Royal Enfield Motorcycles - Official United States Website

In early November I spent two weeks in India. Much of my time there was spent with Mark Hoyer and Jeff Allan from Cycle World Magazine. They’re working on an article about our new bikes and the “New Royal Enfield Company”. In a companion piece, Peter Eagan from Cycle World is also doing an article on the AVL Bullet. I had a great time with Mark and Jeff and I think they also had a great time. Although these two are extremely well-traveled, this was their first time in India.

Their introduction to Indian driving was on the taxi ride from the airport. They couldn’t understand the traffic light system as the driver kept going through what appeared to be red lights. His explanation was that he only stopped for the “major red lights” and didn’t bother with the others.

They spent the first day at the factory getting an understanding of how the new bikes were conceived, designed and built. We had a great meeting with the staff of Royal Enfield Motors, including Siddartha Lal – the owner of the company. He was very clear about the strong financial position of Royal Enfield and his plans for the future.

The following day, we went to the Madras Motorsports Club racetrack. I had never been there before and it is a very nice racetrack. They spent some time riding the C5’s and G5’s hard. These bikes were fresh from the assembly line and were flawless. There were some funny incidents that day, but I’ll leave to them to tell the story in the upcoming article. After that, they decided to brave Indian traffic and ride for the day. We took about a 200 mile trip and everyone had a great time. It was nice to see some of the villages surrounding Chennai.

We hope to see the article hit the presses sometime in early February, so be sure to check it out!