Royal Enfield Bullet 500 launched at Rs 1.53 lakh

It was expected that Royal Enfield would be launching its café racer for the Indian two-wheeler market first but instead it unveiled its latest offering called Bullet 500. The Bullet 500 will be offered in a brand-new shade, Forest Green. The new bike will be initially available only in major markets for RE like Punjab and Kerala and cities like Delhi-NCR, Gurgaon, Chandigarh and Noida. Other parts of the country will follow suit once production capacity is increased. 

In terms of design, the Bullet 500 retains all the basic design elements of a true-blue Bullet but gets additions like new pillion grab-rail with a cushion end, all new pilot lamps which Royal Enfield calls “Tiger Lamps” and old-school-inspired classic tail lamps. The new bike also gets the Royal Enfield Winged badge which has been finished in a gold and silver livery to complete the vintage look of the bike. For better stability and a meaty stance, the bikes gets 19-inch rims up front which are shod with 280mm disc brakes. 

Talking about the new Bullet 500, Shaji Koshy, Senior VP Sales & Marketing, Royal Enfield said, “The Bullet 500 is a much awaited model and while designing the bike for the Indian market we worked with the preferences of our special Bullet-loving audience here. Hence, the Bullet 500 comes with a 500 cc carbureted UCE, a powerful torque that offers better and very accessible power, alongwith several other enhancements such as front disc brakes, electric start and gas filled shock absorbers.”

Powering the beast is the same 499cc mill as found on the Classic 500 though Royal Enfield has dropped fuel-injection from it. The four-stroke, twinspark, air-cooled engine pumps out 26.4PS @ 5,100rpm and torque of 40.9Nm @ 3,800rpm. Power is transmitted via a five-speed gearbox and the bike gets electric starter as standard. Royal Enfield has dropped the fuel-injection because a lot of traditional Bullet followers felt it was comparatively unreliable and also the engine didn’t feel the same in contrast to the carburetted version. Royal Enfield have priced the Bullet 500 at Rs 1.53 lakh (ex-showroom Delhi).