Taurus

by Abhilasha Singh from https://www.financialexpress.com/ How many of us remember Royal Enfield Taurus? Popular in the 1980s and 90s, the Taurus or Royal Enfield Bullet Diesel is the only Diesel-powered motorcycle that has ever been mass-produced in India. The lockdown inflicted by the coronavirus pandemic seems to have changed our job descriptions – instead of heading out, riding and telling you about new motorcycles, we’re forced to stay home and research from our laptops to bring you good reads. And hopefully, this blast from the past will be too. How many of us remember Royal Enfield Taurus? Popular in the 1980s and 90s, the Taurus was the only Diesel-powered motorcycle that has ever been mass-produced in India. A Surat-based custom shop has restored one to its original state and that gives us a chance to talk about the Taurus and why it was put to sleep. So, apparently retro-fitting a diesel engine to Royal Enfield Bullets was quite the trend back in the day. This was an epiphany for RE which decided to launch a Bullet with a factory-fitted 325cc diesel engine. This was also the smallest engine that the manufacturer has ever used on one of its motorcycles. Lovingly called simply the Bullet Diesel for obvious reasons, the Taurus looked identical to its petrol-powered counterpart except for a whole different view when you’d look down at the engine. ParPin Garage’s restoration job is commendable as it delivers a neat-looking ode to India’s only diesel motorcycle. But are we saddened by the Taurus’ demise? Not really, no. The only aspect of the bike which is unbeatable is the fuel efficiency – it returned about 80-90 km to a litre. Numbers like that can get today’s commuter motorcycles to stop grinning. However, since it was a 6.5 hp diesel engine, the […]