[Aditya]

Thread moved out from the Assembly Line. Thanks for sharing!

[GTO]

Thank you for the deadly review! Shortly going to our homepage . I am not even a bike guy, but am still reading parts of your thread with interest. Love your story-telling style and your obvious attention-to-detail.

Ride safe, brother .

[rajshenoy]

Wow amazing details, Congratulations on your ride and thank you for the creative content and being so candid and honest. Really informative !!

[deepfreak15]

Now this is a Comprehensive review! Amazing write up and love the attention to detail. I also respect the fact that you put some serious mileage on the ODO before voicing your opinion and this kind of review gives prospective buyers some real world usage and service insights. Thank you!

Originally Posted by KarthikK

.....ebmrajesh who also was one of the co-directors in the review photoshoot
......Ducati Multistrada 950 alongside my Interceptor at the location - a case of David vs Goliath?

Since you mentioned ebmrajesh and the multi , leaving this out there. Hope you don't mind.

[rrsteer]

That first post felt like the presentation that the product guys would have delivered to the management to convince them to invest in this motorcycle.
Great ownership report.

[amods]

Barring the negatives, this review could very well serve as official advertisement for RE Great stuff. Being a biker myself, I look forward to detailed reviews. Thanks for sharing.

The Interceptor 650 had tempted me to switch to RE again from my Dominar(Had a Thunderbird before this). I have good experience of RE after sales, and was quite satisfied with ownership. If it was not for highway crawl speeds of TB, I wouldn't have switched at the first place - the thing is way too slow.

The only deal breaker for me in the 650 was the bench seats and lack of back support for pillion. I am more of a log distance tourer and would travel with a pillion most of the time. The rider seat of TB was way too good, sigh.

Only if RE launches a tourer spec of 650 before my next bike, I would be the first one to switch again.

[1.2TSI7DSG]

Salivating Review! & what a prologue

I wish they lauch a Thunderbird version of the 650!!! I will be up for such a bike. I loved the thunderbird 500, couldn't get it before it was discontinued. Have been drooling over the 650 twins for quiet some time but I like a much relaxed mile muching position on a bike.

[kamilharis]

Excellent review and such a lovely beautiful prologue that was!!

That prologue itself can get a few more Interceptor 650 customers for RE from this forum.

Wish you an awesome ownership experience. Keep this thread updated !!

[ast.ggn]

When I was reading that N1000 review sometime back, I was wondering that why don't I have it parked in my garage? Now I am wondering why don't I have an Interceptor parked there?

Jokes apart, fantastic review man and excellent pics. It is due to these kind of reviews, the forum holds a special place.

[landcruiser123]

Hi KarthikK,
This is such a brilliant review, rating it 5*. Talk about having the cake and eating it too.

It Looks like the perfect motorcycle to have fun and still can be ridden by the husband/son to the neighbourhood store to buy milk when asked (ordered? ) by his wife/mother.

Wish you many years & miles of safe and happy riding. Stay healthy.

[neil.jericho]

My goodness, what a fabulously detailed and informative review once again by you, KarthikK saar. You are raising the standards of motorcycle ownership reviews on this to forum to levels that only you can reach!

The 650 twins are really great motorcycles, with the Interceptor easily outselling the GT, and it seems they have successfully turned around the perception of Royal Enfield in the minds of enthusiasts in India and abroad. The Himalayan was supposed to be that game changer but the initial missteps meant that it had a long and laborious road to redemption and eventually only furthered the perception that RE wasnt ready for the big time. With the BS6 version though, the company seems to have wronged all its past sins with the Himalayan platform and it should be a big success everywhere. Im sure some ownership reviews of the BS6 Himalayan will eventually pop up on the forum, hopefully the members writing them can succeed in matching the quality of this one!

Originally Posted by KarthikK

Did you ever wish for a ‘sleeper’ big bike which could be scary fast if needed, yet society would probably pass off as just another bike on the road and not raise eyebrows?

Originally Posted by KarthikK

How many times did you wish for a bike which wasn’t too expensive yet would be able to keep up with the big boys on open roads?

I think the basic premise of the 650 twins has been brilliantly summed up in these two lines.

Originally Posted by KarthikK

What I didn't like:

• The stock suspension setup is more tuned for comfort-oriented riding than towards enthusiast-oriented spirited riding. The front is too soft and the rear is a bit better, but while this bike is definitely a lot of fun to throw around at low or moderate speeds, this mismatched setup does ruin the outright enthusiast pleasure and the ride quality as you start to push harder into high speed territory.

Honestly, if I were buying the Interceptor 650, I would just invest in a pair of aftermarket shocks like YSS, maybe just the rear at first and change the fork oil up front. Then if required, I would upgrade the front as well. Owners abroad who have gone for suspension upgrades on the 650s say that it has completely changed the handling characteristics of the bike and that it is a must do.

Originally Posted by KarthikK

[i]Build Quality, Paint Quality and Decals
The mudguard on the front has a bit of shimmering glaze near the edges, which I am not sure what to attribute to. Either it is a fault at the paint shop, or it has happened over time and I have noticed it only recently. Look at the white-ish layer below the screw, outlining the black plastic portion.

I looked a few times but I didnt see anything! I think I should bring my bikes to you for inspection to find any such issues that my eyes are incapable of catching.

Originally Posted by KarthikK

I have nothing to fault on the decals on this bike. The Royal Enfield branding appears in three places. First is this obvious place on the fuel tank. It looks different from the brand decal position on RE’s current bikes and feels premium. When the bike was still new in the market (mine was among the first few in Bangalore), some rider asked me at a traffic signal - “Sir is this an imported bullet? The logo looks so different”

This was hilarious.

