1939 Royal Baby

[Snakepit]

Stumbled across a Royal Baby on the internet and bought it. Having checked the details it was delivered in July 1939 and has the original frame and engine numbers (factory and official) as well as the Royal Baby VIN plate.

(I am aware that the head is on the wrong way round).

[Ron]

Very rare and interesting. Were any of these used by the military? Jan, Lex?

 

Ron

 

 

[rewdco]

Strictly speaking, this is not a military bike... But without the RB, the Flying Flea wouldn't have existed. A quote from my Report:

1934 – 1939: The pre-war history of the model RE

In 1934 DKW launched a new small motorcycle at a very moderate price, the 2.5-horsepower RT 100 (for ReichsTyp 100cc). The power output was increased to 3 horsepower in 1936, and the bike was now called the RT 3 PS. This was not only a reliable, straightforward motorcycle for day-to-day riding but it was also quite successful in competition. By 1940, almost 62.000 RTs had been sold. The RT was also very popular with the Hitler Youth.

Quite a lot of the RTs were sold in Holland. But in the autumn of 1938, the Dutch importers “Stokvis en zonen” were facing a problem: in the board of directors of Stokvis there were some Jewish people, so the Nazis arranged that Stockvis lost their DKW (and BMW) motorcycle franchise overnight. “Hart, Nibbrig en Greeve N.V.” from Den Haag did already have the DKW car franchise and they now became the DKW motorcycle importers as well. Needless to say that the people at Stokvis weren’t happy about that... So they started looking for a replacement for their best seller...

“Stokvis en zonen” was also the Ariel and Velocette importer for Holland. Stokvis’ company director Eriksson contacted the Ariel factory in search for a replacement, but Ariel wasn’t interested... And according to a letter from Phil Irving in the October – November 1981 issue of The Classic MotorCycle, “... it was to Veloce that they brought a little DKW to see if we could make them something similar. I was in the drawing office at the time, but after we reduced the Deek to its component parts, some of which were very small, Eugene Goodman (the Velocette director, ed.) decided that it could not be made on our existing machine tools at Hall Green. Instead he suggested that they should put the proposition to Tony Wilson-Jones at Royal Enfield.” (P.E. Irving was working at Velocette at that time, but would go back to Vincent HRD in 1943 to design the Vincent series B).

There Mr. Eriksson was luckier, and in a relatively short time (less than 6 months) Enfield had measured up the whole motorcycle and built a prototype for approval by Stokvis en Zonen. The frame was an exact copy of the RT3, but the capacity of the engine was slightly bigger (125cc instead of 100cc). This was due to the complexity of the Schnürle scavenging system that DKW was using in its engine. Enfield had no experience with this system and opted for a conventional layout, which was less efficient...

On April 7th 1939 Stokvis pays a lot of money for a two-page advertisement in “Motor”, the Dutch motorcycle magazine. It was the “birth announcement” of the “Royal Baby”! (The abbreviation was “RB”, and in Dutch that sounds very much like “RT”...). Also in April 1939, two hand built prototypes were shipped to Rotterdam to show them to the Dutch public. The orders started to come in...

In July 1939 the Royal Enfield factory in Redditch starts with the production of the RB. During July – August ’39 they despatch 50 “Deluxe” and 70 “Standard” models to Holland. After this RB-batch they start producing the RE, for the Home Market. But in-between the REs they still produce the odd RB as well.

Enfield announced their new lightweight on October 12th 1939. All the big Royal Enfield dealers (Comerfords, King’s of Oxford, Renno’s, Millars Motors, Marble Arch, Claude
Rye, ...) start advertising in the “classified” sections of the November 2nd 1939 issues of MotorCycling and The MotorCycle. Both weeklies did an article on Redditch’s newest in their January 11th 1940 issues. And the little RE was of course also included in Enfield’s 1940 catalogue, which came out in February 1940.

Approximately 2.000 REs and approximately 190 RBs were made from July 1939 until the spring of 1940, but on May 10th Germany invaded the Low Countries...

