Iconic ride with Royal Enfield

SPS Garcha

Amrit Raj, a communications professional, has weaved various aspects of Royal Enfield motorcycle’s journey from the beginning to the present ‘premium global market motorcycle’ with a ‘Made in India’ tag.

Inspiring trips across the continents on a Royal Enfield by various travellers make for a rather interesting reading, especially for the riders.

The book gives a descriptive rise and fall and eventual rise again to the present Royal Enfield cult. Vikram Lal’s son, Siddhartha, has been instrumental in bringing RE to its present glory, mainly because he himself is a rider. He understood what the market trend was, but more importantly, what quality the people who would ride a bike like this wanted. He had firsthand knowledge.

The author has described the magic behind the Royal Enfield sound and the humongous effort by the company to replicate it in an AVL engine which met the 1996 new emission guidelines. Apart from a .2 per cent variation from the original sound, the new engine met the emission laws, became oil-leak proof and much more reliable. Fuel efficiency was the only drawback, but Vikram and Siddhartha started building a brand instead of a motorcycle.

The book describes how this pivoted the company’s position, besides how the company was run without ‘the founder family’s mandate to run it theory’. Siddhartha’s tough training process, instead of automatically getting the reins of the company, is well explained in the book. Extensive research has been carried out by the author on each and every decision which Siddhartha made to turn a struggling company into a successful one.

Marketing strategies, phasing out of old models, introduction of new ones and the amazing ‘first time ever’ TV and other commercials resulting in RE meeting its capacity utilisation form the core discussion in chapter 7: ‘Everybody Makes Way for the Bullet’.

I personally liked the ‘Trip’ campaign as I related to it, reminding me of my over-land motorcycle trip to West Asia and Europe.

The photo section starting with the 1952 Indian Army 350 Bullet and ending with a picture of the elegant Interceptor offers some great shots in between.

Basically, the book narrates how Vikram Lal of Eicher managed a complete makeover of the company and how his son Siddhartha, with some awesome marketing of the great product, including taking RE to foreign countries, transformed Royal Enfield into its iconic status.

No mention of dealers who stood by the company through thick and thin to keep the RE flag flying is a disappointment. Balvinder Singh Oberoi of Manmohan Auto Stores, Chandigarh, is one such example; he is selling almost 4,000 RE motorcycles a year.

This book is about a family which had passion and perseverance that shadowed the desire of making only money. A well researched and thoughtfully written book.