vrijdag 3 oktober 2008

The Royal Enfield Specials


McDeeb Royal Enfield Specials :
– Six Days – Thruxton – Clubman
– Brand New Classics from Italy


McDeeb Six Days Royal Enfield Special

It isn't often a tip leads me to something that just makes my jaw drop, but these McDeeb Royal Enfields are stunning. All three models, the Six Days, Thruxton and Clubman are based on brand new bikes. McDeeb, if I understand correctly, is a brand developed by Classic Farm Motorcycles in Italy. Taking brand new Royal Enfield 500s, they can build one of these 3 models for customers with a variety of optional configurations, including a 612cc high performance kit.


McDeeb Thruxton Royal Enfield Special

Options on the bikes range from 4 and 5 speed transmissions,
left and right side shift, the Thruxton even has an optional full fairing.
I came across one mention of parts kits that a current Royal Enfield owner could use to build his own version of one of these but I couldn't find any more details about that. No mention of price anywhere, either.
These are beautiful variations of the standard models and the workmanship and well thought out designs merit high praise. If I owned a Royal Enfield, I'd be looking very closely at what these folks offer. If Classic Motorworks here in the U.S. who import the RE aren't working with McDeeb to bring these versions to the U.S., they should be. They do offer custom kits but they are nowhere near as nice as the McDeeb models. I like these, I like them a lot.
UPDATE:
I received a very interesting and informative email from Fabrizio Di Bella of Classic Farm Motorcycles explaining a little more about what they do. Here's what he had to say:
I'm Fabrizio "McDeeb" Di Bella and we appreciate the reception our bikes have received on The Kneeslider.
McDeeb was my nickname since I was young, due to an "insane" passion for British classic bikes, and it started from a shortened version of my family name created by customers of mine coupling it with "Mc" to emulate the "Scottish sound".
My career began as a motocross and road test-driver for some motorcycle magazines during my apprenticeship, my technical background was formed mainly in R&D in the Kawasaki off road and ATVs Italian branch, then 12 years ago I started my own garage and workshop: Classic Farm Motorcycles, in a quiet village in the mountains of the Camonica Valley, not far from Brescia.
Now the valley is not so quiet, thanks to some classic engines we usually drive on open roads, passion for motorcycles and metalworking culture are so strong here that we decided to plant a small workshop to manufacture specials "tailored to customer's requests."
The prices for our complete bikes (based on a brand new Royal Enfield Bullet) are between 10.850 Euros and 15.500 Euros, but the above prices are for fully optioned bikes, we also offer customization on customer owned bikes or less modification depending on customer's needs. We can supply both complete specials as separate parts or full conversion kits .
At this moment we are manufacturing 12 McDeeb "Limited production" motorcycles (most are already sold) and about the same quantity of "bolt on" kits, while the second batch is scheduled for the end May. We are looking for distributors and importers overseas.
We are also official dealers for Royal Enfield for our area and after receiving good feedback from the factory about our work, we’re pursuing a closer relation with them.
Our staff is made up of seven people but a larger crew is scheduled before the end of this year, and we can take good workers from other brands, due to the poor market for "normal" bikes.
We are also planning a larger facility of 800 square meters during the next months, in order to improve our manufacturing capability: in this area lots of skill artisans are still working and this helps us maintain the high level of hancrafted detail people appreciate in our bikes.
The metalworking tradition here started two thousand years ago during the Roman age, so the "Camonica Valley " is also called "The Iron Valley" and a lot of our suppliers are small factories run by the third or fourth generation: it provides great skill, passion and experience in metal working and allows us to offer "plastic-free" bikes.
My job is product manager and engine development (my co-worker Salvo Balli, a former Yamaha racing mechanic, also works in this role) and my responsibility of prototyping handmade alloy bodyparts is still active: I learned from an 84 year old artisan who had great experience in that field.
In our range, I've tried to create the bikes I dreamed of when I was a boy, and now, luckily, I own in my collection: BSA, Norton, Matchless and classic Triumphs and it seems that your readers have the same attitudes: they understand the feeling of what we are working to evoke.


McDeeb Clubman Royal Enfield Special

SO



STEEDS VERASSEND, ALTIJD DICHTBIJ


Motoring George Spauwen



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