The modern Royal Enfield 650 twin is one of the truly great engines of the last decade, offering modern reliability, plenty of torque and those classic good looks. But few ever mention that the company always intended it to recapture the essence of their brilliant twins of yesteryear and promoted the new motor as a “rebirth of Royal Enfield’s legendary parallel twin-cylinder engine.” And if one single motorcycle encapsulates all that was brilliant about those engines of old, this is it. From the brilliant mind of Jeff Duval the founder of Jets Forever, comes his 1964 Royal Enfield 700 GTC2 called ‘Mistral’, a desert sled built by one of the best in the business.
While the modern RE twin was developed to be a global platform, the company’s twins which were produced mid-last century, were always intended to help the British marque truly crack the North American market. And racing success was a top priority, “In the Halcyon Days when British Twins were still Ruling the Waves in SoCal Sands (so to speak) the Enfield 700 and 750cc twins were generally regarded as the most business looking motors of that generation. Whilst they might not have possessed the gunpowder blast offered by BSA, Norton and Triumph US Specials, they had greater reliability whilst showing comparable 50bhp,” Jeff tells us.
To set the project in motion, Jeff sourced a Super Meteor 700 from Canada and had RE specialists Hitchcocks Motorcycles of Solihull, take care of the importing. But little would remain original on this build, absolutely every part is either built from scratch, customised or at the very least completely and utterly rebuilt, such is Jeff’s absolute commitment to perfection. The project would also need a home, and the bike would reside with Tony Taysom at Lamb Engineering who worked with Jeff, as they have before, to direct the process and take care of many of the more complex solutions required along the way.
To create a foundation, Jeff headed over to Wasp Motorcycles to talk to Mark about using his vast experience to come up with just the right frame. What they decided on was to use a Wasp design originally intended for a BSA, and build it to suit the RE engine and give it that SoCal vibe. To achieve this, British 7/8” Chromoly was used to create the motocross style frame, all brilliantly bronzed welded and finished in a stunning nickel plated finish. To make the most of this gorgeous chassis, the suspension outfit starts with a set of Ceriani 38mm competition forks.
The back end sports the frame matching custom swingarm and to ensure this is properly sprung, a pair of machined alloy shocks from CR Suspension in Hungary were built for the project. The brakes are all of the best bits too, and the Beringer catalogue was raided, with two 2AP11 racing calipers for the front and one for the rear, all clamping Mick’s 11.5” mirror polished stainless discs, with custom mounts and braided lines. The roller is then all wrapped up with those gleaming polished hubs and rims from Central Wheels that wear Avon Roadrider MKII rubber.
As all of this work was being done, the famous twin-cylinder was sent to legendary engine builder Andy Berry for a total makeover. All of the vital bits were supplied by Hitchcocks, and just from the visuals alone, it has to be one of the nicest classic engines ever built. But it has the goods on the inside too, the 736cc bottom end sports all of the little tips and tricks for reliability, while the cylinder head is a full performance spec item. To make the most of the new breathing ability, fuel and air are rammed in by a pair of Amal MkII Concentrics carbs. The twin peashooter exhaust looks as good as it sounds and the brilliant package is finished with a rebuilt RE four-speed box.
The mechanicals make up a huge part of the visual statement, but the desert sled’s bodywork is beyond beautiful, and it was Tony Taysom who worked his magic. “Heavily modified” is how Jeff describes it, but the truth is that’s just being modest, the tank alone is a work of art and brilliantly captures that SoCal sand racing vibe. The front fender gets the proportions just right, with enough metal to cover the 21in tyre, without looking clunky. The mounts are simply superb, and match up nicely to the way the generous rear fender is attached, using the frame’s rear hoop as it was always intended to be used.
The strut-like mounts are then cleverly used to support the classically styled headlight, and a beautiful vintage piece is used for the taillight. Having worked with the best in the business throughout the build, Jeff chose the team at Image Design Custom for the paint, and literally being the artists of choice for world champions, they didn’t let the build down. The creamy white makes for an excellent foundation, over which shades of red and gold are used to make up the graphics, while the hand-painted logos are simply perfect.
To finish out the custom collaboration, Glenn Moger in Eastleigh stitched together a stunning seat and this desert sled continues on Jeff’s tradition of building custom bikes that are the best of their kind.
[ Jets Forever ]