It was exactly 130 years ago, in 1891, when Bob Walker Smith and Albert Eadie bought George Townsend & Co., a needle company that just then started making bicycles. It was to be the start of what we now know as Royal Enfield, one of the oldest motorcycle makers on the planet, and the go-to brand for people in the market for middleweights with small-displacement engines.
Being over a century old, Royal Enfield had its share of transformations over the years, but few of those instances seem as important as the ones ahead, which will have to adapt the brand to a whole new way of doing things.
In a sign that Royal is not sitting back doing nothing, the company used the EICMA 2021 motorcycle show in Milan, Italy, to present the SG 650 Concept, the transition model between the past and the future.
Called a neo-retro interpretation of the motorcycles that were, with a twist of cyber and neon of the ones that will be, the bike packs “some really special elements to this motorcycle that are a first for a Royal Enfield concept,” meaning one-off parts you’ll find nowhere in the Royal present-day portfolio – the CNC machined fuel tank, made from a solid block of aluminum, for instance, or the wheel rims with integrated ABS.
The concept has upside-down forks, extra-wider bars, and hand-stitched black leather on the solo, floating seat. The frame of the bike holds a 650 twin engine (no electric motors and battery, as one would normally expect from a concept for the future) of unspecified power, that breaths through a unique exhaust system.
Royal Enfield does not say anything about the SG 650 Concept going into production sometime in the future, but one can only hope.
Below you can find a video of the things Royal Enfield brought to EICMA this year, including a walkaround presentation of the concept we have here.
Daniel loves writing (or so he claims), and he uses this skill to offer readers a "behind the scenes" look at the automotive industry. He also enjoys talking about space exploration and robots, because in his view the only way forward for humanity is away from this planet, in metal bodies. Full profile
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