The Royal Enfield Hunter 350 was designed to move easily around the city, and Garuda Machina has done exactly the opposite of what you'd expect with it: a street tracker with a springer fork, knobby tires and an orange tank decorated with hand-painted tigers. The result is called «Pench», and it is both a show bike and a love letter to its city.
A base designed for the city
The Hunter 350 has an air-cooled 349 cc single with fuel injection and around 20 hp, plus an assist and slipper clutch and progressive rear suspension. It isn't a powerful bike, but it is a light base that's easy and cheap to maintain, which is exactly what you want if you're building a custom without dealing with delicate mechanics.
The commission and the name
Royal Enfield itself commissioned the bike for the Hunterhood festival, a tour of Indian cities (Mumbai, Delhi, Shillong, Lucknow and Kochi, among others) with action sports, music, art workshops and streetwear markets. It needed a centerpiece that summed up that street culture, and the job went to Garuda Machina, a custom shop in Nagpur, in the state of Maharashtra.
The name «Pench» plays on two meanings: in Hindi it means «screw», a nod to the craft, and it is also the name of the best-known tiger reserve in the area. Nagpur is considered India's tiger capital, and that's where the whole idea comes from: a bike with the air of a predator, agile and aggressive.
What they did to the bike
- Subframe and seat: the stock subframe and seat were removed to fit a custom trellis-style subframe and a minimal, very thin seat. You trade comfort for a clean line.
- Rear suspension: the two side shocks give way to a monoshock, with the original swingarm reinforced to handle the change.
- Front end: the telescopic fork is replaced by a classic-looking springer, something very unusual on a modern tracker.
- Wheels: 18-inch rims with sawtooth-pattern Shinko E270 tires, 4.5 inches wide, which give the bike a chunky, retro look.
- Lighting: a flat-track-style number board hides an LED headlight. The light shines through a series of holes drilled into the aluminum plate.
- Tank and color: the factory tank is kept, but finished in a burnt metallic orange (Nagpur is the «orange city») with pouncing tigers hand-painted in Warli-art motifs. The engine, frame and springer are black so the orange stands out.
Spec sheet
| Donor bike | Royal Enfield Hunter 350 |
|---|---|
| Builder | Garuda Machina (Nagpur, Maharashtra, India) |
| Style | Street tracker |
| Engine | 349 cc air-cooled single with fuel injection |
| Suspension | Springer fork in front and monoshock at the rear |
| Wheels | 18" rims with Shinko E270 (4.5" wide) |
| Finish | Burnt orange tank with Warli-inspired tigers |
What we like and what gives us pause
The best thing about «Pench» is that it tells a story: it isn't just another tracker with knobbies and a number board, but a bike that speaks of a specific place, with its color and its folk art. We also think keeping the original tank and letting the paintwork take center stage was a smart move, and the headlight-behind-the-plate solution is one of those ideas you get at first glance.
The debatable part is the mix. A springer on a fuel-injected base with a monoshock and city-oriented geometry is more of an aesthetic statement than a handling upgrade, and knobby tires that wide penalize cornering on asphalt. It's a good example of a show bike: spectacular, true to its idea and not really meant for everyday use.
What about Spain? What would need homologating
If you wanted to get close to something like this on a bike registered here, these are the modifications that usually require a procedure at the ITV (Spain's roadworthiness inspection), always depending on the case and what appears on the registration sheet:
- Changing the subframe and the seat.
- Replacing the front and rear suspension with systems different from the originals.
- Wheels and tires in sizes other than the approved ones.
- The lighting: a headlight covered by a number board must still meet visibility rules and the required position of lights and license plate.
This is indicative information and does not replace the judgment of the ITV station. If you're preparing something like this, see how homologation of modifications works or tell us about your bike (in Spanish) and we'll tell you what can be made legal.
A note on Warli art
Warli art is a traditional form of painting from the Warli community, in the Indian state of Maharashtra. It is recognizable by its very simple geometric figures, made of circles, triangles and lines, representing animals, people and scenes from daily life. Here it is adapted to shape the tigers that decorate both sides of the tank.
Source and credits
Bike built by Garuda Machina. The story of this project was originally published by Bike EXIF, with photos by Pratik Pramanik and Elvis Pitcher. This article is our own summary and commentary; the original images belong to their authors.
