| 1955-2005: 50 years of Bullet "Made like a gun, runs like a bullet"  | Royal Enfield belongs to the pantheon of motorbike history. This English company, who started manufacturing bicycles in the years 1880, then diversified its activities into arms factory. The first Bullet came out in 1933 but the 1948 Bullet is the closest from today’s models.
In 1954, the relationships between India and Pakistan worsen and the Indian government asks Royal Enfield to provide him urgently with 800 Bullets. While internal demand grows, England decides in 1955 to open a factory in Madras. Since then, the Indian factory has never been worried by morbike crisis or Japanese competition. While the English biking industry collapses in Europe (with Royal Enfield GB disappearing), the Bullet goes on in its own sweet way, with sometimes 30 000 machines a year. In 1977, it is imported in Great Britain, and in 1994, the Eicher group (Indian tractors and trucks) buys the factory. These last three years, the Enfield India firm, back to its original brand Royal Enfield in 2000, has considerably improved the manufacturing quality of the Bullet for export so as to meet western standards and address a large panel of bikers. | |||||||
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