When Royal Enfield set out to recreate the motor-bicycle it first showed in London in 1901, it had neither a surviving working example nor usable drawings. The evidence consisted of period photographs, advertisements and a few illustrations. Project Origin became an effort to turn those fragments into a functioning replica and to work out how one of the company’s earliest two-wheeled machines actually operated.
The original design was developed by Jules Gobiet with Bob Walker Smith. Its small 1¾-horsepower engine sat above the front wheel near the steering head, while a long crossed rawhide belt drove the rear wheel. The rider pedalled to start the engine. Instead of a conventional throttle, a valve lifter controlled speed; opening it to slow down interrupted the intake of fuel mixture. The arrangement shows how closely the first motorcycles still resembled bicycles, even as their makers experimented with entirely new ways of moving.
Royal Enfield teams in Britain and India worked with Harris Performance and vintage-motorcycle specialists on the reconstruction. They fashioned the fuel tank from a single sheet of brass, built the engine afresh and made the brakes and carburettor. Some period components were found and restored. The result is a working reconstruction, not a surviving machine from 1901. Its appeal is the chance to see history in motion and to recognise the many small inventions needed before the motorcycle took on its familiar shape.