My latest acquirement, a motorcycle that was state-of-the-art propably back in the fifties, but was build in 2005.
A single 500 ccm, long-stroke, OHV cylinder and a separate 4 gear transmission. Like other british motorcycles at that time, e.g. Norton, BSA or Triumph., it has the gear lever on the right and rear brake on the left and as a novelty a neutral finder (introduced in 1932) which let's you change directly into neutral form 2nd gear up with you heel.
It sounds great (single cylinder), runs smooth and just feels like a motorcycle from the fifties. I like it!
Now to some boring information stolen from wikipedia: Royal Enfield is, as of now, the "oldest global motorcycle brand in continuous production" with this specific model, the Bullet, being the "longest unchanged production run of any motorcycle having remained continuously in production since 1948". That said, the brand is older than Harley or Triumph wtih only Indian Motorcyle being as old, but not in continuous production. Royal Enfield owes that to it's Indian branch (this time the country) producing up to this day, while the parent company in Redditch closed in 1970.