[saargoga]

Originally Posted by naturaldisaster

Point about production costs noted. My fear is that they are making a common product for all markets. Let me explain:

Then we have common bike in all markets but the reliability in India is again

I think we are looking at it the wrong way, GT is better built and a has a suitable frame, what they clearly added is a more relaxed engine with 6 gears spread over inresead power gains, a lighter clutch and being a twin that extra charisma in the exhaust note. This will surely add up in the riding experience.

I am assuming that GT of course was a step up in quality ( I have no personal experience of this) and so will be this engine and its associated parts, they do have new shockers and an external built exhaust which is the best accessory upgrade in quality as it appears from the pics.

@anand.shankar they got this engine developed in UK and also tested there over a considerable time, than they used to, so the price of development will not be cheaper than any of their earlier models, but the engineering behind this have been to extract considerably better package from their existing infrastructure much like what enfield did with their classic bikes.

Regardless of how it pans out RE has done well this time and we can but only wait to let them out their prices. At this point I would also add their service costs have been rising owing to the 'brand experience' so time will tell for sure how this ends up.

[Sutripta]

Originally Posted by Rob UK

I haven't seen much detail of the Enfield design, so I do not know where the plug is, but I suppose it would be possible to put the plug at an offset by placing it between the smaller pair of valves (exhaust side).

Even if that is the solution - why does it matter? How much difference do you believe it will make? A Ducati 1299 has a central plug, but also has a 116mm bore and revs to peak power of 205bhp at 11,500rpm. If there is enough time for the ignition flash to travel nearly 60mm to the edges of the combustion chamber on that bike at 11,500rpm, just how much difference do you think offsetting the plug in a much smaller lower revving cylinder would make? I suspect the answer is "tiny".

However, the benefits of SOHC - ability to push the engine forward in the frame to increase front wheel loading, the reduction in weight, improved weight distribution top to bottom and reduced production costs are much more likely to be tangible?

Harris Performance who Enfield bought out for R&D are not novices - they have built race engines for Yamaha and run the factory Suzuki World Superbike team. When a foreign company is good enough for 2 of the Japanese "big 4" to contract work out to them, then I am inclined to suspect they know what they are doing, but time will tell - I just want to ride one

Logging in after a week, so discussion might have lost topicality.
Also I'm not in the habit of posting frequently, or making long posts. This post is likely to be long, but disjointed. But I think you'll get what I'm saying. (Agreement is entirely optional!)

Puzzled because the specific power that this engine delivers can easily be achieved with a 2 valve design. (I guess more a result of it being aircooled than anything else. Note - this is not a critisism/ comment on the power output). So once again my question - why a (costly) 4 valve design, and then not take advantage of one of its most important (in the modern world) attributes?

Central spark plugs and power - almost no difference. (But nowhere was I talking about DOHC giving more power). But check out when DOHC/ 4V architecture started becoming popular. Despite a sizeable cost increase. (As you know, in the volume car market, every penny matters).

Power/ specific power/ specific fuel consumption/ rev range/ torque curve/ cost etc one is competing with ones rivals in the marketplace. Emissions - that is statutory. And binary. (Just ask VW).

I believe Ducati was fooling around with twin plugs. Wonder why? Maybe their 'copyrighted' desmo has something to do with this line of thinking.

He who pays the piper ... In this case Harris is certainly not independent. Who knows what RE's design brief to Harris was. (Mahindra owns Pininfarina. Just look at Mahindra's designs. (Admittedly nowhere is it mentioned that P'Farina had anything to do with those designs)).
You base your opinion on faith in Harris. I on my 'faith' in RE!

RE seems to think mass is a friend. I don't think mass reduction/ centralisation figure in RE product matrix. But lets see how it pans out. Incidentally I was thinking of the brilliance of the original Bullet design - twin cam, with mass low down in the block! (Wonder who got it first. Have to look up when Riley designed their engine.)

Regards
Sutripta

[Rob UK]

Originally Posted by Sutripta

Logging in after a week, so discussion might have lost topicality.
Also I'm not in the habit of posting frequently, or making long posts. This post is likely to be long, but disjointed. But I think you'll get what I'm saying. (Agreement is entirely optional!)

Puzzled because the specific power that this engine delivers can easily be achieved with a 2 valve design. (I guess more a result of it being aircooled than anything else. Note - this is not a critisism/ comment on the power output). So once again my question - why a (costly) 4 valve design, and then not take advantage of one of its most important (in the modern world) attributes?

Central spark plugs and power - almost no difference. (But nowhere was I talking about DOHC giving more power). But check out when DOHC/ 4V architecture started becoming popular. Despite a sizeable cost increase. (As you know, in the volume car market, every penny matters).

