Hitchcocks Forum

Yesterday, in a moment of madness, while cruising on Skipton Bypass at 55mph on my old 500 iron bullet bitsa, I decided to wind the throttle right back to the stop. I held it long enough to reach top speed, but not long enough to throw the rod or decapitate the piston. My mate was behind on a modern Bonnie and his electronic speedo read a steady 82mph whilst my Smiths copy oscillated between 75 and 85. The engine is standard bar a 389 Amal and open pipe, but I'll not do it again the poor thing. Must have looked odd to cars on the inside lane seeing this quaint old Royal Enfield hurtling past at near 80mph. Not recommended, but sometimes these things have to be done.

Gee Whiz! Chris, you almost reached Warp speed, this deserves a round of applause. Sounds of clapping, or is that piston slap?

Probably the sound of mushroom headed pushrods!



Neat though, I was tempted to try with Tornado, and he has plenty of power, but then again, I get guilty when I think about it. I guess we will just go on chugging at 55!

Earplugs are a must!

Do you think Lancashire police read this forum? Brilliant, well done - my teeth fall out above 50!

I'm with you Chris. I did it in the outside lane of the M8 on my 04 500cc Trials ish and it cut out - lack of fuel - not fun hoping the bike had enough rolling speed to swerve in front of the HGV on the inside lane and get to the safety of the verge. With fuelling sorted I had it up to 80mph with similarly a pal on modern Bonnie clocking the speed. 30mm Mk1 Amal, open pipe with Triumph style silencer. They can take it!

Had a similar experience once on a 350, breaking down just where two motorways merge. Also to coast across three lanes on my left with just enough momentum to get to the hard shoulder, very scary!

Sofi they can do it but the statement they can take it is heading for disaster

Norm never had a problem - as long as you dont hold the throttle fully open (in my view) for a sustained period - I reckon I was holding it about 4/5ths but there was still more there - I just did not want to test it that far.

Sofi, you must be extremely lucky and I know dozens of people who would love to swap places with you after having their "Enfield Experience"