Royal Enfield comes of age with the Thunderbird encompassing half a century of motorcycling experience. Please fasten your seat-belts, the T'Bird is ready for lift-off.

Act I, scene 1 takes place on the Pune-Mahabaleshwar highway as Sirish puts the cruiser-styled Lightning 350 through her paces. This was the first bike from Royal Enfield to feature a five-speed gearbox with the shifter on the conventional, left side of the bike. It's a radical change for the decades-old, conservative manufacturer of the Bullet. The gearbox on the Lightning impresses and forms the high point of the road test. Shifting is smooth, eliminating the constant struggle to shift cogs on the Bullet. Another positive facet is the absence of false neutrals, a bane of the old gearbox.

Yet another boon is the Performance as the Lightning 350 recorded the highest top speed achieved on a bike built in the country, having crossed the 110kmph mark, after the RD 350 which to date remains the fastest bike manufactured in India. The ultra macho Lightning with its thunderous exhaust roar, deafening engine clatter and five-speed shifter under left foot evoked rave reviews but alas! never made it to an assembly line.

Scene 2 is set in Delhi and Auto Expo 2002 where CEO Siddharth Lal unveils the Thunderbird, Royal Enfield's latest entrant into the cruiser segment. His aim is to roll out a new bike every six months, and he has abided by his word in the last year. The Lightning 350 was followed by the Bullet Electra and now here comes the Thunderbird. Prominent among the cosmetic refurbishments on the Thunderbird are the five-speed gearbox with shifter on the left side, new dials, disc brake on the front wheel, bazooka-like silencer and lo and behold, a self-starter. As promised by Lal, five months down the line the Thunderbird wings it to the OVERDRIVE garages, sans electric start but with the disc on.

Scene 3 plays out on the Pune- Mahabaleshwar highway with yours truly cruising with the 'Bird, wide grin splitting my face. Even as I revel in the cruise, the revamped styling, mechanicals and Performance register their impact. To list them all, there's the AVL block, followed by the shifter for the five-speed gearbox on the left, CV carb, CDI ignition and disc brakes on the front wheel. As I coast into town I revel in thoughts of the Performance test next morning and my grin only gets wider.

Whatever the model churned out by Enfield every one of them has a unified personality and character. And what character, conjuring up visions of long roads seldom travelled slipshod with worn leather, sunlight bouncing off your shades, scruffy beard grissled with road dust, the idle beat of the exhaust filtering down your brain as the miles get pounded underneath, the short halts to light up your brand of smokes as you ride mile after mile and roadside cafes that serve gut wrenching liquid to set fire in your belly. But this necessarily need not mean that only hard men ride hard machines and every effort has been taken to soften the image. So it is little wonder under the keen eye of Siddarth Lal, avid biker and far-sighted economist that this company is seeing an about face.