Four years ago, Royal Enfield’s CEO at the time made a statement that the company would launch one new motorcycle every quarter, leading up to a total of 28 bikes by 2028. It was an incredible promise from a company whose entire line-up at the time was about a quarter of that number.
Of course, the pandemic messed up those plans, and while there was a healthy stream of new launches, RE never quite met that number. That changed this November. Instead of a new bike every three months, the company revealed not one, not four, but six new models in less than twenty days. On 5th November alone, there was the Classic 650, Bear 650, Flying Flea C6 (and S6), as well as the new Him-E testbed. Then, at Motoverse, the company showed off the Goan Classic 350, which was expected, quickly followed by the Scram 440, which was most certainly unexpected. There was also the new flat-track racer based on the Guerrilla 450.
On the one hand, these launches/reveals are a testament to the terrific work going on at RE – a conveyor belt of one beautifully designed product after the other. But this is about so much more than just a company with good taste. From a technology standpoint, we’re seeing RE looking far into the future with its Flying Flea electrics, but it is also pushing the boundaries on its existing bikes. You can see that in certain features you’ll normally never find anywhere else in this segment – think metal switch cubes and cross-laced spoked wheels.
Those wheels are particularly impressive to me because RE is almost surely losing money at the price it is currently offering them. Rs 11,000 for a set of wheels on the Himalayan is quite literally unreal, and they’d be a steal at even twice that. After all, these are the same sort of wheels you’ll find on much more expensive big ADVs, and you’ll get a shock if you see the prices on those manufacturers’ spare parts list. But RE made a promise at the Himalayan launch that it would offer these wheels, and after a long delay, it made that happen, so it deserves the credit. Those prices will surely rise soon, so grab them while you can.
On the other hand, there’s no shaking the feeling of what I can only call “launch fatigue”. It was too much of a good thing in too short of a time period. A product launch is supposed to be a special occasion, one you earnestly look forward to in the days leading to it and then slowly savour once it’s all done. That specialness is lost if it’s in the middle of multiple other launches, especially if they’re all from the same brand. It’s like Forrest Gump’s chocolate box – you never know what delicious flavour you’re going to get, but you know that you’re not going to feel so great if you wolf down the whole box in one go.
These launches would’ve felt more special – and each bike would’ve gotten a lot more attention – if they were more spaced out. It is understandable that all the complications of the pandemic led to this raft of new products being ready at the same time, but still…
Nevertheless, the net result is that there are a lot of exciting new bikes to look forward to riding soon, and that’s something there can never be too much of!
Hormazd Sorabjee
Saumil Shah
Shapur Kotwal
