Royal Enfield’s hotly anticipated Super Meteor 650 has finally broken cover at EICMA 2022 and is offered in two distinct guises – the standard and the tourer. While most of the details had been trickling down ahead of its launch, we now have all the specs for this flagship Royal Enfield cruiser.
- Tripper Navigation pod is standard
- All-new frame, mapping and gearing
- At 241 kg, heaviest of all modern REs
Royal Enfield Super Meteor 650: design and underpinnings
First of all, this appears to be a very nice-looking motorcycle with a great sense of proportion thanks to the choice of a 19-inch front wheel and 16-inch rear. Like the Meteor 350, the Super Meteor also runs on alloy wheels shod with CEAT Zoom Cruz tyres so you don’t need to worry about dealing with tubed tyres.
And, of course, there’s no missing that chunky Showa 43mm USD fork which marks the very first time Royal Enfield has used this suspension set-up. Another first for an RE is the full-LED headlight on the Super Meteor 650. Braking duties are handled by a 320mm disc at the front and a 300mm at the rear, mated to dual-channel ABS. Note the large rear brake here given the weight distribution of a cruiser-style motorcycle that enables stronger braking performance from the rear brake.
The large teardrop-shaped, 15.7-litre fuel tank flows downwards to a split seat set up with what appears to be a spacious and comfy rider seat. The rear section also looks clean thanks to the simple brake lamp mounted on the fender while the indicators are placed near the number plate. The instrument console is a familiar round unit with the Tripper navigation display seen at the side, and it is offered as standard. Another difference to the existing 650 twins are the cast aluminium switch cubes.
Royal Enfield Super Meteor 650: engine
The centrepiece of the Super Meteor 650 is undoubtedly the much-loved 650cc parallel twin that debuted in the Interceptor and Continental GT 650. The visual aspect of this engine that most people will appreciate is that unlike the current 650s, these exhaust pipes don’t stick out wide and that should make the bike easier to squeeze through tight gaps in traffic.
Royal Enfield has also done a good job of hiding away the catalytic converters underneath the motorcycle. The 648cc air- and oil-cooled parallel twin engine makes 47hp at 7,250rpm and 52Nm at 5,650rpm. While the output figures are the same, the torque arrives at 500rpm later in the rev range when compared to the 650 twins. Royal Enfield claims that they've used bespoke mapping and gearing for the Super Meteor 650 and that 80 percent of its peak torque figure arrives at just 2,500rpm.
Where the engine is mostly the same, the Super Meteor gets a new chassis. What you’ll immediately notice is that the rake angle on the front end is much more relaxed than the current 650s, which goes with the planted feel you’d expect from a 650cc cruiser motorcycle. The Super Meteor 650 has a very low seat height of 740mm, as well as forward set footpegs that are mounted near the front of the engine. While the low seat will make this bike easy for shorter riders, it is still a heavy machine and at 241kg (wet), it's the heaviest of all the Enfields currently on sale. Another thing to keep in mind, especially considering our road conditions, is the low 135mm of ground clearance on offer.
Royal Enfield Super Meteor 650: variants, pricing and India launch
The Super Meteor 650 will be available in two variants, standard and tourer. The Astral and the Interstellar colourways are for the standard Super Meteor 650, while the range-topping tourer variant will feature the Celestial colourways. The Astral and Interstellar are positioned with a stripped-down look, while the tourer variant is offered with a pillion backrest and a large windscreen. The Astral is offered in three colours, while the Interstellar and Celestial are each available in two colours.
In Europe, the Super Meteor 650 will be available from spring 2023. The bike will be unveiled in India at Royal Enfield’s Rider Mania event later in November 2022 and at the moment, there is no word on what the prices will be. We expect it to be priced above the current 650s, somewhere between Rs 3.5 lakh-Rs 4 lakh (ex-showroom, Delhi). As things stand, the Super Meteor 650 will have very little competition and its closest rival will be in the form of the Benelli 502C, which is a more modern-looking motorcycle and quite a bit more expensive.
What do you think of the Royal Enfield Super Meteor 650? Let us know in the comments section below.
Azaman Chothia
Vishal Venugopal
