Royal Enfield Super Meteor
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This bike is part of our Biker Tribes feature, a planned special exhibition launching at the Science Museum during 2010. Your contributions to this page may be used in the exhibition. Explore all the motorbikes.
| Royal Enfield Super Meteor motorcycle | |
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| Manufacturer | Royal Enfield |
| Production years | c.1960 |
| Production location | Redditch |
This machine was used by the Road Research Laboratory to test the Dunlop Maxaret anti-lock brake on motorcycles. The Maxaret works by detecting too-rapid decelerations of the road wheel (that is, when it is about to lock) and releasing the brake. It can release and re-apply hydraulic pressure to the brake several times a second, keeping the average braking effort at the maximum that can be used by the road surface and tyre combination.
The experiments demonstrated that anti-lock brakes could be of great value on motorcycles, where skidding is involved in a high proportion of accidents. Stopping distances were reduced in almost all the tests, compared with locked wheel braking, but particularly on slippery surfaces, where the improvement could be as much as 30 per cent.
The Redditch-built Royal Enfield Super Meteor is a 700 cc machine with a parallel-twin engine, capable of about 100 mph. The strengthened girder forks are non-standard, replacing the original telescopic pattern to resist the stresses of the braking tests.
[edit] Memories
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[edit] In the Science Museum's Records
Inv: 1976-387 Source: Transport and Road Research Laboratory