Royal Enfield Super Meteor 650 unveiled at EICMA 2022

Royal Enfield has just taken the wraps off its latest 650cc motorcycle at EICMA, the Super Meteor 650, four years after revealing the Interceptor and Continental GT 650 twins. The third motorcycle in RE's 650cc twin motorcycle portfolio will come in two variants - Standard and Tourer - with seven new colourways to choose from.

Design and underpinnings

A quick glance over the motorcycle and you get all the tell-tale signs of a proper cruiser motorcycle with its laid-back albeit upright riding position, with the low seat (740mm), the wide rearset handlebar and forward set pegs. The Super Meteor 650 exudes a thorough retro design, and looks like the bigger brother of the Meteor 350, proper, with round LED headlamp (a first for RE), the 15.7-litre tear-drop shaped fuel tank, which flows through nicely to the split seat, while the taillights on the rear fender and the beefy tubeless Ceat tyres on its 19 inch front and 16-inch rear rims lend it a healthy cruiser-style proportions.

The Royal Enfield badging on the fuel tank is of a new design and looks quite neat. You may also note the cast-aluminium switch housing on either side of the bar, which is a first for any RE motorcycle. While the low seat should make life easy for shorter riders, the Super Meteor's ground clearance is a low 135mm, and it tips the scales at 241kg (kerb), making it the heaviest of all the Enfields currently out in the market.

The instrument console is the all-too familiar round part-analogue-part digital unit with the Tripper navigation display screen on the side as standard. Suspension duties are managed by a sizable 43mm Showa fork up front and give the bike a proper big-bike look and feel. Braking duties are taken care of y by a 320mm disc at the front and a bigger 300mm at the rear (both twin piston floating calipers), with dual-channel ABS standard. The bigger rear disc would imply a more rear-set brake bias on this cruiser.

Engine

Royal Enfield Super Meteor 650 Standard

The power unit that propels the Super Meteor is the same 648cc air and oil-cooled parallel twin that pots down a max 47Ps of power at 7,250rpm and 52.3Nm of torque at 5,650rpm - which arrives 500rpm further up the rev range compared to the older RE 650 twins. Royal Enfield say that it has tweaked the mapping and gearing for the Super Meteor 650 so much so that 80 percent of its peak torque figure arrives at just 2,500rpm, which will give it a unique, very cruiser-like grunt.

Royal Enfield Super Meteor 650 Tourer

Variants

The Super Meteor 650 will be available in two variants - Standard and Tourer – and a total of seven variations of paint. The Standard model can be had in what the company call 'Astral' and 'Interstellar' colourways, while the range-topping Tourer variant will come in the 'Celestial' colourways. Far out, right? Anyway, apart from the paint-schemes, what sets the Tourer variant apart is the pillion backrest and a large windscreen that it will come with.

Pricing

As far as pricing goes, we expect the Super Meteor to be priced over the older 650 twins from RE, while also falling under the Rs 4lakh bracket. We're set to get a closer look at the Super Meteor 650 at the upcoming Rider Mania event in Goa later this month. So, stay tuned for updates.