Few other motorcycle manufacturers have released so many new models in such a short period of time as Royal Enfield. It’s been a huge couple of years for the oldest motorcycle brand (in continuous production), and their eye-watering sales numbers are testament they’re doing something right. One thing they definitely got right is the parallel twin 650 engine, and it makes sense they’re using it in as many models as they can: the Shotgun 650 is the fourth bike using this popular engine. It was a bit of a surprise to hear about the launch of this model so soon after the Super Meteor, especially when it’s based on the same platform using the same frame and engine. How different could this bike really be? We headed to the City of Angels for the global launch of the Shotgun 650 to find out.

To recap the background: the original SG650 concept was launched at EICMA 2021 and received a lot of attention. The concept received enough praise from around the world for Royal Enfield head honchos to greenlight the manufacturing of the bike, and the UK-based designers got to work refining the design for production. As with most concepts, there were changes to the original design in the process, but from the first photos I saw of the Limited Edition Motoverse Shotgun, it looked pretty close to the original SG650 concept – less chunky and aggressive, if anything.

After a long flight from Sydney to LA, I was keen to see the Shotgun in the flesh. I wouldn’t have to wait long – when I arrived at the downtown LA hotel, Royal Enfield had strategically placed a Shotgun 650 at the entrance to the lobby as a bit of a tease to the multitudes of red-eyed journalists arriving from around the world. But it wasn’t just journos huddling around the hotel bar: there were also a lot of the custom bike builders who have graced these pages over the years. Metal wizards like Cristian Sosa, Winston Yeh from Rough Crafts, the lads from Thrive Motorcycles and the French team from Hedgehog Motorcycles were all there. Their presence gave us an insight into where the team at RE are thinking of marketing the Shotgun – right up our alley.

The rider briefing.
Before we started riding the Shotgun we were taken through a short presentation about why RE decided to build this bike and what the inspiration behind it was. In short, it’s inspired by custom culture, and the design and development team were given lots of freedom to come up with a concept based on what a lot of people were doing to their bikes around the world. They wanted a bike that defies categorisation and looked custom-built straight out of the factory. During the presentation they showed loads of bikes that have been featured on Pipeburn, all of which became inspiration for the designers.

Mark Wells, Chief of Design, told us, “The story of Royal Enfield is one of customisation. Our customers have been taking our motorcycles and personalising them for decades. Looking to that rich creative culture for inspiration, we unleashed our designers to ideate in that same spirit of unfettered imagination. The resulting design is both fresh and respectful of our heritage and a future vision of what a custom Royal Enfield could look like years down the road.”

To be honest, I’m not sure how to label the Shotgun 650 – it’s not really a cruiser, bobber or naked sports bike, being more of a mongrel – and it turns out that’s exactly what Royal Enfield want. They’re mixing up the genres, taking inspiration from their heritage models like the Classic Bullet but then throwing some custom influence in the mix. Even the launch tagline for the bike is ‘a motorcycle inspired by custom, for custom.’ I’m not sure I’ve seen a bike that has committed to custom culture so hard before, but I’m loving it.

We then heard from Adrian Sellers, Head of Custom Program & Motorsport, who tells us the designers “took inspiration from cyberpunk and the movie Blade Runner” and that they wanted it to “looks like it’s been customised.” Even though they used shapes and lines they haven’t before, they still wanted to keep the Royal Enfield heritage. We were also shown an impressive exploded view photo of the extensive range of 31 bolt-on accessories.

First walkaround.
When I walk outside the hotel there are around fifty brand new Shotgun 650’s all lined up. They’re all in the Stencil White colourway (which is my least favourite), but they also come in three other colours at this stage: Plasma Blue, Green Drill and Sheetmetal Grey. (I’m a sucker for anything gunmetal or grey, so that last one would be my pick of the bunch.) But, being a bike built for customisation, I’m sure the stock colours won’t last long on many of these bikes.

After doing a walkaround, the first thing you notice is the lack of chrome compared to the Super Meteor and Interceptor. This bike is all blacked out, and not only does it look cool as hell, but it will also appeal to the younger market. It’s not all matte black though; there’s even some high gloss black on the engine covers that make it look customised already. It’s clear they’ve taken inspo from all the murdered-out custom bikes.

The other thing that stands out is the high-quality finishes. The welds and paint look top notch. The bar end mirrors – which I’m told are not stock – are high-end components, looking like something Motogadget would make. All the body work is aluminium, and I can’t find anything that is plastic and flimsy. It feels like Enfield have focused on their production quality over the last few years and it really shows. This is a company that has been reincarnated, and I love where they are going with RE 2.0.

