Royal Enfield revives the real roadster

Its purpose is to "challenge established conventions."

 The Royal Enfield Guerrilla 450 launched July 17, 2024 for Europe, the UK, and India, with a stage event in Barcelona. 

This new motorcycle is no clone, the event insisted. 

It is a sibling of the Himalayan 450 off-roader, yes. But, if anything, the genes it inherited from that machine only help set the Guerrilla 450 apart from other "roadsters." 

The purpose of the Guerrilla 450 is to "challenge established convention," Royal Enfield boss Siddhartha Lal said. 

Siddhartha Lal introduces the many colored Guerrilla 450.

The Royal Enfield website puts it this way: 

"Modern roadsters look generic, sound synthetic and feel plastic. 

"The Guerilla 450 is a declaration of independence from this mind-numbing conformity. In a age when automation has dulled sensation, algorithms have stifled imaginations, and feature sets have replaced soul -- the Guerrilla stands defiantly apart." 

It goes on to say the Guerrilla "looks good naked." 

It sure does. I can't believe Himalayan 450's rough-hewn looks could be smoothed into this very pretty motorcycle. 

The Guerrilla 450 looks great naked.

Yes, it has the motor of an off-road thrasher in a chassis meant for the street. The 452cc liquid cooled Sherpa engine "wasn't designed for spec sheets or racetrack fantasies," the website confesses. 

"This motorcycle is tuned with real modes for real roads."

That means 40bhp, with torque way down in the rev range, and "before you know it you're getting down the road faster than everybody else," Royal Enfield Chief of Design Mark Wells told the audience at the launch event.

He described the Guerrilla 450 as "a bike that works in every situation." It's right for the city and for the mountains (meaning the roads through the mountains).

Compared to the Himalayan 450, the Guerrilla has a longer wheelbase, sharper rake on the fork, and a smaller front wheel and fuel tank.

And it comes in five sharp color schemes. The launch event went into detail on that. Obviously, Royal Enfield thinks looks matter a lot to the intended customers.

Where you're going, how much has you have to get there, and music, too.

High tech is there, including a big electronic instrument face in the upper Flash and Dash variants that can be configured to show your route map or play your music. There are two driving modes, Eco and Performance.

But the DNA, the launch emphasized, is pure Royal Enfield. Metal in places you'd expect plastic, a sound that pulses rather than screams, upright seating position, low seat height and looks that are sexy without being high tech.

Wells noted that the good looking graphics on the tank aren't pasted on: they're hand masked.

"That's some proper craftsmanship from our team in Chennai, and they hand mask and hand spray each one."

Is that really better, somehow? It is. For the soul.