Royal Enfield Thunderbird
Encyclopedia
The Royal Enfield Thunderbird is a cruiser
style motorcycle produced by Royal Enfield Motors
in India. It was introduced in 2000 with an AVL lean burn
engine and five-speed gearbox. It is an Indian market model that has never been exported. A 500 cc prototype was also created and tested, but it never saw mass production.
In 2009, the AVL semi-unit engine
is replaced with the new 350cc unit construction engine
(UCE). The bike was renamed Thuderbird Twinspark owing to the twin sparkplugs in the UCE engine. Thunderbird is the first bike to debut the 350 cc UCE engine. Other parts have seen only minimal changes from the original Thunderbird. The final drive chain is moved to the right side and it is the most obvious change from the old model apart from the new engine itself.
Cruiser (motorcycle)
Cruiser is the term for motorcycles that mimic the design style of American machines from the 1930s to the early 1960s, including those made by Harley-Davidson, Indian, Excelsior and Henderson. The market for models evocative of the early cruisers has grown to embrace 60 percent of the U.S...
style motorcycle produced by Royal Enfield Motors
Royal Enfield Motors
Royal Enfield is a motorcycle manufacturing company based in Chennai, India.-History:Royal Enfield motorcycles made in England were being sold in India from 1949. In 1955, the Indian government looked for a suitable motorcycle for its police and army, for patrolling the country's border. The Bullet...
in India. It was introduced in 2000 with an AVL lean burn
Lean burn
Lean burn refers to the use of lean mixtures in an internal combustion engine. The air-fuel ratios can be as high as 65:1, so the mixture has considerably less fuel in comparison to the stoichiometric combustion ratio ....
engine and five-speed gearbox. It is an Indian market model that has never been exported. A 500 cc prototype was also created and tested, but it never saw mass production.
In 2009, the AVL semi-unit engine
Pre-unit construction
Pre-unit construction, also called separate construction, is a motorcycle engine architecture where the engine and gearbox are separate casings, with their own oil reservoirs, and usually attached to parallel plates that also attach to the frame...
is replaced with the new 350cc unit construction engine
Unit construction
Unit construction is a term used to describe the design of larger motorcycles where the engine and gearbox components share a single casing. The term is sometimes applied to the design of automobile engines and was often loosely applied to motorcycles with rather different internal layouts such as...
(UCE). The bike was renamed Thuderbird Twinspark owing to the twin sparkplugs in the UCE engine. Thunderbird is the first bike to debut the 350 cc UCE engine. Other parts have seen only minimal changes from the original Thunderbird. The final drive chain is moved to the right side and it is the most obvious change from the old model apart from the new engine itself.