Aug 09, 2016 12:28 PM
7871 Views
That makes the Bullet the oldest motorcycle in the world in continuous production. In 1967, RE shuttered its plant in Redditch, England.
But by then, its subsidiary in India had already been stamping out Bullets for years, for use not only by the Indian police and military, but for upscale civilians as well. In India, where there are millions of 125 and 250cc bikes providing transportation for 1.2 billion inhabitants, the Bullet in 350 and 500cc sizes is an aspirational motorcycle. Harley-Davidson in the U.S.
has nothing on RE in India, which claims 95 percent of the over-250cc home market. That number is aided by a 60-percent tariff on imported motorcycles that pushes bikes like the 883 Sportster and Honda CBR600RR into the realm of exotica—and which has led H-D and others to open their own Indian plants in recent years.