Originally Posted by KarthikK

RE offers an OE accessory visor like this (pic is not mine, just used for illustration) to mitigate windblast protection to some extent. I hate how it looks though, and it totally ruins the circular-headlight retro look of the front for me. For some weird reason this visor reminds me of a Rhinoceros horn . No thanks, I'll choose the windblast instead

A bigger windscreen would do wonders for your highway rides. I use a Givi one on my Continental GT 535 and it makes a lot of difference when the roads open up. With your tall frame, your body gets enough windblast as it is! Just think about the Himalayan windscreen if you want a more OEM look. Even that Indian made one that other Interceptor owners have talked about on the 650 twins thread looks to be a very good option.

Originally Posted by KarthikK

Although I mainly stick to the stock OE chrome mirrors reviewed here, I do have a pair of RE Touring mirrors as well (OE Accessory) which have an advantage of being tilt-angle-adjustable and are anti-glare, which help against high beam users behind me in the night. I swap the OE chrome ones out with these if I am heading out on long trips with a lot of dark riding. It's a pity that these look out of place due to the black color (they are not available in chrome), or else I'd have left them on the bike permanently.

If you ever want to give away these chrome mirrors and switch to the touring mirrors full time, please let me know. I will take them for sure.

Originally Posted by KarthikK

I have discarded the pathetic stock headlamps almost around the purchase time itself, so I will be reviewing the headlamp I currently use, in lieu of the OE unit. The headlamp unit I use now is a 7" retrofit Maddog HR70 unit with inbuilt DRLs, indicators and low and high beams. The high beam is low beam + high beam.

The output looks terrific!

Originally Posted by KarthikK

The taillight unit is also powered by a simple halogen bulb and always stays on regardless of the headlamp operation

A lot of parts on the 650 twins are taken from the forgotten Continental GT 535. So over time, maybe some of the GT 535's eccentricities might pass on down to the 650 twins. On the GT 535, the rear tail light has been known to conk off without warning. So only while braking, it will light up but not otherwise.

Originally Posted by KarthikK

[b]An observation on the eccentric fuel gauge:

Again, a carryover of sorts from the GT 535. I usually wait for it to cross the 200 km mark and then fill up at the next best petrol pump.

Originally Posted by KarthikK

My workaround for the clock issue (more details in the accessories section): I got an analog screw-on type, battery-operated clock which latches onto the handlebar and solves the timekeeping issue for me with the jugaad arrangement

I used to use a super cheap electronic watch that I used to strap on and take off at the end of each ride. Easey peasey.

Originally Posted by KarthikK

Accessories

Viaterra Raptor v2 tailbag: My need for a tailbag was multi-fold:[list]

This is on my shopping list after you recommended it earlier. Unfortunately, there is nowhere to go thanks to the Covid crisis so I will pick it up once life returns to normal.

Originally Posted by KarthikK

Riding gear


When I set out buying this bike, I wanted a different set of riding gear for two reasons - one is because I have an ocd towards associating every bike with its own set of riding gear to match it with (a separate ‘Avatar’ as I call it), I wasn’t keen on using Ninja’s riding gear on this bike - it would look awkward as well. Second reason is that I wanted to use the Interceptor for office commutes, etc so I wanted a lightweight mesh jacket that could do dual purpose (city / highways) and rough, carefree usage. I later ended up getting highway worthy stuff to complete the ‘retro’ set fully, so I have a complete end to end ‘Avatar’ now to go with the retro styling of the Interceptor

Out of curiosity, if you happen to buy another bike, will you have a third set of riding gear

[RoboCop13]

Originally Posted by KarthikK

Did you ever fancy a retro-styled bike in your garage but got turned off by the lack of power and highway manners?

Highway manners eh?! Go on.
I’m facing this issue with my RE Electra, since 2013.

[Slushmaster]

Hey Karthikk, Congratulations for the new bike! Everything so well written, I really enjoyed every bit of it. Good to see that you have spent a fortune on riding gear, something people avoid even after spending lakhs on their bikes.

For India, I think RE is the best bet if you want to see the lengths of our beautiful country on a bike. For RE (not sure about interceptor and Himalayan), you will find a mechanic even in the remotest places. As a biker, I have mapped almost all the remote places of north India on my Desert Storm, a feat that I don't want to do on my Tiger.

Drive safe and Enjoy your bike!

Slushmaster

[ManasN95]

Lovely review Sir, I almost contemplated going over to the Royal Enfield showroom by the time I finished reading this.

Off went my hand in the key drawer, and there lay my CBR250R keys, reminding that I have to do justice with her before upgrading. I was very close to the purchase of the Interceptor had the baby CBR had not been standing.

That being said, is it too much to wish that Royal Enfield develop a Himalayan 650 over the next year? Now that would disrupt the market like an earthquake.

[rahul4321]

Hi Karthik,

Lovely review - absolutely top notch

The first paragraph which started off with visual descriptions of how you zeroe'd in onto the RE Interceptor vis-a-vis the other choices in the market was really too good. I had so much fun reading through those comparisons and I could identify exactly what you are talking about and I could relate to it a 100%

I tour extensively (I do not use my motorcycles for city riding and prefer to use a car instead) and I have in my garage 2nd generation Duke 390 for touring on the highways and cities plotted on the major highways and a RE Himalayan for touring to places which are not plotted on the major highways.

I rode my friend's Interceptor for 50 kilometres on a Sunday Ride and I can definitely say - the brakes on the Interceptor outshine most motorcycles in the market today in the same price range (and definitely ALL other motorcycles from the RE stable)

Great stuff - happy riding, keep writing