The all-time favourite and oldest motorcycle producing brand Royal Enfield have dropped another piece of master-class in the Indian two-wheeler market. It is their new Classic 500 ‘Pegasus’- a tribute to the Royal Enfield RE/WD 125 ‘Flying Flea’, the legendary lightweight World War 2 motorcycle. However, this particular model was launched in the UK earlier this month.
The all-new ‘Pegasus’ pays tribute to the Royal Enfield’s military heritage with the British army and the special lightweight motorcycle ‘Flying Flea’. The Royal Enfield is just making 1000 units of Pegasus for the global market and only 250 units of them will be available for the Indian market. The model will go on sale at Rs. 2,49,217 as the on-road price in Mumbai. This limited edition motorcycle gets a wartime colour of ‘Service Brown’, which will be accompanied by a set of bespoke military-style canvas panniers bearing the Pegasus logo, one helmet and a t-shirt from Pegasus collection. Other features include brown handlebar grips, a leather strap with brass buckles across the air filter, blacked out silencers, rims, kickstart, pedals and headlight bezel to complete the period look.
On this special launch occasion of Pegasus motorcycles, Mr. Rudratej (Rudy) Singh – President Royal Enfield said “The association with the Pegasus Parachute Regiment is another reminder of how Royal Enfield history is deeply steeped in motorcycling pedigree. I am confident that the Classic Pegasus edition will, like many of our other armed forces inspired variants, become a collectors’ piece. We have been making army tough and versatile machines – ‘Made Like a Gun’ – since 1901, and we will continue to share some of these ‘hidden gems’ and stories through our motorcycles”
As the motto ‘Made Like a Gun Since 1901’ suggests, Royal Enfield has a long and proud history of building tough, versatile machines. Royal Enfield produced munitions, artillery equipment and motorcycles during both World Wars and supplies the Indian armed forces with motorcycles to the present day. But by far its most storied wartime creation was the airborne troops’ ‘Flying Flea’, a compact but hugely capable two-stroke 125cc motorcycle used by airborne forces. The Flying Flea was the only proper motorcycle to be dropped by parachute with paratroopers. Often used by commanders to carry vital messages, the Flying Flea’s strength and go-anywhere handling made it almost unstoppable, even over the harshest terrain. Confronted with a fence, stream, bomb crater or ditch, the rider could simply dismount and lift the 56 kilo bike over the obstacle.
To celebrate the Flying Flea and share its extraordinary untold story, Royal Enfield officially teamed up with Britain’s Ministry of Defence and Parachute Regiment to create the Classic Pegasus. Mark Wells, Royal Enfield’s Head of Global Product Strategy and Industrial Design explains: “It was really important to work closely with the Ministry of Defence, so we approached the Parachute Regiment about 18 months ago and the collaboration has been great. These new Classic 500 Pegasus motorcycles encapsulate a lot of the history and legacy of Royal Enfield. This is something only Royal Enfield could have done. Many brands have military motorcycles in their past but only Royal Enfield has the Flying Flea. We wanted to authentically recreate the inspiration, so we have paid great attention to details. We have even recreated the yellow stripe on the engine cover which, on the Flying Flea was originally used to denote the motorcycle’s centre of gravity, when it was loaded on the aircraft”
Revealing the price of the new limited edition Classic 500 Pegasus motorcycles Shaji Koshy – Head India Business+, Royal Enfield said “250 of the Classic Pegasus will be on sale on July 10th exclusively on the Royal Enfield website. Each motorcycle will include canvas panniers, helmet and a Pegasus collection t-shirt. The online registration for interested customers will begin today itself on our website”
The ‘Pegasus 500’ comes loaded with an array of gears and merchandises like, shirts, t-shirts, caps, lapel pins, bags and helmets. All these are inspired from the legacy of Royal Enfield, especially the ‘Flying Flea’. Therefore, the limited-production apparels & accessories of this collection are also adorned by the official military insignia & the Pegasus emblem.
