Unofficial Royal Enfield Community Forum
General Discussion => Royal Enfield News => Topic started by: boggy on January 18, 2011, 05:00:15 pm
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Caught that line in an article, copy and pasted below.
http://profit.ndtv.com/news/show/royal-enfield-bullet-planning-to-take-on-harley-136254?pfrom=home-Business
Royal Enfield, which makes the popular Bullet motorcycles, is getting ready for a new ride – faster and more powerful.
With an aim to take on the legendary Harley Davidson, Royal Enfield is working on a twin-cylinder 750 cc and 1 litre engines for which conceptualization work is being carried out. The bikes may hit markets after 2013.
While it waits for that launch, a new and refreshed Thunderbird is in the offing. It also plans a new range of bikes on the Café Racer concept which will hit the market in two years. It has also not ruled out diesel two wheelers and the hunt is on for the right partners.
Royal Enfield is not willing to comment about any specific plans of the engine configuration but admit that, down the road, plans for bigger and faster bikes are being worked upon. The immediate focus, however, is to meet the existing demand.
Sources also say that while the decision on a second plant that can produce 150,000 units will be taken this quarter, the company is also contemplating assembling two wheelers at its plant in Jaipur, which has been shut since.
“If the drawing board plans can be executed with perfection, its loyal customers will love every ride even more,” said Vaishali Jajoo, an auto analyst at Angel Broking.
The plan is to sell 70,000 units this fiscal which the company aims to touch 100,000 units by FY-12 but for those goals to be achieved setting up of a new plant at the earliest will be the key. Or else customers may move to other bigger motorcycles from Mahindra & Mahindra and others which will hit the market soon.
Read more at: http://profit.ndtv.com/news/show/royal-enfield-bullet-planning-to-take-on-harley-136254?pfrom=home-Business&cp
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Hmm, a modern RE vertical twin. I would have a hard time not buying it if it were done as well as the C5/G5 designs.
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Well - There has been a persistent RUMOUR to that effect ..... and the UCE engine case IS offset about a half a cylinder width at the parting line ..... and 350cc "guts" are already out there to make 700 cc's (Interceptor!) - and finally - the concept isn't wasted on the boys in the Factory - OR Siddatha Lal.
Personally, I think that a parallel twin of 700cc's with about 60-65hp in the light Enfield frame couldn't be beat. I'd have one in my garage as soon as they were available! They'd kill Harley on every accord in India - it's an ENFIELD, it's less money, it's less tax - and you KNOW those engineers would design at least 60mpg's right into it ....
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Displacment wise RE will have to do way more than 750 to compete with Harley. The mass public will judge by the numbers. In my opinion 500 does just fine for me.
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Power to weight ratio baby ;D
Gimme that liter sized paralell twin 8)
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i have to think they are looking seriously at something larger for their export market.. as scooterbob has stated, their domestic market is 350 cc anyway...it wouldn't be hard for them to engineer and market a 700cc bike that still gets great mileage and twice the HP...it would be fantastic and one would think a good business plan which they already have, should be able to pull it off without much risk. keep it under 10k and it will sell for the 2012-13 timeframe. I also have 4-5 color combinations and a few factory extras to compete with the rest of the industry.
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Stands to reason that in the domestic market RE's twin cylinder offerings would likely have far more buyer appeal than a comparatively over size/weight/priced H-D.
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Power to weight ratio baby ;D
Gimme that liter sized paralell twin 8)
Hail yeah! can you IMAGINE what 75 stump pullin' horse ponies would feel like on a less-than-400-pound machine? Especially an Enfield .... it would make you see sparkles, I think!! Haha! ;D
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i have to think they are looking seriously at something larger for their export market.. as scooterbob has stated, their domestic market is 350 cc anyway...it wouldn't be hard for them to engineer and market a 700cc bike that still gets great mileage and twice the HP...it would be fantastic and one would think a good business plan which they already have, should be able to pull it off without much risk. keep it under 10k and it will sell for the 2012-13 timeframe. I also have 4-5 color combinations and a few factory extras to compete with the rest of the industry.
You know - I heard what you just said - almost word for word - straight from the TOP of the Enfield company ..... I ain't holdin' mah breffs, BUT ........ ;)
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Hail yeah! can you IMAGINE what 75 stump pullin' horse ponies would feel like on a less-than-400-pound machine? Especially an Enfield .... it would make you see sparkles, I think!! Haha! ;D
That power to weight ratio would put such a bike in legue with super cars ;D
Wrap that lump in a Rickman or Egli frame and I will see more than sparkles,,,,,,,,, 8)
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do u guys think that the existing bullet frame could safely accommodate the HP generated by a 700cc twin for street use...I 've have the 500 cc up to to maybe 68 mph downhill and it was getting pretty wild ...What do u think they could do to condition the frame and front end ??? different forks, belt drive, wider tires, a little more weight of metal in the manufacturing??? Keep it the same and basically have it essentially a plug n play type of process???
