Back to the future
Royal Enfield pulls out all the stops with a spectacular launch for its latest retro bike. The Classic 500 Pegasus reclaims the firm's WW II heritage in airborne ops. But will it fly? Kai Friese answers the question
ter of the 125cc Flying Flea around the apron. The familiar throb of the RE 500 of course. And the thrilling roar of the Pratt & Whitney Twin Wasp engines on the vintage Douglas C 47 ‘Dakota’ that took to the skies with a payload of skydivers (from the RAF’s ‘Red Devils’ display team) and the two new Pegasus 500s— aboard. You won’t be the first to wonder whether the new bikes would be airdropped on the crowd as part of this spectacular launch. They weren’t of course, because unlike the 56kg Flea, which was built to ‘fly’ the Pegasus is no winged horse—it weighs some 190kg.
Instead the Dakota followed the skydivers back to the airstrip and the two new bikes were rolled off the ship for the formal launch. Pride of place for the photo-op went to two veterans of the Parachute Regiment, 97-year-old John Jeffries and Fred Glover. Fred, a “mere stripling” of 92 gamely straddled the Pegasus as a phalanx of photographers took aim.
Jeffries and Glover saw action in ‘Operation Market Garden’ and the Normandy landings respectively, where they were air-dropped, along with their fellow veteran the Flying Flea.
Royal Enfield’s own part in Hitler’s downfall is a little-known but colourful story: The firm was in fact involved in many aspects of the war effort, produc-
ing a variety of devices, notably producing gyroscopic gun sights and motors and ‘predictors’ for anti-aircraft guns. But the ‘Flying Flea’ is understandably talismanic for the ‘oldest motorcycle brand in continuous production’. Two of the vintage bikes were there at Duxford along with their steel ‘drop cradles’, once manufactured at an Enfield plant in Edinburgh.
Away from the launch party there was enough hardware at Duxford to invade a small country. We just had time for a quick sortie through the American hangar where some of every boy’s (ok and girls!) favourite machines have been retired. There are spyplanes: the SR 71 ‘Blackbird’ and the U2. Bombers, from the massive eight-engined B52 to the supersonic swing-wing B1. And fighters, from the first world war Sopwith Camel to the Vietnam-era F4 ‘Phantom’.
But what does the 190kg, 500cc Pegasus have in common with its vintage inspiration, the charming but diminutive two stroke chunterer, the Flea? I asked Mark Wells of the RE design team to explain: It’s in the details he said, pointing out the wartime RE roundel, the Pegasus emblem of the Parachute Regiment (used with permission from the British MoD), period panniers (among the small arsenal of retromilitaristic accessories) and authentic paintwork in either ‘olive drab green’ or ‘service brown’. The brown is a painstaking recreation of a shade originally classified as ‘Standard Camouflage Number Two’. “During the war some soldiers jokingly called DS ‘ fresh dogshit brown’” Wells laughed, “but we spent a lot of time getting the colour right.” Sadly the olive won’t be available in India as our army is possessive about that colour. The Pegasus is a collectors’ edition with a limited run of 1000 only 250 of which are destined for India (190 for the UK) and each machine will have its individual serial number stenciled on the tank, in a recreation of the serial numbers painted on the Fleas in their day. The price: Rs 2.49 lakh.
Some RE enthusiasts may carp at the lack of family resemblance between the Flea and the Pegasus. It’s certainly true that the 350cc WD/CO RE introduced in 1941 has a better claim as a progenitor of the Classic 500. But why demand a paternity test? So many of the ROYAL ENFIELD’S OWN PART IN HITLER’S DOWNFALL IS A LITTLE-KNOWN BUT COLOURFUL STORY
wartime four-strokes from the BSA M20 to the Rudge Special came from the same, recognizable gene pool. But at the end of the day, the two stroke Flea, with its parachutes and missions behind enemy lines had a considerably sexier career than the WD/CO which was made for dispatch riders. I mean, what would you rather your daddy did in the war: serve as a commando or a by-hand peon?
For Royal Enfield CEO Siddhartha Lal, the storytelling aspect of the Pegasus launch reflects the brand’s core philosophy and strategy. Invoking the firm’s ‘117year relationship with the armed forces of Britain and India’ he said the new bike and its retro aesthetics were “about our heritage, and doing simple old-school things.” RE would stay with “simple, wonderful motorcycles that have the look and feel of old machines but function like modern ones,” he said.
History is a great way to sell machines and as a collectors’ edition the ‘Classic 500 Pegasus’ seems destined to be snapped up fast. But after the saga of the Flying Flea does Royal Enfield have any more tales from its ‘war archives’ to tell—or sell? I asked Siddhartha Lal, and no, he didn’t send me away with a flea in my ear. He hinted instead that the RE chronicles have many more tales to spin, including some related to experimental or unrealized designs. Given that the firm has a history that straddles three centuries, dabbling in everything from bicycles to pins and a variety of weaponry, who knows what page of their back catalogue RE might ‘take inspiration’ from next?
‘Going forwards, looking backwards’ has worked very well for the company of late. Among the press bumph curated for the latest launch was a charmingly ironic 1940s ad featuring the forward-looking slogan ‘Building for war, planning for peace.’ Times have changed, as RE knows. And what with Anand Mahindra’s December tweet promising the resurrection of another British classic with some martial history of its own, (BSA, which M&M acquired in 2016), perhaps we’ve just witnessed the opening salvo of a new offensive from the Bulleteers.