Motorcycling in India has exploded in the last decade as an iconic automotive movement, marking an important era for this country’s biking history, and there’s one particular company at the forefront of this evolution - both locally and globally.

The year 2004 was one of the key turning points in the Indian automotive history, as the 26-year-old scion of the Eicher motors, Siddharth Lal, took over as CEO of the company. While this youngster was living and breathing motorcycles, it was a time of survival for Eicher motors, and the pressure was clearly on Lal.

Sitting on the rider’s seat of the company, which was a collective of various business at the time, risky decisions were a part of the job for the 26-year-old CEO. Deciding to sell 13 of his 15 business, he focused solely on motorcycles with Royal Enfield and trucks in collaboration with Volvo. As of 2004, they were selling around 24,000 bikes, compared to 300,000 a year currently.

Royal Enfield accounts for a third of the firm’s annual sales of $1.4 billion and contributes 70 percent to their net profit. So, what really brought on this change?

Lal knew that going the route of his Japanese-Indo competitors of roping in celebrities wasn’t ideal for one of the oldest motorcycling companies in the world. The heritage and history of the brand is what made a Royal Enfield the most respectable and aspirational bike to own in India.

To start with, one of the key factor was his retooling exercise which minimised the technical flaws associated with heritage bikes such as Royal Enfield, all of which was done in the homegrown brand’s Chennai factory. And adding to this retooling, the rolling out of the Royal Enfield classic helped in the resurgence of the brand and pushed the growth of the battalion of die-hard fans of the bike in the country.

The next few years saw a range of models being introduced leading up to Royal Enfield becoming the top motorcycle brand, both in terms of numbers as well as brand loyalty. Soon enough, a cult was born, and our country got to see a legendary motorcycle movement.

Groups such as Inddie Thumpers, India Bull Riders and more were formed, with daily and weekend rides taking place, and all of this set a very iconic space in the Indian automotive scene. Yet another factor that aided the brand’s growth was Lal’s personal affliction for the brand, where he test rode the bikes personally on long, treacherous road trips in the Himalayas or South India.

Moving forward, the recent induction of the Continental GT 535 not only brought back one of the most iconic bikes from Royal Enfield, but also gave us a glimpse of the brand’s global domination plans. That’s right, we said global domination.

Royal Enfield has sold more bikes than Harley Davidson globally in 2014, and is already present in over 40 countries. Keeping up with their plan to be a global player in the 250-750cc motorcycle segment, the company saw two key internal movements last year: Lal moved to England to spearhead the brands global growth strategy, and appointed Rutratej Singh as president, who was the VC at Unilever South Asia previously.

Riding on the momentum of 2015, the worlds largest motorcycle production company has stepped on the pedal this year with the launch of their newest offering - The Himalayan. The bike is a creation based on 60 years of Himalayan riding experiences in a completely ground-up design, and powered by a new LS 410 engine.

Royal Enfield has invested significant time and effort in testing the Himalayan extensively with experts and across multiple terrains for both off-road and on-road manners.

Starting from the Bruntingthorpe airfield in UK to the racetrack in Sriperumbudur, Chennai; from off-road terrains to urban settings and then in real world riding conditions in the Himalayas; the motorcycle has clocked lakhs of kilometers and cumulative mileage before hitting the production line.

As a company ventures into new territories, it’s important for a brand to create a name for itself at automotive events across the world. One such event was Goodwood Revival 2015, where Royal Enfield and the Goodwood Revival Festival were a match made in heaven.

On one side, Royal Enfield is a 100-year-old motorcycle brand that boasts immense heritage and history. It is the modern day flag-bearer of the best qualities of British motorcycling, with its timeless looks and endurance married to modern technology.

On the other hand, the Goodwood Revival, celebrates machine love with a sense of pomp and pageantry, set to a glorious soundtrack of screaming retro machinery racing in its true form on a racetrack tucked into a small town of West Sussex in the United Kingdom.

Royal Enfield invited 30 journalists, bikers and motorcycle enthusiasts to be part of this iconic weekend, where they organised a showcase with legendary brands such as Jaguar, Ferrari, BMW and many more, while they were the only biking company present.

Giving us a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, we were invited to be a part of this amazing journey which saw us riding from London to Chichester alongside 40 bikers from across the world on Continental GTs & Classic 500s, interacting with cars and bikes from the last century and rubbing shoulders with racing legends such as Sir Sterling Moss.

While people came for the amazing community love for biking, they stayed for Goodwood Revival’s special touch, making this event one of the most interesting of its kind. Goodwood Revival is the only theme based motorsport event which saw everyone adorned in attire from the 1920s to the 40s, giving everyone the chance to journey back in time alongside a group of equally enthusiastic bikers from across the world for three days.

As CEO, it could have been expected that Lal would be seated shotgun in the car following us, but being the charismatic man that he is, his Indian and English teams rode alongside us, leading the pack all the way to Goodwood Revival.

Even though some were bikers and others were not, each and every person present felt like they were a part of something big, something larger than themselves, helping to realise Royal Enfield’s global domination plans. This experience was one where each of us played an important role in taking this homegrown brand to every road across the world with an English heritage, but an Indian heart.