We were finishing up the riding shots for the photo session on the 1959 Meteor Minor 500 twin, and everything was going well.
The rain had held off while I wheeled back and forward through the corners for the camera, and the Royal Enfield had proved a very nice ride, handling excellently and with an engine that pulled well, accelerating fast, and smoothly unless you held on too long in one of the (fairly tall) intermediate gears. With its faded polychromatic Burgundy finish, siamesed exhaust and bolt-on chrome tank panels, it was easy on the eye, too.
This was the De Luxe version, with a dualseat and seven-inch brakes all round, and though the front stopper was rubbish, the back one made up for it and could even be locked. The roadholding was excellent on damp, winding country byways. The bike had started easily enough – once I had remembered to switch on its coil ignition with the key in the side-panel. The only real downside had been an initial reluctance to engage first gear, and at some temporary traffic lights in a village, an unwillingness to let me locate neutral, with or without the patented neutral-finding lever, making for an awkward period holding it straining on the heavy clutch.
But out on the road things were fine, and I was really warming to this relatively light twin, compact and low on the 17-inch wheels it had shared with that year’s Bullet (see the 350 test in January 2023). They had been part of Enfield management’s strategy, spearheaded by the 1956-on Crusader 250, to help make their range appeal
