Things are clearly hopping over at Royal Enfield’s R&D department. It’s no wonder, considering that the company set itself the ambition to produce a new bike every quarter for the next few years. I mean, even if you’re working from existing platforms, that’s still a lot of bikes.
With the Hunter 350 just around the
corner, it seems that the Shotgun 650 has been spotted out and about on Indian
roads by the fine folks at Zigwheels. While it wasn’t totally clear what
Enfield would be working on next, it was a good guess that this bike (and
variants thereof) were somewhere in the pipeline. Now, it seems, we get a
little bit of a peek at what we can expect.
Interestingly, it bears a strong
resemblance to the SG650 Concept that Enfield debuted—to much acclaim—at EICMA
2021. Current expectations are that it will come in at least two flavors, such
as the bobber shown as the OG concept, in addition to a roadster. The
headlight, side panels, and fenders all bear a striking resemblance to the
concept.
There’s also an upside-down fork up front.
The sights of ByBre brakes at both ends, as well as twin rear shock absorbers,
aren’t really much of a surprise if you’re familiar with Enfield’s current
catalog. There’s not really much in the way of mystery about the engine,
either, as the Shotgun 650 will be yet another 650 Twin-based machine. That’s
certainly no bad thing, by the way—but it does at least take that potential for
speculation off the table.
As for when we can expect to see the
Shotgun 650, Indian media is currently speculating that it will likely appear
sometime in the first half of 2023. Since there’s a half-year to go between now
and then, chances are excellent that we’ll learn plenty more about it in
between now and its official release.