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Is there any chance these new engines will be V-twins, and not parallel twins?
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Is there any chance these new engines will be V-twins, and not parallel twins?
I hope not!
That guy who built the V in his garage did a bang up job, but an Enfield twin should be parallel.
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Do you mean the Musket? Why would you rule out a V-twin from India?
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The V type twin would hearken back to the R.E.'s of the early 20th century and does have its charms but the parallel twin design would be received as more interceptor in flavor IMHO.
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Is there any chance these new engines will be V-twins, and not parallel twins?
The world is already polluted with Vee-Twin junque - and although Royal Enfield DID make a Vee-Twin early on - they quickly learned that only unshaven, unsavory characters liked them - so they invented the parallel twin so that neat and proper fellows could enjoy them ....... ::)
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scooterbob: so in other words you would look better on a v twin but the parallel twin would sell better.. ;heeeeeeee
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do u guys think that the existing bullet frame could safely accommodate the HP generated by a 700cc twin for street use...I 've have the 500 cc up to to maybe 68 mph downhill and it was getting pretty wild ...What do u think they could do to condition the frame and front end ??? different forks, belt drive, wider tires, a little more weight of metal in the manufacturing??? Keep it the same and basically have it essentially a plug n play type of process???
With a few tweaks here and there I think so.
Aniket Verdhan's Musket V-Twin Bullet does fine with the frame only being stretched a tad to accommodate his engine.
Br. GreenMachine if your experiencing instability at 68 MPH that is not normal for the Bullet.
For greater insight on the subject please search the threads for gashouse gorillas findings and how he cured it in his Bullet.
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scooterbob: so in other words you would look better on a v twin but the parallel twin would sell better.. ;heeeeeeee
I'll have you know that Rick Fairless and I often get mistaken for each other ....... ;D
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I would like a 750-800 parallel twin and a 1000 twin! I'll keep my AVL until the twin comes out! ??? ???
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I like both parallel twin and vee-twin.
Wouldn't matter much to me.
I think parallel would be easier for them to do.
In the old days, the singles and the twins both had basically the same frame.
I think they could do that today too.
As for the high speed stability, I don't see any problem there.
The old Bullet can be nice and stable at 100mph(with a modified engine, of course).
I see absolutely no reason why they couldn't do this pretty easily, and in an affordable way.
If they were to do this parallel twin, I would recommend that they style it like the Interceptor Series 2. It would be another type of "retro bike" that could fit the heritage, and I would rather see Interceptor styling than the older 50s Meteor styling.
Broaden the appeal, so there is a 50s look with the C5 single, and a late 60s look with the twin. IMHO.
But if they wanted to do it the least expensive way possible, they could just use almost all of the same frame and bodywork as the C5. That would make the fewest number of extra parts to build, and allow them to keep the price as low as possible, because of using existing production parts as much as possible.
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I would be thrilled by whatever configuration they used.But I would not be able to actually but one.Unless I owned a property by then and could refinance.Hmmmmm........
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The reason Harley went V-twin is it was the cheapest way to increase the engine size. Same case/crank, same frame. Most Americans think of British twins as parallel but they forget the Vincent. Kawasaki flopped miserably with the w650 but now they are bringing it back as an 800. I see the real competition for an RE twin in the Triumphs. A 1000cc twin could shake them up but it would have to perform better.
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Yeah there have been tons of British V twins, Royal Enfield, BSA, AJS, JAP, Rudge-Whitworth, Hesketh, Ariel, Brough Superior, Norton, Coventry eagle were just a few to build them.
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Just read this thread--so RE is (was) considering a 700cc twin for the American market. I think such a move would be costly to the company, trying to compete with the classic line of Triumph Bonnevilles, which have dominated that class of bikes since their re-introduction. I think RE would be better off sticking with their existing niche product. But who am I to say?
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Just read this thread--so RE is (was) considering a 700cc twin for the American market. I think such a move would be costly to the company, trying to compete with the classic line of Triumph Bonnevilles, which have dominated that class of bikes since their re-introduction. I think RE would be better off sticking with their existing niche product. But who am I to say?
That's kinda how I feel about it.
There's enough "wishtheywereharleys" out there.
There's enough "wishtheyweretriumphs" out there.
REM should stick to what they know best and work on getting it 100% right.
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Vincent Black Shadow inspired 1000cc Carberry Enfields are now in production for those with a V fetish, though registration may be an interesting issue in some localities (stock bullet frame modified engine) ...
http://www.carberryenfield.com.au/FAQ.html
(http://s1.hubimg.com/u/519588_f520.jpg)
personally I would love Enfield to follow the OTHER great British classic design and bring out a variant of the Ariel Square Four but that is pretty unlikely ...
(http://www.realclassic.co.uk/bikepix/sq406010501.jpg)