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Royal Enfield Bullet

Royal Enfield Bullet – Click above to watch the video after the jump

Royal Enfield started out as a English motorcycle builder way back in the late 1800s. The company soldiered on well into the second half of the 20th Century in England, before finally succumbing to financial woes and closing up shop.

The name, however, survived through Indian-built versions of their bikes. A factory in Indian began churning out Royal Enfield Bullets in 1956, using parts sourced from the factory in England. By 1962, nine years before the English shop closed down, Enfield of India was building bikes from scratch using the original English design.

The Indian brand soldiered on after Royal Enfield officially died, and, in 1995, bought the rights to use the Royal Enfield name. Royal Enfiled Bullet 350s and 500s are still produced en masse in India, making Royal Enfield the oldest motorcycle brand still in production. Now, the Indian bike maker offers fully modern machines that only add to the brand’s desirability.

To celebrate its history and the perseverance of the Indian arm of the company, Royal Enfield released a video touting its Indian heritage. Check it out after the break.

Gallery: Review: Royal Enfield Bullet G5 Classic

[Source: YouTube via Faster and Faster]

Continue reading Video: Royal Enfield celebrates Indian heritage

Video: Royal Enfield celebrates Indian heritage originally appeared on Autoblog on Fri, 11 Mar 2011 17:58:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Classics, Motorcycle

Royal Enfield Classic Chrome – Click above for high-res image gallery

The Royal Enfield camp is abuzz with interesting news. The ~~British~~ Indian motorcycle manufacturer has just whipped the sheets off of two new models that are destined for U.S. shores starting this April.

The Classic Chrome is appropriately draped with enough shiny stuff to signal the space station on a clear day, and while we typically don’t go all gooey-kneed at the sight of copious brightwork, this bike is officially on our do-want list. The Classic Chrome looks to share more than a few bloodlines with the popular C5, though the eagle-eyed among you will likely note a kick start lever. The U.S. C5 is currently only available with an electric starter, though we’d expect that omission to soon be rectified.

Royal Enfield also showed off its new Bullet 500 – a bike that heralds to the Bullet 350 that’s been a staple of the Indian moto scene for half a century. Company CEO Venki Padmanabhan said that the future’s looking bright for larger displacement version of this bike soon. Royal Enfield just showed off a 600cc café racer concept at the India Auto Show, and there have been whispers that the manufacturer is also hard at work on a new parallel-twin engine displacing between 750 and 1000cc.

That’s right, parallel, not V-twin. Meteor, anyone?

Of course, for us, we’re equally as interested in the rumors surrounding a new adventure bike from the company powered by a multi-fuel adventure touring bike. Such an engine could swill down diesel, kerosene or gasoline as needed to get you where you’re going. Sounds like a perfect vehicle for the impending Zombie apocalypse, no? Thanks for the pics, Wes!

Gallery: Royal Enfield Classic Chrome and Bullet 500

[Sources: Indian Cars Bikes, Royal Enfields, Visor Down]

Royal Enfield shows off two new Classic Chrome and Bullet for U.S. originally appeared on Autoblog on Tue, 25 Jan 2011 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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