Test Ride Launch Royal Enfield Super Meteor 650
Unveiled at last November’s EICMA Milan Show, and already in production at RE’s Chennai plant for global deliveries to commence in March, the Super Meteor 650 is available in two versions targeting different slices of the middleweight cruiser market. Named after Royal Enfield’s first 100mph model launched back in 1955 – a 700cc breakthrough bike marketed as a go-anywhere mile-eater which was available for the first time from any manufacturer with its own array of optional touring equipment – these are both powered by the same 648cc parallel-twin engine equipping the Interceptor and Continental GT.
Developed at Enfield’s UK Technology Centre at Bruntingthorpe, the company’s first modern twin-cylinder engine measures 78 x 67.8mm, and carries a single gear-driven counterbalancer to reduce vibration. The 270º crankshaft is a forged one-piece item for extra strength and durability, and it’s so over-engineered you can well imagine it was built for eventual use in larger capacity motors – only not just yet. The fuel-injected engine produces a claimed 46.33bhp at 7,250rpm at the crankshaft, while maximum torque of 38.57ft-lb is delivered at 5,650 revs – 400rpm higher than on the earlier 650 twins. However, RE’s Chief Engineer, Paolo Brovedani, declares there to be no mechanical differences between the engine’s different applications, only that the Super Meteor’s airbox and exhausts are all-new, which with revised mapping for the ECU delivers a wider spread of grunt more tailored to the cruiser market, with 80% of peak torque already available at just 2,500rpm. The unchanged transmission features a slip/assist clutch, with a heel-and-toe shifter as standard on both Super Meteor variants, while the modest 9.5:1 compression ratio denotes a relatively low state of tune, most likely to ensure it runs well even on poor-quality fuel.
This now well-proven engine is carried as a
