Checked out the Royal Enfield Shotgun 650 upclose: First observations

The seating position is nice and comfortable. The foot pegs are perfectly placed.

BHPian neil.jericho recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

The launch of Royal Enfield's latest product - the Shotgun 650, was clearly missing the anticipation and buzz that Indian and global motorcycle enthusiasts had, for the company's long awaited Himalayan 450. The media reviews of the Shotgun 650 have been largely positive and revealed that with the new bike, Royal Enfield has addressed some of the shortcomings of its cousin, the Super Meteor 650, though the two motorcycles seem to be positioned to attract very different target segments. When I saw the invite for the unveiling of the new Shotgun 650 at the company's store in Bangalore, I didnt want to miss out on the chance to check out the motorcycle.

As was the case with the unveiling of the Himalayan 450, the event was well organized by the showroom team. The crowd was less than half of what it was at the Himalayan launch, which was a good thing for people like me who wanted to get a proper look of the bike. This time, a gentleman from Royal Enfield spoke on the ethos of the Shotgun 650 and a customer was invited to officially unveil the motorcycle. Like the previous launch, all the attendees were provided with a burger and a Paperboat juice packet, along with water bottles.

My initial impressions were that with each new bike launch, Royal Enfield is steadily improving its fit and finish levels. This looks and feels like a proper premium motorcycle, except for one little aspect, which I will come to in a bit. If you tell your envious neighbour that your Shotgun 650 cost Rs 6 L, he isnt going to doubt you for a second, as he checks out the bike with a feigned smile plastered on his face.

The seating position is nice and comfortable. The foot pegs are perfectly placed. This isnt a dyed in the wool cruiser motorcycle, which is what most people would expect, when they see the Shotgun 650. There is enough space in the riders seat to scoot forwards and backwards (which is not possible on say a Duke 399, for example). You can remove the back seat and strap on your luggage for touring. Or you could remove the rear frame and relish the striking bobber look. The price for this top end variant is Rs 4.7 L, while the other schemes are cheaper by Rs 10 - 20K (as far as I can recall).

The only thing which I didnt like about the motorcycle was the awful gap between the front nacelle and the clocks. A ship could sail through that .....

Overall, the Shotgun 650 isnt going to set the sales charts on fire, but I suspect that their owners are going to be a very happy lot. Though this isn't my favourite flavour of dream motorcycles, it certainly gets a thumbs up from me!

If the Super Meteor 650 is Royal Enfield's view of a cruiser motorcycle, the Shotgun 650 feels like their interpretation of a bruiser motorcycle. The Shotgun 650 is a bike that the lead character from a Guy Ritchie movie would ride.

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