Royal Enfield expands its 650 range

Well, good. Here’s what the guys at Motorcycle.com found. Royal Enfield is reportedly working on two new models in its 650 twin range, with a likely launch in the coming months. One will be called the INT Bear 650 or Bear depending on what market you are in. The other will be called the Classic 650 Twin.

Royal Enfield is on a tear these days, continuing its momentum from the last decade. The most important bike it has introduced in recent months is the fuel-injected, liquid-cooled Himalayan 450. It’s a far cry from the old air-cooled Bullet 350 and other retro models that characterized the RE range for so long. But 2023 also brought us the new Shotgun 650 bobber, and in 2022, we got the Super Meteor 650. Both bikes were based on the twin-cylinder 650 engine that debuted in 2018 – see Costa’s original review of the INT650 and Continental GT 650 here.

We haven’t seen any photos of the new 650s yet. All we know is that regulatory filings have been filed to protect their name in Europe and North America. However, this is usually a sign that we will see the bikes in the next year or so. OEMs know that journalists are constantly scrutinizing these files and want to keep their cards hidden as long as possible.

But when they’re released, we’d expect the Classic 650 to be exactly what its name sounds like: a retro that’s similar to the current Classic 350. As for the INT 650 Bear… maybe it’s a scrambler? Royal Enfield has the Scram 411 in its range, but we’ve been expecting another scrambler model based on its 650 hatch for years (indeed, at least one Euro subsidiary sold such a machine as an in-house build). Maybe we’ll finally see that retro off-roader finally hit the market?

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