[tharian]

Originally Posted by swiftnfurious

Looks like I am only one who's still wondering what's special with this bike!! I don't find anything great about the looks, and everytime I see the interceptor, it reminds me of the Yamaha rx100. And wouldn't the windblast be too high for this to be doing any high speeds which this may be capable of?

Plus, I again don't have any special tuck for the brand. A colleague of mine bought a brand new classic 350 1-2 months back - I have already heard the bike being broken down 3-4 times.

RE was targeting the retro-cruiser segment.I really like the looks of the Interceptor. Reminds me of the Triumph Boneville and the legendary RD350. There is something which is attractive in it although it is plain looking and dated to some. Something like the VW Polo.
The Conti 650 looks the part as well.

It is special because a twin from RE was something that has been long awaited, especially when they had a twin 50 years ago.

All the twins available in the market now are either out of reach for many buyers or cater to a very different biking category. A twin like this for lazy cruising , affordable and from an Indian company, makes it special.

Yes, the downside is the reliability. Something which is downer and hopefully, this one is better than rest of their models.

[rajshenoy]

Loved the interceptor design, Clean and classic. Wish it really becomes poor mans T100 (but hearing that RE will price this above 5L !! )

And there is obvious question mark on the QC of RE bikes, so this could just be another toy for those fanboys of RE

[Slick]

Wow Lovely looking bikes, RE as mastered the art of making their bikes look mouth watering, be it the current classics or these upcoming twins, to RE for making them so desirable.

The deciding factor will be Pricing and the corresponding ownership experiences.

The Interceptor (lovely name from its old model) looks quite close to the Bonneville, a bike on my wish list.


Some other colour combinations I found on their site

https://royalenfield.com/motorcycles...continental-gt


- Slick

PS: Both have Spoked wheels, does it mean that they will be using tubed tyres?

[trishul]

Originally Posted by tharian

Few more pictures courtesy OD Twitter

Fuel gauge missing in the first pic here (http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/motorb...ml#post4301654) or is there one on the fuel tank? I really hope RE did not skimp on a fuel gauge.

[tharian]

Originally Posted by trishul

Fuel gauge missing in the first pic here (http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/motorb...ml#post4301654) or is there one on the fuel tank? I really hope RE did not skimp on a fuel gauge.

My guess is it will be part of the digital display on the left pod.

[naturaldisaster]

Both bikes look lovely. Just one thing, cant really tell from the pic. Are the footpegs on the CGT more rear-set than the interceptor's? Definitely hope so.

[MaheshY1]

I've personally never been a fan of Royal Enfields just because they are Royal Enfields. I just look at the product and the price. But I'm starting to lean towards this classic brand since Himalayan happened.

The media has been comparing the REs with Dukes for God knows how long without realizing that this is the ONLY bikemaker today making truly classic bikes. As in, air-cooled, long stroke for low-revving thump, torquey nature, vintage styling and even the vibrations. What good is a classic bike without the vibes?

The twins offer just the right amount of everything to do the daily driving, touring, and expressway speeds. Then there's the vintage styling, air-cooled engine, not too much displacement or compression to make it a tandoor, the rumble and torque of a 270-degree crank, the styling and the price. Rs. 3-3.5 lakh sounds about right for these bikes.

Originally Posted by Bhatt

The timing is just perfect, with the increasing disposable incomes, increase in leisure biking culture and above all the huge base of almost 600,000 Riders being added to the RE family annually, quite a few of whom would look to upgrade after a year or two. The Bajaj - triumph bikes are not expected before 2021, Mahindra's experiments with BSA & Jawa don't seem to be any closer to conclusion, and Harley seems to be consistently out pricing themselves with yearly price hikes. RE will have a good head start over others in the nascent middleweight twins segment in India

Second that.

For now, the twins have ZERO resistance. The real competition will come from the Bajaj-Triumph team.

No matter how well Bajaj contains the production costs, Triumph badge will force them to maintain a price premium of at least price Rs. 60-70k. The Triumph should be ready for display by 2020 Auto Expo and launch by the end of 2020 or early 2021. I'm expecting to see a 600cc parallel-twin bike, but I don't know how powerful it's going to be. The 900cc Street Twin has a healthy torque of 90Nm but only 57 odd BHP. That's barely enough to challenge the RE Twins.

