It is a beautiful morning and there is a nice chill in the air. And I am writing this story instead of riding the wheels off the Royal Enfield Thunderbird Twinspark. That, dear reader, is the failing of the newest Enfield. Actually, you cannot call it a new motorcycle. Nothing with alphabets conjuring up to read Royal Enfield on the tank can be new, right?
There are a few people I would like to introduce to you before I get to this, the first road test of a motorcycle that I have done in ages for these pages. First of those is a man called Siddharth Lal or simply Sid. Today, he runs Eicher trucks but before that he landed himself the golden opportunity to do a Harley-Davidson to Enfield India. He knew the ingredients -- a time warped motorcycle engulfed in myth, better quality and thereby reliability, and bingo, India would have had its very own naked British singles that the world would love to own.
Siddharth gave the direction by launching the cruiser, the Thunderbird, an obvious hint at the Harley-cruiser image and a quick way to get established at least in India. And the Thunderbird, which featured an AVL developed engine, was much more reliable, had better finish, was more economical and greener than the older 350s and 500s. The rest of the world got motorcycles that looked straight out of the 1950s and 60s while the T-bird was getting more Indians to "real" motorcycling where there were no plastic fairings but only genuine bones to break when you fell down.
Also see: Review: TNA Impact
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