Royal Enfield opened its establishment in India in 1955 named as ‘Enfield of India’ based in Chennai. It started assembling Bullet motorcycles with the imported components from UK. The original Redditch, Worcestershire based company dissolved in 1971, but ‘Enfield of India’ was thriving; and in 1995, bought the rights to use the name ‘Royal Enfield’.
Ironically it is to British Public; in 1984, ‘Enfield of India’ began exporting their own Enfield Bullet Motorcycles back to the UK!
The original Royal Enfield logo had cannon, and tag line “Made like a gun, goes like a bullet”. Incidentally this logo of original Royal Enfield Company reflects their background in weapons manufacturing. Incidentally this firm also made lawnmowers and stationary engines!
During the World War-I era, RE had won the contract to supply the British government’s war department with motorcycles. The firm also had a specially designed side car which could accommodate a machine gun. Later on, around same time, the firm also supplied the motorcycles to Russian Army.
In 1965, the Indian government looked for a suitable motorcycle for its police and army, for use patrolling the country's border. The Bullet was chosen as the most suitable bike for the job. The Indian government ordered 800, 350-cc model Bullets, an enormous order for the time. Indian Army still has thousands of Royal Enfield motorcycles in the service for the troops based in North, and North-west borders and other cantonments.
Combining UK and India, Royal Enfield is the oldest motorcycle company in the world still in production and Bullet is the longest production run model since inception.
Royal Enfield India manufactures and also exports to Europe, America, Japan, South Africa and Australia and additional 45 countries. Recently Royal Enfield has undergone a major retooling particularly in the engine department going from carburated cast-iron engines to twin spark unit construction engines on all its models, with EFI available on their flagship 500 cc model. This retooling has sparked such an interest in these bikes that they have started double shifts at the plants.
In 1990, Enfield India produced a diesel motorcycle, called ‘Taurus’. Unfortunately, this motorbike was not a commercial success for the company and they stopped producing them in 2002. However, the bikes have gone to achieve cult popularity and are now a big hit with collectors!
Some time back, my mind was blown when I saw a electric Royal Enfield. This had a standard 500 engines which was discarded to fit a whopping 11 Nissan Leaf batteries. Although the testing of this bike is still underway, according to the report, it can go to 100 km/hr. This equates to around just about 62 miles/hr; factually, its flagship 535 Continental GT has a top speed of 145 km/hr. It would be a nightmare really to see a Bullet cruising at that speed ‘without’ the hugely popular engine thump!
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