Gujarat farmer converts RE into tractor Bullet Saanti

Bullet Saanti, the revolutionary motorcycle driven plough, is set for official launch in Kenya later this month.Back in 2012, we had reported the story about how a farmer in Gujarat had converted his old Royal Enfield into a tractor because he did not have money to buy a real tractor to plough his land. The same innovation is now winning hearts in Africa.

A revolutionary piece of farming equipment built by Amreli-based farmer Mansukh Jagani has been in active use for farming operations in India since 1994. This make-shift Royal Enfield tractor modification became very famous in India in 2002 when it won the prestigious award from National Innovation Foundation. This spread the news about this innovation not only across India but around the globe.

Bullet Saanti or Suja as it is better known today, caught the attention of many NGOs and Universities from around the world. One such university was Nairobi-based Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology (JKAUT). They invited Mr Jagani to Kenya, to explore the possibility of launching such a motorcycle in Kenya. After four years, that dream is going to come alive as Suja will be launched in Kenya later this month.

Suja is built using a chassis of an Royal Enfield Bullet motorcycle in the front and a retrofitted tractor like attachment at the rear. It rides on three wheels, one in the front and two at the rear while it gets a tool bar for carrying farming equipment.

Designed to replace animal driven farming equipment, the Suja also reduces cost of agricultural operations and improves productivity. It is an ideal piece of equipment for those farmers who currently rely on bullock driven ploughs and cannot afford costly tractors and power tilling implements.

PM Modi’s recent visit to Africa draws special attention to the Suja as he and Mansukh Jagani share the same home state. This piece of farming equipment has come to the aid of many poor farmers in Kenya as it is not only cost effective (priced at INR 40,000 in India) but also comes with four varying types of farming equipment for Shallow ploughing, harrowing, sowing and inter culture operations.

In Kenya, it has already received over 75 bookings, and over 2,000 farmers are in queue. Suja will next be launched in many more countries across the world.

Royal Enfield Himalayan fitted with Akropovic Exhaust

A rider-modified Royal Enfield Himalayan with Akropovic exhaust is seen in the video below. Even though Royal Enfield sells complete accessories for the Himalayan, exhaust units aren’t part of the repertoire and the user-fitted exhaust would nullify the company’s warranty for the bike.

https://www.facebook.com/rushlane/videos/10153523600461784/#

RE to sell gears, accessories on Flipkart

Royal Enfield has joined hands with e-commerce major Flipkart to sell its branded gears and accessories. This is for the first time Royal Enfield has partnered with a third-party for sale of its accessories. Earlier, it used to sell within its own authorised retail network and website.
"Till now our gear range was available in India in most of our dealerships, Royal Enfield's online store and also through exclusive gear stores in New Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Chandigarh, Amritsar and Pune," Samrat Som, Head Gear Business, Royal Enfield said.

"This collaboration enables motorcycle enthusiasts and fans of Royal Enfield to buy authentic and genuine gear range from Flipkart sitting at their home from today (Thursday) to about 10,000 pin codes," Flipkart Vice President for Electronics and Auto Adarsh K Menon said.

Flipkart claims to have over 3.5 lakh product in automobile accessories category and has been witnessing 200 per cent year-on-year growth in sales from this division. The e-commerce platform is gradually scaling up business in automobile segment before starting a full fledge sale of two-wheelers and four-wheelers.

Flipkart is running some pilot projects to sell automobiles and will scale up the business as per results of the pilots.

RE Himalayan broken rear wheel

Royal Enfield Himalayan has been in the news for some wrong reasons in the recent weeks. Be it recall, petrol tank leaking, foot pedal failure, etc. The bike is once again in the news after images of the Himalayan whose rear tyre had come off during a National Rally Championship in Coimbatore started circulating on the social media.

Thankfully, the owner of this particular Royal Enfield Himalayan, Shahrukh Mohammad has come forward and revealed the truth. This is what he has to say-

1) Nobody including me, never blamed the bike for what happened
2) It was a stage filled with thorns where punchers are obvious
3) The bike did almost 90 kms with a flat tyre as I had no other option but to ride it back
4) Himalayan is an amazing bike, atleast for me and is being a great bike to race on. Cheers.

Clearing the doubt, Shahrukh reveals that it was no fault of the motorcycle. As one reader, Karthik Shanmukha rightly puts – “This happens to any vehicle which is ridden at a high speed after suffering a puncture. And also how does RE’s quality(in this case) come into picture, coz i dont think they asked ppl to ride the bike after a puncture…did they??”

RE undertakes ‘proactive service update’ for latest Himalayan model

Royal Enfield is carrying out a “proactive service update” of its latest motorcycle model Himalayan to rectify issues, including engine noise, hard gear shift, stand gap and change of sari guard, on an unspecified number of units.

The company, a part of the Eicher Motors Group, insisted what it termed as “a proactive service update” has been undertaken after getting feedback from some of its customers.

“We have feedbacks from some customers about high engine noise. Although it doesn’t affect performance we have found a solution to it. Usually we rectify such issue in first servicing but we are asking customers to bring their bikes earlier to get it resolved,” Eicher Motors Ltd Managing Director and CEO Siddhartha Lal told PTI.

RE Continental GT with a 750cc parallel twin...

India's favourite cruiser manufacturer, Royal Enfield, has been spotted testing a 750cc parallel twin engine bolted onto a modified Continental GT's chassis, in Spain. Moreover, if reports are to be believed, the engine could make it to production by the end of 2017.

There has been no word from Royal Enfield regarding the bike's launch or power figures. Though, if we were to guess the power figure, we would bet on a figure that lies in the ballpark of 40PS. Good enough to get any bike enthusiasts drooling, especially when the price is expected to be competitive.

Speaking to MCN, Siddhartha Lal, CEO Royal Enfield, stated, "Royal Enfield is the most profitable motorcycle company in the world in terms of percentages and we are thinking broader and thinking globally as we want to be the world leader in the middleweight sector."