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Of all the Royal Enfield customizations in the market, the Holy Grail has always been the twin-cylinder modifications. While a few individuals and customization houses have tried their hand at it, Australia based Carberry's 1,000cc cast-iron V-twin has been among the most popular ones. Carberry sold around 13 hand built units of the V-twin Enfield before it shut shop a few years ago.
Now, it looks like they're back in action. Through a post by Carberry's Facebook page in January 2016, the company confirmed that it will begin production once again. While that is good news, the headline is the fact that they have relocated to India to build Carberry Enfields.
The company has partnered with businessman Jaspreet Singh Bhatia and has setup a base in Bhilai, Chhattisgarh. The crankcases for the custom engines are being cast and Carberry has put out a call for local aftermarket suppliers for engine, clutch and transmission components.
The immediate advantage Carberry will have is that its supply chain will be a lot smoother. Not only will components be more readily available than they would be in Australia, but the production costs would reduce as well.
Royal Enfield itself was one of the first buyers of the Carberry Enfield and understandably that led to talks of the company partnering with Carberry. However, Carberry did not forge any ties with Royal Enfield and the current operation is independent as well. Carberry's twin-cylinder mill does not use the UCE engine and that could pose a problem.
Royal Enfield phased out the old cast-iron and lean-burn engines years ago and while components for the engines will be easier to find here than they would be in Australia, availability could still be an issue, as could emission norms because of which the old engines were phased out in the first place. According to Overdrive, the first India-made Carberry Enfield 1,000cc V-twin is around 6-8 months away.