bike stance. The rear rides on a pair of K-Tec, remote reservoir, fully adjustable shocks and a wide Excel rim. Both front and rear rims are fitted with knobblies for that post apocalyptic look.

Stance, attitude & style are all essential characteristics for a modern custom bike but one of the stand out features of Mo Powa is it’s heart.
Royal Enfield have taken the dramatic step of turbocharging the standard 499cc engine.
It sucks air through a carb, with the standard efi and airbox junked and the gases exit through a gorgeous Harris Performance, MotoGP inspired, hand crafted exhaust.

DSC_0549

Today’s lesson……’Mo Powa’

Leave a Reply