Baxter Cycle creates the Shotgun 350

Here's a Royal Enfield you've never seen before.

 Baxter Custom Works, the "dreams fulfilled" side of Baxter Cycle in far-off Marne, Iowa, has done it again. This time they've created a Royal Enfield Shotgun 350, a motorcycle that otherwise doesn't exist. 

Oh, you could just buy a Shotgun 650 at Baxter Cycle. 

But 20 years from now a stock Shotgun 650 is not going to cause any arguments in the roadhouse parking lot. 

Leave that to this Shotgun 350. 

"We added some wide tracker bars, 17-inch wheels off a Hunter, a Classic 350 black exhaust with that killer old-school muffler, YSS black aluminum rear shocks, Diablo fork gaiters, a Royal Enfield tinted fly screen, some Royal Enfield bar-end mirrors and gave it a solo seat," Baxter explains.

Unspoken is that Baxter started with a used 2021 Meteor 350 (only 700 miles, with its first valve service already done). Asking price is $3,999 before taxes and etc. In contrast, Baxter's price for a new Shotgun 650 is $6,899 before taxes and etc.

The 2024 Shotgun 650 twin.

Of course, if you wait long enough, Royal Enfield itself probably will build something like Baxter's creation.

It has occurred to everyone by now that the company is seemingly out to build each of its motorcycle platforms with custom colors, accessories and styles and then multiply those iterations by inserting into each its various twin and single-cylinder motors.

I'm personally anxious to see the (coming soon) Classic 350 combined with the sweet 650 twin of the Interceptor. It's only a matter of time, I'm sure.

Impatient? Go ahead: build your own. Royal Enfield invites you to do it. In fact, Royal Enfield suggests you use the Shotgun 650 as your inspiration.

"A Century of pure motorcycling DNA collided with the anarchic spirit of custom culture and a shapeshifting mutant was born: Shotgun 650. Inspired by Custom. For Custom," its website says. 

"The Shotgun 650 "draws from the culture of customization, offering a canvas for self-expression for builders and beginners."

Baxter Customs apparently took that to heart.

But wait... it is... isn't it? Did they ever make one...?