This machine was an eBay purchase more than ten years ago; it was a fairly complete machine in rather rough condition. I remember placing a rather cheeky bid early in the auction and then more or less forgetting about it. When I saw the email saying ‘Congratulations, you have won the item’ I wondered what on earth I had bought, and was amazed to learn it was this 1955 British-built Bullet.
The Enfield had no documents but was well worth what I had paid and more. I couldn’t understand why I hadn’t been outbid; I can only assume that any other potential buyers thought it was a much more recent wreck of an Indian-built machine. I knew just what it was and thought the engine might prove useful as a back-up racing unit once rebuilt and tuned, but that didn’t happen.
Instead, I realised that it represented an opportunity to make a decent offroader (with no lights or electrics) for very little outlay. I invited my father to share the project as he had some standard engine parts left over from various Enfield racers - they’d been upgraded, so that provided all sorts of surplus original components. Sure, we had to buy some items but in the main it just needed spanner work, wheel building and a nice paint job.
The magdyno was replaced with a Lucas N1 type, which we sent to Tony Cooper for a full overhaul. It wasn’t long before the time came to try and start the engine - and it was an absolute pig! We tried various timing settings on the magneto’s manual advance lever, the choke and throttle settings, flooding the carb, etc. These efforts produced results ranging from
