Royal Enfield built a few V-twin machines before and between the two world wars, the last of them being the mighty KX of 1140cc. Last year I found myself undertaking a full engine rebuild among other work on a 1930 Model K 1000. This seemed a little daunting, especially as I had to rebuild the roller big ends myself, honing the outer races to size. I even needed to narrow two inner big end outer races so they would suit the pair of narrower races in the big end of the forked conrod, as well as fitting a new crankpin and one new mainshaft.
It was a real learning curve, and probably one of the most in-depth and challenging engine rebuilds I have done. Just replacing the main bearings meant using a modern substitute, and that require some lateral thinking to keep the oil feed to the heart of the engine operational. All sorts of work needed to be done to the rest of the machine, too, until finally it finished up as a complete, fully functioning old motorcycle. So someone needed to try it out. That would be me, then.
I'd already bench-tested and taken short trips to sort out minor bugs and adjustments. It was time to take a deep breath and get my helmet on. This was going to be as much a test of myself as the machine.
I've ridden a
