Alegend reborn, with a lot of muscle

THE NEW 650 HAS THE TIMELESS SILHOUETTE OF THE BULLET, BUT FAR MORE POWER

- VIKRAM CHAUDHARY

ON FRIDAY, Royal Enfield unveiled the new Bullet 650 — a powerful variant of the existing Bullet 350.

Over the past few decades, the Bullet — a cultural icon embedded in India’s automotive psyche — has seen many mechanical changes, but has always been synonymous with the 350-cc engine. These changes include the ‘Iron Barrel’ era during the 1990s (this engine featured an all-cast iron construction for the cylinder and cylinder head); and then the AVL era in the 2000s, when a modernised, lean burn engine tuned by Austrian company AVL was introduced. The engine construction incorporated aluminium parts for the cylinder head, making it lighter, more fuel efficiency, and cleaner on emissions.