THE Royal Enfield Continental GT and Interceptor 650 have been massive hits for the Anglo-Indian brand since the launch of the bikes back in 2014. They have sold in their droves, at home in India, here in the UK and around the world.
It’s been such a big hit that in that time, it’s barely been updated, although is the Indian press is correct (as they normally are), a big change might be incoming.
The word is that both the Interceptor 650 and Continental GT will be making the switch to cast alloy wheels. It isn’t yet clear if a spoked option will also be available, although the move would likely be welcomed by the vast majority of riders. The move would bring the two existing 650s in line with the newly announced Super Meteor 650. The move could also see the new models adopt the same USD fork design as the Super Meteor, although that remains to be seen.
How Visordown imagines the cast wheels could look
Other reported styling tweaks for the model include a revised rear light cluster and a revised cockpit. For many, the charm of the 650s is the authentic retro styling, and Royal Enfield will likely be trying to be very careful to retain that look. That’s fairly easy with the rear light, although it may be trickier to keep the dash looking quite as retro. It’s reported that a new dash is being prepared, possibly featuring some level of Bluetooth connectivity. If it happens, the system could bring things like turn-by-turn navigation, answering calls on the move and more to the likeable retro.
How Visordown imagines the cafe racer 650 could look
Café racer Royal Enfield 650s also reported
Adding weight to our previously reported stories regarding a café racer variant, the Indian press is also claiming that there is indeed a bikini-faired version of the 47hp parallel twin-cylinder. As with the wheels, it’s not yet known if this will be a standalone model in its own right or an option kit that can be added at the dealership, or even at home. We already know the bike has been tested, you can find the news story about that here, although when it’ll be making it into production is as yet unknown.
With 2023 now underway, we wouldn’t expect the updates to be getting rolled out to dealers in the next 12 months. The reports we have read are slotting the updates to the wheels, styling, and fairing to be arriving in the range in 2024.
