New Royal Enfield 650 cc motorcycle spotted: Hunter 650 or Scrambler 650?

Royal Enfield is working on a slew of motorcycles to expand its line-up. They recently launched the Hunter 350 and it has been a huge success in the Indian market. While the Hunter 350 might be the most affordable motorcycle in Royal Enfield's portfolio, the 650 Twins are also doing decently well despite being the flagship for the manufacturer. Now, a new test mule of a new motorcycle has been spotted.

The test mule was spotted at OMR, Chennai. It was using the same 650 cc engine as the Interceptor and the Continental GT. However, many changes can be spotted. From the looks, it seems like the test mule was the Scrambler 650 or 650 cc version of the Hunter.

The seat is now a single-piece bench seat just like scramblers use. keeping the retro elements, the headlamps, turn indicators and the tail lamp are circular in shape. It seems like the tail lamp is derived from the Meteor 350 and the turn indicators are taken from Hunter 350. There is a small fly screen in the front which is probably there only for cosmetic purposes.

The motorcycle is using spoked wheels, they will probably be not tubeless. The size of the rims is also different. It seems like the rear-one measures 17-inches while the front one measures 19-inches. So, the tyre hunting would be easier. Then there is the suspension setup. At the rear, there are twin shock absorbers. Up-front there are up-side down forks.

The engine is expected to stay the same, air-oil cooled 649 cc unit that produces 47 Ps of max power and 52 Nm of peak torque. Royal Enfield might retune it to suit the characteristics of the new motorcycle.

What is new is the exhaust. It is a single-sided unit now that exists on the right side. There is a small bash plate installed to protect the exhaust from nasty speed breakers. The new exhaust should help in dropping the weight of the motorcycle significantly.