DAVE HOLLYMAN HELPS RUN THE ROYAL Enfield Interceptor group, a tight-knit association of about 50 owners. They talk to each other and share information, and used to have a rally before Covid-19 put a stop to that. And they always turn up at the Bristol Classic Show with a fine selection of Royal Enfield’s last glorious bruiser, the mighty Interceptor.
Dave’s own Interceptor Series II, which he acquired in 1983, isn’t what you might expect. Like all Interceptor II models, it wasn’t born in Redditch, the home of the factory, and while the parts might have been turned out by engineers in a cave near Bradfordon-Avon, in Wiltshire (Intrigued? See further on), they were not turned into an actual motorcycle until long after RE’s British branch vanished into history.
It’s officially a 1969 Interceptor Series II, yet it is registered as a 1976 model, and this big twin hit the road for the first time six years after the underground factory at said cave, Westwood Quarry, closed.
“The classic movement was just getting started, and I had a mate who asked me if I knew where he might get some parts for an Enfield twin. I remembered that L&D Motors in Bristol used to have some but couldn’t find out how to get in touch, so we just took a trip over one Saturday morning and found they were still there,” said Dave.
You could see L&D adverts for years in magazines