Power/ specific power/ specific fuel consumption/ rev range/ torque curve/ cost etc one is competing with ones rivals in the marketplace. Emissions - that is statutory. And binary. (Just ask VW).

I believe Ducati was fooling around with twin plugs. Wonder why? Maybe their 'copyrighted' desmo has something to do with this line of thinking.

He who pays the piper ... In this case Harris is certainly not independent. Who knows what RE's design brief to Harris was. (Mahindra owns Pininfarina. Just look at Mahindra's designs. (Admittedly nowhere is it mentioned that P'Farina had anything to do with those designs)).
You base your opinion on faith in Harris. I on my 'faith' in RE!

RE seems to think mass is a friend. I don't think mass reduction/ centralisation figure in RE product matrix. But lets see how it pans out. Incidentally I was thinking of the brilliance of the original Bullet design - twin cam, with mass low down in the block! (Wonder who got it first. Have to look up when Riley designed their engine.)

Regards
Sutripta

Who is to say whether 650cc / 47bhp is to remain the capacity and output? It is almost certainly de-tuned to this level with a combination of cams and fuelling.

[TorqueyTechie]

Came across this interview with Lal in TOI where he has talked about the probable launch, bybre brakes , launch price in India and such.

Quoting few bits from the article :

By when we can expect to see the Interceptor 650 and the Continental GT 650 on the Indian roads?

India launch will be in the summer of 2018. As far as the requirements in India are concerned, we have 750 dealers and every dealer requires a few display motorcycles, a few test ride motorcycles. For this initial requirement before we start selling the bikes, we need over 5,000 units. We expect quite a bit of time to ramp up the production and we want to do it slowly and step-by-step. So, the first few batches of the bikes -- which is below 4,000-5,000 units -- we will send to the UK and Europe.

You've said that the gap between these new 650cc bikes will be similar to what's between a 150cc and your 350cc motorcycles. So can we expect a price bracket of Rs 3-3.5 lakh?

Not exactly. What we mean is the same step up. I can't give you the numbers but it's one step up, it's not two or three steps up

[Sutripta]

Originally Posted by Rob UK

Who is to say whether 650cc / 47bhp is to remain the capacity and output? It is almost certainly de-tuned to this level with a combination of cams and fuelling.

Sure.
Relevant to what we were discussing?

Regards
Sutripta

[naturaldisaster]

Originally Posted by Sutripta

Sure.
Relevant to what we were discussing?

Regards
Sutripta

I believe RE's intention was not to extract the most possible power out of the motor. Rather the opposite. Maybe they wanted to keep to the power within the A1 license bhp limit guidelines? Who knows, they might take full advantage of all four valves in a subsequent 'adult' bike.

cheers.

[aravind.anand]

Having got a little bored with the limited colors that were displayed until now, I just tried creating few different shades to see how it works. I am particularly interested to see black and gun metal grey among other choices...





Black looks nice, no?






Glossy grey should look good too!

[bik1906]

I just have to nitpick...a long awaited display bike at an international launch and the first thing I see is these giant welding blobs on the bike stand, like the RE logo plate on the stand was welded in as a last minute afterthought.

[jeepster]

Originally Posted by bik1906

the first thing I see is these giant welding blobs on the bike stand, like the RE logo plate on the stand was welded in as a last minute afterthought.

Its by design ... not a last minute job.

The idea is taken from custom world where less is better.

[dkaile]

Supposedly coming in at 3.25L



Cheers...

[Cyborg]

Originally Posted by dkaile

Supposedly coming in at 3.25L

Thanks Dkaile.

Hope they come out hassle/niggle free from the beginning. Around the 4 lakh mark these could be stellar for RE.

Won't the GT cost a premium over the Interceptor?

Cheers

[ani_meher]

Pricing seems very aggressive/optimistic for a twin 650 engine. Let's wait and watch.

[timuseravan]

Originally Posted by dkaile

Supposedly coming in at 3.25L

Cheers...

Honestly I would not trust any of these auto journalists unless you know someone personally. Most such figures are wishful thinking and click bait titles to drive traffic to their sites.

However my personal estimation is also around 4 on road

[himanshugoswami]

Good to see ABS as standard. I just hope they offer tubeless tyres as standard too. I am very tempted by the Interceptor (in no small measure because of the name!!) but wont touch it with a barge pole if it comes with tube type tyres.

[nasirkaka]

Supposedly coming in at 3.25L

This is a relatively old image put together by one of the auto journals. The price mentioned is what they expect it to be, not linked to any official source whatsoever. But around 3.25L Ex would be very ideal price and would surely move in numbers.
Now any new on one 650 Himalayan?