The stonework of the houses and cottages nestling around ancient churches of the Cotswold villages glowed in the bright, summer sunlight. The surrounding lanes, away from the trunk roads, looked the same as they did 50 or more years ago.
You'd not have been surprised to see a horse-drawn haywain around the next bend. All terribly English, almost a picture postcard. This is one of few unspoiled corners of England. If you have never toured there you must make a point of doing so.
The bike I was riding precisely suited the surroundings. A very "British" bike, a 500 cc long-stroke single-cylinder machine with that unmistakable exhaust note, the sound of a time gone by.
But it was not yesteryear but summer, 2004. For all its classic looks and sounds, the bike I was riding was not truly classic and it wasn't entirely British either. I was riding the latest version of the Royal Enfield 500cc Clubman.
Royal Enfields are made to this day in India. Specially made, European-specification variants are imported into Britain by Watsonian-Squire and they are on sale here in Ireland.
Watsonian Squire have their own well-equipped workshops and, using the basic machines from India, re-engineer special variants such as the Clubman 500. Using the same engine and frame, they make a 1960's-style Clubman. This model is based on the Royal Enfield "65", the model with the new, British designed five-speed gearbox with left-hand foot change and electric start.
Watsonians add drop-set bars, a racer-style tank, rear-set foot controls and a single seat. This is as close as you can now get to the sort of machine that you'd have seen at a Clubman's race meeting on some disused aerodrome 50 years ago.
Now, before young owners of modern, plastic-coated, high-revving, multi-cylinder, lightweight, hi-tech pocket rockets dismiss all this, let me assure you that one of these classic machines can give you all the fun, all the excitement of any modern machine. They just do it differently . . . They can be as exciting at 60 mph as a modern sports bike at 100 mph.
Forget all about brake horse power, churning out all of 24 bhp at 5,000 rpm you might think there's not that much to forget. Instead think about torque, like shire horse torque of 26 ft lbs. Think about the sort of engine braking effect you just don't get from a modern engine.
Add in drum brakes - true, the front one is very modern, by Royal Enfield standards, with twin leading shoe brake but the rear one is distinctly classic, conventional, a single leading shoe set up. No, it's not a machine for doing "stoppies", nor will you induce it to do "doughnuts" or "burnouts". At best, you might manage to coax 85 mph out of it, once it has been well run in, which is 5 to 10 mph more than you should be doing this side of the German autobhan anywhere in Europe.
Instead, just listen to that unique exhaust note, amplified more than silenced by the Gold Star-style "silencer". Now ride it.
Once you realise that you use throttle and gears to control your speed, and that brakes are more for slowing down than hard stops, you'll start to get the idea. Then you find that, instead of changing down to accelerate, as you would have to do on your modern sports bike, all that is required is a twist of the throttle for the machine to bound forward.
Now put it into the next bend, you'll be surprised how, by any standards, it clings to the road. It's as precise and surefooted as anything you care to mention. Flicked through bend after bend you'll really start to like the way it behaves.
Don't be obsessed with what the speedo says, it is not about ultimate mph, it's all about "riding" and you'll find this timeless classic is great fun.
It is not, and doesn't claim to be, a Fireblade, it won't accelerate like a homesick angel. It won't corner at 120 mph. It is not a machine for long motorway blasts.
In essence this is about nostalgia, about the way things once were. If your idea of riding is away from the trunk roads, if you like the twisty country roads in such places as the Wicklow mountains, Kerry, Conemara, Donegal, indeed anywhere with old style roads, you will really appreciate this machine.
It is not heavy, weighing in at around 160 kgs. It is economical, you can get 70 to 80 mpg and it is not expensive - despite VRT accounting for €849 of the price, it costs just €6,500 in Ireland. Spare parts are, by Japanese standards, laughably cheap, and these machines were designed for owner maintenance. And if tinkering and tuning is your thing, there are masses of tuning parts available from Hitchcocks of Solihull. Their "works" machine achieves a 14.42 second standing start quarter mile and has a top speed of 120mph.
TECH SPEC
ENGINE: Single cylinder 499cc, two-valve, four-stroke, 6.5:1 compression, single 28mm carburettor, five-speed left hand change gearbox, electric start.
FRAME: Tubular steel frame, telescopic hydraulic front forks with 150mm travel. Rear: swinging arm with twin hydraulic shock absorbers. Brakes: front twin leading shoe internal expanding 117mm, rear internal expanding 153mm. Seat height 775mm.
DIMENSIONS: Wheelbase: 1,370mm. Fuel capacity 14.5 litres, 1.25 litre reserve.
PRICE: €6,500