The Royal Enfields

This last Friday and Saturday the Royal Enfield Demo truck was in Greensboro, NC and as Mother Nature was cooperating I rode over and gave 3 of them a try. I am always up to do demo rides. Those folks were nice and easy to deal with and a good time was had and a riding shirt was given for trying the Himalayan Scram 411. Now on to the bikes..... and my non-professional thoughts and impressions.

First the INT650, "don't say Interceptor, we don't own the word", a 650 vertical twin, chain drive, 5 speed, air cooled, fuel injected, upright seating, tubular handlebar, single disc front brake bike. Two dials for instruments and the normal idiot lights and lcd indicators for the ABS and gear selection. The indicators seemed quite small to me. I guess once one adjusted to them they would be easily seen but not obvious. This bike had 141 miles on it when I went out. It started easily, ran cleanly and felt "new" (new bike smell?) as one would expect a new demo bike to. The route was about 15 miles around Greensboro, primarily in town with a couple of miles of 4 lane. Initially I thought the seat uncomfortable but by about mile 2 I forgot about it so not so bad after all. Throttle response is nice, crisp, not snatchy, just right. Reasonable, easily usable power. Right off idle it needed more throttle than expected but I suspect that was due to being so new but good low end pull that revved out nicely to accelerate to highway speed. Foot pegs nicely placed and everything almost fit but well within personal adjustment range. A nice generic motorcycle. The reported 47 horsepower is plenty.

Next the Himalayan Scram 411. The Scram is a more urban variant of the dual "sport" Himalayan. Quotes on the sport portion as there is nothing sport about the Himalayan, I have heard them described as "agricultural". The Scram has a 19 inch front wheel and does not have the guard bars of the parent bike. 400 cc air cooled single cylinder the is adequate. A single speedometer dial and idiot light instrument, nice, comfortably high tubular handlebar, comfortable seat and semi knobby tires on spoke wheels. I don't know but suspect tube type tires. Single disc front brake, I didn't notice the rear brake and didn't think of it until now! It was there and it worked. The bike rode nicely, it vibrated like one would expect from a single but not enough to be uncomfortable, just it is there. The biggest impression was of durability followed by usability. I think the MSRP is under $5k so value is there too. Just a fun bike to ride without taking itself too seriously.

Third was the Continental GT. Very similar to the INT65o except clip on style low handlebars. Not my favorite because of the bars but everything else applied. This bike had more miles at 2100 ish on it and felt freer and more willing to rev out freely. I mentioned this and the impression of the feeling this bike wanted to be more of a hooligan. He thought the impression was ergonomic effect of the handlebars, I thought it was the personality of the bike and more broken in engine. This individual bike's engine was sweet! It felt much more 4 cylinder like than the newer one. The MSRP is $6149 for the single color twins, they have optional colors and paint schemes for a couple hundred dollars more.

I still like my XJ's better but I can see that these bikes can have a real consideration for being along side the XJ's. They certainly don't feel like they are built to a price point where as some of Yamaha's newer bikes really do.

 

Interesting write up.
I had a plan to buy an INT650 this year, then move to a Triumph Bonneville in 1-2 years. I spent SOOO much time reading and watching RE INT650 that I felt I wanted one (but only in the right tank color). Test rode both a Triumph Bonneville T100 and an INT650 within a day of each other. RE INT650 rode well I thought. Its seat height is higher and by specs less than an inch higher but I"m 5'7" and the seat/springs made it feel more than an inch. Center of gravity of the INT650 felt higher too. INT650 is a great bang for the buck motorcycle. It so happened that a dealer had a new 2022 unsold T100 in the exact color Scheme I wanted, was marked down and then Triumph added a $500 rebate so I got it for $9K. With less than a 3K difference it was a no brainer. Had my only choice been a 2023 T100 and closer to a $5-6$K difference (No one is selling below MSRP around me on 2023 bikes it seems) and they had the black/red or white/red tank scheme for an INT650, I would have likely gone INT650 as planned. I will say this, the way that Triumph automatically adds in some throttle when you ease out the clutch and the feel of the clutch makes it an easy bike to ride. INT650 has an issue with the relays /fuses where you need to pull them, remove the cheap dialectric grease (if you can call it that) and put on better grease. Many have even replaced the relays with a higher quality one. I really like the LOOK of the Classic 350 RE has and if the wife would not get angry, I'd be inclined to buy one for use in just for tooling around on. I sat on the Continental GT and cafe style seating ergonomics is just not good for my back. As a matter of fact, I'm looking to pull the Triumph T100 bars up and backwards an inch. Of the 3 bikes I now have, the XJ650 Maxim is the most comfortable seating ergonomics with those mini apes. The seat on the XJ650 is also softer and fully broken in. Seat height is perfect for me too. Seems that all the modern classics have the higher seat height of 31".

 

My almost plan had been to check out the RE's and if they were as nice as I expected to see about selling several (too many) of the "vintage" Japanese bikes and buy a new RE. Yes, they are nice, the build quality is acceptable and they have fewer recalls than any of the other OEM's but they just did not ring my bell. Nothing wrong, just not right enough for me to want to write a check. @Melnic we seem to pretty much agree. I too would like a new Triumph but again, not enough to write a check. Congrats on yours. New bikes are awesome! Even if my last brand new bike was my 1984 Moto Guzzi California 2, and Gus the Guzzi is still with me and still rocking.