THE ORIGINAL INTERCEPTORS

Royal Enfield started making motorcycles in 1901, and followed the British industry’s lead in building a 500cc parallel twin in 1949. Capacity grew to 600, and then 700cc, but it wasn’t a sports bike, more a worthy sidecar tug that existed in the shadow of better, and better looking, Triumph, BSA and Norton twins. It wasn’t until the 736cc Interceptor of 1962, built to appeal to the lucrative US market, that Enfield made anything remotely stylish. Unfortunately they didn’t sell many in the UK, most went for export. And arguably the two most exciting versions weren’t built by Enfield at all. In 1969 a limited number of Indian badged bikes were built using the Interceptor engine by Italjet in Italy. And soon after there was a Rickman Interceptor. All Interceptors are collectable today. £7000 to £9000 for an Enfield version.