Royal Enfield's exciting new model, the Classic 500, was displayed in two new colour schemes at the 2010 Auto Expo in Delhi. An all-olive green paint job on the first one made everybody wonder when an army dispatch rider was going to swing his legs over the Enfield and ride off through an artillery shelled battlefield. The second Classic, with a period-looking maroon and chrome livery, was dapper to look at and will go on sale shortly in Royal Enfield showrooms across the country. The all-green coloured Classic will not make it to Indian markets, however, but will go on sale in the USA shortly.
What clearly caused the crowd's jaw to drop to the floor at the Enfield stall, was the cafe racer concept. This motorcycle seems to have been based around the Classic, but sports some awesome features like rear-set footpegs and controls, clip-on bars, a chopped mudguard and a 'bum-stop' seat. The tool boxes at the side have been replaced by nifty racing number plates and we hear that when the bike becomes available in the whereabouts of 2012, the engine might be bumped up over the standard Classic 500 by increasing displacement and/or playing around with the valve gear.
Our man Kartik caught up with Siddhartha Lal of Royal Enfield, and this was what he had to say when asked whether the bike maker will go the multi-cylinder way anytime soon. 'The current focus of Royal Enfield is on the new UCE engines. Making them stronger, perform better and making them super reliable is what we are persevering to do.' So in short, we won't be seeing Interceptor or Constellation successors from the Madras factory anytime soon.
Siddarth Lal also went on to say that RE doesn't have any plans to introduce smaller displacement motorcycles.
return story content
|
