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Royal Enfield Interceptor 700

The Royal Enfield Interceptor is a rare British desert sled from the 1960s. It was introduced in 1960 as the Interceptor 700, it was the fastest and most powerful motorcycle that Royal Enfield had ever built, and it was intended for the North American market – specifically the desert and off-road racing market segment that was dominated by the likes of Triumph, Matchless, BSA, and Norton.

Much like most of their British competition, Royal Enfield opted to use an air-cooled parallel twin in their top of the line enduro/scrambler model.

In 1962 the 700cc (actually 692cc) parallel twin in the Interceptor was upgraded to the new 750cc (actually 736cc), rather than just a simple capacity increase this larger version of the 700 unit was considerably re-engineered for better performance and reliability. These upgrades included stronger crankcases, an automatic advance magneto, a coil ignition, a new seat, and for the first time on a production British twin, the crankshaft was dynamically balanced from the factory.

Although they were quick and popular with their owners the Royal Enfield Interceptor never sold in numbers even remotely comparable to the big British twins of the era.

This didn’t stop engineers at Royal Enfield from continually updating the model, in 1967 they released the Series 1A Interceptor that now featured a coil ignition, the magneto was removed, and the bike had a new chrome fuel tank, a new seat, new instrument mounts, a new handlebar, and new mudguards.

The final major iteration of the Interceptor was the Series 2 Interceptor, this model featured a newly developed wet sump version of the engine (to give better oil flow to the crankshaft). A number of other minor modifications were made to further improve reliability – it would be this motor that would later be used in both the Rickman Interceptor and the Clymer Enfields.

Source silodrome.com