I've always loved the Triumph Street Twin's understated styling and the bottom-end torque, but it has a bit too much of technology, torque, displacement, and price for my taste. The new RE Twins can give me that at less than half the cost. Not to mention, cheaper maintenance, easily available parts, wide service network and a ticket to RE's rides calendar.

[saargoga]

Originally Posted by swiftnfurious

Looks like I am only one who's still wondering what's special with this bike!! I don't find anything great about the looks, and everytime I see the interceptor, it reminds me of the Yamaha rx100. And wouldn't the windblast be too high for this to be doing any high speeds which this may be capable of?

Plus, I again don't have any special tuck for the brand. A colleague of mine bought a brand new classic 350 1-2 months back - I have already heard the bike being broken down 3-4 times.

Old brit bikes in this case enfield (including its Indian ownership) still provided that bit of 'emotional connect' with the running engine that is distinct. This old world motoring has no similarity with KTM style power delivery or any sports bike for that matter. So a direct speed based comparison of bullets is a futile exercise IMO.

In twins adding 6th gear has removed the problems of speed restriction of torque curve that most felt with bullets.

Yes quality is not RE's endgame, but it is what it is we don't have options in India to procure similar range from Moto Guzzi, Norton, BSA and the likes not even Japanese who tend to have superiority in quality..

I cannot say for others but I love these type of bikes, it have nothing to do with any heritage crap that RE tries to plant its just the man and machine connect.

[dinu2506]

Originally Posted by amitg79

I noticed in the specs (on the RE website) that the tyres seem to be a bit too thin for a bike with this much power.

100/90-18 front and 130/70-18 rear. One would have expected at least 120 front and 160 / 150 rear?

The Triumph Bonneville has 110 / 130 front / rear

[sandeepmohan]

Originally Posted by IshaanIan

Still far off from liquid cooling tech.

The concept is similar to water cooling except that in this case, it is oil flowing through a radiator from the sump as a means to keep temperatures in check. Yes; the flow of oil isn't the same as you would find on water cooled engines that circulate coolant around the block via water jackets. However; the mechanisms that support both technologies are identical. You have a oil pump that circulates oil to the radiator and back. The same exists on a water cooled setup. There is a water pump. Forced air cooling (Fan) is present on both types of systems too.

It is two different ways to transfer or dissipate heat but I won't call them "far off".

Other factors that come into play are cost of each setup. I am pretty sure it costs a lot more to engineer a water cooled setup.

This motorcycle excites me no ends. It has been years I have been looking forward to a twin cylinder Enfield.

[pedrolourenco]

Both the bikes look stunning in the pictures. I hope the QC is good. Somehow I feel the Interceptor is what a modern day RD350 should look like. I wonder what is stopping Yamaha from ressurecting the RD brand. Kawasaki already has a similar looking 750. Yamaha should launch a modern RD 650 / RD 750. People are currently paying up to 3 Lakhs for old RD's. Surely they won't mind paying a similar amount or even more for a modern and reliable version of the iconic bike.

[glikithvinayaka]

I appreciate RE for the effort, but it will be very difficult to convince anyone to buy a Royal Enfield over 5L.
But I guess their main aim with these bikes are the American and European markets. Hope the QC is up to the mark.

[The_Mad_Hatter]

Originally Posted by pedrolourenco

I wonder what is stopping Yamaha from ressurecting the RD brand.

Yamaha already has a sort of RD tribute the SR series.

But, with a 4-stroke engine, particularly the SR 400, it's hard to capture the ferocity of 2-stroke power delivery (39 bhp for RD350, 47 bhp for the RD350LC and over 55 bhp for the RZ350), not to mention the extremely high power-to-weight ratio, as 2-strokes have fewer parts and are much lighter than 4-strokes.
The SR 400 is more of a nostalgia piece, and in my opinion can't captivate riders like the RD350/400 'Giant Killers' could.

[Madhu_Bengaluru]

On a side note, looks like Benelli wants a piece of the market share that Enfield now has with its 350. Benelli imperiale 400 @ EICMA.

https://www.zigwheels.com/news-featu...nveiled/29086/

[The Great]

Originally Posted by naturaldisaster

Both bikes look lovely. Just one thing, cant really tell from the pic. Are the footpegs on the CGT more rear-set than the interceptor's? Definitely hope so.

Indeed the footpegs are more rearset on the CGT. If you look closely at the foot pegs in the above pics.