25/10/2019
The Royal Enfield Bullet was originally a British overhead valve single cylinder four-stroke motorcycle made by Royal Enfield in Redditch, Worcestershire, now produced by Royal Enfield (India) at Chennai, Tamil Nadu, a company originally founded by Madras Motors to build Royal Enfield motorcycles under licence in India. The Royal Enfield Bullet has the longest unchanged production run of any motorcycle having remained continuously in production since 1948.The Bullet marque is even older, and has passed 75 years of continuous production. The Royal Enfield and Bullet names derive from the British company having been a subcontractor to Royal Small Arms Factory in Enfield, London.
Enfield India Ltd. continued production of the 1955 Bullet design almost unchanged, re-introducing it to the British market in 1977 under the name 'Enfield'. This was a period of stagnation for the Bullet.
Royal Enfield Bullet Electra 350, 2004
Due to the protectionist nature of the Indian economy, no need for improvement was apparent, and the brand survived into the 1990s essentially as a domestic Indian commuter bike. Equivalent bikes in the market were the Yamaha RD350 and the Yezdi. Both bikes enjoy a cult following in India, but have been out of production for decades. However, this could not prevent the erosion of the bike's market once the economy was sufficiently opened up to allow the Japanese motorbikes. The bike's high fuel consumption (its main competition was from bikes with superior and more economical 100 cc engines) caused a descending spiral of sales until the company, near bankruptcy, was bought out by Eicher Motors, a tractor and commercial vehicle manufacturer.
