[neil.jericho]

Royal Enfield has announced via Twitter that the last of the Classic 500 motorcycles will be made to order through an online sale. These will bear a distinctive paint scheme called Tribute Black. The bikes will be on sale on the 10th of February. More details are available here at the RE site.

All pictures are from the Royal Enfield Twitter post.

I really like that Indian companies are able to leverage such opportunities to market their products well and give potential owners more options. Mahindra did a good job with the Thar 700 and now, Royal Enfield has similarly given the 500 platform a good farewell with this Tribute Black edition.

[rajushank84]

Looks good, but I don't see this as a collectible or anything. A tribute version on the last CI engine would have been worth it, especially with the shifter on the right side. But this one will be more "dated" than "classic" pretty soon. I would hold my wallet for the all-new one.

[navin_v8]

If this is the final offering of the pushrod 500cc engine from RE, then indeed it is an end of an era for the Big Single pushrod thumper.

If/When RE decides to replace it, I am sure they will do away with pushrod to make way for OHC.

Feeling nostalgic while remembering a similar scenario when RE stopped producing CI 500 to be replaced by AVL 500 to be replaced by UCE 500.

Truly end of an era for the 500cc pushrod motor.

[rajushank84]

Originally Posted by navin_v8

Feeling nostalgic while remembering a similar scenario when RE stopped producing CI 500 to be replaced by AVL 500 to be replaced by UCE 500.

Truly end of an era for the 500cc pushrod motor.

Funny thing is I can hardly find any CI 500 on the used market anywhere - as if they never made it! I think that would be a nice collectible. But I wouldn't sell it if I had it either.

[shijinpr]

Period "Pegasus". Once the custom made bookings are over, the same livery would be available in 350 classic series.
Sincerely request RE not to repeat Pegasus this time.

[Eshan Joshi]

That's one neat looking bike. I love the new diamond stitching on the seat. Makes look more classy and those gold accents make it look much better. Anyone knows how many of these would be made?

[ethanhunt123]

What a shameless money spinning exercise by RE. I guess soon we should be checking dumpsters near us for abandoned "tribute" black REs also.

[ruzbehxyz]

Its 500CC. Is it with the EFI system or the carburetor model ?

[tharian]

Originally Posted by ethanhunt123

What a shameless money spinning exercise by RE. I guess soon we should be checking dumpsters near us for abandoned "tribute" black REs also.

This mostly is to clear the 500's stock which I don't think will be available post BS6.

Originally Posted by ruzbehxyz

Its 500CC. Is it with the EFI system or the carburetor model ?

It should be EFI since the carb version of the 500 was done away with sometime back and moreover the Classic 500 on which this is based always had EFi.

[mercedised]

What I think is they are just trying to clear the BS4 stock before the deadline and hence this new limited version edition Bullet. Anyways, it looks good.

[Roy.S]

That is a really beautiful bike. Love the gold stripes and all black engine. Also nice to see that it comes with the touring seat which seems to be finished in leather.
I wouldn't buy it even if I had a gun to my head.

[gkveda]

I am really sorry if I am hurting any of the sentiments here. I was one of the hard core Enfield fans when I was child. Being a fan once upon a time, this is my honest opinion about Enfield bikes now.

I remember one small joke in the film Robot (Rajni played dual role - Vaseekaran and Robot Chitti)

In the film Robot, Scientist Vaseekaran experiments and tries to induce feelings into the Robot and does reverse mapping for more than a week. Then, he asks Robot, whether he is able to identify if there is any change felt.

Robot replies, YES. Rajni immediately feels charged and asks Chitti what is the change?

Robot replies, "Your beard has grown by 2mm" (This is the change noticed)

Relating the above joke to the context of Enfield, I don't see any major or significant difference between any of the Enfield bikes that manufacturer releases one after the other except handle style (I know I am exaggerating). Or probably, Only Chitti may be able to identify the difference.

All the bikes(leaving Himalayan and 650 cc bikes) have same kind of looks. All of them have same quality(Or issues), All of them have same sound. All of them have same specifications with minimal differences.

I feel there is hardly any value addition coming out from Enfield stable. In fact, before buying Dominar, I had been to Enfield showroom thrice to short list one of the models. But, I was not able to convince myself to buy any of the models even after 4-5 test drives. Although I was sold completely to Enfield size and sound when I was a child (May be till 10 years), now, at the age of 45, My heart is not able to win my brain for any of the models available including this new one.

This is purely my opinion and no offense to any Enfield lovers

[R-Six]

I just hope that this doesn’t turn out to be something like their earlier Pegasus attempt. Initially rolling out online booking for the so called limited edition bikes and then later launching a rip-off of the almost similar looking signals.

That apart, most of these special editions from RE are purely marketing gimmick and merely cosmetic modifications that anyone can get it done at any decent customization guy.

[Balaji31582]

Being an owner of 2008 TBTS I am fond of driving REs more than other bikes just for the sheer balance of weight on the move, road presence and comfort. That being said, with 650 just at affordable costs relative to this 500 as it could costs as much as Himalayan or even more than that, I was thinking what could make the limited edition 500 a good buy and had below points

if at least RE would have given

1) a good set of quality alloys with tubeless tyres considering most of the time one might use 500 for commuting in normal roads.

2) an extended warranty, added insurance cover, maintenance coverage (normal service consumables) for 5 years

3) a buy back scheme through their retailers who also host used RE bikes sale (I have seen one with Venkateswara bike zone in Pallikaranai, Chennai). This I expect because if in case in next couple of years the cost of maintenance becomes high due to stoppage of these specific models, at least a minimal amount buy back will give me the urge to think about this buy. Now you can ask me what they would do with the buy backs? one quick thing that comes to my mind is they can rent it for customers who wanted to try REs for short trips or even for daily rides.

These might be very much demanding but considering that RE is expected to completely move out to different platform by this year end or early next year, folks like me who have already owned for 12 years would be happy to exchange for the newer ones but for people who get this now might feel outdated immediately within a year is my final thoughts.