Enfield's Watford concept19th August 2016 Royal Enfield | Siddhartha Lal | Hartgate | TTT ◄PREVIOUS STORY NEXT STORY► 
Royal Enfield has opened its third "concept store" in the UK. The first was at TTT Motorcycles in Bethnal Green, East London. The second was at Hartgate Motorcycles in Mitcham, South East London. The third store (image immediately above) is at Watford, Hertfordshire which is North West of London. And you can figure out for yourselves in which direction the next store is likely to be. The store trades as: www.themotorbikemanlondon.co.uk  Royal Enfield motorcycles are currently distributed by importer MotoGB which is, naturally, "delighted" with the new store. The interior design is based upon an established corporate layout focussed around a dismantled RE Continental pinned to the wall and surrounded by the firm's growing range of accessories ranging from crash helmets to leather jackets to T-shirts to saddlebags to tool rolls. The company, owned by Eicher Motors and fronted by biking CEO Siddhartha Lal, is increasingly hungry and ambitious and is presently posting impressive financial results.
The new store's opening night at Watford was attended by ex-motorcycle and truck racer Steve Parrish ("Ace practical joker!" according to his self-aggrandizing website), plus TT winners Ian Lougher and Dean Harrison.
Also on display (for the first time) were Royal Enfield’s newly finished custom bikes Dirty Duck and Mo’ Powa together with creators Adrian Sellers and Ian Wride (see the two images above). 
The idea behind the store is simple; Royal Enfield wants to increase its exposure and broadcast its current "hipness" as widely as possible (but apparently only in the wealthier South East of the UK for the time being). The bikes are certainly reaching new audiences, not least at the trendy-beardy end of the flea market fashion scene. And it has to be said that although the latest range of Indian-built bikes is still not quite on the worldwide A-list, the product range is perfectly satisfactory for thousands of buyers and will no doubt be giving the competition something to talk about at the company board meetings. The current price of a Royal Enfield motorcycle ranges from £3,999 for the 500cc EFI Bullet, to £4,999 for the Continental (both prices are on-the-road offers). Lastly, what's with this "concept store" thingy, anyway? Hype, really. It's just a new way of verbally dressing up what plenty of motorcycle shops have been doing for decades. You can think of it as Royal Enfield bringing itself more assuredly into the modern world of bike sales.
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