 

[rewdco]

There's a whole story about how the Model RE was introduced to the military. Arthur Bourne played a distinctive role in this. The idea was that the bike would have been ideal for the newly formed Air Landing Brigade. And they did a lot of dropping tests. It looks as if an RB was used for one of these tests. Another quote from my Report:

1942: The first dropping tests

In the M.o.S. contract ledgers (Source: National Archives), I have found a contract S/831 for “(item 1) one 125cc Royal Enfield motorcycle and (item 2) one special container for item 1”. Demand date is September 1st 1942, “delivery by end September 1942”. This contract fits more or less with the story below:

The Air Landing Brigade also made two dropping tests on 17th and 18th September 1942. A December 26th 1942 dated report (called “Dropping tests on D.K.W. motor cycle”) details these two parachute descents by a “R.B.39 D.K.W.”. This name is strange: the motorcycle that was used for the tests was a Royal Enfield, not a D.K.W., but the RB39 abbreviation suggests that the contract S/831 motorcycle was an obsolete “Dutch specification Royal Baby” from late 1939...

The dropping crate for these tests was developed by the A.F.E.E. (Airborne Forces Experimental Establishment), and built by Royal Enfield (contract S/831). Both drops were made from an AVRO Lancaster at 500 ft. and 145 mph. The first drop resulted in the spotwelds on the motorcycle’s toolbox breaking and minor damage to the insulation of the lighting. The second dropping test had a heavier landing, resulting in a somersault, but the damage was limited to bent rear mudguard stays and two of the front suspension rubber loops snapping (later found to be perished). Both drops left the “motor cycle serviceable for starting and riding”.

Under “Further developments”, the report also stated that “The motorcycle and cradle have been forwarded to Messrs Enfield Cycle Ltd, Redditch, for use as a pattern for preparing a production type of cradle. Further drop tests will be made when the production model cradle is available.”

 

[Ron]

Concise as ever Jan! I really should read through your report before asking a question😕 Although more often, the workshop calls instead!! I'm sure Lex will be along soon. Ron

[Snakepit]

I was aware that this was not a military vehicle, more part of military vehicle history. I should also state that I did speak at length with, or consult documents by, a number of people prior to purchase and should thank Jan, Ant, the REOC and Lex as well as others.

[welbike]

Yes, that's about it, have much more info on the Baby, and it's origins, most DKW RT100's that were made went to the Dutch market, as their road tax system had the lowest class up to 60 kilo's and this RT100 was therefore very popular in Holland.

The size of the engine was enlarged to 125cc, because the famous "Schnurle" two-stroke design patent could not be used by Royal Enfield, in fact, when the first RB arrived in Holland, a team of DKW engineers were all over it, to see if any copyright infringement was abused!  After the war this patent amongst many others were void, and everybody could use it!

A friend of mine had all the correspondence from the importers to all the major British manufacturers, I saw it many years ago, but along the line he lost sight of it, still hoping it will turn up one day! 

I think, but am not sure, that the first RB's sold in the UK were badged as such, several survivors in the UK confirm this, not sure when the name change to RE exactly came about? 

It's a very interesting story, and a lot can be found on this website: 

Motor Joop; DKW RT; Royal Baby (jgvanheusden.nl)

Cheers,

Lex

Below, one of the first "Flea" prototypes, also sports the first pattern of the Miller taillamp, as recently surfaced.

Edited March 15, 2022 by welbike
spelling

[Snakepit]

The RB was never listed in a UK catalogue or sales brochure, the bike was listed in the 1940 catalogue and sales brochures as an RE. 

[welbike]

Maybe it were the last ones that were not sent to Holland, because the war broke out, and were sold in the UK instead.

Lex

[Snakepit]

I guess we will never know but quite a few RBs were sold after the introduction of the RE. Interestingly the RB is not in the 1939 Dutch RE catalogue either and was presumably only marketed by Stokvis.

[Snakepit]

One of the strangest things I have seen, somebody at some point tried to fake the frame number by stripping the paint and scribing the correct number on it. They were not aware it had a VIN plate under the paint which is what confirmed it to me as being correct and I assumed the RB just didn't have a normal frame number.

When I received the bike I loosened the tank and slid it back to reveal the same but authentic frame number.

Edited March 29, 2022 by Snakepit