Rumour: Royal Enfield working on ‘600cc motorway worthy’ bike

That’s the claim coming out of India this morning, the Indian-based company has apparently been spurred on by the global interest in its new 411cc Himalayan adventure-styled bike (pictured above) and is figuring on making a new 600cc motorcycle specifically for the UK and US markets.

Exactly what that means is up for debate at the moment with claims coming out from Indian sources that Enfield is ‘aiming to become the top player in the middleweight sector from 200 to 750cc’.

The news tallies with a recent move by Royal Enfield CEO Siddharth Lal moving to London to directly oversee the project. Sources are saying that bigger versions of the current Classic and Thunderbird models, codenamed D41 and D61, are already under development.

Whatever style of bike and motor the new model appears with, it’s going to have to make considerably more power than the Himlayan if it is going to be competitive in the UK and USA markets. The Adventure-styled bike only churns out 24.5bhp and a measly 32Nm of torque, neither of which is anywhere near enough to compete in the motorway-friendly market in either of those large potential sectors in the West.