Royal Enfield motorcycle is at the center of competition for most riders on a single bike

The Royal Enfield Bullet is at the center (literally) of one of India's most distinctive competitions: the effort to see which police agency can pack more riders onto a single motorcycle.

I am indebted to Royal Enfield's Praveen P. Sathaye for these pictures and word that the World Record for maximum number of people on a single motorcycle has again been surpassed.

The Army Service Corps motorcycle display team called the Tornadoes successfully mounted 54 people on a single Royal Enfield 500cc motorcycle and rode for a distance of 1,100 meters at the Yehlanka Air Force base in Bangalore Nov. 28.

Sathaye notes that there were no modifications carried out to the engine of the motorcycle — an obvious point of pride.

The record surpassed the 48-person mark reached earlier by the Corps of Military Police — also on a Royal Enfield.

The Times of India notes that the Tornadoes also set a second record "by carrying 55 persons on a single moving 500cc Enfield motorcycle for a distance of 925 meters." Oops, not quite a kilometer.

You wonder how this sort of thing ends: does someone just touch a foot down, or do you have a heap of bodies?

These daring police units are obviously up to the challenge, since they typically show off by balancing in pyramids atop Royal Enfields, crashing through barriers and jumping through flaming hoops.

The point is that Royal Enfield is the standard here. You might get more people on a Goldwing, but that would not be the same thing.