Chris Overton of the Yahoo Interceptor Owners Group has been at the Interceptor launch in California as a guest and sends this report!
'I am feeling some obligation to report in after attending the launch of
the new RE 650 twins in Santa Cruz. David Blasco has been covering the
event very well in a series of blogs at
www.royalenfields.com. Be sure
to click the "older posts" link at the bottom of the pages until you get
back to early September.
Unfortunately I am caught up in a community project here and having
trouble finding time to write much myself. I am excited about the new
models, and the progress Royal Enfield has made. The engines are amazing
and i wish I had thought to take a pic of the diagram with torque and
power curves. They are not curves at all. Engine torque goes up to 80%
before 2000 rpm, then flattens out until 7000 rpm. Consequently, the
power curve is pretty much a straight line up to 7000 rpm. With
performance like that, why did they bother with a 6 speed gearbox? Our
750's are noted for their broad power band; the new 650's are better.
The bikes are modern in every respect, and much better suited to modern
traffic on multi lane roads than my old relics here. If the 800cc
experimental bike was Series III, then the new bikes deserve to be
called Series IV.
We had a full day of riding each version. The roads were fabulous
twisties and my riding abilities were the limitation, not the bikes.
Road surfaces, weather, scenery - everything came together for the
event. There were nearly 100 test bikes available for the journalists
who came from all over the world in two waves, their attendance
overlapping for the official launch on September 25th. It will be
interesting to read their takes on the bikes. Many stories of them
doing the ton when talk only a few months ago was to leave that
performance for the aftermarket. Some latecomer hooligans grabbed some
display bikes with no licence plates, registration, or insurance (but
they did have 3 miles on the odometers) and zipped off for a few hours
which had to feature doing the ton.
A big thing for me was meeting people who I have only emailed with for
years. David Blasco, journalist; Jeremy Pendergast of Baxter Cycle, Roy
MacMillan of the REOCNA, Gordon May, adventurer and writer. Jeff
Sedlik, photographer and VAX owner, had to cancel at the last minute.
RE has built a 650 with S&S Performance and took it to Bonneville salt
flats recently. They did well, getting a series of records culminating
in a top speed of 157 mph. The bike and its rider were at one event
during the week long launch. The rider is Cayla Rivas, all of 18 years
old. David and Jeremy missed that event, unfortunately.
RE pulled out all the stops to feed and entertain us. All their top
people were there from Chennai, and the staff from subsidiary Harris
Performance in England to explain the design work. Gordon May was there,
from England, to connect the new models with their heritage.
Back to the bikes: I would happily own one. Better yet, one of each.
The GT version fit me like I had always ridden it. Many here know I am
short. Roy MacMillan is 6'-4" and found the GT as comfortable as I
did. The Interceptor replicates the export versions of the S1-A and SII
- to a fault. I dislike the elbows out riding posture, but all that
could be fixed with different handlebars. It says something that that
is my biggest complaint. It will be some time before i can get this
silly grin off my face."
