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Royal Enfield comes of age with the Thunderbird
encompassing half a century of motorcycling experience. Please fasten your
seat-belts, the T'Bird is ready for lift-off.
 Act I, scene 1 takes place on the
Pune-Mahabaleshwar highway as Sirish puts the cruiser-styled Lightning 350
through her paces. This was the first bike from Royal Enfield to feature a
five-speed gearbox with the shifter on the conventional, left side of the
bike. It's a radical change for the decades-old, conservative manufacturer
of the Bullet. The gearbox on the Lightning impresses and forms the high
point of the road test. Shifting is smooth, eliminating the constant
struggle to shift cogs on the Bullet. Another positive facet is the
absence of false neutrals, a bane of the old gearbox.
Yet another
boon is the performance as the Lightning 350 recorded the highest top
speed achieved on a bike built in the country, having crossed the 110kmph
mark, after the RD 350 which to date remains the fastest bike manufactured
in India. The ultra macho Lightning with its thunderous exhaust roar,
deafening engine clatter and five-speed shifter under left foot evoked
rave reviews but alas! never made it to an assembly line.
Scene 2
is set in Delhi and Auto Expo 2002 where CEO Siddharth Lal unveils the
Thunderbird, Royal Enfield's latest entrant into the cruiser segment. His
aim is to roll out a new bike every six months, and he has abided by his
word in the last year. The Lightning 350 was followed by the Bullet
Electra and now here comes the Thunderbird. Prominent among the cosmetic
refurbishments on the Thunderbird are the five-speed gearbox with shifter
on the left side, new dials, disc brake on the front wheel, bazooka-like
silencer and lo and behold, a self-starter. As promised by Lal, five
months down the line the Thunderbird wings it to the OVERDRIVE garages,
sans electric start but with the disc on.
Scene 3 plays out on the
Pune- Mahabaleshwar highway with yours truly cruising with the 'Bird, wide
grin splitting my face. Even as I revel in the cruise, the revamped
styling, mechanicals and performance register their impact. To list them
all, there's the AVL block, followed by the shifter for the five-speed
gearbox on the left, CV carb, CDI ignition and disc brakes on the front
wheel. As I coast into town I revel in thoughts of the performance test
next morning and my grin only gets wider.
Whatever the model
churned out by Enfield every one of them has a unified personality and
character. And what character, conjuring up visions of long roads seldom
travelled slipshod with worn leather, sunlight bouncing off your shades,
scruffy beard grissled with road dust, the idle beat of the exhaust
filtering down your brain as the miles get pounded underneath, the short
halts to light up your brand of smokes as you ride mile after mile and
roadside cafes that serve gut wrenching liquid to set fire in your belly.
But this necessarily need not mean that only hard men ride hard machines
and every effort has been taken to soften the image. So it is little
wonder under the keen eye of Siddarth Lal, avid biker and far-sighted
economist that this company is seeing an about face. |
