The 2024 Royal Enfield Shotgun 650 is a custom-ready solo cruiser. (Photos courtesy Royal Enfield).

Before writing this 2024 Royal Enfield Shotgun 650 review, I looked through back issues of Rider magazine to identify some of our favorite ads over the past 50 years, which were published in the Rider Rewind section of our September issue (available exclusively to subscribers). One that caught my eye was a Royal Enfield ad that ran in our September 2003 issue announcing the addition of an electric start to its iconic Bullet.

Related: Living with an ?Iron Barrel? Royal Enfield Bullet 500

A Royal Enfield ad that ran in the September 2003 issue of Rider magazine.

Proclaiming ?What?s Next?Astro Turf at Wimbledon"?, that ad was certainly cheeky ? as was one that ran a couple years earlier that celebrated living in the past ? yet it accurately characterized the company that built its first motorcycle in 1901, existed in the U.K. for more than half a century, and ultimately became an Indian manufacturer based in Chennai, spanning 123 years of continuous motorcycle production.
A Royal Enfield ad that ran in the April 2000 issue of Rider magazine.

By the time those ads were published, change was already under way. Under the direction of Siddartha Lal, who became CEO of Royal Enfield in 2000 at the age of 26 (he?s the son of Vikram Lal, who was CEO of Eicher Motors, Royal Enfield?s parent company, until Siddartha succeeded him in 2006), the company began a steady m...