Royal Enfield’s New 650cc Engine Details Revealed

The new parallel-twin engine will power Royal Enfield’s upcoming flagship bike

Royal Enfield has unveiled its new twin-cylinder motor at its Technology Centre in Leicestershire, England. The new motor is an air-cooled parallel-twin unit with a displacement of 648cc. It will power Royal Enfield’s upcoming big bikes, the first of which will be revealed shortly at the ongoing 2017 EICMA. The motor is a completely new unit built from the ground up and shares very little components with RE’s existing engines.

The decision to stick to a 650cc configuration was taken as Royal Enfield thinks that the 600 to 650cc market will grow really fast. Royal Enfield also wanted to keep its product unique and accessible to a larger audience. The new motor is air-cooled and fuel-injected. It uses a four-valve SOHC layout, ditching the traditional pushrod layout. The motor has a single-piece forged crankshaft (an Enfield first) with a balancer shaft to reduce vibrations. The twin cylinders use a 270-degree firing order that should give it V-twin engine characteristics of low-end grunt and the throaty exhaust bark reminiscent of a V-twin motor. Compression ratio is 9:5:1.

It makes 47.6PS at 7,100rpm and 53Nm of torque at 4000rpm. Since Royal Enfield wanted to sell the new motorcycle for A2 license holders in the UK, they decided to duck under the 50PS cap. The performance has been kept mild so as to make it accessible to a newer and wider audience. The torquey motor is said to offer good low and mid-range performance and should do well cruising at speeds of around 130kmph without stress. The engine will feature a six-speed gearbox - a Royal Enfield first - and a slipper clutch.The engine is Euro-IV compliant and, according to RE engineers, should pass Euro V standards with minimal tweaking.

Royal Enfield will launch the new bike at EICMA. Watch this space for more.