Guys, you should embrace the electric starter. It is the one thing that opened up the motorcycle market to the general populace, and it will bring Royal Enfield into the popular fold.
I don't deny the electric start will make the bike more accessible to different types of owners which is good for business. I hope RE and RE USA are very successful in selling this bike, they deserve it and I may look into one for myself in the future. I just feel that the reasons given for leaving out the kickstart are odd and not consistent with what I've experienced among current Enfield owners. If they had said, "it costs too much" or "it would be too hard to fix a broken pawl with the new design", then I wouldn't have even brought it up.
The usual quote I get about my bike...
"hey that's a CLASSIC! Wow, it's even got a kickstart!"
The future quote of the C-5
"hey that looks like a CLASSIC! Wow, it's even got the old style stitching on the seat!"
My overall impression of the new bike is positive though. I hope you sell a lot of them Vince.