Back in July this year, Royal Enfield launched their most expensive motorcycle, Pegasus 500. It was a limited edition motorcycle, of which only 1,000 units were to be sold in the world. Of these 1,000 units, 250 units were to be sold in India, and the remaining were to be sold across the globe.
The 250 units of the Pegasus 500 sold in India, were not sold with ABS. This was made known before hand by the company. While the 750 units of Pegasus 500 which were sold outside India, were fitted with dual channel ABS. In spite of not having dual channel ABS, there was a huge demand for this bike in India – solely for the exclusivity which came along.
The demand was such that all 250 units were grabbed within 178 seconds of them going on sale online. Some even paying as much as Rs 2.65 lakhs (on-road) for the bike. All 250 owners were happy and excited. But, this all changed with the launch of Classic Signals 350 in August. Some owners of Pegasus 500 got angry as the CS350 looked very similar to the P500. And on top of all this, was not a limited edition, was priced cheaper (Rs 1.62 lakhs, ex-sh) and came with dual channel ABS.
Some of the Royal Enfield Pegasus owners were not happy with the launch of CS350, whose deliveries had started even before all 250 owners of Pegasus had gotten delivery. This started a kind of protest, from some Pegasus 500 owners. Two owners went and placed their new Pegasus 500 in garbage, one decided to give it back to the dealership, some did not take delivery and so on.
One owner even filed an RTI, asking government why was Royal Enfield allowed to launch a motorcycle without ABS; considering that there was a ruling which stated no manufacturer can launch two wheelers without ABS / CBS post 1st April 2018.
In order to put this issue with Pegasus 500 owners behind them, a source tells us that Royal Enfield will take the motorcycle back from those owners who are unhappy with Pegasus 500. This will be done at a dealer level. The dealers will then use these bikes as display bikes, and sell them to new buyers who are interested in purchasing Pegasus 500. As per the source, only a few owners are unhappy, rest are happy with their bike. As such, a handful of dealers will need to take the initiative and resolve the matter amicably at their end.
Royal Enfield has not yet announced this officially.
