Royal Enfield twin engine

[Walkabout]

The CEO of the company was interviewed on the business news channel of the BBC this morning.

So what?
New to me was the fact that Royal Enfield have a technical centre established in the UK with a small staffing.
Abstracted from the link below:-
"The UKTC physical infrastructure has been around for less than a year, but the people have now been around for three years. So the head of product strategy globally for RE sits here, the head of engine design, the head of chassis design, the head of program management of product strategy and industrial design... This is their home. They have teams here and back in India. But their boss, the CEO sits in Chennai as well. So he helps coordinate the entire Chennai efforts."

Siddhartha Lal, CEO Royal Enfield talks about the new 650 Twin and the UK Technical Centre - Overdrive

The main part of the link gives data about the new 650cc twin cylinder engine that the company has developed + a few ideas about their marketing of the bikes fitted with this air cooled engine.

[Threewheelbonnie]

A good read. Thank you for posting.

As someone riding a 2017 Bullet I don't get the twin. There is nothing to differentiate it from the Guzzi V7 which having owned one I will say is just as badly made and will cost the same but is a known quantity.Bonnevilles (also had an early one) cost more, go better ,need a third of the servicing and are better made.

If it had a kick start or tubeless tyres or something it would make more sense.

The Bullet won me over compared to Chinese SR400 clones because the parts chain is clearer and established. If I wanted 100mph I think I'd buy the Triumph. In India the price difference will of course be massive.

Andy

[Walkabout]

Originally Posted by Threewheelbonnie

A good read. Thank you for posting.

As someone riding a 2017 Bullet I don't get the twin. There is nothing to differentiate it from the Guzzi V7 which having owned one I will say is just as badly made and will cost the same but is a known quantity.Bonnevilles (also had an early one) cost more, go better ,need a third of the servicing and are better made.

If it had a kick start or tubeless tyres or something it would make more sense.

The Bullet won me over compared to Chinese SR400 clones because the parts chain is clearer and established. If I wanted 100mph I think I'd buy the Triumph. In India the price difference will of course be massive.

Andy

For sure, pricing is only slightly related to the cost of production, but you know that.

After importation etc etc, any RE bike will be about twice the price in the UK, or anywhere else in a so called 1st world country, compared with the price in India.
e.g. the Himalayan - the date of import keeps being put back - is priced at least twice the price of one in India; there is no reason why that shouldn't be the case - someone will buy them.

It's quite possible that the twin is something of a "vanity" project for the CEO - he was enthusiastic in his BBC interview.
RE may be trying to get into the retro bike thing that is going on at present (turning BMW airheads into "bobbers" and the new CCM Spitfire et al).
viz;-
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