Royal Enfield Twin

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I'm sure others on this forum have followed the progress of the soon to be on the show room floor 650 twins. Three different magazine reviews have been positive. They don't have all the bells and whistles of say the Kaw W800.
Personally I like the Interceptor... in red and black … unlike it's GT stable mate.. it has a center stand and I prefer the lines. That " cap " between the seat and the tail light on the GT just kills the lines...

I saw both bikes at last years IMS... and was intrigued. My buddy bought a Himalaya last spring.... over 7000 miles and he's trilled. Not clinch… not a hic up. My one lung 500cc RE sidecar is a hoot.

So... in April they are due at my local RE dealer. Do I need another parallel twin... ? Gadzooks.. no. Do I want another one. I'd have to sell one of the others.. tough call.
 
I've been reading about them too and quite like them. Not too many new bikes catch my eye but this one has. I hope they're a success. If they are, maybe more of the other manufacturers will offer something similar. A new XS650 from Yamaha would be great, wouldn't it? I mean, they've continued to produce the SR500 to this day (for other markets and now it's a 400). Motor-wise, I don't think it's changed much from the originals. A similar slightly updated 650 would be terrific.
 
I’ve been following them too. I like the no frills simplicity, considering all the electronics and gizmos on all the current modern bikes. Starting price point sound like the 5500-6k range if I’m not mistaken. Sounds very appealing.
 
Yeah, good looking and sounding bikes. Some real innovation being shown by Enfield. And at that price point it could sell well. The biggest hurdle is lack of dealer network.
 
Mailman said:
Yeah, good looking and sounding bikes. Some real innovation being shown by Enfield. And at that price point it could sell well. The biggest hurdle is lack of dealer network.
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got to disagree , their biggest prob is their rep .people are use to bikes they don't have to touch very often and the the re is a bike you do have to work on so for the norvis they go up for resale fairly quickly for cheap prices , 2nd hand here in oz you can pick them up really cheap plus earlier models the quality wasn't really there in both finish and parts , personaly I like them and the direction re is going but their rep will definitely hold them back for a while
 
On the matter of modern parallel twins... apparently Kawasaki has brought back their bevel cam drive W650 as an 800cc model and it is coming to Canada this year. :) Having said that, I do like the looks of the RE 650 twin too.

Here is an excellent review of the W800 (quite funny too).


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MaxPete said:
On the matter of modern parallel twins... apparently Kawasaki has brought back their bevel cam drive W650 as an 800cc model and it is coming to Canada this year. :) Having said that, I do like the looks of the RE 650 twin too.

Here is an excellent review of the W800 (quite funny too).


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oohh bloody gorgeous........My favourite bike of all time has always been the mighty 740 Interceptor which was made just down the road from me at Bradford on Avon.The previous 700cc Constelation was pretty impressive too.
Both bikes were the first to have a unique neutral finder from any gear . They both had 5 speed gearboxes, twin carbs ,12v capacitive discharge ignition systems with auto advance and produced around 50+ bhp so presumably would have been comparable to our xs650 in many respects.
The prices now are just atmospheric .

Now we can have a modern evolution of our favourites bikes with proper parts and dealer support networks and best of all they look fookin gorgeous.
 
I have only ever seen one of these W650 / W800 bikes in the flesh - and it looked nice.

I have been thinking about it and would be a bit leary of the lack of part suppliers for it. Someone earlier in this thread remarked about the dealer network for the XS650, but in my experience, between the fact that there were / are SO MANY XS650s around (so lots of NOS and used parts are available) and the commonality of many components with other Yamaha models, I haven't had any real difficulty finding parts at all.

Can any of the European and Asian forum members tell us how common the Kawi W-bikes are in their parts of the world?

In my view, while it is a cool bike and just the ticket for me - it is a very rare bird in North America and since it is a unique model with little or no commonality with other Kawasaki models, it likely doesn't share many parts even within its own brand.

That isn't necessarily a reason to not buy one - but it sure pays to go in with one's eyes open.

Pete
 
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Thanks for sharing that Roy - I am going to search for more videos by Marlon. He is knowledgeable and very very funny!

Pete
 
MaxPete said:
On the matter of modern parallel twins... apparently Kawasaki has brought back their bevel cam drive W650 as an 800cc model and it is coming to Canada this year. :) Having said that, I do like the looks of the RE 650 twin too.

Here is an excellent review of the W800 (quite funny too).


View attachment 130939
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A very entertaining and informative review, Pete !
I'd like to see more.
 
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