Three in a row for woman racer
Kira Knebel took her third Royal Enfield Build Train Race victory of the weekend Sunday at The Ridge Motorsports Park in Washington state. RoadracingWorld
MA 2014 GT 535
Designing the new Flying Flea
MA Indian Patrol Car
MA 1958 Trailblazer
Royal Enfield goes back to Big Bear
WA 2006 with sidecar
Royal Enfield is 'Best Sounding'
A 1962 Royal Enfield Interceptor was judged the "Best Sounding Vehicle" at the 2025 Greenwich, Conn. Concours. Hemmings
PA 2012 Desert Storm
FL 2014 Battle Green
TX 1959 Patrol Car
New Royal Enfield Goan 350 now in U.S.
FL 2018 500
WA 2015 500
OR 2014 GT 535
CA 1961 Bullet
MN 1999 bobber
TN 2014 GT 535
Dan Holmes DRS racer for sale
Build Train Race road racing 2025
Friday, September 9, 2016
Are Royal Enfield motorcycles Indian enough for India?
What is good for me is not necessarily good for India, of course. So, when a blog item in The Times of India suggests such artifacts of the past as my Royal Enfield may be unhelpful to India, I'm compelled to consider that possibility.
Blog author Francois Gautier describes himself as French, but he obviously knows more about India than I do. He is prepared to point fingers.
"It is probably the British colonization that blunted for good the Indian innovation spirit," he asserts.
"...Take the manufacturing sector, for instance, since Independence, India has often copied English models, such as the Ambassador car, the Royal Enfield Bullet, or the Raleigh cycle, selling them at huge profits for decades and never caring much to improve them."
Gautier's argument, I take it, is that India must innovate from its own strengths to prosper in the modern world.
Makes sense. Take what you have and build on it.
And so, he asks:
"What is that Indian-ness then? And what to do so that Indians become innovators again and not copiers anymore?"
Unfortunately, his solutions are not innovative. He suggests, in effect, that India celebrate its own national history, heroes, religion, sports stars and business spirit. His proof that this will spur innovation seems to be based on the argument that it worked for France.
"...Napoleon is known in India."
In all, I think he's a bit harsh. Napoleon is a special case. So is India.
Today, Royal Enfield is taking steps to insert itself into international markets. Surely a good thing.
In an effort to gain traction globally, the new Continental GT certainly trades on the motorcycle's British heritage. Maybe not innovative design, but smart marketing, I think.
And now the new Himalayan model seems to me to be a pure example of India building on its own strengths (and geography) to innovate.
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those curly bits on the 'E" and the 'D" remind me of a pair of cats with their backs to us, and their tails curled around them!
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