Royal Enfield Interceptor 650 & Continental GT 650 SPIED ahead of today’s official reveal

Just hours before Royal Enfield officially reveals the Interceptor 650 and Continental GT 650, the motorcycles have been spied at the company’s Bruntingthorpe research and development facility. The spyshot also confirms that Royal Enfield will debut the new, 650cc parallel twin engine in two motorcycles – a street bike that looks similar to the Triumph Street twin and a cafe racer similar to the Continental GT 535. The streetbike will be called the Interceptor 650, and the cafe racer as the Continental GT 650.

The spyshots indicate that both bikes will have conventional telescopic front forks, twin gas-charged rear shock absorbers, disc brakes on both wheels, spoked tyres, twin upswept exhausts exiting from both sides and many parts that seem lifted from the Continental GT535.

For instance, the twin pod instrument cluster, the tail lamps, the turn indicators and the rear shock absorbers all look like borrowed units. This should help Royal Enfield keep costs low, and make the bike one of the cheapest twin cylinder motorcycle sold in India.

One of this bikes is expected to be launched sometime in April of 2018, while the other will follow later in that year. Needless to say, both bikes will make an appearance at the upcoming 2018 Indian Auto Expo to be held in early February.

Both bikes will feature a 650cc, parallel twin engine that puts out 47 PS of peak power at 7,000 rpm and 52 Nm of peak torque at 4,000 rpm. Interestingly, the engine will be a short stroke motor – the first ever such four-stroke unit Royal Enfield has produced.

The reason Royal Enfield has gone for a short stroke motor is to make it rev higher. This way, the motor can push the bike easily past 100 Kph without having to be ‘too big’ (750cc not needed for that). The gearbox is a 6 speed manual with a slipper clutch, and these are some more firsts for Royal Enfield.

The engine is air and oil cooled, and gets fuel injection. ABS will be offered right from the outset on both these bikes. Tubeless tyres will be something that’ll be very nice. We’ll have to wait for the full-spec to be announced for that though. Over to EICMA for the official unveil.

Spyshot courtesy Rushlane