While we’ve been focussed on Royal Enfield’s steady expansion of their 650 range, the Indian motorcycle marque has quietly been cooking up an intriguing new platform. Get a load of Flying Flea—Royal Enfield’s new electric motorcycle brand within a brand.
Taking a page out of the Harley-Davidson/LiveWire playbook, Royal Enfield has launched Flying Flea as its own company, rather than as a new model range within their existing brand. Flying Flea debuts with the classically-styled Flying Flea C6 electric bike, with the scrambler-styled Flying Flea S6 set to follow.
Motorcycle historians should recognize the Flying Flea name. The original Royal Enfield Flying Flea was a skinny 125 cc bike developed during World War II. Weighing next to nothing, it was air-dropped alongside paratroopers (which explains the parachute in the new Flying Flea logo.)
Packaged as a compact, lightweight electric bike for short-range missions, the Flying Flea S6 takes visual inspiration from its ancestor. The original Flying Flea was notable for its elegant girder fork, so Royal Enfield has created a modern forged aluminum version of it. It’s connected to a forged aluminum frame, with magnesium used for the battery case.
The Flying Flea’s silhouette is graceful, with each part harmonizing with the next. The faux fuel tank feels less like an attempt to mimic a petrol bike, and more like a design consideration to create cohesion between the chassis and powertrain. Fins on the battery case follow organic lines, while tightly wrapped fenders recall classic Royal Enfield designs.
The finishing kit rides the line between modern and classic. A petite LED headlight sports a classic black-and-chrome bucket, while a classy Royal Enfield plaque adorns the left-hand side of the motor. It’s an electric bike, but it doesn’t look like an appliance.
Royal Enfield has packed miles of tech into the Flying Flea platform, with a claimed 28 patents filed in the last six months alone. The big takeaway is that the company has developed the brains of the Flying Flea in-house rather than simply buying in all of its components. Operated via a round touchscreen dash, the bike boasts myriad riding mode adjustments, onboard ABS, a connectivity suite, and over-the-air update capabilities.
There hasn’t been a peep about the Flying Flea’s power output, range, or weight. But Royal Enfield is clearly pitching it as an urban runabout, so we expect those numbers to be small. Given their track record for building accessible machines that offer decent bang for your buck, we’re excited to see how the Flying Flea electric range pans out.
Source: Flying Flea
