A Royal Enfield 650cc Scrambler, Yes Please!

Enthusiasts, gear up! A new Royal Enfield 650cc scrambler has been spied, and it looks near ready for production. Spotted making testing runs in England (near Bruntingthorpe, which is home to Enfield’s tech centre), this scrambler-esque bike is seen sporting new hardware we haven't seen on neither the Shotgun 650, nor the Super Meteor 650.

Visually, the motorcycle looks more like a ‘street tracker’(a road biased scrambler, of sorts) than a purpose-built, dirty-dancing scrambler. And honestly, it works well with the Interceptor 650’s baselines on which it is built. However, except for the frame and fuel tank of the Interceptor, the aesthetics do not look recycled. We see a new headlight, scrambler styled side-cowls, shorter rear fender, commuter style grab rail and a ribbed one-piece banana seat.   

Most noticeable hardware change is the new exhaust routing, it’s now a two-into-one system, but instead of a scrambler side slung, it’s a regular upswept design. This is something similar to what we spotted on a test mule of the Interceptor doing the rounds in India a couple of months ago. The next is the use of a upside down fork (USD), sure we’ve seen this on the upcoming 650cc cruisers and on the Himalayan 450, but this could be a new unit, differently tuned to accommodate the motorcycle’s sportier style.

It appears to be using the same 649cc, twin-cylinder engine as the Continental GT 650 and Interceptor 650, and is likely to make the same power as well. However, we expect minor internal tune changes to suit the bike’s intention. Everything else, including spoke rims and single discs (front and back),  appears to be unchanged as well.

This is just the first sighting of this bike and we feel this scrambler needs more time, and could hit the ground running sometime in the second half of next year. As for the price, we expect Royal Enfield to price this around Rs 3.5 to 4 lakh mark.

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