175At the time period when there was supremacy of royal Enfield bullet and yezdi in bike market then a new bike was launched in developing india and it made an iconic place in customers lists in no time.
Indian needed such a transport mode which should be reliable to Handle tough trails very reasonable on pocket and easy to fix, so there was a new bike called rajdoot in indian market which was ticking all the boxes to meet consumer’s requirements.
So here is how a company with zero 2 wheeler experience launched this beloved bike for indian streets.
The dream of a tractor manufacturing company
When there were 2 types of 2 wheelers owner in india, regular common men and elite class owner then they both had different category of vehicles to fulfill their requirements.
In early 60s there were very less vehicles on Indian roads and bikes like yezdi, royal enfield were choice of officers or rich people and middle class people used to own scooters for their daily tasks.
Seeing this, a tractor manufacturing company escorts had a vision of making a bike which fill the gap between bikes and scooters so they decided to launch a mid segment bike.
Escorts didn’t have prior experience or manufacturing plant so they collaborated with a polish company SHL to design and develop motorcycle.
They purchased rights of their motorcycle model M11 which had 173 cc 2 stroke engine and all the tools were bought build it in india.
In 1962 Escorts build a plant in haryana farerdabad and started production of M11 with the Indian name rajdoot with some changes according to Indian roads.
Popularity in rural areas
SHL M11 was launched in india with indian name rajdoot which later was known as rajdoot xt. This 2 stroke 175 cc bike was much capable and powerful for indian roads with its 3 speed gearbox and a solid heavy chassis frame.
Rajdoot had a slow sale but within 5 years it was well known and trustable bike in indian market for its performance on Indian roads.
Dual rear shockers were giving comfortable ride on bumpy roads and now not only rich people or army officers but common man like doctor, small businessmen, postman, milkman were owning this motorcycle.
Middle indian parts like uttar pradesh, madhya pradesh, Bihar, rajasthan, haryana, punjab was dependant on this bike for their daily routine.
The major reason for the popularity of this bike was, its ability to be fix by owners and it needed very less tools to repair. Even small mechanics were able to work on it for any major fault.
Reliability issues
After being famous in middle class people, rajdoot was known for some bad reasons too and people had to face this everyday.
First point was its design flaw, as rajdoot had gear liver and kick liver at same side so it needed to shift gear from same place.
Another issue was common with its oil levels, people were facing oil leak and carborator overflow which causing massive blue smoke if there is no proper handling of bike.
Partnership with yamaha
Bike industry was changing rapidly in the starting of 80s and there were new overseas brands who started approaching indian market after globalization of automobile industry. Rajdoot was getting mix response from indian customers for its performance and issues.
Escorts decided to do partnership with yamaha company to bring more bikes model for its customers so they collaborated with yamaha in late 80s and decided to brought their legendry bike rd350.
At that time india had strict rules for importing vehicles from overseas so Escorts got successful in getting rights of yamaha rd350 for Indian market.
Escorts did some changes in the rd350 according to Indian market, front Disc was replaced by shoe drum brakes to reduces price from its international Version.
Original yamaha rd350 was coming with 39 hp and Indian version was launched with only 27 hp power still it was knownto reach 0 to 60 in 4 seconds.
Early product for indian market and maintenance hurdles
At that time people used to buy bikes for their primary use and this bike had very high price which was not affordable for most people in india that’s why it had very few customers and this bike despite having modern technology and powerful engine was a failed producf in india.
Indian concern more about fuel economy so this bike having a big powerful engine used to give less mileage so people didn’t want to buy it for its running cost.
There was another factor which stopped people from buying this bike and it was its high cost maintenance. Escorts used to import its spare parts from Japan which was very costly to change anh part and due to this reason there was delay in bike repairing time.
There were very few trained mechanics who were able to work on this bike so people started avoiding this bike for maintenance and costly ownership.
Widow maker
This term is used for those bikes which have very powerful engine but they have very poor braking ability.
After designing it for indian customers Escorts decided to cut cost on its braking components which was a disaster decision. It led bike to a poor braking feedback.
This bike was able to reach 160 kmph speed with its technology torque induction system but there were no strong braking bite to stop this bike at minimal time so due to this many new riders lost their lives.
Downfall of rajdoot
After failure of yamaha rd350 Escorts and yamaha launched a compact bike yamaha rx100 which was fuel efficient small engine bike and people who were ignore rajdoot and rd350 they started showing their interest in yamaha rx100.
But in rural areas people were still buying rajdoot 175 so Escorts decided to focus on rajdoot bike and they brought rajdoot with different names in market like rajdoot xt rajdoot electronic etc.
In 90s after liberation in automobile industry many foreign brands started doing their business in india with partnership of Indian companies so they started working on 4 stroke lightweight engines for more mileage and less pollution.
After government brought bs2 norms in india to control pollution rajdoot decided to shut their production of 2 strokes engines because it was very costly to develop a new 4 stroke engine for rajdoot 175.
Conclusion
After selling more than 1.4 millions bikes rajdoot yamaha decided to stop their production 20 years ago with a great history in automobile industry.
Now there are rumour of new rajdoot in market with advanced technology to bring alive that retro bike for indian customers. Its is not confirmed yes as no official news is given from Escorts or yamaha so far.
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