Royal Enfield Launches New Guerrilla 450 in India and Europe
India’s renowned motorcycle marque Royal Enfield is adding a new road-oriented machine to its catalog. The Royal Enfield Guerrilla 450 is a premium roadster that promises to take street riding back to its basics.
At a quick glance, the naked Guerrilla 450 maintains the brand’s traditional styling, recalling the brand’s British roots. Although the bike is (as to be expected from Royal Enfield) stripped down, a closer inspection reveals a slightly more modern, angular, and aggressive look.
Pushing the motorcycle forward is Royal Enfield’s 452cc liquid-cooled single-cylinder Sherpa engine. This is the same powerplant we’ve seen on the Himalayan, just tuned for on-road performance.
The Sherpa produces a claimed 40 ponies at 8,000 rpm and 29.5 lb-ft of torque at 5,500 rpm (the manufacturer claims 85% of the torque is available at 3,000 rpm). In numbers at least, the Guerrilla 450 stays more or less with the pack in the 500cc class.
The tubular steel frame uses the engine as a stressed member for additional rigidity, promising a stable and maneuverable ride. For smoothing out the ride, we have a 43mm fork with 5.5 inches of travel and a rear mono-shock with 5.9 travel inches.
Braking power comes from a 310mm front disk, clamped by one double-piston caliper. In the rear is a 270mm disc with a single-piston caliper. ABS comes standard on the motorcycle.
The bike’s stepped seat is set at 30.7 inches. With mid-set footpegs, Royal Enfield claims an upright, comfortable riding position.
Royal Enfield motorcycles don’t typically feature heaps of modern electronics, but the Guerrilla 450 comes with two ride modes: Performance and Eco. The ride modes do what you’d expect from their names, with Performance unleashing the engine’s full potential while Eco offers better fuel mileage during urban riding. Speaking of fuel, the Guerrilla 450 has only a 2.9-gallon tank.
The bike comes in three trims, which mostly determine which gauges you get. The basic Analogue trim comes with an analog instrument cluster with a small digital screen, while the mid-level Dash and top-shelf Flash trims feature Royal Enfield’s new round four-inch Tripper TFT screen.
The Tripper can connect to your smartphone through Royal Enfield’s app. Once connected, you’ll get access to navigation (through Google Maps), music, messages, and all the other usual options.
In addition to instruments, the trim level also determines the available colors. The Analogue trim is available in Smoke Silver and Playa Black (only Smoke Silver outside India), the Dash comes in Playa Black or Gold Dip, and Flash sports Yellow Ribbon or Brava Blue colorways.
The Royal Enfield Guerrilla 450 is currently available in India and Europe, but the company has not yet revealed availability dates or prices for North America. Looking at European prices, however, we can probably expect the Guerrilla 450 to eventually have a roughly $6,000 price tag—not too shabby.