[visordown.com] - Royal Enfield buys Harris Performance

[Ninjette Newsbot]

Steve Harris (left) with Royal Enfield CEO Siddhartha Lal


A NEW range of Royal Enfields is set to be developed with help from Harris Performance after the Indian manufacturer bought the legendary British chassis maker.

Harris has already worked with Royal Enfield, having designed the frame for the Continental GT.

Now Royal Enfield has bought the firm outright and says the Harris team will work on ‘a new generation of products and platforms’.

Royal Enfield is known to be working on at least three new models for launch next year, using two new engine platforms.

The first is the Himalayan, an adventure bike which is expected to use a new 410cc single. Other new models are understood to use a 750cc parallel-twin.

Royal Enfield CEO Siddhartha Lal said: ‘Royal Enfield is working on its new generation of products and platforms; to have the Harris Performance team dedicatedly working with us will clearly enhance our engineering and product design capabilities. Their proven expertise, deep insight and understanding of motorcycling and Royal Enfield will be invaluable for us in our journey towards achieving leadership in the global mid-sized motorcycling segment.

‘All of the current staff at Harris Performance will now become employees of Royal Enfield, taking responsibility of performance and development engineering for our new range of motorcycles. They will be part of Royal Enfield’s upcoming UK Tech Centre.’

Harris Performance has over 40 years’ experience in designing and manufacturing high performance chassis and components.

Founder Steve Harris said: ‘The founders and staff of Harris Performance look forward contributing to Royal Enfield’s continued success.’

Royal Enfield has already acquired a string of big names to help expand its product range, an effort that has been helped by setting up a new Leicester-based engineering centre.

Triumph’s former Project Manager, Simon Warburton, has been recruited as Royal Enfield’s Head of Product Planning and Strategy. Ducati 999 creator Pierre Terblanche has become Royal Enfield’s design chief.

Other recruits include Mark Wells and Ian Wride, founders of Xenophya Design, which worked on the Triumph Tiger Sport, Tiger Explorer and Daytona 675. Xenophya also styled the Royal Enfield Continental GT and Bullet Classic. The business is to be closed by the end of this year so Wells and Wride can take on full-time roles at Royal Enfield

The British-designed elements could be a strong selling-point for the new Royal Enfield range, while its growing production capacity in India should allow attractive pricing.

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