Royal Enfield set the market ablaze with their twin-cylinder offerings -- Interceptor 650 and the Continental GT650. The least priced twin-cylinder offerings from the retro bike maker have been performing well on the sales charts ever since their launch in India despite the brand itself going through an overall slump in sales. Not just India but the bikes are also gathering fame all over the world in the global markets. The bikes have a long waiting period on them and the company is also ramping up the production to increase the sales of the bikes in the market.
The older trend of the bikes dominating the sales charts continues in June also. The two bikes from the Indian retro maker are together leading the sales figures for last month. The stats for Royal Enfield bikes stood at 1,751 units for June. Although this is a decline from the 2,014 units for the month of April, the bikes still continue to lead the segment in terms of sales. Similarly priced single-cylinder rivals of the bikes like the Austrian maker’s KTM 390 Duke could manage only 355 units while other twin-cylinder engine bikes like the Japanese Kawasaki Ninja 300 had to be satisfied with only 110 units. Another Indian maker TVS in the same price range could manage only 338 units of Apache RR310 while Japanese maker Honda could sell only 80 units of the newly launched CB300R in the Indian market for the month of June.
Prices for RE Interceptor 650 start at Rs. 2.34 lakh while the sportier café-racer themed Continental GT 650’s prices begin at Rs. 2.57 lakh. Contrast this with other offerings such as Kawasaki Ninja 300 (Rs. 2.98 lakh) and Yamaha YZF-R3 is (Rs. 3.5 lakh). Not just the twin cylinder models, Royal Enfield Interceptor even undercuts single cylinder KTM 390 Duke (Rs. 2.45 lakh). The perennial gripe of the average RE customer and a RE naysayer was the lack of power in the bikes and the vibrations and reliability problem present in the bike. The brand has heard their customers and critics alike and has worked hard on the bikes. The refined nature of these bikes has won the twins many fans in the Indian market.
As far as the specs of the 650 twins are concerned, the company worked hard to develop a new 647cc, parallel twin engine for the Interceptor 650 and Continental GT 650. Equipped with an engine that is mostly vibration free, and revs smoothly, the bikes come rated for producing 47 Bhp-52 Nm. Apart from the 6-speed gearbox and slipper clutch as standard, the bikes also come equipped with ABS on both wheels as standard.