Royal Enfield Is Absolutely Milking Its 650 Platform And The Bullet 650 Proves It

Newly launched in India, the Bullet 650 seems like the most sensible cruiser in Royal Enfield's 650 range.

Photo by: Royal Enfield

By: Enrico Punsalang

Jun 4, at 8:37am ET

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At this point, Royal Enfield’s 650cc twin has become the motorcycle equivalent of Ryan Gosling. It keeps showing up in everything, the internet turns it into a literally me meme every six months, and somehow audiences still refuse to get tired of it.

Back in 2018, Royal Enfield’s air-and-oil-cooled 648cc parallel twin debuted in the Interceptor 650 and Continental GT 650. Since then, the company has been on a mission to stuff that engine into practically everything short of a lawn mower. We got the Super Meteor 650, the Shotgun 650, the Bear 650, the Classic 650 Twin, and now, because apparently there was still room on the bingo card, the new Bullet 650... not that we’re complaining.

The new Bullet 650 marks the first time in the model’s 94-year history that it’s been powered by a twin-cylinder engine. That’s a pretty massive shift for a motorcycle whose entire identity was built around a lazy, slow-revving single-cylinder thump.

Mechanically, though, the recipe is familiar. The Bullet 650 uses the same 648cc parallel twin producing 46 horsepower and 38 pound-feet of torque, paired with a six-speed gearbox and slip-assist clutch. Suspension duties are handled by a right-side-up Showa fork and twin rear shocks, while dual-channel ABS comes standard. Wire-spoke wheels measure 19 inches up front and 18 inches at the rear.

Visually, Royal Enfield didn’t exactly reinvent the wheel either. The Bullet 650 borrows heavily from both the Bullet 350 and Classic 650 Twin, complete with chrome trim, hand-painted pinstriping, metal badging, and the traditional casquette-style headlight nacelle. There’s also a semi-digital instrument cluster pairing an analog speedometer with a small LCD display.

Photos by: Royal Enfield

Pricing starts at Rs 364,856 in India, or roughly $3,800 at current exchange rates. That puts it right at par with the Classic 650 Twin, making the Bullet a fairly affordable long-wheelbase motorcycle in the Indian market. And quite frankly, RE's 650 lineup is starting to get a bit ridiculous now.

The Interceptor 650 remains the universal crowd-pleaser, basically serving as the default “do everything” Royal Enfield. The Continental GT 650 fills the café racer role with clip-ons and old-school racer vibes, while the newer Bear 650 adds scrambler attitude and light ADV flavor into the mix. Then you have the Super Meteor 650 as the laid-back cruiser, the Shotgun 650 as the factory custom, and the Classic 650 leaning heavily into premium vintage nostalgia.

But the Bullet 650, oddly enough, might actually be the simplest and most honest of the bunch. It doesn’t try to look custom-built. It doesn’t pretend to be a luxury retro bike. It’s just a straightforward standard cruiser with upright ergonomics, timeless styling, and a proven twin-cylinder engine underneath it. Depending on how you look at it, that might make it the coolest of the cruiser-adjacent 650s.

What do you think?

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The bigger question now is what Royal Enfield does next, because the company clearly has no intentions of slowing down. Personally, I’d love to see a Guerrilla 650. Take this twin-cylinder engine, shove it into a compact urban chassis, throw on wide handlebars and shorter gearing, and you’d have an absolutely unhinged retro hooligan bike. A Hunter 650 seems like a solid option, too. The Hunter 350 already proved people love lightweight, playful Royal Enfields. A bigger twin-cylinder version could basically become a budget retro muscle bike for the city.

And at the rate Royal Enfield is going, neither of those ideas sounds remotely impossible anymore.