- Fri Nov 24, 2017 12:20 pm
#72451
I find it ironic that a CGT owner, whose bike produces about 54bhp/litre feels that the 72bhp/litre 650 twin is underpowered....Yes, it is, but pots and kettles, don't you think.... The current 900 Triumph twins produce 60 bhp/litre, one of the reasons ~I bought one of the last of the old Thruxtons (77bhp/litre). FWIW I had a long chat with one of the RE reps at the show. I specifically asked about whether or not there were any plans to produce a more powerful version. He told me that there are. Having looked at the cutaway engine it seems to me that the bores of the throttle bodies are quite small. If there is enough room in the head to take larger inlet valves I would imagine that it would be relatively easy to open up the inlet tracts to pass more fuel and get a decent power increase. As for build quality it looked pretty good to me for the base price of£5.5k he told they would retail at in June next year, when we should get them here. Whilst it's no Honda it looks way better than any of the pre Euro IV UCE singles, including my own 2015. They really have moved on this year and have dropped the notion of hand building, the bikes now being built on a state-of-the-art production line that impressed Alan Cathcart when he visited it.The Himalayans at the show looked good too. I feel that the twins are much better than I thought they'd be, being about the size of a sixties Triumph rather than the overblown size of current Triumph twins. If they increased the power to 55-60bhp they'd be pretty good I reckon. I like the fact that they have screw and locknut valve adjustment. The rep didn't know what make the EFI hardware is, but to me it looks reasonable, having the two bodies forming part of a single manifold. I would imagine access is better than that on the singles. I note also that it is not RBW, not unreasonable given the price point. Whilst I won't be rushing to buy one initially, if RE do indeed produce a pokier version I might be tempted as long as it isn't a bigger, heavier model. The rep confirmed what I'd read, namely that they won't go bigger than 800cc. It's a shame the Norton 650 turned out to be vapourware; it would have been nice to have made a comparison.
