The American desi who invented the Enfield V twin

When he was growing up in the '80s and '90s in New Delhi, Aniket Vardhan never once thought he would land up in the US, least of all get a teaching job in a design school there. But he did. Then he threw it all away and decided to design his dream bike -- the Enfield Musket 700cc V twin.

I t was sometime in the mid-90s that Aniket Vardhan saw 1942 Harley Davidson WLA in New Delhi and instantly knew he would design a high powered engine for an Enfield.

In 2001 -- the year the Twin Towers fell -- he graduated from Rochester Institute of Technology and realised getting a job wasn't going to be as easy as he thought.

And just when he was about to return to New Delhi, he got the call he was waiting for. Aniket Vardhan finally had a job.

Then about seven years later, he gave it all up and decided to work in a machine shop and design the bike he'd dreamt of on a hot summer afternoon in Delhi.

Could you tell us something about the Enfield Musket 700cc V twin?

The Musket V Twin is basically a modified Enfield (utilising as many Enfield Bullet parts as possible) with a specially new crankcase.

It accepts two 350cc top ends with the potential for higher displacement.

The custom engine mounts allow the engine to fit a stock Enfield Bullet frame with a stretched top tube.

The prototype machine is an attempt to remain faithful to the beautifully proportioned vintage British V twins from the golden age of the 1930s, such as the BSA Y13, the Coventry Eagle, the Royal Enfield K and various AJS and Matchless models.

H ow did the idea for this come about?

It was a hot summer day in Delhi in the mid-90s. In a crowded market near home, I saw this motorcycle.

The immediate impression was of bulbous massiveness and width. The first, most major impact was the engine -- it had two cylinders, which formed a dense, thick, finned 'V' which completely filled the space enclosed by the frame and the exhausts made downward exits from the heads and flowed into one beautiful muffler with a curiously shaped tail.

The carburettor was in the centre and the impression was one of symmetry but with a 'forward flowing' bias.

It was painted in military green, matt with a deep meaningful patina. It seemed to have soaked up half a century of history in the way the paint dulled in areas that had been touched often or were pointing upwards at the harsh Indian sun.

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