Welcome to Little Car in the Big City, where I highlight fascinating cars I found walking around a town that is known for being bigger than everything else, but where every car is fighting to stand out: New York, New York.
I hope you'll forgive me just this once, but this week, it is no longer your regularly scheduled LCBC. Today, we will be showing a very special episode of LBBC, because we don't have a car. We have a bike.
But I think once you see the bike, your heart will be full of all sorts of forgiveness.
It's an original 1952 Royal Enfield, brought over from India.
Yes, India.
I usually don't really like motorcycles. I know it's silly, but they mostly look the same to me. Sure, I can recognize individual styles, like bobbers, choppers, sport bikes, and cruisers, but four wheels is usually where it's at for me.
Unless it's an old British bike, like this Royal Enfield.
And yes, it is British, despite its first life spent romping about the subcontinent. Original Royal Enfields ceased being built in 1970, though an Indian offshoot continues production and the banner of the heritage to this day. This isn't a work by the Indian offshoot, however, but by the original company, seeing as how the offshoot was founded in 1955, and the British company began Indian sales in 1949.
There's something about old Royal Enfields that just oozes old military style, from the olive drab paint, to those beautifully weathered saddles, to the gorgeously golden accoutrements, to the put-put-put of the single-cylinder engine and the chain driving the back wheels.
Simply put, it's perfect.