The Rajah Gaadi returns with its classic design

The resplendent royal ride is back. Enfield's Classic 650 is more handsome and faster but not as sweet a ride as its smaller sibling

- Rishad Saam Mehta

When I was in my 20s in the 1990s, the Royal Enfield Bullet 350 was considered the raja gaadi (king's carriage), especially the black and chrome Machismo variant. No other company made a motorcycle with a higher cubic capacity.

The Machismo, in spite of its infuriating idiosyncrasies—oil leaks, false neutrals, vicious back kicks—had undeniable road presence. Dripping with chrome and emitting its signature "dhak dhak" exhaust note like a heartbeat, this Royal Enfield was the most majestic motorcycle until the last years of the analogue era. From the doodhwalla to the college dude and from the family man with four onboard to the foreigner riding in the Himalaya to find himself, the Bullet was a fusion of form and function.

My 1998 Royal Enfield Machismo still drew design cues from post-WWII Royal Enfield models, for example the teardrop-shaped tank, the generous curvaceous fenders and the bulbous triangular side panels—form factors that have graced most RE motorcycles from the end of the Second World War to the Kargil War.

The immediate thought that followed was how wonderful the Interceptor's 650cc twin-cylinder engine would have been to power my good-looking Royal Enfield Machismo on all those long-distance highway adventures I'd had.

The answer to that wishful thinking is the Royal Enfield's Classic 650. With its launch, the company has reclaimed the "Rajah Gaadi" moniker and pinned it firmly to a motorcycle worthy of the endearment. Straight off the bat, I must acknowledge how gorgeous this motorcycle looks. Straight on, from the side or the rear, it is attractive from every angle.

The Classic 650 doesn't have that supple shock-absorbing feel of the Classic 350 and the new Bullet 350