I agree about the RE Bullet being an anachronism but it sold well in India for a long, long time unfortunately didn't do much for sales here. One could call it RE's cash cow in India. Recently their CEO said that RE would introduce several new models each year and I suspect many of those are NOT for the US market.
Many years ago I rode a Kawasaki W650 at a demo ride and was impressed because it didn't feel "vintage" and everything worked fine. The latest incantation of the "W" series model has an 800 cc engine and from all I've read, it also picked up a lot of unwanted vibration. I've seen and felt the same thing happen to lots of models in the past: Honda CB400 to CB450, Suzuki GS400 to GS450, etc. Just punching out the cylinders doesn't always make for a happy change.
Norton has been up-and-down perhaps more times than Indian so who knows if they'll survive? And I wonder how the modern company called Indian is doing these days since I see so few of those bikes on the road. Indian is aimed at the Harley crowd so it'll take some doing to overcome multiple generations of brand loyalty.
Many years ago I rode a Kawasaki W650 at a demo ride and was impressed because it didn't feel "vintage" and everything worked fine. The latest incantation of the "W" series model has an 800 cc engine and from all I've read, it also picked up a lot of unwanted vibration. I've seen and felt the same thing happen to lots of models in the past: Honda CB400 to CB450, Suzuki GS400 to GS450, etc. Just punching out the cylinders doesn't always make for a happy change.
Norton has been up-and-down perhaps more times than Indian so who knows if they'll survive? And I wonder how the modern company called Indian is doing these days since I see so few of those bikes on the road. Indian is aimed at the Harley crowd so it'll take some doing to overcome multiple generations of brand loyalty.