Royal Enfield wowed showgoers and stunned fans in India when it unveiled an 838cc, V-Twin motorcycle called the KX 838 Concept at the recently concluded 2018 EICMA motorcycle show in Milan, Italy.
A design study that was built in 6 months, the KX Concept is yet to get a production sign-off from Royal Enfield. Here’s the first official video of the bobber motorcycle that caught everyone by surprise.
The Royal Enfield KX 838 Concept is inspired by the biggest motorcycle that the brand has ever built – the 1938 KX 1140. The 1938 Royal Enfield KX 1140 featured a mammoth 1,140cc, air cooled V-Twin four stroke engine.
In contrast, the KX 838 concept uses an 838cc, liquid-cooled and fuel injected V-Twin engine sourced from Indian Motorcycles, an American cruiser motorcycle brand owned by Polaris Industries – Royal Enfield’s joint venture partner in certain areas.
The Royal Enfield KX 838 Concept featured many retro-design bits that are unseen on modern motorcycles. One such highlight is the girder fork suspension at the front with a single damper, a throwback to the 1930s and 40s. The rear suspension is more modern, with a monoshock set-up.
The motorcycle gets disc brakes on both wheels with ABS as standard. The frame is from Harris Engineering, and uses the V-Twin engine as the stressed member. Ground clearance is in big cruiser territory, at 128 mm.
For now, these are the only details officially released by Royal Enfield. Unofficial power numbers for the V-Twin engine put peak output at about 90 PS, which is quite impressive. If this figure turns out to be accurate, expect no less than 100-120 Nm of peak torque.
Royal Enfield hasn’t been coy about its plans to build bigger engined motorcycles in future. In fact, the motorcycle maker wants to target both the 800cc and 1,000cc markets, and the KX 838 Concept could be just be a precursor of things to come.
For now though, Royal Enfield is preparing for the Indian launch of its 650 twins – the Interceptor and the Continental GT. Both motorcycles will be powered by a newly developed 647cc, parallel twin four stroke engine.
This motor puts out 47 Bhp-62 Nm, and is paired with a 6 speed manual gearbox with slipper clutch. Other modern bits including dual channel ABS as standard, fuel injection and four valve heads for the engine. Very sharp pricing is expected for both motorcycles.
Do we expect this motorcycle to see the light of the day? Nope. Not for a very long time, at least. While RE is ambitious enough, they are not, in our opinion, near where they are capable of launching and marketing a motorcycle such as this. But give it a couple of years, and we shall talk again.
