[Mpower]

Found an excellent review/writeup on the Sooraj Diesel. Also quite an eyeopener and mythbuster.

From BSM

MYTH 1: The Sooraj is merely a rebadged Royal Enfield Bullet with a diesel motor plonked in.

MYTH BUSTED: This is as far from the truth as you can possibly get. Sure, many people chucked the petrol engines out of their Bullets and shoehorned a Greaves diesel in there but the Sooraj was designed around the heavy oil burning motor right at the onset. The frame is totally different and unlike the Enfield, the gearbox (albeit an Enfield Albion 4-speeder) sits separately from the engine, unlike in the Bullet where it is bolted to the powerplant. Yes, the forks come from the Enfield and so do the wheels but this is a totally different motorcycle in the whole scheme of things.

Read more here
Sooraj diesel - Cheap thrills

[agspins]

Nice Writeup that is..The one and only Sooraj i ever encountered was in 1995-96 at Hoshangabad (M.P). It was owned by a Milkman. Those myths, yep i too heard those.

[aargee]

Sooraj certainly has a different frame that I've observed; even if returns a FE of 70 Kmpl, it vibrates like hell & on a highway cruise, one might be scared as if it pushes you to road. Look at the tech spec, it only makes about 6-7 Bhp; makes a hell a lot of noise & struggles to overtake even TVS 50!!!

Offlate I was wondering why RE couldn't explore the option of common rail & direct injection, that way the vibes can be brought down + the spec would look very nice. Not sure how easy or difficult & most importantly...practical.

[rajeev k]

There was a time when 350cc motorbikes were banned in Punjab and during that period of time Sooraj 325cc got an opportunity to sell them.