EARLIER THIS year Royal Enfield revealed the Pegasus 500 as a limited-edition tribute to its WW2 Flying Flea model.
And customers were happy with that. But now the firm, in India, has released another bike – the Classic 350 Signals Edition – that looks nearly identical to the Pegasus, and it’s sparked a backlash from customers of the original version.
It’s worth mentioning that the new 350 Signals Edition is an Indian market machine, offered in either ‘Airbourne Blue’ or ‘Stormrider Sand’ colours. Those are different to the ‘Olive Drab Green’ and ‘Service Brown’ schemes that Pegasus models come in, but the overall look is very similar, right down to the stencilled numbers on the fuel tank.
But since the Pegasus is a limited edition model, with only 1,000 offered worldwide, some buyers of the bike have expressed their disappointment that such a similar-looking bike is being made in a non-limited-edition form.
The Pegasus is a tribute to RE’s involvement with the British Army in WW2, while the Signals edition is based on the smaller 350cc Classic and pays homage to the Indian military, but that hasn’t calmed some Indian buyers of the Pegasus, who think their bikes’ exclusivity is being eroded.
