This could be the best non-Royal Enfield-ish motorcycle that Royal Enfield has ever built.
BHPian neil.jericho recently shared this with other enthusiasts.
Since Royal Enfield didn’t invite me to Barcelona to check out the new Guerrilla 450, I did the next best thing and popped into the friendly neighbourhood dealer to see what the hype was all about:
- There were 3 colour schemes on display – a Brava Blue, a Yellow Ribbon and a Gold Dip. The test ride bike was the Playa Black. Say what you want about the Guerrilla 450 but you cannot deny that the quality of the paint is astonishing, even more so considering the price point that it sells at. That is before considering how attractive the paint schemes are. A few years back, I would have taken the Smoke Silver without thinking twice. Now though, the Brava Blue is what I would pick, especially for that fabulous blue front wheel. Sid Lal should really give the design team a massive raise!
- Maybe it’s the world-class paint job but the motorcycle feels like it costs 1.5x of what it actually does except for that ugly gap in the headlight section. Other than this, this looks and feels like a classy piece of kit.
- Non-Royal Enfield enthusiasts as well as purists have often bemoaned the lack of a fun, fast Royal Enfield motorcycle with 17-inch tubeless alloys. All our prayers have been answered with the Guerrilla 450.
- The bike is easy to move around at parking speeds.
- The joystick is as fiddly as it ever was in the Himalayan 450. Sigh!
- When parking the bike on the side stand, it feels like it leans over a degree or two more than I would have liked it to.
- The clutch does feel unnecessarily hard. I’m surprised that Royal Enfield didn’t pay all that much attention to the clutch feel.
- The digital display is nice and bright, just as it was in the Himalayan 450.
- I’m not too sure about the 120 front and 160 rear tyre choices. Eagle-eyed enthusiasts will notice that the motorcycle feels a bit over tyred. A 110-150 combination would have opened up so many excellent, affordable aftermarket choices like the Road 5/6, Protorq Extreme, Alpha H1 etc. At the same time, the 120-160 tyre combination gives this a proper big bike feel without the new rider intimidation factor that comes from a full-sized middleweight motorcycle.
A gentleman who hopped off the test ride bike exclaimed that the Guerrilla 450 was crazy fun.
Something tells me that this could be the best non-Royal Enfield-ish motorcycle that Royal Enfield has ever built.
Check out BHPian comments for more insights and information.
