Royal Enfield's Story

Royal Enfield - a well known name in the motorcycle industry, starting from making and selling cycle components in Redditch, England to becoming one of the prominent name in the motorcycle industry, Royal Enfield’s story is one worth telling. So, let us begin,

The Origin

It all started in 1851 in Hunt End, Redditch in England where a person by the name of George Townsend set up a sewing needle manufacturing business named ‘Givry Works’. In the year 1882 his son, George Jr. started making cycle components to be sold to manufacturers. By 1891 Albert Eadie joined the company and in the following year it was renamed ‘The Eadie Manufacturing Company Ltd.’. The company got a large contract to supply precision rifle parts to the Royal Small Arms Factory in Enfield, England and to mark this they called their new bicycle the ‘Enfield’ .’The Enfield Manufacturing Co. Ltd’ was the new company created in October 1892 to market their new bicycle designs. In 1893 the word Royal, after the Royal Small Arms Factory, was added to the company name and thus the ROYAL ENFIELD began with their iconic trademark “Made Like A Gun”.

The first automotive vehicle produced by them was the Royal Enfield Quadricycle with 2.75 HP De Dion engine. At first, Royal Enfield manufactured vehicles with engines being outsourced. Soon they even started making their own engines. Throughout World War 1 Royal Enfield supplied motorcycles to the British War Department and also to the Russian Government using its own 225cc 2 strokes and 425cc V-twin engine powered motorcycles.

World War 2 marked one of the most successful periods for the Royal Enfield both financially and technologically. By this time it had produced its first 350cc 4 stroke using a JAP engine and had about 13 models lined up by 1930. In 1932 the legendary Bullet was born. There were many models produced for the military but the most iconic was the 1939 125cc ‘Airborne’ motorcycle known as the ‘Flying Flea’. This could be loaded into a specifically fabricated parachute cradle and dropped with paratroops.

The Indian Debut

Things did start to get bigger, but this was followed by something which was undesirable yet, it would all come to benefit the legacy of Royal Enfield. In 1949 K.R. Sundaram Iyer launched ‘Madras Motors’ to import British motorcycles to India. In the year 1952 the Indian Army gave an order of 800 350cc Bullets which became a huge success. Royal Enfield partnered with Madras motors in 1955 to form ‘Enfield India’ and built a factory in a district near Madras called Tiruvottiyur. By 1967 only two models were in production, the 250cc Continental GT and the 736 CC Interceptor. Meanwhile, production stopped in Redditch Royal Enfield and was shifted to Bradford Upon Avon factory. Production at this factory reduced and eventually by 1970 The Enfield cycle company in the UK went out of business. Production in India remained uninterrupted. With Enfield India being the only one to make Bullets, by 1977 Enfield India starts exporting 350cc Bullets. In the year 1994 Eicher group acquired Enfield India and renamed the brand as ‘Royal Enfield’.

In The Current Times

Currently Royal Enfield manufactures 5 models, the first three being the Bullet, Classic and Thunderbird, all of these share the same engine, either a 350cc or a 500cc, and share the same chassis too. The other two models are the 535cc Continental GT and the 400cc Himalayan. Royal Enfield sells motorcycles in over 50 countries and in 2015 has surpassed Harley-Davidson in global sales. To this day Royal Enfield motorcycles stand as a symbol of power, toughness, elegance and to put it in a few words it still represents the legacy of Royal Enfield - Made Like A Gun!

We’ve come to the end of this video but before we leave here are 2 fun facts about Royal Enfield.

1. It is quite hard to say which is the world’s first motorcycle company or who was the first man to introduce an internal combustion engine powered motorcycle but it is for sure that Royal Enfield in 1901 was the first manufacturer to introduce its 294cc motorcycle and only so, it is often referred to as ‘The Oldest Motorcycle Company’. What’s also good to know is that the Bullet, since its inception in 1931, has been the motorcycle to be in production for the longest time.
2. Apart from its “longest in production” tag, another thing that makes the bullet special is the handcrafting that goes into it. The signature stripes on every Bullet that leaves the Tiruvottiyur workshop in Tamil Nadu are hand painted exclusively by brothers Kishore and Jaya Kumar using only 2 deft strokes.
   That’s it for this video. Feel free to share this video with anyone who owns a Royal Enfield or might be interested to know its history. See you for the next one.