What a thread! The title reads 'Motorcycle industry enters 500CC era', while the discussion is entering 500BC era.
Jokes apart, there is nothing British about RE since decades. In the entire subcontinent we have companies that continue carrying their imperial era names for the sake of brand recall and a certain image, whatever it may be. There are such companies in all industries - FMCG, construction, consulting etc. The management, shareholding and work culture are entirely south Asian. I am sure they are such companies in Bangladesh too.
Reliability of RE is not great, but then we must understand that people who are buying these are used to the reliability of TVS, Hero, Bajaj, Suzuki, Honda etc. Reliability of Harleys and Triumphs is not that great either. Such cult vehicles somehow lack reliability. Jeep is known to have terrible reliability in the US. Moreover, Americans are more DIY in nature and like fixing snags on their own. Indians like to hand over everything to a mechanic and RE kind of vehicles can get irksome at times.
REs are fantastic value for the price. Their complete dominance in the segment is one the reasons Harley could not survive in India. The most expensive RE costs about Rs 300,000 while Harleys started at a million. Their sales increased manifold in the early 2000s because of 2 reasons - easy finance (EMIs) and rise of an offroading / cruising culture. Earlier people thought 10 times before plonking Rs 200,000 for a two-wheeler when 50K more could buy them a Maruti Alto. All that has changed now.