I have been watching YouTube videos of long-term tests of the RE Interceptor and it sure sounds as though Royal Enfield has built a durable machine that mimics the XS650 in terms of performance and "fun factor". The things I like about it are the fuel injection and the ABS - both highly worthwhile features in my view. The Royal Enfield owner should have no grief with carbs and he/she will be safer in wet weather.
As for durability, one of the reasons why modern cars and bikes are so durable, aside from modern metallurgy and better control of manufacturing tolerances, is precisely because of the closed loop EFI and ignition systems that are used to control the engines. Every single engine cycle is monitored
second-by-second to ensure
perfect mixture control and ignition timing. Have you looked at spark plug life lately - that is why they now last so long and it is also why hardly anyone ever does a valve job on a modern engine.
Back in the pre-EFI days, most experts believed that the economic life of a car was about ten years or 100,000 miles. While some cars would go further, there were usually significant repairs involved (at least a set of valve lifters here and there). But for today's vehicles, 100,000 miles (160,000 km)
is nothing and there are literally millions of cars out there that have 200,000+ miles and have never been torn down or suffered any measurable degradation in performance. The bodies often corrode away before the powertrain begins to fail. The average age of cars on North American roads is more than 11 years - and that is the
average.
As for bikes, my 2007 Honda ST1300 (EFI / ABS / on-board galley and restrooms, etc.) has 82,000 km on it (around 50,000 miles) and yet, it runs absolutely as it did when I bought it 4 years ago and it ran then, I am told, as it did when new. Aside from oil and coolant changes, I haven't done anything to it except change the plugs and check the valve clearances (all were in-spec). The
ST Owners.com forum has all kinds of those bikes with 200-300,000 miles on them and still running well. In fact, I just looked and could find
no instances on that forum of
anyone re-building an ST1300 engine. There are a couple of earlier ST1100 engine jobs, but those were caused by failed timing belts and resulting engine damage (the 1300 has timing chains) or poor mixture control (the 1100 had carbs) which led to overheating or valve damage.
Certainly, liquid cooling helps on bike durability too - but modern oils and metallurgy can mitigate temperature control problems on even an air-cooled engine as well.
Anyhow - if RE really has "
done the math", the 650 Interceptor models should be very durable machines indeed. There sure aren't too many air-cooled engines around these days that can meet rigorous Euro and US-EPA standards for exhaust emissions and so the fact that the Royal Enfield Interceptor
does comply certainly suggests that RE got it right and that can only help engine durability (including spark plugs and valve / piston life).
I would guess that the big exhaust cans are needed meet the pass-by noise specs (air-cooled engines have a lot of stuff flapping around making noise) - but hey -
who doesn't like big cans....
Pete