Royal Enfield will unveil two brand new, twin cylinder bikes on the the 7th of November, and the motorcycle maker has just confirmed this through a Youtube video teaser. Both bikes will be built in India, at Royal Enfield’s Chennai factories. They’ll be sold both in India as well as international markets.
The Interceptor and Meteor/Constellation badges are likely to make a comeback, and this was another hint thrown by the Youtube teaser. Notably, Royal Enfield’s Redditch factory in England produced 700 cc and 750 cc parallel twins in the 1950s and 60s. These were the fastest bikes that the motorcycle maker ever built.
So, it’s only fitting that these badges make a comeback on the all-new parallel twin engined bikes that Royal Enfield will soon launch. The company will commercially launch these bikes in India next year, and the 2018 Auto Expo could be the big ticket event where it’s showcased for Indian audiences.
Listen to the bikes’ beautiful exhaust notes!
Siddhartha Lal, the Eicher CEO (the company that owns Royal Enfield) has stated that the bikes would be ‘highway friendly’. This also means that they’d be the fastest Royal Enfields ever built in India. They’d likely to have comfortable cruising speeds of about 120-130 Kph, with a top speed of over 160 Kph. The minimum speed limit on US interstate highways is 80 Mph or 128 Kph. The new Royal Enfield parallel twins will be designed to match this comfortably.
While the new parallel-twin, four stroke engine’s capacity is undisclosed for now, the grapevine suggests a 692-750 cc displacement. The engine will be oil cooled and fuel injected, running on overhead cams to put out about 45-50 Bhp of peak power, and 55-60 Nm of peak torque. A five speed manual gearbox will be standard, and so will be ABS equipped hydraulic disc brakes on the front and the rear wheels. The bikes will use a new double cradle frame to house the engine, and will have twin exhausts.
One of the two bikes will feature cafe-racer styling, with a sporty riding position, while the other will have a more relaxed riding position similar to that on the Triumph Street Twin. Royal Enfield is likely to position both the bikes as a cut-price alternative to the Triumph Street Twin range. Prices are likely to be in the 3-3.5 lakh rupees ballpark, which could make the new Royal Enfields the cheapest twin cylinder bikes in the country. We can’t wait for the 7th of November.