Riding Ridingwith with Royal Enfield’s design guru
A day’s riding in Southern India, dodging cows and crowds, with Royal Enfield’s design boss reveals how heritage and a huge domestic market shapes the future of one of the world’s biggest motorcycle manufacturers…
We’re in Goa, southern India for Rider Mania – a festival visited last year by more than 8000 riders, where everyone turns up on a Royal Enfield motorcycle. RE’S design overlord Mark Wells is here to meet a portion of the world’s most passionate Enfield owners and enthusiasts and to do some face-to-face market research. He’s not saying whether or not he’s entering the scheduled slow race and arm wrestling competitions… ‘Ever since I was a kid I wanted to draw cars and motorbikes,’ says Wells. ‘So I studied automotive design at university. Then some friends and I decided, naively, to set up a design business. I mean, why wouldn’t you? We got work here and there until Royal Enfield reached out. This was 2005. I grew up around bikes, my dad and grandad had them. I’ve still got his 1958 Velocette Venom, so for me the idea of working with an old British brand was, and is, exciting.’ Mark’s a regular visitor to India (RE’S home patch), where he goes to plan new models, meet with engineers and check on production progress; it’s fair to say he’s got lots of riding experience here. Which is fortunate because he’s agreed to take me for a spin around Goa. Mark’s in a full-face helmet, vented armoured jacket and gloves, the locals are all about the flip-flops and shorts. I’m guessing they’re not CE approved. Nothing you read, hear or watch can prepare you for riding India: the roads are terrible; the riding standards are awful and the volume of trac suffocating. The most used control on any bike round here is the horn. If you see a cow, blow the horn. If you see another rider, blow the horn. If you want to tackle an overtake, blow…
Within seconds of setting off, me on a 650 Interceptor Mark on a 350 Trials Works Replica, we swing round a corner and are confronted by two significant lorries and they are mid-overtake. The road is not wide. I fire the Interceptor into the gutter hoping for the best. Somehow we both survive and head for the beach for a nice sit down.
‘When RE came calling they wanted to build a new bike, a variant of the Bullet,’ Mark says. ‘We came up with lots of ideas that eventually led to the Classic 500, unveiled in 2008 with almost no fanfare. But the thing sold in droves.’ When you ride in India it’s easy to see why Enfield are so successful, but also why the 350 Trials Works Replica hasn’t caught on here – a bike with just one seat doesn’t cut it in a market that demands multi-function practicality.
‘There are loads of amazing bikes out there but they are out of the reach of most people, especially when you think about it globally’