Off Topic » Royal Enfield 650 twin arrives in the U.S.

You may (or may not) know that Royal Enfield has developed a low-power, air-cooled, 650cc vertical twin that is being slowly introduced into the motorcycling world. My brother just sent me three photos of a group of riders parked at Alice's Restaurant recently that were riding these new bikes. My guess is that it is the motorcycle press being shepherded around by Royal Enfield North America so that they can post their reviews on the internet and in their lifestyle magazines. Note that, unlike BMW, Royal Enfield takes the press to a restaurant where you can buy lunch for $10, instead of taking the press to a 4 star hotel in Spain, with $100 dinners, an open bar and a ride around the countryside as fast as you can go. )You can't do that in the Santa Cruz Mountains, south of San Francisco without someone throwing a net over you.) I might add that this is the same area that the Zero and Energica electric motorcycle brands go to introduce their new models to the press. So we are talking low-budget introductions here.

Here is a short video by an Indian journalist discussing his take on the new twin - without him starting it. He does mention that its quality is not quite up to BMW standards, though: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HX67GA3QhII&feature=youtu.be

I recall some prior discussion on the forum about the specification of the new Twin; and how it seems to be underpowered compared to almost anything else. There are many reasons to restrict the power. Heat. Concern about material durability. Concern about production tolerances. Concern about the quality of the fuel available in the major market. A genuine desire to ensure low speed performance.

Today I rode my Zero electric motorcycle from my home in Pacifica to Big Basin State Park and returned via the coast highway, a trip of 150 miles. (I decided to go on this ride upon turning on my radio this morning.) I arrived home with the battery pack showing 0%. Recharge time is estimated took 11 hours. Recharging used 15.1 kWh from my 120V wall outlet.

While riding into Big Basin SP, three groups of riders passed me coming out of the park. It looked and sounded like they were all riding new Triumph Thruxtons with the same color white tank, which I thought was kind of odd. After arriving at the Park I was approached by a British rider who asked me about my Zero and then mentioned that he was with a group of journalists who were riding the new Royal Enfield 650 Continental GT and asked me if I wanted to see the bike. Naturally I said yes! One of them had a chrome tank, the rest had white tanks with a red stripe. The bikes really look and sound great, although the mufflers are kind of large and stick out quite a bit. Finish seems typical of 1970's Japanese motorcycles to my eye.

I sat on one and it felt pretty solid. The clutch pull is about average and the seating position with the low bars is not bad. Maybe a little lower than the stock RS bars. Much better than the Thruxton, though. I could see myself buying one, especially at the advertised price in the U.S. The internet says the U.S. prices for the GT will be $6,749 and for the Interceptor, $5,799.

I watched as the riders took off up the highway that I came down, heading for lunch at Alice's Restaurant. As I was leaving the Park, two more groups of GT riders passed by. I would guess that I saw about 40 GT riders today. It appears that RENA is really trying to make a statement with the new 650 models in the U.S. Now all they need are more dealers in the here. We should be seeing a lot of 650 reviews all over the World soon. The British journalist that I spoke with was pretty positive about the GT.

Thanks Richard.
When I try to open the thumbnail pictures I get an error message in German.
Clicking on slide show also did not work.

The engine looks a great deal like the Royal Enfield 700 Interceptor’s mill...

Pictures are now working for me.

I hate those German error messages. I have no idea what was the error that I made when that happens.

Zitat von Richard230 im Beitrag #8

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I hate those German error messages. I have no idea what was the error that I made when that happens.

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