The only downside to all the aluminium body work is the weight. The bike weighs in at a hefty 240kg with 90% fuel. To put that into perspective, the Interceptor weighs 218kg. Not to fat shame, but I’m sure a lot of this weight could be lost removing some of the side panels and chopping the large stock rear and front fenders. Remember: this bike is built to be customised.

One thing I love about the Shotgun is the new tank. It’s slimmer than the Super Meteor tank and creates some beautiful lines as it sits pretty on the frame. This more slender tank still holds a respectable 13.8 litres of fuel. Comparing the Super Meteor, which holds 15.7 litres, I wouldn’t really worry about the difference unless you’re a weekend warrior who loves doing longer rides.

The Shotgun wheels are cast aluminium 10-spoke, but they’ve changed the wheels size combo. This time you get an 18-inch front and 17-inch rear wheel on the Shotgun, as opposed to a 19/16 combo on the Super Meteor. This is probably a better tyre combo for this bike and also gives it a more aggressive stance.

The Shotgun front forks are 30mm shorter than the Super Meteor with Showa 43mm USD 120mm travel. The adjustable twin shocks at the back have 101mm travel, the front brake has a single 320mm disc and twin piston floating caliper and the rear brake has a single 300mm disc and a twin piston floating caliper.

The ride.
After talking about the Shotgun 650 for a few days with Royal Enfield employees and other journos, the day finally comes where we can throw a leg over and ride the damn thing. The build-up and anticipation has been huge, especially when we’ve been told that we’d be riding some of the best roads in California. But first, we need to battle peak hour LA traffic to get out of the city.

It goes without saying that LA has some of the worst traffic in America, but luckily lane splitting – or filtering – is legal here. Not only legal, but encouraged. There is a deep-rooted respect for motorcycle riders and drivers go out of their way to give you the most amount of space available. It turned out to be a great way to put the Shotgun through its paces.

Straight away I love the riding position of the Shotgun. It’s much more aggressive than the Super Meteor and it feels right for the design of the bike. The riding position is taller and more upright, and the mid-mounted pegs create a 90 degree knee angle when riding. The handlebars are quite straight and lower and more aggressive compared to the Super Meteor, which are obviously in more of a laid back cruiser style.

As we ride up the 405 freeway in single file, weaving between masses of cars and trucks, it’s hard to escape the beautiful throaty bark of the peashooter twin pipes. I couldn’t really hear the pipes riding solo, but it’s hard to miss the sound as soon as I’m behind someone else. It’s also hard to escape the smell of marijuana as we ride past drivers trying to make their daily commute bearable.

We finally take the exit for the canyon roads and leave the LA congestion behind us. This is where the road opens up and I get to see how the bike truly handles along the 60 miles or so of twisties. The bike feels very capable going in and out of corners; it’s actually better than I thought it would be and is much more sporty than it looks. The weight is held low in the frame, which helps with the ergonomics and makes it feel a lot lighter than 240kg. The only downside to this that is the pegs are low to the ground as well, so there was a lot of peg scraping going into corners.

After riding the Shotgun through Angeles Crest Highway and its seemingly endless twisties over the San Gabriel Mountains, I can see why Royal Enfield chose to launch the Shotgun in California. The roads are some of the best I have ever ridden… anywhere. Even though this bike is far from a sports bike – with only 47bhp and 52.3Nm – it does feel like it punches above its weight. The throttle is responsive and there’s loads of low-end and mid-range grunt to play with.

When it came to its stopping power, the brakes held up fine. The front brake is pretty basic, but let’s be honest, you aren’t going to get a high-end unit in this price bracket. The rear brake feels much more solid with a single 300mm disc, twin piston floating caliper. Travelling at high speeds, it didn’t take long to come to a complete stop, but I’d probably do a front brake upgrade to a four piston caliper system were I to buy one of these bikes.

Personally, I feel the custom-inspired look of the upside-down front forks suit the Shotgun much better than the Super Meteor, and they worked well. They are quite stiff, but they create a relatively smooth ride at low and high speeds. They handle extremely well and enabled me to hold nice lines around bends at speed. The rear twin shocks were reasonably forgiving; after a long day of riding (8 hours) my backside was feeling worse for wear, but that would probably be the case on any bike.

The summary.
The Shotgun is a really fun bike to ride and such an impressive package for the price point, which is around the same as the Super Meteor. As I said before, the level of detail and finish is the best I’ve seen from Royal Enfield. I do think the design will be polarising for many and I personally prefer the classic looks of the Interceptor – but maybe I’m just getting old. In any case, we take our hats (or helmets) off to Royal Enfield for continuing to push the boundaries and creating a bike that really does break the mould. This was always going to be a risky project, but, as they say, fortune favours the brave. We look forward to seeing what bike builders from around the world create with this affordable custom canvas.