Royal Enfield is working on what’s likely to be a Bullet 650, a single-seat bobber and a faired Continental GT.
The hot news recently has been that Royal Enfield is confirmed to be working on a 650cc adventure motorcycle. We’ve also seen a 650cc scrambler being tested, and there’s the long-awaited Shotgun 650 that should launch relatively soon. But in addition to all these bikes, there are at least three more coming on the 650cc platform, with the most interesting being what we believe will be a Bullet 650.
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Single-seat bobber under development
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Bullet 650 likely to get wire-spoke wheels as standard
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Fully-faired Continental GT 650 confirmed
The clues once again come from an official RE document showing the 650cc family tree. The diagram shows all the upcoming models mentioned above, as well as a single-seat bobber, a retro roadster (which will likely be the Bullet 650) and a faired version of the Continental GT 650 cafe racer (which has already been spotted testing).
Royal Enfield 650cc bobber: what to expect
The silhouette image of the bobber tells us that it will roll on alloy wheels and sport a floating cantilevered seat, similar to what you see on something like the Jawa 42 Bobber. The large gap between the rear tyre and the rear fender suggests that perhaps the former will move independent of the latter. This is unlike the Jawa, where the fender is unsprung and, therefore, moves up and down with the rear tyre.
Mounted on the rear fender is a minimalist standalone tail-lamp pod, and you will likely see a round headlight up front, flanked by stubby handlebars. Interestingly, as per RE’s nomenclature and hierarchy, the Bullet 650 is shown as a variant of the bobber, which in itself is a derivative model of the Interceptor 650. This is likely more of a homologation fast-track than anything else – the Bullet 350 is also technically homologated as a variant of the Hunter 350 since they share many of the same underpinnings.
Royal Enfield Bullet 650: what to expect
In practice, the Bullet 650 will be a model of its own, even though it’s likely to share a chunk of its underpinnings with the bobber and other 650cc REs. The biggest difference visible here, aside from the presence of a pillion seat, is that the Bullet will get wire-spoke wheels. There is no official indication of whether the option of alloys will be available, but it’s quite likely that this will be the case, since the 650cc line-up is now starting to receive alloy wheels.
The tail section of the Bullet is also considerably different to the bobber’s, with the presence of the pillion seat forcing the tail-lamp to be moved further back. The exhaust pipes seem to be placed lower and flatter too, which bears a resemblance to the Bullet 350. The interesting bit here is the hood over the headlight – something that at the moment we see only on the Classic 350 and not the Bullet 350. Nevertheless, the silhouette seems to show a single-piece seat, suggesting that the Bullet 650 is the more likely possibility than the Classic 650.
Fully-faired Continental GT 650 on the cards
The final new bike that this diagram confirms is the faired Continental GT 650, and this is no surprise. Royal Enfield has been delving into its racing heritage recently, with the Continental GT Cup, where it runs faired race-prepped versions of its cafe racer. More recently, a road-going version of the Continental GT was spotted testing, with a fairing. However, the test mule sported a conservative fairing, with only a shroud around the headlight, while this silhouette image shows a fully faired motorcycle, with bodywork running down to the sides of the engine as well.
The subframe also seems to be considerably shorter than the stock Continental, and this appears to be strictly a single-seater, as opposed to the current road bike which can be kitted out with either a pillion seat or a rear cowl. It will be interesting to see its final shape.
