Restricted in our western comfort zone, we are perhaps not totally aware of how marginal our domestic markets are from a purely numerical point of view.

India is unquestionably one of the two biggest global players and today Indian motorbike products have invaded the European and American markets, and there are countless collaborations (if not acquisitions of companies or name rights) with European manufacturers. TVS with BMW and Norton, Bajaj with KTM, Vincent-HRD and Triumph, Mahindra with Peugeot, Jawa and BSA, and Royal Enfield itself, now a full player in the European market, became 100% Indian in the late 1950s, Hero (the world's second largest motorbike manufacturer) has a partnership with Harley-Davidson.
 

Their domestic market is gigantic, but for some years now, Indian manufacturers have started exporting their motorbikes to the West, if not designing them with a global outlook: much more than a mere marketing operation to be resold domestically.

What is happening? What are we missing to understand a phenomenon that sees more and more Indians in our market? Who are the Indians? How do they relate to the Western world? What will happen in our motorcycling universe? We try to understand this by talking to geopolitical analyst Lorenzo di Muro, a specialist - among others - on countries such as India and China and editorial advisor to Limes.