Custom Royal Enfield 500 Is A Killer Queen Of A Bobber

Guaranteed to blow your mind.

By: Janaki Jitchotvisut

Mar 12, 2021 at 5:30pm ET

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People customize bikes for any number of reasons. Sometimes, it’s all about practicality. You want a packhorse, so you take steps to make your perfect packhorse. Other times, it’s more about attaining a certain aesthetic. Maybe you want those soft leather panniers with the buckles, because you like a timeless classicism to your bike. Maybe you want everything shiny and chrome. In the end, who knows what you want better than you?

It’s all good, because it’s your bike and no one else’s. So, if you decide that you want to take a Royal Enfield Bullet 500 and turn it into an extremely blingy, stretched out bobber, that is entirely up to you. That’s what New Delhi-based custom shop Neev Motorcycles did, with undeniably eye-catching results.

Neev is the project of founder and designer Navneet Suri. He calls this finished bike Queen, very simply—because not only is it based on a Royal Enfield, but it also looks every part the potentate. Red, black, and lashings of gold anywhere and everywhere make this low-slung, very long rolling sculpture truly stand out. Add in that custom stainless-steel exhaust that looks like a sinuous “S” from the right side of the bike, and it’s almost like it brought its own herald to announce that Her Majesty has pulled up.

Gallery: Neev Motorcycles "Queen" Royal Enfield 500 Bobber

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What stands out even more than the silhouette and all those gold details, though, is the custom-fabricated tank that Suri created. To me, from certain angles, it more than slightly resembles a manta ray. There’s something almost otherworldly about that shape, and few things on Earth are as otherworldly as marine ecosystems.

Although the outside of this Bullet 500 changed considerably, down to that round LED headlight, that beating, 499cc air-cooled single-cylinder engine still lies at the heart of HRH Queen 500. We wonder what this bike sounds like when you start it up, with that exhaust. It’s clearly meant to be a showpiece and a showstopper. If it looks in person like it does in photos, the Queen is probably exceedingly good at her job.