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-   -   Royal Enfield enters pre-owned motorcycle segment (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/motorbikes/196733-royal-enfield-enters-pre-owned-motorcycle-segment.html)

Royal Enfield has launched its first pre-owned motorcycle store in Chennai. The Royal Enfield Vintage store in Chennai is located at No. 27, Mylai Balaji Nagar, Velacery main road, Pallikaranai. It will deal in tested and certified pre-owned, refurbished and restored Royal Enfield motorcycles.



The lines of business have been divided into three parts - Pre-owned, Refurbished and Restored motorcycles. Pre-owned and Refurbished bikes will be put thorough a 92-point quality check and repairs and refurbishments will be carried out as required using genuine spare parts. Restored motorcycles will consist of complete restorations on vintage bikes while keeping them in original condition.

The Royal Enfield Vintage store has a set of standardised processes and pricing for sale and purchase of pre-owned bikes. The store also offers financing options to customers in addition to insurance, warranty and after-sales service.

The company plans to open 10 more Vintage stores across India in the first year.

Link to Team-BHP News

About time. It is a huge used bike market out there for Royal Enfields. You got to give it to Sidharth lal for making all sorts of right business decisions.

Having said that, I am not sure how trustworthy would these checks be, on used motorcycles when they can't even get them right for a newly baked motorcycle. I so wanted to own a bullet, only if they were half as reliable. I borrowed a standard 350 on my short visit to my hometown. First day, I am going on one of the bad roads in city, few minutes have gone by, I am enjoying the wind and the thump, wondering if it is time to bite the bullet and book this beauty, suddenly from no where, a loud krr krrr sound starts coming from some where near chain, it is 1 AM at night at a not so safe area, I chose to not stop and risk damaging the bike further. I reach home, fortunately, park the bike, sleep over it. Get up, first thing I do is look for the source, the chain guard had given up & got stuck. All this for a 13K run, one year old machine :Frustrati

Good move from Royal Enfield, given the fan following their bikes have. If you ask any true blue Enfield loyalist, they will swear by the older Enfields, the pre UCE era bikes to be specific, especially the CI ones.

But, I doubt if the repairs and refurbishments and the so called 92 point quality check, will be carried out in a manner as good as it is done by the bullet doctors(read Royal Enfield specialist mechanics), who are masters of the art and craft of reconditioning bullets !

A lot depends on the skill level of the mechanics they are going to employ, to carry out the renovation of these vintage machines.

I witnessed at a particular RE service centre, old bullets wait for the 'expert' mechanic to arrive and attend the issues. Those guys were not the regular employees and hired only when they get the old bullets. When I casually asked one such mechanic (at his 50's) why doesn't he join the RE ASC he politely said that he makes a much higher profit (at least by 2 folds) in running his own garage where as the ASC will bill the customer more than what is charged at his garage. Also he continued that most of the old school mechanics who are experts in classic bikes refrain from joining the ASC on regular payroll which has higher targets on quantity rather than quality.

PS: Got a WhatsApp forward on the tagline "Enfield Motorcycle never retires"
"Yes, they (new gen) die before retirement" :uncontrol

Siddhartha Lal deserves a pat on the back for this move. I think this is not "first" only for Royal Enfield but its first for Two-wheelers ( correct me if I am wrong).

One thing I liked about this move is now RE enthusiast will get pre-owned motorcycles at uniformed rates. I think this True Value (oops, Vintage stores) will be overflowed by used RE motorcycle from Manali and Leh. I know some Motorcycle Rental guys in Manali, who buy new RE motorcycles every year.

The key here will be the price difference of a used and new RE. So,one might not get a good deal when selling a RE to these stores. Another factor would be the impact of such stores on new motorcycle sales. People might just go with a older RE at a better price than going for a new one. Higher interest rates for 2nd hand motorcycle loans should keep them in check.

Do Royal Enfields enjoy good resale value?

I'm particularly impressed by this :thumbs up. Finding, buying & restoring a classic isn't everyone's cup of tea. For someone who has the moolah but not the time, a company-restored Enfield sounds simply amazing. From the company's POV, it helps them maintain its heritage.

Don't know about the rest of the India but here in Punjab, where i live, it commands a very high resale value just like Maruti Swift. More to do with the huge fan following which it has over here.

Basically Enfield is killing the proverbial two birds:
1) by acting as a certified restoration agency of old enfield bikes that people like me would want to own but avoid because of unknown maintenance issues of old bikes
2) by furthering the "heritage" marketing ploy - get really old bikes, restore them to original and sell at "antique" price levels

Of course they will get some extra moolah flowing into their coffers also because of all this.