ROYAL ENFIELD 450 ROADSTER
Another month and another set of spy shots of a new Royal Enfield. This time they're of a roadster powered by a new water-cooled 450cc engine.
Leaked images of a previously unseen roadster suggest that Royal Enfield could be gearing up to launch a range of bikes built around its new watercooled 450cc motor.
The Himalayan’s been a massive success for the Indian firm, but with its archaic air-cooled engine, there’s no doubt it’s getting a bit long in the tooth. That’s why it came as no surprise when we heard the news there was a new engine in development for the much-loved back-to-basics adventure bike. But it’s looking like the engine that’s earmarked for the next generation
Himalayan could be the basis of at least one more machine.
Recently released spy shots published by Cycle World show a compact roadster with what looks like a 450cc water-cooled engine – adding fuel to the fire stoked by leaked documents which detailed Enfield’s plans for new bikes across its various platforms.
While there’s been no official word from the factory on the newest machine, close inspection of the images does allow us to glean a few key details about the upcoming bike.
As you’d expect, there’re plenty of similarities between a few of Enfield’s other machines, with the 300mm single disc front brake with sliding calliper near on identical to that of the Scram 411, and the steel tubular frame remarkably similar to that of the anticipated Himalayan 450. Unlike the new adventure bike, the roadster gets a standard telescopic fork up front, while at the rear there’s a single shock absorber connected directly to a cast-alloy swingarm. At this stage, that’s about all we know – and realistically, we’re going to be waiting a while to find out more as Royal Enfield’s only just revealed its 2023 range to the world. And there was no news about an upcoming 450cc range at the time…
That means we might end up having to wait until 2024 to get an official lowdown on the latest batch of bikes from the ever-growing Indian firm, though chances are there will be plenty more spy shots and leaked documents in the meantime.