Return Visit to Velocty Motorcycles (October 16, 2010)

In Richmond today, made a visit to Velocity Motorcycles, which is located on the Boulevard in Richmond, Va. Easily the most interesting motorcycle shop in the city, they have a number of different sort of motorcycles (including the all-electric Zero) to check out; including some very old models. One such model is this Royal Enfield. I BELIEVE it is a Bullet, which has a 350 cc Engine. If it is, the Royal Enfield Bullet was the longest produced motorcycle (according to the Wikipedia web site, where I got most of the information on the company). Royal Enfield was produced in England; making motorcycles since 1899!

The company went out of business in England in 1967. However, "Enfield of India" made Bullets under license (using some British parts) starting in 1956 and then made complete bikes on their own in 1962. They purchased the naming rights in 1995; and are the oldest motorcycle manufacturer (thanks to the British history) still in production. New models include bikes such as this Royal Enfield Classic 500. The company also made rifles which gave the motorcycle company the slogan "Made like a gun, goes like a bullet". The bikes though having a classic look, have been greatly modernized over the years. Though low in power, they are also very low in price.
Green bike seen here is a Ural, made in Russia. The bike is based on the BMW R-71 which was (apparently) copied as saw heavy use in WWII by the Russian Army. Called the M-72 the reverse engineered bike saw some 9,799 built during the war, and by 1950 some 30,000 were built. The bike went into both military and civilian production, and has also been sold (as seen here) in many nations around the world. In fact, in Russia and around the world something over 3.2 million (again thanks to Wikipedia for the info) have been built! Again, the design has been modernized over the years, though not a high performance bike, it now has modern features.
I always find something interesting to check out at Velocity Motorcycles, which is a very nice shop filled with some very friendly people. If you are in the Richmond area, be sure to check out this fine motorcycle shop. They also service bikes of all types, and have a number of bikes you can rent and take out on the wild streets of Richmond, VA...and beyond.