Royal Enfield Bear 650 review: is this £7k retro scrambler ready for adventure скачать в хорошем качестве

Royal Enfield Bear 650 review: is this £7k retro scrambler ready for adventure

The Royal Enfield Bear 650 oozes style and is priced to be easy on the wallet, but how good can a scrambler costing less than £7,000 new actually be. Does the bike's performance live up to its good looks? What is the build quality like? Does it really represent good value for money? And is it simply a Royal Enfield Interceptor 650 in scrambler clothing or is it a standalone motorcycle in its own right? To find out, Adventure Bike Rider Editor James travelled to the USA for the bike's international press launch where he put the Royal Enfield Bear 650 through it's paces in the Californian desert. Chapters 00:00:00 Introduction 00:01:03 Inspiration behind the bike 00:02:10 The route 00:02:42 What's new compared to the Royal Enfield Interceptor 650 00:04:21 The engine 00:05:51 Handling 00:06:32 Suspension 00:07:24 Comfort 00:08:18 Looks 00:10:19 Brakes 00:10:42 Off road 00:12:05 Value for money 00:12:57 Conclusion Background The Midlands town of Redditch is where the Royal Enfield story began, with the company’s first motorcycle rolling off the production line in 1901, powered by a 1.5bhp engine and utilising a leather belt drive. It just so happens that those original premises were located a stone’s throw from where ABR would open its first offices more than a century later. Royal Enfield’s story throughout the 20th mirrored the rise and fall of the British motorcycle industry, with iconic names like the Bullet, Continental GT, and Interceptor becoming commonplace on British roads. But, like so many English manufacturers, its fate on home shores was ultimately doomed and Royal Enfield ceased making motorcycles in the UK in 1970. This would have been the end of the story had the company not developed a relationship with a firm called Madras Motors in the late ‘40s to import British bikes to India. The Royal Enfield Bullet proved a particular success on the subcontinent thanks to its ruggedness and ease of maintenance, which led to the opening of a factory in India. In fact, the enterprise proved so successful, just seven years after the last UK Royal Enfield plant closed its doors for good, Madras Motors began exporting 350cc Bullet motorcycles back to Britain and the rest of Europe. Fast forward to 1994, and the Indian automotive giant, The Eicher Group, bought the company, an acquisition that marked the start of a period of meteoric growth. Classic models like the Continental GT and Interceptor were revived, and Royal Enfield’s hugely successful first adventure bike, the Himalayan was released in 2016. Today, the company sells more than 900,000 motorcycles a year, and it has that one million milestone firmly in its sights. Yet, throughout its rebirth in India and subsequent global success, Royal Enfield has stayed true to its classic British roots (a strange dalliance with a diesel motorcycle aside), creating a line-up of bikes steeped in nostalgia that appeal as much to the people who rode those original Redditch machines, as they do to subsequent generations of riders wooed by their kerb appeal, tried and test engineering, and fiercely competitive pricing. However, for its latest bike, Royal Enfield sought inspiration from across the Atlantic and, in particular, looked to an unknown 16-year-old Californian desert racer called Eddie Mulder... You can read the full review of the Royal Enfield Bear 650 in issue 85 of Adventure Bike Rider magazine. Get your copy today with free UK postage here: https://www.adventurebikerider.com/ab... #royalenfield #royalenfieldbear650 #bear650 #scrambler #scramblers #motorcycle #motorbike #california #usa #india