Royal Enfield 650 twins which are slated to launch on November 14 at the Royal Enfield Rider Mania event in Goa. The pre-bookings for the middleweight cruisers has been commenced at a token amount of INR 5000. This amount is refundable and the facility is available only at few dealerships across the country. While the deliveries against registration will take place around December this year.
As the Royal Enfield dealerships are suggesting the Interceptor 650 will attract the price tag around INR 3 lakhs. While the Continental GT 650 that is a cafe racer offering will make you shell out a premium amount over the Interceptor 650. The official pricing will only be revealed at the launch on November 14.
The Interceptor 650 and Continental GT 650, both share an identical 648cc, air-cooled, fuel-injected engine. It is a new parallel-twin motor developed with a 270-degree firing order. The churned power and torque figures for the engine are 47bhp at 7100 rpm and 52 Nm at 4000 rpm. The engine comes mated to a six-speed gearbox.
Other than this, the bikes share similar cycle parts as well. There is a single disc unit at both the front and the rear wheel, for braking. Further, it is associated with the ABS as standard. While at the suspension front, the conventional telescopic forks up front and gas-charged twin shock absorbers at the rear will absorb bumps experienced on poor road conditions. Though, they use different capacity fuel tanks. The Interceptor 650 gets 13.7 litres unit while the cafe racer obtains lesser 12.5 litres fuel tank.
Here in India, the forthcoming RE 650 twins will not see a direct competition in the segment. However, they will pit against the models like the Kawasaki Z250, Kawasaki Ninja 300, the Hyosung Aquila GV250 and the BMW G 310 R at pricing front.