After the Continental GT and the Interceptor, Royal Enfield is reportedly planning to revive the Meteor brand. British motoring website, Bennetts, reports that the Chennai-based two-wheeler brand will introduce a new parallel-twin cylinder powered motorcycle with the Meteor badge.
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Royal Enfield’s parent company, Eicher Motors, has applied for European trademark rights for ‘Royal Enfield Meteor’. The application was made in February and published in April.
Details about the upcoming model are scarce. The original Royal Enfield Meteor used a 700 cc parallel-twin cylinder engine. The Meteor was a standard motorcycle with styling cues quite similar to the present-day Royal Enfield Classic range.
The reports suggest that Royal Enfield could introduce a bobber-style motorcycle to revive the Meteor. Royal Enfield had unveiled its KX Bobber Concept bike at the 2018 EICMA motorcycle show in Milan. While the Meteor may not use the V-Twin engine from the concept motorcycle, it can, as mentioned above, share its powermill with the 650 Twins and compete against the Triumph Bonneville Bobber.
The bobber-style motorcycle, if launched, will also share its underpinnings, suspension and braking setup with the 650 Twins, which would keep the costs considerably low and prices competitive. The Continental GT 650 and the Interceptor INT 650 use a 648 cc, parallel-twin cylinder, air & oil cooled SOHC engine that makes 47 bhp at 7,250 rpm and 52 Nm of torque at 5,250 rpm. The gearbox features a slipper clutch with an assist feature. The bobber-style motorcycle will most likely feature the same numbers.
Apart from talking about the unannounced revival of Meteor, the British motoring portal reports that Royal Enfield could introduce Thunderbird X models as TB-X models in Europe because Triumph Motorcycles already uses the Thunderbird name there.
Back home, Royal Enfield is testing the next-generation Thunderbird and Classic range of motorcycles before they are launched next year. Test mules of the next-generation models have been spotted on several occasions in the past. The BS-VI/Euro-V compliant Royal Enfield range will benefit from new chassis architectures.
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The BS-VI compliant Royal Enfield Classic, Thunderbird, Bullet and Himalayan range will be underpinned by J architecture. The Interceptor INT 650 and the Continental GT 650 use the P architecture, and the Meteor could be based on the same platform. The Q and K architecture would underpin higher displacement Royal Enfield motorcycles that would compete with bikes from Harley-Davidson and Triumph Motorcycles.
[Source: Bennetts.co.uk]
