New purpose

The name ‘Brian’ is a recurring theme in the story of this motorcycle, a 1928 Royal Enfield Model 165 Dairyman’s Combination to largely Model 182 Sports Solo spec, albeit to 1927 182 specification, as for 1928 the 182 had a different, saddle tank frame. We’ll come back to that.

The Enfield belongs to my dad, named Brian. He bought it (well, I did, on his behalf) from a chap called Brian Woods, in the north-west of England. It came as a rusty kit – we’ll come back to that too. Crucially, though, there was a set of heavyweight Enfield-Druid forks and a frame, as well as paperwork and the original, Newcastle-on-Tyne registration number. The forks and frame were crucial because when dad (Brian) bought his 1928 180 (possibly 190 actually) sidecar outfit in the late 1970s, it came with another one in bits as spares, although the frame was hacked about and the forks were missing, but, otherwise, much of it was there. And who did he buy it from? Brian Woods, but a totally different Brian Woods, dad’s pal from way back when and his fellow founder member of the King’s Lynn section of the VMCC in 1964.

Sadly, this Brian died in the grim summer of 2020, after a lifetime of motorcycling, cycling, engineering and teaching, a larger-than-life and enthusiastic character who loved making and mending things, in his later years giving up motorcycles for old bicycles. This Brian had acquired that Enfield from his father, Stanley Woods, though not that one… But I digress.

Anyway, so both Enfield V-twins came to dad from a Brian Woods, sort of diagonally opposite of each other in terms of location in the country. The first Enfield outfit we have has always been referred to as ‘The Enfield’ in our family, so this one has become ‘The Other Enfield’ and is referred to as TOE by my brother and I, mainly. Lurking in the back of dad’s shed there is still the