Royal Enfield has added a fourth model to its 650 twin line-up, the Shotgun, a stylish bobber. We cross the ditch to ride it in the hills northeast of Melbourne.
Royal Enfield moved on up from its single-only (cylinder) status to maker of middleweight twins with the launch of the Interceptor and Continental GT six years ago. Last year, they added the Super Meteor 650, a cruiser based on the same mechanicals. It won our 2023 BOTY award.
Now there’s another model using this platform dubbed Shotgun. It’s a bobber with a pillion seat and luggage rack as standard and we reckon it is the sexiest bike the company has made yet. Well, in single-seat guise at least.
The styling plays second fiddle to practicality with the pillion seat, we feel. However, that extra pew can be removed at the turn of a key. And then the fender attachment beneath can be used as a luggage rack. Pretty clever, what?
And that’s the thing about the Shotgun; Royal Enfield designed it with customisation in mind. The base grey model in particular they regard as the blank canvas.
Available accessories include cool bar-end mirrors, different rims and handlebars, skid plates, crash bars, and a wee double-bubble fly screen.
Quite different from Super Meteor 650
The Shotgun is a close relative to the SG650 Concept that was shown off at EICMA 2020. That was a bike that people kept asking the company to make. It turns out that the Concept was 90 per cent production ready back then anyway; the Shotgun is the upshot.
While this might have similarities to the Super Meteor, there’s a lot that’s different. This has more of a blacked-out vibe compared with the chrome finish on the SM, the engine and pipes being obvious examples.
But the traditional RE cues remain, like the iconic frame loop, with a few new ones. There’s a fresh LED headlamp design and surround. A different instrument features a floating LCD panel and an analogue speedo, with the firm’s Tripper navigation pod alongside. A nice touch is handspan-adjustable levers that are black, naturally.
The SG feels to be sportier than the SM with its more upright riding position. The wheels are different, a 17-incher on the back and an 18-inch unit up front. That compares with 16- and 19-inch rims on the more cruisy Super Meteor.
There are suspension changes too. Up front are unadjustable USD forks, and boingers on both ends are by Showa. At the rear there’s evidently 90mm of travel, something bobbers generally lack, while the engine is said to be retuned specifically for the bobber experience.
Learner legal
The Shotgun is also LAMS approved. It makes 35kW of power but it’s the 52Nm of torque available at real-world everyday revs that make this such an easygoing, fun and pacey ride. It will comfortably mooch round town in sixth gear at 50km/h and then roll on without hesitation. Moreover, it sounds good, authoritative, which is a Royal Enfield trait.
Getting underway is no hardship with a lowish first gear and the shifts are lightweight, fluid, aided by levers that are handspan adjustable. Clutch weight is pretty good, though by the end of the day we were slotting neutral at the lights, easy enough to find, to give the left arm a break.
There’s no rev counter and while it’s not really needed, Royal Enfield could have added one to the odo/trip meter like Harley does. Nevertheless, with so much torque available down low, short shifting comes naturally.
The torque peak arrives around the 100km/h mark in top gear, which simplifies things for overtaking. While it’s no rocket, nor is it wanting for performance.
And it proves very relaxed at open road speeds, in terms of how the engine feels and the suspension acts. Vibes are well contained too.
Good Enough brakes and suspension
Slowing the show up front is an axial-mount two-piston Bybre caliper acting on a single 320mm disc, but then at the price you’d not expect a twin-disc set up. The rear unit is strong, a twin-piston caliper gripping a 300mm disc.
Mention of price, the (Sheet Metal) grey-coloured example kicks things off at $11,990 while the most expensive three-tone stencil white version costs $12,390. That’s an impressive amount of bike for not a huge outlay. And it includes a three-year unlimited kay warranty. The Super Meteor by comparison kicks off at $12,490.
Price isn’t the most impressive aspect though. This is a scene stealer and the look alone will sell many. It’s better for singles mind you, given the dual seat aesthetics, but then bikes are often owned and ridden by lone-wolf types. If the wolf takes on a partner, there’s always the additional pew available, not that it looks all that comfy.
Whereas the single seat genuinely is plush. That’s perhaps in part because the riding triangle is so well sorted. This has different suspension geometry to the SM, the forks more upright, the wheelbase shortened, with wide low bars for leverage and mid-mount pegs.
You sit back on the SM, while you’re more atop the Shotgun, and leaning forward a smidge. Up front, where the seat meets the tank it’s quite narrow which makes for an easier standover height (the seat is set at 795mm). That way, no-one misses out.
Daylong rides no problem
We rode it for the better part of a day at the launch with a few stops and felt no twinges. Helping is rear suspension that absorbs the bumps well. It’s preload adjustable. All we rode did a swell job of keeping the tush cushioned from the bigger dips and bumps.
The front end features upside-down forks that are non adjustable but are appropriately set for a cruiser that looks like it might have something of a wild side. And this really does.
We plied some quite sinuous hill roads which this lapped up, the suspension occasionally reaching its limits over more serious road anomalies. Ground clearance impressed. On one tight 35km/h corner that was used for photography the pegs touched down in both directions, but otherwise no such issues.
It manages well on faster sweepers, even when hitting the odd bump mid-corner.
We look forward to riding this again on familiar roads, but wouldn’t be surprised if that’s delayed with shipments selling out. It’s genuinely that good.
This story first appeared in the July 2024 issue of NZ Autocar magazine.
