SINGULAR Urban WARRIOR
A key path to profitability in the global motorcycle industry is to produce as many different variations on a theme as possible, by using essentially the same mechanical platform to spawn differing but distinctive models appealing to diverse customer groups. Obvious, maybe – but few companies have been as adept at this, and in such volume, as Royal Enfield. The new Scram 411 urban hotrod derived from its Himalayan ADV / adventure bike is the Indian company’s latest proof of this expertise – and all on its usual affordable basis for Western customers.
Despite including the tail end of the Covid pandemic, global RE sales in 2021 amounted to 600,888 units, up 11.9% vs. 2020, while still well down on the all-time record year of 846,000 motorcycles in 2018. See what I mean about volume?
So in March 2016, as Step One in its modernisation overhaul. Royal Enfield tore up the vintage-era template for its ongoing success story by introducing the Himalayan 400 – albeit at first in carburetted form only for its Indian home market and Australia. Powered by the company’s first-ever overhead-cam engine, and housed in a similarly unique monoshock chassis, it shared no parts with any preceding Royal Enfield model.
In launching it. Royal Enfield’s dynamic CEO Siddhartha Lal was attempting to carve a new dual-purpose niche sector in the Indian market – one that rival company Bajaj Auto had stayed well clear of, despite its tie-up with the world’s leading off-road manufacturer, KTM. Despite the awful state of Indian roads outside the main cities – and in them, tool – local riders had refused to embrace Street Enduro or Adventure Touring motorcycles complete with long-travel
