EVERYTHING TO SAY, NOWHERE TO GO

A stripped-down machine that expressed more standing still than most do at full speed

- By Manaal Mahatme Photographs Kaizad Adil Darukhanawala

For someone like me, expressing anything at all can take some effort. And doing that with a motorcycle I saw in the dark and rode for maybe 200 metres — in a parking lot, no less — it should've been a challenge. An interesting one, sure. But a challenge, nonetheless. It wasn't.

Because the Sawed Off, Bombay Custom Works' wild take on the Royal Enfield Shotgun 650, didn't need daylight to make itself understood. It didn't need speed, or scenery, or even a crowd, though it drew a lot of attention at Motoverse 2024. It said what it had to say in stillness. In silence. And in the dark. Maybe that's why it stayed with me — long after I climbed off.

Even in the dark, the Sawed Off didn't hide. It wasn't loud, but also it was impossible to ignore. Its proportions felt deliberate, as if everything unnecessary had been stripped away — not just for style, but for the sake of clarity. BCW had pared the Shotgun into something lean, raw and I'd go as far as to say uncivil. There was no rear subframe. No soft touches. No distractions. Just presence.

The girder-style front fork was the first thing that really unsettled my expectations. It looked more industrial than mechanical — like something borrowed from another era. No polished tubes or clever design hid its purpose. It was brutally honest. And it held the rest of the motorcycle together with the same kind of unflinching character.

The blacked-out finish made the metal look heavier than it was. The tank was asymmetrical - a detail left over from the stock Shotgun 650, where the left side housed the fuel pump. It didn't quite match the rest of the build's minimalism. It stood out. Maybe slightly off to some or slightly wrong, even. Shail, the man behind BCW, had chosen to leave it that way. Not to prove a point, but because not everything needed to be perfect to feel true.