Royal Enfield Bikes

Royal Enfield is one of the few brands in India that holds great sentimental value. The brand has made a huge impact on Indian bikers thanks to the Bullet’s iconic design and the distinctive exhaust note of the older cast-iron motorcycles. Here’s how the once-British bikemaker has gone from selling a product in India to selling an idea:

The iconic Bullet paves the way to India

K R Sundaram Iyer was a businessman from the small town of Tirunelveli, Tamil Nadu. In 1949, he started Madras Motors in what is now called Chennai that dealt with bicycles and motorcycles imported from the UK. The company also imported Royal Enfield bikes back in the day. In 1952, the company hit the motherlode of an order – 500 Royal Enfield Bullet 350 bikes for the Indian Army. In its time, the Bullet 350 was well-known for its reliability in diverse riding conditions.

This healthy demand for the bike led to the brand partnering with Madras Motors to form ‘Enfield India’ in 1955. The brand built a factory in Chennai and by the following year, it began assembling Bullets under licence. By 1962, the brand started completely manufacturing the Bullet 350 motorcycles at its plant in Chennai. The venerable Bullet 350’s demand reached new heights globally and Enfield India reached a full circle as it began exporting bikes to the UK itself in 1977. Even the Indian Army loved the iconic Bullet and ordered fleets regularly. You can see some of the bikes plying on the roads even today.

Twelve years later, in 1989, the brand introduced the Bullet 500 flaunting a bigger engine and more power. But as Enfield India neared the 90s, it realised its motorcycles lacked the fuel efficiency of its Japanese rivals and hence launched the world’s first mass-manufactured diesel motorcycle, the Enfield Bullet Diesel, in 1993. It was powered by a 325cc single-cylinder diesel engine plonked into a Bullet 350 chassis. Although it offered an incredible fuel efficiency of 80kmpl, the inherently clunky nature of the diesel engine and pollution constraints killed the motorcycle.

The Eicher connect:

Enfield India continued with its big, heavy, vintage-looking motorcycles when the market moved on to lighter, more fuel efficient and (sometimes) more powerful motorcycles. Sure, the Bullet still had a certain aura of ‘Royalty’ to it. That said, the Indian market treated two-wheelers as crucial, affordable means of transportation and with this, Enfield’s popularity fizzled out amidst bikes from brands like Hero Honda, Kawasaki Bajaj and TVS Suzuki. Enfield India was in its death throes, but in 1994, a 46-year-old Indian tractor and commercial vehicles manufacturer, Eicher Group, acquired the brand. The company renamed Enfield India to Royal Enfield Motors Limited. Royal Enfield realised that in order to make an impact in the competitive two-wheeler world, it needs superior technical expertise. So it partnered with Austria-based powertrain manufacturer AVL to make engines for its portfolio. That’s how the AVL lean-burn engine was born in 1999. This alloy powertrain was considerably lighter than the old cast-iron block and improved the reliability of the Royal Enfield’s bikes as well.

An adrenaline shot to the heart:

Despite these technological updates, Royal Enfield still couldn’t crack the market that had more affordable, reliable alternatives. A year later, Siddhartha Lal, the son of Eicher Motors’ Managing Director took the reins of the company as the CEO. In 2004, he is said to have divested 13 out of 15 businesses in various sectors which Eicher Motors was in. He channelled all the finances and other resources to Royal Enfield in a bid to make the company great again. The decision paid off well as the brand introduced an all-new Unit Construction Engine (UCE) in 2007. In 2008, the world witnessed the birth of an all-new motorcycle, called the Classic 500. It was a crucial motorcycle in many ways. It featured a new design language which was beautifully retro and complemented the modern fuel-injected, air-cooled 499cc UCE engine.

The motorcycle was first launched abroad and then in 2008, the Classic 500 and 350 were introduced in India. It did have its own set of niggles like vibrations and reliability issues but people fell in love with the bike’s design so much that they readily forgave all the not-so-good aspects of the motorcycle. The Classic range carved its name in history as Royal Enfield’s golden goose, raking up millions of sales till date. It exemplified the idea that being old-school wasn’t necessarily a bad thing, and it gave a whole new meaning to the phrase “Pure Motorcycling.” Royal Enfield succeeded in making use of its reputation of being in the past to its advantage. This, coupled with the brand’s strong roots in the motorcycling community, also cemented the bikemaker’s position as a niche yet popular player in the modern motorcycle market. Customers weren't just looking to buy a motorcycle, they were looking to buy a Classic. It simply had no other alternatives at the time. Later, Royal Enfield, realising the potential of the adventure touring segment in India, launched the Himalayan which featured an all-new engine developed from the ground up. The bikemaker finally gave the enthusiasts a proper Royal Enfield to complete their trip to the Mecca of Motorcycling - Leh, Ladakh. However, the Himalayan was mired in controversy over its alleged build quality. That said, Royal Enfield rectified most of it when the motorcycle was updated in the following generations.

Foray into the big-bike segment

Royal Enfield realised that none of its current motorcycles was properly worthy enough to ply on the high-speed highways of developed countries. It needed something much more powerful than its half-litre bikes and thus the 650cc parallel-twin engine was developed. A beginner-friendly A2 license-compliant engine was necessary because there’s a huge untapped potential in the beginner bike segment in the European and US markets. 

The motorcycles which were based on the 650 twin platform - the Interceptor 650 and the Continental GT 650 - have a good balance of user-friendly power delivery and usable performance - something beginner riders will appreciate very much. The bikes made their debut at the 2017 EICMA show, followed by its launch in India in the following year. It became an instant hit in the country because of its mouth-watering price of just Rs 2.5 lakh (ex-showroom Delhi). The 650 twins continue to be India’s most affordable parallel-twin big bikes. Its sheer value for money reflected in the bikes’ sales tally too.

Into The Future

Royal Enfield has been working on quite a few new motorcycles now. Its 650cc platform will now have the Shotgun 650, Super Meteor 650 and even a Classic 650, while the J-Platform from the Meteor 350 and the Classic 350, will soon be joined by the Hunter 350 and the new Bullet 350. But the show stopper from the retro bikemaker will be the Himalayan 450. It will not just be a better, more purpose-built ADV, but will also feature the first liquid-cooled motor built by the company.