GOGGLES AND GIGGLES

Power: 47bhp Weight: 202kg Engine: 648cc 8v sohc parallel twin Price: £5500

WITH THE 650 Interceptor (and its GT sibling) Royal Enfield have introduced a new gauge of value into the motorcycle market. This is a good looking, capable and engaging bike, so the question of any other new bike, and especially anything remotely retro, is now ‘How many Enfield Interceptors is that worth?’ A Honda GL1800 Gold Wing costs £27,499. That’d buy you five Enfields. A Suzuki Katana at £11,542; worth two Enfields? And, perhaps most relevantly, Triumph’s Street Twin at £8100. Or an Enfield, doing almost exactly the same job, with £2600 change. Sure, the Triumph has better performance, and better equipment, but is it really worth that much more?

But the value is only one third of the story. What’s also remarkable is how the Indian Enfield company, who’ve previously only made single cylinder bikes with suspect build quality and stone age technology, have produced such a complete, refined and well thought out bike. It comfortably stands scrutiny with the products of the long established European and Japanese opposition. The people responsible, some in Mumbai and some

closer to us, at Enfield’s British based development centre in Leicestershire, deserve massive credit.

The remaining third? It’s a lovely thing to ride that does what motorcycles should do. It makes you feel good about life, the universe and everything. How can it not? It looks fantastic, entertains and gives you a smug feeling that comes from having made a really clever buy.

Plus, it’s the kind of bike that you can use everyday, with charm and passenger accommodation that might entice a pillion to join you for the ride. Impatient riders (who should probably have bought something else) may soon find shortcomings in the suspension, but that’s true of other, more expensive, retros too. More power would be nice, but could spoil an otherwise well balanced package. More gadgets and gizmos? Simplicity is part of the attraction.

The critical info? On HP, with a thousand pounds down, they’re under £150 a month and after three years, you own it. That is really tempting.

‘Makes you feel good about life, the universe and everything…’